SYSTEM FOR MANAGEMENT OF OIL AND GAS MINERAL INTERESTS
A system for managing mineral interests includes at least one database for storing data records relating to oil and gas mineral interest. A server enables generation of a graphical user interface at a plurality of locations over an open network. The graphical user interface enables creation and editing of data records stored in the at least one database from the plurality of locations and the editing may occur over the open network. The graphical user interface further enables viewing of data records from the plurality of locations over the open network.
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The present invention relates to the management of oil and gas mineral interests, and more particularly, to a web based application utilizing a central server and browser applications to enable management of oil and gas mineral interests.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONSNone.
BACKGROUNDLand management has historically been a labor intensive process. Organizations of all sizes rely foremost on hard copies of land files and often a series of spreadsheets and/or desktop databases in order to manage data relating to oil and gas mineral interests. This makes data retrieval cumbersome and expensive even under the most well organized conditions. In order to find information in presently existing configurations, an individual must search through extensive files and/or spreadsheets in order to find the information which they are searching for. Additionally, when new information is entered, the date must be properly cataloged in order to ensure that it is properly inserted within the database. Finally, when hard copy files are utilized, the amount of access to this information is limited since an individual must come to where the files are physically stored. This limits the ability for organizations to share the data across the organization. Thus, there is a need for a system that can centrally store information related to oil and gas mineral interests and provide for fast retrieval of the information based upon various parameters within the data.
SUMMARYThe present invention, as disclosed and claimed herein, in one aspect thereof, comprises a system for managing mineral interests. The system includes at least one database for storing data records relating to oil and gas mineral interest. A server enables generation of a graphical user interface in each browser at a plurality of locations over an open network. The graphical user interface enables viewing of the data records from the plurality of locations over the open network. The graphical user interface further enables creation and editing of data records stored in the at least one database from the plurality of locations.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings in which:
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numbers are used herein to designate like elements throughout the various views, embodiments of the present invention are illustrated and described, and other possible embodiments of the present invention are described. The figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, and in some instances the drawings have been exaggerated and/or simplified in places for illustrative purposes only. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate the many possible applications and variations of the present invention based on the following examples of possible embodiments of the present invention.
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The implementation of the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 over an open network 206 such as the internet provides for the ability of the system to be much more widely used and enable access to the system 102 by a variety of customers who may find the information stored within the customer database 106 of beneficial use to them. Information related to mineral interests 104 or queries 108 may be entered into the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 either locally through a computer 208 having a browser 210 associated therewith. Additionally, the queries 108 with respect to mineral interest 104 may be entered remotely through a client computer 212 that includes a browser 210 therein enabling communications with the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 over the internet 206. The oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 is implemented upon a server computer that enables communication with the system 102 through the various browsers 210 either locally or remotely over the internet 206. The management system server would also include means for interfacing with the customer database 106 such that information may be stored therein responsive to inputs from the browsers 210 or data may be extracted from the database 106 responsive to queries from the browsers 210.
The browser interface may be implemented in a number of fashions. In one embodiment, the browser interface is merely transmitted to the browser 210 of a user computer 212, 208 when the user accesses the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 using a commercially available browser such as Microsoft Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc. Additional implementations might utilize dedicated browser software that was specifically directed to communicating with the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. In this case, a commercially available browser would not be necessary, but the software of the dedicated browser would have to be loaded onto the computer 212, 208 either by downloading the software or installing the software from a provided media. The installed software would be dedicated to communication with the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102.
No matter which implementation for accessing the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 is utilized, the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 provides a number of important functionalities to users of the system. Various of these functionalities are more fully illustrated with respect to
System management functionalities 304 enable the operator of the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 to control the level of access of various users and/or customers. Users who are able to have access to the system may be established through these functionalities and the users roles and permissions within the system are established. Additionally, system managers may perform various system administration and account administration functions through the system management functionalities 304 in order to assist the system in operating in an optimal fashion.
