There’s an old saying in the restaurant business that when you’re looking for the place with the best food, best service and best prices, find out where the people in the restaurant business eat.
If you see servers, bartenders and hostesses eating somewhere, go there.
Nobody ever confused a restaurant with, say, a geological library, but maybe the same logic applies.
“We are a service organization with a mission to receive and archive well and log data in Oklahoma and parts of Texas. Our goal is to make this data accessible to users who are active in the oil industry as well as other areas, e.g. locating and remediating orphan wells as well as other types of projects.”
That’s Michael Cervantes, Mid-Continent Geological Library Board president, and he said MCGL functions as a library, obviously, but also a research center so they can delve deep into the data on hand.
And not to put too fine a point on this, it’s also run by geologists.
‘The Best Oil and Gas Information Source in Oklahoma’
Cervantes said MCGL, which is located in Edmond, within a couple of miles of the Blue Hippo on Route 66, is the largest repository of the history of the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma.
Some of that happened by design, some by necessity.
“Tulsa is the birthplace of the AAPG because the U.S. oil and gas industry has had major success in Oklahoma for over 125 years. Unfortunately, the mentality from Oklahoma’s Territorial days (pre-1907), in which it was not believed that the state should be involved in ‘private business practices,’ has persisted long after statehood. This has left gaping holes in data coverage in areas that have produced billions of barrels of crude,” said Cervantes.
He said that MCGL is the only organization in the state that is fully committed to scanning, indexing and making available online early hard-copy data as well as data from private operator files that previously have not been available. This includes mudlogs, geological and DST reports, velocity surveys, core reports and photos, scout reports and thousands of strip log images, which form the bulk of subsurface data in some of the most prolific oil-producing areas of the state. While large discoveries are unlikely today, substandard recovery factors are the norm, and this has left vast quantities of recoverable oil in the ground.
“MCGL has log data in paper stored in cabinets at the physical library, but some people prefer to slip paper logs while they work. It also has software and plotters available so they can update a project and print out a map,” he said.
The online library has those same logs and well data, as well as data donated by independents, consultants, other libraries and companies that have gone out of business for various reasons.
Cervantes is proud of what the place, both physically and online, contains.
“For some older wells, 1930s vintage, there may only be documentation in the form of a strip log, that is a log record hand drawn by a geologist,” he said. “Further, companies used to routinely ‘turn in’ logs to the state, thinking the minimum is all that is required. Once some companies or individuals went out of business, they donated cabinets full of additional proprietary log and well data.”
He said during one personal search, he found something that looked familiar: “I was surprised to see a full color image log for a well I had drilled in western Oklahoma many years ago. That was a log we held confidential for many years before someone else donated it.”
There’s also a “try it before you buy it”-feature, so to speak, to the place.
“People can see and manipulate a log online before they buy it, so they know what they are getting,” said Cervantes.
He is not modest about what MCGL has, has provided, and will continue to provide.
“We are the best oil and gas information source in Oklahoma,” he said.
Pulling the lens back, he said the library is a geoscience service organization with a mission to receive and archive well and log data in Oklahoma and parts of Texas at an economic cost.
“If a geologist was recently downsized, he or she might be wondering what the next move is,” Cervantes said. “If he or she wants to use their unique skills and expertise and stay in the oil business, the Library can help.”
He explained that there are different membership packages offering different levels of access, ranging from six-months’ access for a specific project for a few hundred dollars, to online access alone for a couple thousand, to physical and online access for a bit more.
“This gives a person easy access to well and log data in Oklahoma and parts of Texas. The physical library has mapping software used by many companies in addition to well and production data from a couple of vendors. This membership cost contrasts with rental of industry software and data access which would cost more than $18,000 per year, depending on the vendor, data package,” said Cervantes.
The Library, Evolved
Recently, MCGL reached an agreement with the Oklahoma Well Log Library in Tulsa to scan many of their logs in order to archive their collection, which will benefit those who access the stacks and stacks of material, both online and in person to an even greater extent.
“They can actually see and manipulate the data and then decide if they want a copy of it for their project work,” said Cervantes.
In the Internet Age, of course, the very notion of “a library” – as a physical presence – is changing.
Cervantes said that over the last few years, MCGL is making great strides in offering data online.
“We started by scanning the current in-house collection of log data and documents. We have an experienced well-trained staff that can scan logs efficiently and at a low cost,” he said.
And that information is constantly being upgraded and improved.
“New donations are compared with what we have online and if there is a better copy of a log or some unique quality, we scan it for the online database,” he added.
But for many, there is still the mystique and wonder of a brick-and-mortar library.
“Even with all of the data that we have online, a survey of membership last year showed that many members still like the idea of slipping paper logs. Some people still like to come in to meet with others and use the resources in a physical library,” he said.
For MCGL, like any library, there are challenges these days, including the most obvious.
“The library needs patrons,” he said.
Cervantes said they would also like to lower their subscription fees but to do so would take someone stepping up to the plate with a big bat.
Along those lines, he said the biggest obstacle continues to be procuring adequate funding to support and expand the library.
“We survive on membership dues and donations,” which he said has to provide the funding needed to continue to scan and add data to the library but also funds maintenance and development of the online library, as well as making it all accessible.
He said the library is always thinking of ways to get more out of the data and tools we have. But it’s not solely for the library.
There is, Cervantes said, something more important.
“Future oil and gas enterprises exploring in Oklahoma can find their information in commercial companies but no one else has the depth of information, in a usable format, as the MCGL has. We are the best oil and gas information source in Oklahoma. The information contained in the library has made companies and individuals millions of dollars,” he said.