Project Description

The primary objective of the project is to continue successful use and development of a Risk-Based Data Management System (RBDMS), which is a well-established system that is utilized by 30 state agencies to track oil and natural gas well histories, brine disposal, production, enhanced recovery, permitting/reporting, and other operations to facilitate the development of energy resources. This project will support the expansion of FracFocus and RBDMS for improved public access to oil and natural gas related regulatory data and optimally process electronic permits by state agencies.

The specific goals of the proposed activity are to:

• Continue to evolve RBDMS to provide solutions that enable state regulatory programs to manage mission critical activities and responsibilities on matters such as permitting, drilling and completion, production, plugging and abandonment, orphan well identification, inspection and compliance, and environmental protection.
• Improve public access to state oil and natural gas regulatory data.
• Provide additional support to state regulatory agencies through the State Oil and Gas Regulatory Exchange (SOGRE) and States First initiatives.
• Support electronic permitting and reporting for improved accuracy, efficiency and reduced processing time.
• Provide training and support for state personnel and operators on new RBDMS modules and improved FracFocus 3.2 capabilities.
• Provide additional reports on produced water and other state collaborative efforts.
• Support states in development/planning for the RBDMS/web cloud including new or upgraded modules for natural gas storage and pipeline data management.
• Support the expansion of a Regional Induced Seismicity Collaborative (RISC) to address the issue of induced seismicity (associated with produced water injection) in the southern midcontinent of the United States to integrate approaches, share research and data, and potentially cooperate on projects.

Project Benefits

Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) has established expertise and a network of state collaborators to ensure continued improvements of RBDMS is based on states’ needs, public interest, and national priorities. GWPC has developed tools and applications for effective communication between states, industry, and regulators. RBDMS and FracFocus are proven tools that aid states in managing oil and natural gas development activities. The benefits of implementing the RBDMS suite of products include the support for adoption of cloud applications into existing systems, visualization tools, Area of Review (AOR), production, and plugging modules. These upgrades help states have better connectivity to their data while in the field or during remote work and provide new insights into utilizing existing data for environmental and programmatic decision making. GWPC helps states continue to incorporate new technology into regulatory programs by holding in person and webinar trainings. Trainings address hydrogen and wastewater storage challenges, environmental impacts of extracting fossil energy resources, and water management. GWPC will help states incorporate environmental justice data into data management tools and helping minimize environmental impacts associated with extracting fossil energy resources.

Predecessor Project(s):

• FE0027702

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