WLC Engineering and Surveying was hired by Samson Resources, a mineral exploration company, in the fall of 2010. Samson acquired new oil and gas leases in central Converse County, Wyoming and wanted to expand production in the field. They contracted with WLC to provide survey support for well and pipeline staking. While performing these services, WLC determined that record information regarding the location and extent of existing well and pipeline infrastructure were missing or incomplete. Therefore, WLC’s GIS staff were tasked with performing a rigorous field inventory of the existing infrastructure in order to create a project GIS to be utilized by Samson’s main office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This inventory including collecting road centerlines, wells, pipelines, fencing and overhead power for the 90 plus wells that were in production. Prior to conducting the field inventory, WLC’s GIS staff worked closely with Samson Resources to acquire right-of-entry for project lands. This process was necessary to minimize any impacts our surveys would have on ranching operations. Field collection was performed by survey and GIS staff using survey grade GPS equipment which allowed the data to be seamlessly integrated into our existing survey data, producing high quality materials that were useful for multiple applications.
