What do land surveyors do for the oil patch?
"The oil industry cannot exist without land surveyors… If you put a
well in the wrong place, no oilfield technology or amount of drilling
will correct that."
The land surveying companies of Alberta play a key role in the
petroleum industry in the surveying of wellsites, access roads and
pipeline right-of-ways. "Before an oil and gas company can drill, it
must obtain approvals from the Energy Resources Conservation Board
(ERCB). The wellsite survey plan contains the information needed by the
ERCB to satisfactorily process the application to drill. The wellsite
survey plan has evolved over the years to where it is the highly
respected document it is today.
An average of 10,000 wellsites per year are surveyed, licensed and drilled with virtually no positional errors.
The land surveyors engaged in the practice of oil patch survey work
have, through experience, acquired certain skills and judgments that
permit them to carry out these surveys under difficult time
constraints. "Short time lines for projects have not changed in the
last 25 years. It’s the nature of the business."
What has changed, however, is the complexity of the projects
themselves. "The technology, government regulations, environmental
concerns, and plan requirements have expanded to where a once simple
project can now be very complex."
"Twenty years ago, a well location in a remote area could take up
to three weeks. Today, this same job can take as little as one day."
How has new survey technology helped the oil patch?
Alberta’s Land Surveyors are leading a technological revolution in
land measurement and boundary determination and Alberta’s oil patch is
the beneficiary.
“The new technology used by the surveying profession is paying
dividends to the energy industry in terms of time savings and
precision,” says Charles Brehon of Player Resources Limited.
Historically surveying was a painstaking process involving carrying
heavy equipment over countless kilometres of virgin terrain. Years ago
surveyors used chains and sextants then theodolites and later total
stations to mark out a drilling site or determine the alignment of a
pipeline right-of-way.
Today, a typical view of a land surveyor includes a laptop computer
connected to a GPS unit. GPS, the acronym for the Global Positioning
System, has become an incredibly accurate form of land measurement and
location determination. GPS works by triangulation of points between
the earth and up to 24 satellites located several hundred kilometres
above the earth.
The GPS unit and computer are changing the role of the Land
Surveyor. Surveyors must keep up to date on technological advances so
that they can pass on the benefits of efficiency and precision to their
clients. In addition, the creation of electronic data substantially
increases the usefulness of the land related information. Often the GPS
data is inserted directly into Geographic Information System (GIS)
databases. GIS is mapping technology that enables an energy company to
electronically map facility locations, pipelines, well sites and other
oilfield related structures. It provides both inventory and boundary
information in an easy-to-access mapping system.
GPS units used by land surveyors are similar but much more refined
than the hand-held units many recreational users. Their GPS units may
be accurate within a meter or so. The surveyor’s requirements
necessitate measurements within one or two millimetres.
Alberta’s Land Surveyors are known worldwide as highly skilled
professionals. Today’s land surveyor typically has a university degree,
a minimum of two years of articling and has completed a rigorous set of
professional examinations on both theoretical and practical land
measurement subjects. Often the expertise developed within Alberta
finds its way into foreign markets in the form of contract land
surveying services. |
