This research project has successfully built a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based prototype using R3 Corda open source. Its purpose applies in the oil & gas underground injection control (UIC) operations for the underground aquifer protection. This DLT prototype is a permissioned network that allows oil & gas companies to create, disseminate, and trace immutable records. The network enables oil and gas companies, government regulatory agency, and all other participants to share secure records such as well information while maintaining data integrity, traceability, and security. The purpose is to create a network of trust among all the stakeholders in the UIC processes for underground aquifer protection. In this DLT network, a company submits well information, which will be digitally signed and notarized. Unauthorized changes to the information, ownership, or history will become infeasible, thanks to the underlying cryptographic technologies of DLT. The network designs so that information stored and communicated will have a high level of trustworthiness. Every participant in the network can get simultaneous access to a common view of the data. Corda platform also provides multiple functionalities, e.g., Smart contract, Vault, Identity Management, Scheduler, Notary Services, etc. Many of the functionalities automate the data processing within the DLT databases. This project's results expect to enhance public safety and improve the aquifer protection review and operational processes. Kern County uniquely poises for a project to develop more streamlined, effective, and entirely digitized DLT-based workflows that will secure regional environmental data integrity. Water contamination is a primary concern in a region where water and petroleum play vital roles in the economy. Both industries and regulatory agencies pay close attention to environmental quality. Data integrity is a primary issue concern for those that monitor and analyze environmental data. Monitoring and forecasting based on available immutable data are imperative to mitigate complications. We have changed the manual workflow into DLT applications which takes advantage of built-in functionalities. The new review process can avoid repetitive reviews among all participants and shorten the approval time. The embedded smart contracts on the DLT network will also help automate the workflows, and therefore, will be able to help eliminate human errors and improve the turnaround time. The prototype model proves the concept of using DLT. Our research work demonstrates DLT successfully implement into energy technology. The prototype model will further expand to all the UIC processes, such as thermal, wastewater disposal, waterflood, gas injection & disposal, etc. It is a substantial cost and time savings for all the oil and gas companies. The results of this analysis could provide the government with valuable information for significant policy and regulation decisions to further benefit the community and society.
Kern County has a population of 900,000 and has been ranked as one of the nation's most productive in both agriculture and petroleum generation. The petroleum industry often requires the injection of water, gas, or other fluids to enhance oil recovery. The possibility of underground water contamination can be of concern in this region where petroleum operations occur alongside drinking water extraction processes. Kern County's petroleum production plays a vital economic role on both a local and national level. Similarly, underground aquifers contain uncontaminated water that is a significant source of municipal drinking water and supply to large-scale agriculture operations. Due to this adjacency, both industry and regulatory agencies closely scrutinize operations to ensure human and environmental health. The blockchain is a developing peer-to-peer network technology for securely distributing and storing data. A blockchain network consists of several peers, each capable of creating blocks and validating blocks, each with an identical copy of the current blockchain. These blocks consist of transactions, or any type of data record, that have been submitted to the network for validation. Once enough transactions have been submitted, they are bundled into a block which is hashed with the hash of the previous block to create a unique identifier. The regulatory agencies will not be able to make changes except review and approve the project. The block and identifier are then transmitted to every other peer on the network. If the identifier is found to be valid, meaning that the data stored in the sending peer's blockchain has not been altered, the block is added to the receiving peer's local copy. This allows the blockchain to act as immutable ledger, making it an excellent choice for distributing data while maintaining its integrity. Therefore, we can use this secure blockchain network for the underground injection control (UIC) process. We have successfully built a prototype blockchain database and implement an underground injection control (UIC) project in the database. The East Shallow Oil Zone (ESOZ) Fault Block 7A is used for the field case study. All requested documents in the project #22800007 input as the Well Summary GUI and the Regulatory GUI pages for the project review and approval.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.