Reporting functionalities 306 allow users to view various types of reports with respect to oil and gas mineral interests. The format of these reports may be pre-established and stored upon the system such that the available reports are merely accessed by a user. Alternatively, a report generation functionality may be used such that information stored within the customer database 106 may be accessed to provide a report based upon stored oil and gas mineral interest information. Finally, virtual file functionalities 308 enable .PDF files or other representations of stored documents associated with various oil and gas mineral interest to be stored with associated information within the customer database 106 and accessed therefrom. For example, a copy of the physical deed or lease may be stored with information on the deed or lease within the customer database 106 such that when information on this deed or lease is being accessed through the access ownership information functionalities 302, the user has the opportunity to view a copy of the physical lease or deed that is associated with the information that they are presently viewing.
The oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 also provides ownership verification 310, user role management 312 and the reassignment of interest 314 to other users and companies in the system. Ownership verification 310 enables the actual owners of royalty interests to be confirmed. User role management 312 enables the system operation to control user's roles within the system 102. Reassignment of interest functionalities 314 enable the ownership indication associated with particular interests to be quickly updated or reassigned.
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From the navigation page 404, the user is able to access a variety of functionalities provided by the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. The first of these functionalities includes the dashboard 410. The dashboard 410 comprises a general bulletin board information center on which various information relevant to users working with or owning oil and gas mineral information may be provided. The dashboard 410 includes links to websites of interest to the oil and gas mineral interest owner and further provides alerts or messages requiring the users immediate attention. The news of interest may include specified links including oil and gas news 412. The information provided by the oil and gas news page 412 could comprise information from commercially available websites such as Google or Yahoo or additionally could provide information provided by various oil and gas subscription services that are available within the industry. The company news and announcement page 414 provides customer specific information with respect to the company customer that has logged into the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. The current oil and gas prices page 416 provides links to oil and gas price quotes provided by various services accessible via the internet. The features area content 418 provides links to various types of oil and gas information that are available via the internet. These may comprise websites with specific oil and gas news related services or could include various state agencies that are oil and gas related. The alerts page 420 provides user specific alerts to the customer that has logged into the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. Information of this type may include alerts relating to, for example, lease agreements that are shortly to expire which may require additional action on the part of the customer to renew the lease or at least notify the customer that the leased land interest will soon be available again.
Another section available via the navigation page 404 is the deed management page 422. The deed management page 422 enables a user to have access to a variety of stored deed information and further provides the ability to enter new deed information into the system and edit existing deed information. The new deed information may be entered in one embodiment by using an existing deed as a template in order to prevent the re-entry of identical information. A deed browser 424 displays a number of deeds that may be selected by the user to be viewed and edited. Additionally, a quick search function is used to quickly search through available deeds in order to locate specific deed information. Once a particular deed has been accessed, the deed overview page 426 provides various top level information with respect to the deed that has been accessed. A conveyances page 428 provides information with respect to the transfer of interests associated with the deed. The grantors page 430 provides information with respect to the grantors of the deed that is presently being accessed. The grantees page 432 provides information with respect to the grantees of the deed. The leases page 434 provides information describing leases that are associated with the deed that is presently being accessed through the deed browser 424. Likewise, well page 426 provides information on various wells that are on the land covered by the deed that is presently being viewed through the deed browser 424.
The attachments page 438 enables a user to attach documents that are relevant to a deed that is being viewed through the deed browser 424. This might include a .pdf or other type of electronic copy of the physical deed that is referenced by the information within the deed browser 424. Finally, the add deed page 440 enables a user to enter all of the information with respect to a new deed that is being entered into the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. The add deed page 440 provides data fields for entering all of the respective information in each of the deed, including overview, conveyances grantors, grantees, leases, wells, and attachment sections described previously with respect to the pages accessible under the deed browser 424. Each of the data fields within the pages 426 through 438 of the deed browser 424 are also editable by the user so that any information may be updated as necessary.
The lease management page 442 enables a user to access and manage the information with respect to a number of leases by clicking on a lease indicator within the lease browser 444. Once a particular lease is opened within the lease browser 444, the lease maintenance page 446 enables the user to update information with respect to the accessed lease. Part of the lease maintenance page information may include cross references to the deeds including the land upon which the lease is maintained. An add lease page 448 enables a user to enter a completely new lease into the oil and gas mineral interest management system. The add lease page 448 includes all of the fields of the lease maintenance page but would initially appear blank such that the information could be entered by a user.
