Surveying for Well Locations
At Topographic, we stake the drilling location for thousands of oil and gas wells every year. A majority of the wells being drilled in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle have been staked by our crews. Many of the wells being drilled in north Texas, west Texas, New Mexico, and Arkansas have also been staked by our crews.
We have worked these areas for many years, and that gives us an advantage. We have extensive libraries of historical survey plats and surveyor’s notes in each of our offices. We research the historical data before ever sending our crews to the job site. This saves time, saves money, and most importantly insures the accuracy and correctness of the survey.
With each well-location survey we provide a certified and signed plat. We will work very hard to get the plat to you within a time frame that fits your schedule. We will also provide an aerial photograph of the proposed well site at a convenient scale. Our finished plats are designed to meet the requirements of the governing jurisdictions for oil and gas wells in the states where we work.
With many well-location surveys, a sea-level elevation of the ground at the stake is requested. If the operator would rather wait until the pad site is leveled and the well is drilling, we can return and run the elevation at that time.
Many well-location surveys require the acquisition of additional site information and the preparation of special plats. Often, nearby structures or improvements must be located and mapped. Every municipal jurisdiction has its own permitting regulations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management each have their own permitting authorities with their own special requirements. In our many decades of surveying and with thousands and thousands of wells staked, there are very few situations we have not already encountered.
In preparation for the drilling of a well, boundary surveys are sometimes performed in the area of the drill site. These surveys are required for the construction of drilling units and for establishing acreages for the included tracts. This is often the case in Texas and Arkansas where surveys are unusual shapes and there is a good possibility of boundary conflicts.
We are often asked to stake a well relative to the location of a seismic survey. We understand the importance and sometimes the difficulty of getting that well staked in the right place. Especially in Texas, seismic surveys are sometimes plotted on a base map or a land grid that is inaccurate. Due to the metes and bounds system of surveys used in Texas, every base map contains errors. These errors can cause confusion in communicating to the surveyor where a well should be staked. Dry holes have been drilled by misunderstanding the relationships between seismic surveys, base maps, datums, and actual locations on the ground. Please do not hesitate to ask us about staking your well relative to your seismic data in Texas or in any other state where we work.
We have the right equipment to work in a rural environment. Our crews use 4-wheel drive pickups. We use ATV’s when needed. Every crew has survey-grade GPS equipment in addition to data loggers, pipe locators, pin finders, and total stations. We know how to get around, and we’ve been doing this for more than 50 years.
