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Introduction
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The San Juan Basin Data Recovery Project addresses two different but
inter-related problems that have been identified by producers working in the
San Juan Basin; the need for improved reservoir characterization, and the
lack of access to useful data. These problems are compounded by a general
lack of time and expertise to develop methods of utilizing what data is
available. Project goals include the collection, integration, and analysis
of a variety of petrophysical and well data concerning the Dakota and
Mesaverde reservoirs of the San Juan Basin, with particular emphasis on data
available in the areas that were once defined as tight gas areas* for
purposes of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
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The San Juan Basin has been a highly productive petroleum province for over
50 years. In 2002, the Blanco and Basin fields were ranked as the top two
onshore U.S. gas fields in terms of volumetric reserves. A tremendous amount
of data has been collected throughout the years. Unfortunately, a tremendous
amount of data has also been lost. Companies and properties have been
bought, sold, and subjected to mergers and management from remote offices,
and important proprietary data has been misplaced or discarded. Public data
is subject to archival degradation through age, improper storage, or poor
record management. Overall, data is underutilized, simply because it is
inaccessible, cryptic, or not in a directly applicable form. The San Juan
Basin is in a stage of development where well spacings are being downsized
to improve or maintain production efficiency. Improved access to data,
including commonly-utilized reservoir characteristics, will enable more
efficient targeting of areas best suited for down-spacing.
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Our goal for this project is to make a subset of this data - some collected
years ago, and some derived for this project, available to the public in
easily-used formats.
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*Tight gas reservoirs are defined as those that meet the FERC definition of
tight. They are generally characterized by an average reservoir rock
permeability to gas of 0.1 millidarcy or less and, absent artificial
stimulation of production, by production rates that do not exceed 5 barrels
of oil per day and certain specified daily volumes of gas which increase
with the depth of the reservoir.
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