Past Forward: Researching old well logs may boost oil production
By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Published: 5/26/2009
Well-thumbed, yellowed pieces of Oklahoma’s oil and gas drilling past can play a huge part in pumping up the industry’s high-tech future.
Well logs, handwritten by geologists as the drill bit churned nearly a century ago, are valuable tools that need to be preserved, officials say.
An Energy Libraries Online campaign hopes to raise enough money so that all of these paper records from early 20th-century well sites can be scanned and available via computer.
Newer wells already have a wealth of digital information, but many producers believe the old holes still trap plenty of oil.