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Oilman Magazine / May-June 2019 / OilmanMagazine.com
15
Land management is a crucial link in the upstream
management chain because the health of every
exploration and production organization depends
on it. Landmen must move quickly during lease-
acquisition phases if they want to secure the best
leases in prime exploration areas. Traditionally,
this process was slow and tedious, but because
of technological advances and AI, it no longer
has to be that way. Time is money. The work of a
traditional landman is extremely labor intensive –
physically and mentally. The amount of time and
work put into land acquisitions and everything that
goes along with it is major time and man-hours
are expensive. Just think if E&P companies could
manage their assets and streamline the processes
of the land life cycle, giving them the ability to
use technology to maximize efciency and the
advantage in an ever-evolving oil market.
P2 Energy Solutions
P2 is offering just that. They are the world’s largest
software and technology company dedicated to
the upstream oil and gas industry, with solutions
spanning the entire value chain from exploration
to decommissioning. More than 1,500 companies
use P2 products and services daily to improve
decision-making, gain clarity into complex
workow scenarios, and optimize upstream
efciency.
History of Tobin
Founded in 1928 in San Antonio, Texas, by Edgar
G. Tobin, the company began capturing and
interpreting aerial photography to create detailed
maps for the burgeoning Texas oil industry. By
1930 the company had already mapped over 3,000
miles of pipelines and numerous elds including
projects in Mexico and Venezuela.
Tobin quickly established itself as the industry
leader in spatial information management in the
United States and has set signicant milestones
ever since. Acquired by P2 Energy Solutions in
2004, Tobin was and remains a trusted source for
mapping and geo-spatial data services for oil and
gas producers.
With Tobin’s dedicated specialists, who have over
850 years of combined experience and a history
of pinpoint accuracy, Tobin gives their customers
the condence to make decisions that impact their
company’s success. Fast, quality data delivery and
user-friendly design lets oil and gas producers see
well, lease, and land activity with complete clarity.
“Tobin has established a solid foundation of trust
over 90 years and as part of P2 we continue to
build the future with our customers,” said J. Scott
Lockhart, CEO of P2 Energy Solutions. “We are
bringing new insights through machine learning,
visualization, advanced analytics, and value-added
solutions to meet the needs of the industry for
the next century and beyond. We are just getting
started.”
Tobin Data Layers
Through Tobin Data, companies can obtain well,
lease and land activity quickly and with pinpoint
accuracy. Tobin data covers several layers.
The Survey layer offers the most comprehensive,
continuous survey coverage in the industry,
covering 1.4 billion acres, 65,000 townships and
300,000 original Texas abstracts. Within the survey
layer, there are two types of grids.
The Jeffersonian Land Grid is used in 30 states
across the U.S., including states in the Rocky
Mountain region – home to many of today’s
hottest shale plays like the Bakken and Niobrara.
The Texas Land Survey Grid being the most
accurate base available due to Tobin. It ensures
that every line is veried digitally and visually. No
matter where the work is taking place, every line of
the map is remarkably accurate and aligned.
The Ownership layer allows companies to see
who owns the surface rights for each particular
parcel of land, giving them the detail needed to
position their lease outlines and manage property
assets. This eliminates the need to go to the
courthouse to obtain any of this information.
More than 200 counties are tracked, including 180
counties throughout Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It also
provides ownership data in 42 Oklahoma counties,
two Utah counties and two New York counties.
The Polygons calculate totals, volume, acreage and
distance geographically with Tobin Data sets.
The Lease layer enables companies to see
where competitors are leasing across the U.S.
before leases expire. The interactive data shows
critical insight into the mineral lease landscape
enabling better business decisions. This ensures
that companies can compete condently in the
hottest shale plays. Information can be obtained
on 750,000 leases in more than 250 counties across
the U.S. with coverage being constantly expanded
by the day. Lease activity points are published on a
nightly basis. All of the data is collected in person
from the courthouse daily so companies can
have condence that they are receiving the most
accurate and current data available.
The Well layer provides all the access companies
need on oil and gas permits, completions, and
plugs. It uses purpose-built accuracy software
and a multitude of data sources, including
high-resolution imagery, to hand-verify each well
location. The well locations are digitized using
a variety of sources by their expert geospatial
mapping specialists. Locations are veried and
adjusted using an array of mapping platforms,
such as satellite imagery, digital ortho-rectied
aerial imagery, GPS coordinates, well plats, line-
calls from survey or public land grid systems and
USGS topographic quads. Each well is digitized
to specic criteria and hierarchies, and specialist
then determine which digitizing platform best suits
locating and mapping the well. Each location is
supplemented by including a number of critical
well attributes, such as well operator, lease, and
product.
There are several risks associated with using free or
low-cost location data.
• Changing plans at the last minute for a well pad
because your map data is off. Or worse: placing
a well pad in the wrong spot.
• Learning that the neighboring wells are closer or
further than you expected.
• Being forced to terminate a well on somebody
else’s property.
• Drilling or starting production even though
neighboring wells are not producing.
• Not drilling a new well when neighboring wells
are producing.
In addition to the information itself, one of the
major benets Tobin offers is the way in which
it’s delivered. Through their single le delivery, the
data can be obtained within hours, instead of days.
There is no stitching, joining or relating required.
Employees can also monitor specic areas of
interest and if anything changes, they would
receive an email informing them of the change.
This gives them the ability to constantly monitor
and stay on top of anything that occurs, without
having to always spend time checking on the status.
P2 is raising the bar with their land management
software and AI. They are progressing quickly and
efciently while making positive growth changes.
They are impacting one of the most critical parts
of exploration and production, if not the most
critical part – the land. Without the land and
the plethora of information that surrounds the
acquisition of it, there are no oil wells being built
and no wells being built, means no oil is being
produced. Land knowledge is absolutely vital to
the success of this industry. What they are doing is
a game-changer and hopefully they don’t intend to
stop any time soon.
Invaluable Land Knowledge
Software and AI
By Sarah Skinner
OILMAN COLUMN
