The Intellog Blog

Alberta Petroleum & Natural Gas Public Offerings for 2010-10-27 are now available. This data is formatted in CSV and is ready for upload to Accumap. The file can be downloaded here or by clicking the CSV icon, bottom right.

If you would like to be notified by email as soon as the reformatted CSV files are available in the future, please contact us or leave a comment below, and we will be happy to add you to our guaranteed spam-free email notification list. There is no charge for this service.

Background information can be found here, and please let us know what you think. Thanks for your interest and support.

In 2008 and 2009, Intellog submitted proposals to The University of Calgary’s Software Engineering Project (CPSC 594) program led by  Dr. Guenther Ruhe. This year, we are once again submitting a proposal. The abstract;

“There are a wide variety of use cases for information search functionality which can accept a combination of content and geospatial criteria. Open source software is available to address both of these individual requirements; Solr for content-based search and PostGIS for processing geospatial queries. Intellog Inc. proposes the development of a new open source software component (“Blanco”) which can take search requests with both types of criteria, dispatch them to the respective systems for processing, integrate the returned result sets and finally return the rationalized result set to the user or calling application.“

But in addition to submitting a proposal to the CPSC 594 program, we are simultaneously submitting the identical proposal to the University of Helsinki’s Software Factory program. There are many similarities between the two programs, and some differences. The intended objective is to have the proposal accepted by both programs, in which case, the student teams will have the added challenge of collaborating over a distance of over 7000 kilometres and nine time zones.

The proposal can be found here, or by clicking the Adobe Reader logo bottom right. Your comments are welcome and encouraged. Hopefully, the third time is the charm.

Alberta Petroleum & Natural Gas Public Offerings for 2010-10-13 are now available. This data is formatted in CSV and is ready for upload to Accumap. The file can be downloaded here or by clicking the CSV icon, bottom right.

If you would like to be notified by email as soon as the reformatted CSV files are available in the future, please contact us or leave a comment below, and we will be happy to add you to our guaranteed spam-free email notification list. There is no charge for this service.

Background information can be found here, and please let us know what you think. Thanks for your interest and support.

Recently reported on this blog was the decision of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) to exercise his right under the FOIPPA to extend the deadline for the completion of his investigation by a month. Subsequently, in a letter dated 2010-08-11, Commissioner Frank Work Q.C. states “I am extending the time for completion of this review by 9 months beyond the 90-day time period set out in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act . The anticipated date completion of this review is now June 10, 2011.” Nine months. Nine months?

The first step in the process is for the Commissioner to “determine whether an inquiry is warranted” and goes on to say his “decision as to whether this office will conduct an inquiry will be communicated to the parties. If I decide not to conduct an inquiry, I will provide reasons.” So while on the face of it, the lengthy extension seems to support a thorough investigation of the matter, it’s still within the purview of the Commissioner to proceed with the formal inquiry only if he feels there is merit. One would presume a decision in this latter regard would come fairly quickly.

The inquiry process is described in detail in the Commissioner’s letter and enclosures. Of particular note is the description of “Affected Parties” which are “individuals or other organizations that could be affected by the decision made in the inquiry.” This seems to be an opportunity for those with an interest in the outcome of this process to provide input to the inquiry. By all means, if you feel you would benefit from a positive outcome — that is, one where the General Well Data File were freely available to all — please contact the Commissioner and express your interest in participating in the inquiry. Click the link above, or the Adobe Reader® logo at the bottom right, for a complete copy of the most recent letter and enclosures.

A complete history of this process has been posted here. Thank you very much for your continued interest and support, and please feel free to leave comments and questions below or contact us.

The ERCB’s July 2010 Well Licenses Issued (ST1, sample), Drilling Activity (ST49, sample), and Pipeline Approval & Disposition Daily List (ST96, sample) have been added to the Onramp search engine. These reports, along with every ST1, ST49 and ST96 issued since 2001 (over 9600 documents) have been indexed so they can instantly be retrieved by simple keyword search.   Click here to start.

If you have suggestions for other data you would like to see added to Onramp, or any other feedback, please leave a comment below, or contact us directly.

Previously in this series of posts, it was reported that the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) for Alberta (Mr. Frank Work, Q.C.) had established a deadline of 2010-08-11 “to investigate and settle this matter“. The matter in question being Intellog’s request to waive fees associated with the General Well Data File which is maintained by the ERCB on behalf of the citizens of Alberta. Recently, another letter was received from Mr. Work to say he had been advised that “additional time is required to conclude the mediation/investigation“, and exercised his right under the Act to extend the deadline by a month, to 2010-09-10.

This is a curious turn of events given that on 2010-07-02, nearly one month prior to the most recent letter, Portfolio Officer Hendy stated “I have completed my review and am writing to share my findings with you.” The extension of the deadline is interpreted as a positive development as it an opportunity to provide further input to the Commissioner’s investigation. The full text of the letter extending the deadline can be found here or by clicking the Adobe Reader® logo at the bottom right. Thank you very much for your continued interest and support, and please feel free to leave comments and questions below or contact us.

Alberta Petroleum & Natural Gas Public Offerings for 2010-09-29 are now available. This data is formatted in CSV and is ready for upload to Accumap. The file can be downloaded here or by clicking the CSV icon, bottom right.

If you would like to be notified by email as soon as the reformatted CSV files are available in the future, please contact us or leave a comment below, and we will be happy to add you to our guaranteed spam-free email notification list. There is no charge for this service.

Background information can be found here, and please let us know what you think. Thanks for your interest and support.

In the post But They Didn’t Even Call? a commitment was made to file a Request for Inquiry with the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC). This commitment has now been made good, and the document can be found here, or by clicking the Adobe Reader® logo, bottom right. Please feel free to contribute your thoughts and comments elow, or contact us. Thank you very much for your interest and support.

Alberta Petroleum & Natural Gas Public Offerings for 2010-09-15 are now available. This data is formatted in CSV and is ready for upload to Accumap. The file can be downloaded here or by clicking the CSV icon, bottom right.

If you would like to be notified by email as soon as the reformatted CSV files are available in the future, please contact us or leave a comment below, and we will be happy to add you to our guaranteed spam-free email notification list. There is no charge for this service.

Background information can be found here, and please let us know what you think. Thanks for your interest and support.

Back in May of this year, a post to this blog described an effort to obtain support for free well data from various oil & gas industry associations. To date, all of these letters have gone unanswered, which is not all that surprising given that Intellog in not a constituent member of any of these organizations. However, it’s still disappointing that none of them felt it was necessary to reply, even if it was to say they were not interested.

Undeterred, the decision has been taken to go directly after broad support with a series of letters written directly to industry participants. Copies of the first 25 letters in this regard can be found here, or by clicking the Adobe Reader® logo at the bottom right. The general selection criteria for the recipients was to identify larger organizations on the producer side, along with higher profile service companies with which they do business. Ultimately, all of these companies stand to directly benefit from this initiative. Shared well identification information enabled by free well data will make transferring data between these industry participants dramatically easier and much more efficient.

As additional batches of recipients are identified, similar letters will go out to them, and these will be documented in the comments below. Also, replies received in response to these letters will be posted as well. Comments or questions are welcome, or if you prefer, you can get directly in contact with us. We appreciate and highly value your support!