Apega*, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta has issued a ‘major’ update to its Professional Practice Standard (PPS) for the evaluation of oil and gas resources and reserves for public disclosure. The new version aligns Apega’s work with recent changes to the Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Instrument 51-101 and the COGE handbook from the Calgary chapter of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers. The 13 page Apega PPS is full of entreaties to do right, not wrong and makes a valiant attempt to explain the intricate relationship between it and the multiple ‘related documents’ that govern reserves reporting.
The Alberta Geological Survey has developed a 3D geological model of the Peace River area. The model was built to assist with the geological and geochemical investigation of odors and emissions from heavy oil and bitumen production in the Peace River Oil Sands region in response to a formal proceeding by the Alberta Energy Regulator. While the model was created with 3D geomodelling software (Voxler), AGS has also released a ‘360 virtual reality tour’ of Peace River developed in Minecraft. Take the tour on Youtube or (if you have Minecraft) download the 20MB model.
The US Ground Water Protection Council has released RBDMS WellFinder, a free mobile application powered by data from state regulatory programs. WellFinder allows users to select oil and natural gas wells from an interactive map and display ‘valuable data and information.’ The app was originally developed in collaboration with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Since then regulatory agencies in nine states including Oklahoma, New York, Nebraska, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Colorado, Kentucky provide well data. Download WellFinder from the App Store and Google Play.
The PPDM Regulatory Data Standards (RDS) Committee met earlier this year. The Well Status and Classification work group has received ‘regulatory feed back’ and is to submit a revised set of values and recommendations for regulatory endorsement. PPDM is also working on well milestones and dates disambiguation and is to report real soon now. A roundtable discussion on ‘potential data problems for pipelines’ found that ‘more research into different jurisdiction’s legislation is required, particularly to understand whether these present common terms and definitions for pipelines and their components.’ More disambiguation is in the err.. pipeline? The RDS has participation from Canadian, US and Australian regulators.
* APEGA is not a regulator but the Canadian Securities Administrator’s Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities refers to Apega Coge handbook in its authoritative National Instrument 51-101. All engineers and geoscientists practicing in Alberta are required to register with APEGA.
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