The US Department of Energy has opened an online portal to help oil and gas producers comply with the New Mexico waste pit legislation. The Portal was created by researchers at New Mexico Tech’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center with support from DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy. Pits containing drilling waste, produced water and production fluids are required to meet certain hydrologic, engineering and legal criteria to protect soil and groundwater from contamination.
The portal aims to simplify compliance for smaller operators and encourage the development of marginal resources. Users can check potential pit locations in terms of aquifer depth, geology, soil maps, watercourses, mineral usage and geotechnical data. Topographic and aerial photography base layers show distances from nearby structures. Site criteria maps can be generated and included as part of an operator’s online permit application. The portal was developed using ESRI ArcGIS 9, ArcSDE, ArcIMS, and ArcGIS Server. The work builds on development for the Go-Tech online production database. PRRC hardware includes Dell PowerEdge 4600/6400 dual Xeon servers. Visit the portal on the Source3 website.
© Oil IT Journal - all rights reserved.