Identifying Well Pads in the Haynesville Shale Region, Louisiana and Texas, with Digital Imagery

Darinda Dans, Daniel Unger, Kenneth W. Farrish, I-Kuai Hung

Research output: Other contribution

Abstract

The Haynesville Shale is an underlying rock formation in northwest Louisiana and northeast Texas that contains vast quantities of natural gas. With new technology has come the ability to extract more natural gas from one of the largest gas deposits in the United States. With increased production, increased change in the local ecosystem will occur. It is necessary to examine oil and gas exploration effects on the local ecosystem due to changes in land cover, such as habitat loss and increased soil erosion. Remotely sensed imagery were utilized to ascertain the use of various digital image processing techniques to determine which digital transformation would more accurately identify current well pads within the Haynesville Shale region. Techniques evaluated included digital ratios, digital vegetation indices and digital principal component analysis. Results indicate that all vegetation indices and principal component analysis were extremely useful in visually identifying well pad locations while the effectiveness of digital ratios depended on the ratio utilized.

Original languageUndefined/Unknown
StatePublished - Jan 1 2012

Publication series

NameFaculty Publications

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