This area of the web site is dedicated to the presentation and discussion of technical issues related to the RBDMS data model, implementation of RBDMS, and other issues of a technical origin. These issues have been divided into technical groups. To access "Tech Facts", follow one of the links provided below.
General RBDMS Technical Facts
 Gregg Miller from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil & Gas assists an RBDMS user during a GWPC meeting... |
General information on RBDMS is contained throughout this site and on a variety of other sites. Perhaps the only other site with a substantial amount of information is the Ground Water Protection Council's web site. If you haven't visited that site, its recommended that you do.
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The RBDMS program includes basic components for tracking, storing, and evaluating oil & gas production data. The system was built to accommodate production accounting on a lease/unit basis and/or by well and distinct producing formation. Lease and/or unit information can be tracked, including the wells assigned to a particular lease or unit. Production inventory disposition is tracked by production reporting unit. Production by well can be tracked in a manner to account for production by distinct producing formation if production is not commingled downhole. Historical and cumulative production from multiple producing formations is also addressed by the system. |
Oil & Gas Production |
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Subsurface Geology |
RBDMS comprehensively addresses subsurface geologic issues. The system allows for storage of subsurface geologic formations, including standard and non-standard identifier codes as well as corresponding image maps for use GIS applications or in other third party programs. RBDMS is also used to store identified formation tops for individual wellbores, including information on oil and/or gas shows, and the source of the pick. Other related functional areas that are addressed in the RBDMS program include well cards (or scout tickets), core cards, stimulations, completion details (e.g., perforations), production tests, geophysical logs, well histories, and more... |
Underground
Injection Control
Discussion of Functional
Capabilities Available in RBDMS
RBDMS
includes the basic components of a Management Information System (MIS)
that can be used by a state or federal regulatory agency to aid in the
implementation of an Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program. To
compliment these basic components, ALL staff have worked with the Ground
Water Protection Council (GWPC) and several states developing custom
solutions that expand the capabilities of these basic functions to fully
meet the needs of a state-specific UIC program.
Some of the components that are included in either the basic version of RBDMS or that have been developed as part of custom implementation efforts are listed in Exhibit 1 (below):
Exhibit 1
RBDMS Underground Injection Control Components
| Component Name | Component Details and Additional Information |
| UIC Permits | The UIC Permits module provides users with the ability to track permits initially issued for an injection well and recurring modifications. The module also allows users to track both single well and area permits, wells on a permit, and includes several standard reports. Multiple customized data entry interfaces have been developed. |
| Well/Well Activity and Location Tracking | Both the basic and expanded versions of RBDMS include comprehensive well, well activity, and location tracking systems. Included in these are tracking of UIC components, such as compliance/file reviews, testing schedules, water analyses, and more. This component of RBDMS also addresses functional requirements pertaining to well completions, confidential record status, and submittals from permittees (e.g., logs, cores, pressure tests, etc.). |
| Area of Reviews | RBDMS has multiple components to address this important aspect of any UIC program. Tools and components include an AOR tracking module, a utility to find wells within an AOR study area, an AOR Variance Questionnaire, Zone of Endangering Influence (ZOEI) determinations, and associated reports. |
| Mechanical Integrity Tests | Both internal (part 1) and external (part 2) mechanical integrity testing information is provided for in RBDMS. These components also give users the ability to manipulate the database for planning fieldwork, addressing delinquencies, and data analysis. |
| Compliance and Enforcement | The compliance and enforcement module within RBDMS was designed to meet minimum EPA requirements for state or federal agencies implementing a UIC program. The tool contains information on SNC determinations, violation tracking, compliance schedules, and corrective actions. This module is currently being expanded for the Michigan Geological Survey. |
| Complaints and Incidents | RBDMS allows users to track complaints and incidents by well or location. Incident reports can initiate field investigations and/or enforcement actions. |
| Well Inspections | Field activities, such as well inspections, are a key component to RBDMS as relates to all well types. The well inspection component can be used to track inspections for EPA reporting as well as other purposes. |
