About The Data
 
Core Analysis Data The original data set used for this project was contained in books that were used as exhibits in various company applications to designate a particular region and formation as a Tight Gas Formation under regulations established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Typical information contained in these books included images of well header information, an image of a pertinent well log through the depth interval of interest, and any available core analysis data. Some books also contained information such as depth to the top of a particular unit, tops picked within the Dakota, and perforation intervals; however this data was not present in every area.
Books
The original analyses were not done specifically for the applications, but had been produced previously for some other reason. Most core analyses were performed in the late 1950’s and early 1960s, although a few were older or younger, and they were performed by different companies, so they showed significant variability in content and format. Some records contained copies of the original analyses, while others only contained the tabular data that had been abstracted from the original analyses. Original analyses contained useful information that was often non-quantitative in nature (eg., lithologies, notable features, non-numerical measurement designations such as TSTM for too small to measure). Where available, we made efforts to capture this information in the database in notes and remarks columns. For each core analysis well we have a data set that includes basic well data, the core analysis data, image files of well records, and, in many cases image files of well logs. In addition, we digitized available well logs to create a reasonably complete suite of LAS files for the Dakota core analysis wells. For all wells with logs, the top of the Dakota was picked, and where possible, we made picks of tops of several units within the formation. Some wells had pre-existing data on formation tops, either from scout cards, records from the NM OCD, or the application books. We noted that several different methods seemed to be in use for defining the various units of interest, so we eventually elected to have two workers familiarize themselves with the subsurface stratigraphy and log curves and pick tops for three sets of wells. This ensured that we at least had a consistent choice of top for the entire study area.