The American Petroleum Institute has transferred custodianship of the authoritative API well numbering standard to the Calgary-based Professional Petroleum Data Management Association (PPDM). PPDM is now organizing a publicly available project to assess and update the well numbering standard. The revised standard will be made available free of charge to anyone. Industry and regulators will be encouraged to adapt their systems to use the revised standard.
Speaking at PNEC last month, PPDM CEO Trudy Curtis explained how confusion in well numbering has led to orphaned data and in some cases, data attached to the wrong well! Information is often scattered across systems while ‘official’ well identity rules may be inconsistently applied.
PPDM is engaged in researching global well naming conventions and tidying up issues such as junked wells and pilot holes. The API standard will be augmented with work coming from PPDM’s ‘What is a Well’ study group and is seeking funding from members to support participation from key experts, communication, technical and administrative costs. Total project costs of $250,000 are being sought. More from www.ppdm.org.
© Oil IT Journal - all rights reserved.