Data Management for the New and Expected Petroleum Baseline Sampling Rules

In February 2013, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) published Rules 609 and 318A. The rules made Colorado the first state in the country to require pre- and post-drilling sampling of water sources near new oil and gas wells permitted after May 1, 2013. A number of oil and gas operators predict that requirements similar to these will be implemented by other states in the near future.

This talk will discuss the new Colorado rules and the data management requirements for the sampling. For example, all laboratory results must be uploaded to the COGCC website in one of their specified formats, to be made available to the public. Integrating these requirements into a comprehensive data management process lets project staff perform in-house quality control, reporting, and mapping, and then upload the data to COGCC, properly handling data details like Facility IDs and Sample IDs generated by the state, and allowing easy comparison of pre- and post-drilling samples. As with any other petroleum-related data, the process needs to take into consideration issues like QC samples, reanalyses, and non-detected results, comparison to regulatory limits, and so on, but effective automation of the process can streamline project work and minimize errors.