BY GUS MORGAN

Early in his career, while working as a land surveyor, Danny Allen would draw topographic maps by hand, a labor-intensive and time-consuming endeavor.  

Those days are long gone; time and technology have ushered in new ways of working. In today’s world, digital is king, and Danny’s work revolves around geographic information system (GIS) technology and drones.

As a geospatial intelligence supervisor at ConocoPhillips, Danny is using these innovations to deliver efficiency gains and enhance collaboration.

“We’re in a geospatial transformation,” Danny said. “With GIS, you can deliver data to people in a quick, concise manner. The technology has really taken off. It allows people to make decisions in real-time.”  

'The ultimate platform for sharing and collaboration'

At ConocoPhillips, spatial data is integrated with other information — such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) from the company’s oil and gas wells — providing employees with layers of information at their fingertips. As such, GIS provides an efficient platform for analyzing, visualizing and integrating massive volumes of data.

Danny likened GIS to a hamburger layered with tomatoes, pickles, onions, cheese and guacamole, each ingredient adding to the burger, each ingredient making it better.  

“GIS is the ultimate platform for sharing and collaboration. It’s really powerful when you start thinking about the use cases. And it just keeps getting bigger and better. GIS gives us the ability to tie into real-time sensors and get alerts, providing situational awareness and streamlining workflows. You can view layers of data throughout the entire life cycle of a well.”

How ConocoPhillips is using GIS, drones

At ConocoPhillips, Danny and his colleagues are using GIS and drone technology to enhance emissions management; assist with electrical system inspections and maintenance; provide high-resolution aerial imagery; and reduce well planning field work. They’re even using it for biodiversity initiatives such as monitoring prairie chicken habitat.  

ConocoPhillips recently honored Danny with a 2022 SPIRIT Award, recognizing him as an Innovation Champion for his contributions to the development of geospatial intelligence and drone technologies in the Permian organization and throughout the company’s Lower 48 functions and assets, including Development, Projects, Drilling & Completions, and Health Safety Environment (HSE) in the Eagle Ford, Bakken, Norway and Alaska.

“With our geospatial technology, we can provide teams with images and surveys of remote field operations. By using smart drones, optical gas imaging (OGI) cameras and 3D imaging, we bring the field closer to the teams that work them and help them make informed decisions.”

Permian Geospatial Intelligence Team

Danny oversees the Permian Geospatial Intelligence Team, a subset of the Integrated Operations Team. Using the Esri suite of GIS applications, the geospatial intelligence team supports seven workstreams in and outside the Permian. 

In 2021, the geospatial team helped complete 18 Eagle Ford drone surveys to support an electrification study.  

The Permian team deployed two drone pilots and trucks for the project. The pilots worked alongside Eagle Ford project leads while in the field to obtain multiple scans and surveys of 17 central facility sites in DeWitt County as well as the DeWitt Central Delivery Point.

Leveraging the in-house Permian Geospatial Intelligence Team instead of an outside vendor allowed the Eagle Ford electrification study's engineering team to get the required field data with minimum delay. 

“That project served as an opportunity for us to showcase the capabilities of our drone program and saved the company money by utilizing internal resources.” 

Eyes in the sky

Drones play a key role in ConocoPhillips’ emissions monitoring and management. Using smart drones paired with optical gas imaging cameras, the team scans equipment on locations to detect and document any emitting gases in the North and South Midland Basins for investigation and repair. 

Drones are good for spotting potential problems before they occur, preventing lost production. For instance, the group uses drones to perform aerial inspections on electric poles in the Midland and Delaware Basins to spot abnormalities that could cause potential downtime. They also provided high-resolution images to the well planning team.

The images and elevation information from these flyovers reduces surveying costs and employees’ time in the field. The geospatial team even collaborates with security, using GIS technology to map crime in the field to identify hot spots. Drones also help with safety. For instance, if there’s an hydrogen sulfide release at a well site or facility, a drone can fly over it and assess the danger without putting personnel at risk.  

“I love seeing this technology evolve and finding ways to use it in the workplace. We’re using this technology to streamline operations.”

GIS Hub

Danny is currently working with Geospatial IT Supervisor Brian Tran's team to launch a company-wide GIS Hub that features GIS applications and dashboards, an employee gateway for geospatial data. 

One of the hub’s many applications, Permian Web Map, has more than 150 layers, pulling data from various databases throughout the company. It's updated nightly.

Clicking through the layers, Danny starts revealing the app’s powerful capabilities, a visual feast featuring metrics and all types of oilfield information, all accessible at the click of a button.

“Here’s all our leases in the Permian Basin. And if you go down to this layer list, you can see where our rigs are currently drilling. And now here’s where all our competitors rigs are … this one has a real-time Internet of Things sensor tied to it so you can see the real-time tank levels at this facility … from 2D spatial analysis to real-time 3D visualization and analytics, the GIS Hub has something for everyone." 

In mid-July, Danny traveled to the 2022 Esri User Conference in San Diego with the geospatial team to accept a Special Achievement in GIS Award (SAG) for "developing a long-term geospatial modernization with an eye towards digital transformation," an award that only about 2 percent of oil and gas companies have won. “The godfather of GIS, Jack Dangermond, the president and founder of Esri, presented us with the award. That we were recognized for doing this, that’s huge to me.”