ReadMe

U.S. Geological Survey
Data Series DS 437


Oil and Gas Development in Southwestern Wyoming —
Energy Data and Services for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI)

 


By Laura R. H. Biewick

 


U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
KEN SALAZAR, Secretary


U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director


For sale by U.S. Geological Survey Information Services
Box 25286, Building 810
Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225-0086
Telephone (303) 202-4200


For more information about the U.S. Geological Survey and its products:
Telephone 1-888-ASK-USGS
URL: https://www.usgs.gov/


Introduction


The purpose of this report is to explore current oil and gas energy development in the area encompassing the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative.  The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative is a long-term science-based effort to ensure southwestern Wyoming’s wildlife and habitat remain viable in areas facing development pressure.  Wyoming encompasses some of the highest quality wildlife habitats in the Intermountain West.  At the same time, this region is an important source of natural gas. Using Geographic Information System technology, energy data pertinent to the conservation decision-making process have been assembled to show historical oil and gas exploration and production in southwestern Wyoming. In addition to historical data, estimates of undiscovered oil and gas are included from the 2002 U.S. Geological Survey National Assessments of Oil and Gas in the Southwestern Wyoming Province. This report is meant to facilitate the integration of existing data with new knowledge and technologies to analyze energy resources development and to assist in habitat conservation planning. The well and assessment data can be accessed and shared among many different clients including, but not limited to, an online web-service for scientists and resource managers engaged in the Initiative.


Contact Information


Laura R.H. Biewick
U.S. Geological Survey
Box 25046, Mail Stop 939
Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225-0046
Telephone: (303) 236-7773
E-mail: lbiewick@usgs.gov


Disclaimer


This internet publication was prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. The U.S. Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also contains copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items for other than personal use must be secured from the copyright owner.


Live GIS Data and Maps

The objective of this report was to assemble a comprehensive inventory of energy data pertinent to the conservation decision-making process and to make these data available online for scientists, resource managers engaged in the Initiative, and other researchers. The way to most efficiently analyze oil and gas development in the WLCI is through the use of geographic information system technology (GIS). The maps and charts included herein were created through the use of geospatial technologies. Maps, data and GIS capabilities are available over the Web at the Energy Science Center WLCI website.

A Web mapping application has been developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) using ArcGIS Server (ESRI, 2008b) technology. The USGS Web map applications and services provide a number of useful geoprocessing and cartographic functions via an internet browser. The USGS uses ArcGIS Server to distribute maps and GIS capabilities over the Web. ArcGIS Server can work with many different clients, including Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, ArcGIS Explorer, ArcMap and others. Because it is beyond the scope of this report to describe how to add the USGS ArcGIS Server services to all of these clients, just one of these clients will be described as an example, and that is ArcMap. To add the ArcGIS Server services to an individuals ArcMap (ESRI, 2000b) document, one must add GIS Services from the GIS Server named http://certmapper.cr.usgs.gov/arcgis/services. Several folders and individual services reside on this server, and the number of services is being continuously expanded. Three services reside in a folder named WLCI, and the names of those services are oil_gas, historical, and wells. Another service resides in the geology folder and that service name is wyoming. Base-map reference data are included using map services from ArcGIS Online (ESRI, 2008a). ArcGIS Online provides free maps and other content for your ArcGIS. ArcGIS Online services can be added to your ArcMap document by adding GIS Services from http://server.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/services. The map service used for this product is ESRI_Imagery_World_2D.

To share and distribute these maps and GIS data, the customized ArcMap (ESRI, 2000b) projects are also available for download at the Energy Science Center WLCI website. ArcGIS Publisher (ESRI, 2008c) was used to create a published map file (.pmf) from each ArcMap document (.mxd). Published maps can be viewed, explored, or printed using any ArcGIS (ESRI, 2000b) desktop product, including the no-cost ArcReader (ESRI, 2008d) application. Users can download and install the ArcReader software from ESRI. Next, download the compressed packaged data for each published map file (.pmf) from the Energy Science Center WLCI website (24 MB or less). The compressed pmf files can be accessed by clicking on the GIS Data/Interactive Maps tab. The available pmfs are listed under Interactive Maps. GIS downloadable data are also available in shapefile or geodatabase format, as well as detailed documentation, in the form of Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata.


System Requirements


MAC OS X

  • Power PC G3, G4, G5 processor
  • Mac OS X v.10.2.8 or 10.3
  • 128 MB of RAM
  • 80 MB of available hard disk space (110 MB required for the full version)
  • 800 x 600 screen resolution


    • WINDOWS


    PC Edition


    SUPPORTED BROWSERS


    SUPPORTED PLATFORMS


    BANDWIDTH
    The use of 56k standard modem technology is not preferred for use with the Interactive Map Service. Although the application may function using a 56k modem, performance may be undesirable. The use of a 10mb or higher LAN highspeed cable, or DSL modem is preferred.