The navigation page 404 also provides access to a well management page 450. The well management page lists information with respect to particular wells. The well management page 450 displays a number of well indicators associated with particular wells through the well browser 452. By opening the indicator associated with a particular well, the well maintenance page 454 enables a user to update a variety of information with respect to a particular well. Any of the fields within the well maintenance page 454 may be updated by the user as the information changes. The add well page 456 includes the same fields as the well maintenance page 454, but when initially appearing, each of these fields are blank enabling a user to manually enter new information with respect to a new well to be tracked by the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102.
The reports section 458 accessed through the navigation page 404 provides a user with the ability to access various reports that are previously stored or may be generated from data stored within the database 106 associated with the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. The view available reports page 460 provides direct access to previously generated reports that are grouped and associated by type. These reports are cataloged within a particular fashion within the view available reports page 460 so the user may quickly find a report they desire by knowing the type of report they are looking for. The report generation page 462 enables a user to create new as well as existing have reports generated from information stored within the database 106. Various parameters for the report are established by the user through the report generation page 462 before executing the search based upon the provided parameters.
The management console section 464, accessible via the navigation page 404, enables the user to manage various services and functionalities provided by the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. The management console 464 provides a number of means for affecting the systems operation. The manage user page 466 enables the system operator to view the individuals that presently have access to the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. The manage user page 466 provides information on the user, the last time the user accessed the system and provides the ability to edit the level of access the user has with respect to the system. The levels of access for a particular user may be edited through the roles and permissions page 470. The roles and permissions page 470 provides indications of what a user is able to do and provides access to the deed management, lease management and well management information stored within the system and provides indications of the level of access that may be obtained with respect to the reports provided by the system. For example, certain users may only be provided with the ability to view deed, lease and well information. Other users may have the ability to edit and add existing deed, lease and well management information. This would be established through the roles and permissions page 470.
The systems administration page 468 and account administration page 472 enable operators of the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 to alter the way that the system operates through the system administration page 468 or control the manner in which particular users and user accounts may access the system through the account administration page 472.
The help page 474 provides various help topics to assist a user in accessing the various functionalities provided by the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102. These help topics are broken down by an index of topics through which the user can browse and select a particular topic. Additionally, the user can enter a text word to search for a particular topic within the help topics. Finally, an FAQ section is provided to the user to assist them with the most frequently asked questions.
The search function 476 is included on each of the pages accessible through the navigation page 404. The search function 476 enables a user to search for particular information associated with the section the user is presently accessing. Thus, for example, if the user was within the deed management page 422, various deeds could be searched for in the database. Likewise, if the user was within the lease management or well management pages, leases or wells could be searched for in the database. Likewise, in the reports page 458, particular reports could be searched for in the database. Thus, the search functionality 476 associated with the oil and gas mineral interest management system 102 provides the user with a variety of methods for searching the information stored within the system.
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The deed maintenance field includes a deed overview tab 802. The deed overview tab 802 provides a data screen enabling the display of various general information with respect to the deed being accessed by its deed identifier 706. The state field 804 enables entry of the state in which the land referenced in the deed is located. The county field 806 enables the entry of the county in which the land is located. The grantor name field 808 enables entry of the name of the party granting the conveyance. The grantee name field 810 enables entry of the party to whom the conveyance has been granted. The volume field 812 enables entry of the volume in the county records where the deed is recorded. Likewise, the page field 814 enables entry of the page of the volume on which the deed is recorded, and the recorded date field 816 enables entry of the recordal date of the deed. The gross acres field 818 and net acres field 820 enable entry of the respective acreages associated with the land covered by the deed. Finally, the comments field enables entry of additional information associated with the deed. Once the information has been entered into the above described fields, the record associated with the deed may be updated by clicking on the update button 824.
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The conveyed interest maintenance window 1002 includes an interest type field 1004 into which an identification of the interest that is transferred by the deed may be indicated. The interest conveyed field 1006 enables entry of the percentage of the interest that has been conveyed in a decimal format. The gross acres field 1008 indicates the total acreage included within the deed and the net acres field includes the net amount of acres based upon the interest conveyed. The tract number field 1011 provides for an indication of the identifier for a tract number and recording data may be recorded in the survey field 1012 for indicating the individual who surveyed the property. The abstract field 1014 indicates the abstract number for the property. A block field 1016 indicates the block of the property and the section field 1018 indicates the section of the property. The township field 1010 indicates the township of the property, and the range field 1022 indicates the range of the property. The land description field 1024 enables a full legal description of the land to be entered. This information is updated or entered by clicking on the update button 1026.
