Background

BLM’s Division of IRM Support Services, National Applications office conducted user group meetings in 1999 to gain an understanding of the requirements of the BLM Field Office users. Through these meetings and process analyses, the Remote Data Acquisition for Well Production (RDAWP) Project was developed. A pilot project team created detailed system requirements. The initial RDAWP focus was and continues to be the near-real time acquisition and validation of gas production data.

The first RDAWP pilot was performed in 2004 at the BLM Farmington, NM Field Office, with BP America Production Company providing access to production data. The 2004 RDAWP pilot successfully illustrated real time acquisition of production data from an Industry source in a non-invasive push environment.

Following the 2004 RDAWP pilot, the BLM obtained real time, unedited production data and performed calculations in support of the BLM I&E production validation mission. The production validation algorithms were determined and developed within a commercially available security environment and then tested against live production data provided by Anadarko, Incorporated in 2006. The RDAWP project successfully met all BLM LRIS and I&E requirements for validating gas production on federal lands per Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act (FOGRMA) requirements.

The RDAWP project is now underway in 2007 with limited BLM field office deployments in the Energy Act Pilot offices. The project is seeking voluntary industry participation to assess the operational aspects and impacts of the RDAWP project.