American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2020 - 78

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IssuesUpdate: Tennessee Oil & Gas Association

New Generation of Mapping
Proliferates in Tennessee
By Dan Larson
Special Correspondent
HELENWOOD, TN.-Tennessee may
see a revival of oil and gas prospecting
and new production once prices rebound
thanks to a member-driven effort to expand
use of a free mapping application and
unlock the vaults of geologic information
in the state's archives, according to leaders
of the Tennessee Oil & Gas Association.
The coronavirus pandemic has cancelled the 2020 TOGA Annual Meeting,
which was scheduled for May 10-11, and
would have provided an in-depth seminar
about an open-source geospatial mapping
system called Qgis that rivals more expensive applications or services.
"We want to educate our members so
they can better manage their properties,
uncover valuable oil and gas data and
save money," relates TOGA Chairman
Gary Bible.
TOGA past-president Will Goodwin
had been chosen lead the seminar, Bible
indicates, with technical content for users
ranging from those familiar with ArcView
to those who have never used a geographic
information system-based mapping system.
ArcView, now known as ArcGIS Basic,
is the entry level version of the mapping
system produced and sold by Esri.
In other association news, with the departure of Roxanne Reiley as the top aide
to TOGA President, Chuck Laine, TOGA's
administrative and communications activities have shifted to Weller Law.
Qgis Mapping
"I have been using Qgis for six months
and I am very pleased with how it runs
for my business," Bible affirms. "It is a
very powerful program. I have it on my
PC and laptop and use it to draw geologic
maps and manage production data."
Qgis is described as a project of the
Open Source Geospatial Foundation. It
allows users to "create, edit, visualize,
analyze and publish geospatial information"
and is said to run on most operating
systems while supporting vector, raster,
and database formats and functions. In
addition to a desktop GIS, it is said to in78 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

clude an open source spatial file browser,
a server application and web applications.
For attendees, the mapping seminar
was to "center on downloading and building a basic operational setup on their
own computers," Goodwin describes.
During the session, Goodwin says, he
planned to share Internet links to data that
could be experimented with to give users
a sense for the program's capabilities. He
also says he planned to "present examples
of operational functions found in Qgis
with which some people may be familiar
if they have used an ArcView product."
To demonstrate the value of GIS-based
data management systems and the economic benefits of an open source program,
the seminar was going to have an entrylevel focus, Goodwin assures. "We took
this approach to make sure everyone who
brings a laptop leaves with a basic working
GIS map that includes Tennessee oil and
gas data," he reports.
Valuable Data
According to Bible, operators know
the value of having the latest information
about all the oil and gas wells in their
area. Add the ability to overlay satellite
imagery, make point-and-click queries
about a nearby location and track internal
production trends all on the same screen,
and better decisions follow, he considers.
"Using Qgis, an operator can set up
an inventory of all on-site equipment and
match that with his production volumes,"
Bible notes.
For prospecting, the state's vast storehouse of permits and well logs are available
for the asking. Bible describes how rather
than travelling to Nashville, Tn., to purchase copies of top-of-formation data
from state archives, TDEC now will
download digital scans of well files to an
operator's portable hard drive.
"Most tops data has been scanned so
it is available as an attachment to the
well file," Bible notes. "Otherwise, for a
small fee, you can get the entire 15,000well history of oil and gas development
in Tennessee on your computer. These
days, it's all about better-faster-cheaper.
With Qgis, you don't have to spend a ton

of money in order to manipulate the information you want and draw your own
map."
As use and understanding of Qgis
evolves, a members-only user forum will
be available on TOGA's website, Bible
reports, with a goal of helping members
hone their Qgis skills. "We will be writing
procedures for using Qgis and encouraging
members to share what they have learned,"
Bible details. "It is something that is designed by oil people for oil people."
Staff Changes
After serving for more than a decade
as Laine's jack-of-all-trades first mate,
Roxanne Reiley resigned from TOGA in
December to take a position as the Oil
and Gas Supervisor in the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation's
Division of Water Resources.
Reiley succeeds Mike Burton, who
retired from TDEC last summer as oil
and gas supervisor after serving since
1996. "Everybody in the industry knew
Burton and we are sorry to see him go,"
Laine says. "For Roxanne, it was a good
move and I totally support it."
Laine and TOGA's Board of Directors
recognized that the loss of a key staff
person such as Reiley meant they faced
the tall order of replacing her government
relations, organizational and administrative
skills, he recounts.
"When Roxanne left to take the job at
TDEC, I figured it was time to rearrange
how the association does its business,"
Laine says. That was when he started
discussing delegating the association's
administrative, communications, event
management and other duties to Waller
Law. Officially known as Waller Lansden
Dortch & Davis, the firm is a multipractice legal services and advocacy firm
headquartered in Nashville, with offices
in Austin, Tx., Birmingham, Al., and the
Tennessee cities of Chattanooga and
Memphis.
"Waller is widely recognized in Tennessee and it specializes in member services for small trades such as our oil and
gas association," Laine says. "It has been
a TOGA member for several years and

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