| Injection Monitoring and Analysis | Multiple interfaces exist for data entry of injection well monitoring data, including situations where data is reported monthly or annually, by well or project, or in specified groups or orders. A graphical analysis package has also been developed and is being used by a select group of state agencies. |
| Environmental Risk Analysis | RBDMS includes multiple components that can be used to analyze environmental risks posed by injection well activities. These include probability analyses performed using multiple filtering criteria, barriers of protection analysis, and innumerable system queries and reports. In Kansas, a reference database of sensitive groundwater areas has also been integrated into RBDMS. These analyses can be used to prioritize environmental protection resources, address complaints, support plugging-enforcement-testing priorities, as well as provide support for other program areas. |
| EPA 7520 Reports | EPA 7520 reports have been developed in RBDMS. The basic version provides the ability to automatically generate these reports for Class II injection wells. Reports for other well classes have also been developed as part of custom efforts. |
Although all UIC programs (state, federal, Indian Lands, or other) are generally driven by the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act and its amendments, each program tends to be somewhat different. These differences may be attributable to local geological conditions, historical practices, environmental sensitivities peculiar to a specific area, or other considerations. Implementing RBDMS may require that basic components of the system be customized to meet the specific needs of a regulatory or natural resources conservation agency.
ALL-LLC staff have not only assisted states with customized implementations of RBDMS, but has also served in regulatory leadership roles at both the state and federal level. ALL-LLC’s RBDMS project team includes professionals with backgrounds in state and federal UIC programs, upstream petroleum practices, state and federal regulatory history, groundwater hydrogeology, workflow analysis, geo-spatial analysis, information system design, and environmental sciences. These skills, combined with broad experience implementing large-scale, mission-critical information systems, is unmatched.
Well Data Model...
Well
Locations and Identifiers
Well Component Tracking
Distinguishing Wells and Wellbores
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Well
Locations and Identifiers The primary well identifier used in RBDMS is the API Well Number (14-digit). The API well number is used throughout the system to track well information and histories. However, the system provides for several alternate identifiers to allow for later analysis and well identity confirmation by system users. |
Well Location and Identifiers |
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Well Components |
Well
Components Well components are a critical aspect of tracking oil & gas and related injection wells. RBDMS provides several fully-relational database tables to store and track well construction and completion information. The system stores information on boreholes, tubulars, and equipment (e.g., DV-tools, packers, etc.). For tubulars, the system also provides for the ability to specify details of individual well tubulars such as weight and grade. RBDMS also facilitates capturing of well cementing and plug information, including the makeup of individual cemented intervals or plugs, gel plugs, gravel, etc. Completion information is also stored in the system, including information on applicable perforations, screened intervals, or open hole intervals that may be present in the well. For each interval, details of the interval can also be stored (e.g., shots per foot). |
Handling Wells, Wellbores, and Well Details in RBDMS
Well information can be quite complicated when data must be maintained on wells having multi-lateral completions, directional drain-holes, sidetracks, recompletions, re-drills, workovers, and more. These complexities, combined with state-specific regulations that may be both technically or legislatively based, has resulted in continuous improvements to logic used in custom implementations of RBDMS.
The fully relational nature of RBDMS, combined with expanded features that have been built or are under construction in custom implementations of RBDMS, provides the tools necessary to track and maintain detailed information for wells by API Well Number, Well Permit Number, UIC Permit Number, or an unlimited number of other tracking numbers. New developments have been designed to allow users to track well data by surface location or by individual borehole.
Part of this new development effort includes tools and utilities that allow users to filter and review data for each record associated with a particular surface location. Utilities have also been developed to facilitate maintenance of data on multiple wellbores that may exist in the database for status changes and other activities. These utilities have also been tied to production tracking, proration, and disposition. New utilities for automatically creating well permits and unique well identifiers have also been prepared.
This approach enables users to more freely track not only well details, but also well activities for a specific wellbore. This tracking can be carried from the application stage, into production or injection, and through plugging and abandonment.