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The wells tab 1204 provides a display of the wells information area which also includes a number of fields for providing data on wells within a particular lease. New wells may be added by clicking on the add new button 1254. Existing well data may be updated by clicking on the edit button 1256. Particular well data fields include the well name field 1258 for providing identifying information on the well name, an associated lease field 1260 for providing the lease with which the well is associated, a well type field 1262 for indicating the type of well, and a Railroad Commission (RRC) number field 1264 provides the RRC number. Decimal interest field 1266 and division order decimal interest 1168 provide decimal interest information on the well, and a purchaser's field 1270 may indicate the product purchasers of the well. Well status field 1272 enables an indication of the present operating status of the well, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) number of the well is indicated in field 1274. Field 1276 provides for a check decimal interest and field 1278 provides for an engineering decimal interest. The operator field 1280 provides an indication of the operator of the well. Additional purchasers may be added using an add new button 1280. The attachments tab 1282 enables a display of documents that are associated with a particular deed. Additional documents may be added to the attachment section by clicking on add new button 1284.
When a user clicks on the add new link 1284 to add a new attachment to the deed, the deed attachment window 1302, as illustrated in
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The lease maintenance window 1602 includes a lease name field 1604 for entering a name associated with the lease. A lease type menu 1606 allows the user to use a drop down menu to select the type of lease. A lease bonus section includes a total field 1608 enabling entry of lease bonus totals and a per acre value in a field 1610. A recording data section includes a volume field 1612 for recording volume book, a gross acres field 1614, and a royalty percentage field 1616. HBP may be selected from a drop down menu 1618. Institution dates for the lease are entered in fields 1620 and expiration dates for the lease are entered in field 1622. Page of the volume wherein the data is recorded is listed in field 1624, and the net acres of the lease is listed in field 1626. The amount of HBP acreage is entered in field 1828, and the primary term in years of a lease is listed in field 1630. Drop down menu 1632 enables an indication of whether or not a pugh clause is included within the lease.
The continuous drilling section provides an indication of whether or not a drill clause is used through a drop down menu 1634. A drill period for the continuous drilling clause is entered into field 1636 and start date field 1638 and end date field 1640 enables entry of the starting and ending dates of the continuous drilling clause. A select tract field 1614 enables selection of related property tracts. Newly entered information is updated by clicking on the update button 1644. In addition to displaying this information through the lease management tab 1504, the entered lease information is displayed within the leases section 1202 under the deed management tab 702. Referring now back to
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By double clicking on the visual well indicator 1706, a well maintenance window 1802 will appear as illustrated in
The well operator section of the well maintenance window 1802 includes a name field 1824 for entering the name of the company that is operating the well. An address field 1826 provides fields for entering an address of the well operator. A zip code field 1832 enables entry of the zip code, and a drop down menu 1834 provides for entry of the city of the well operator and drop down menu 1836 provides for a entry of the state. A phone number field 1838 enables entry of the well operator's phone number, and a contact field 1840 provides for the contact person of the well operator. Information that has been changed may be updated by activating the update button 1824.
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The search results grid is presented at step 1914. Inquiry step 1916 determines whether the user desires to enter a quick edit mode or advanced edit mode. If the quick edit mode is selected, the in-line quick edit mode search grid is presented at step 1918 wherein the user may quickly make changes within the quick edit screen. The changes are saved at step 1920 and the user returns to the search results at step 1922 before the search results are saved at step 1923. If the user enters the advanced edit mode, the advanced edit mode is presented through the user interface at step 1924. From the advanced edit mode, the user may return to the search results at step 1922 and save these results at step 1923. At step 1926 the user may use the copy detail screen to complete a new record within the system. Alternatively, at step 1928, the user may pass to the view/edit detail screen to allow the new entry of information within the various fields described in the deed, lease and well information screens described previously. Whether a new record is created at step 1926 or an existing record is modified at step 1928, the changes are saved at 1920 and the user returns to their search results at step 1922. All search results are saved at step 1923.
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If the tract is defined as a leased tract at step 2022 it may be established as an HBP producing tract at step 2024 or as a non-producing tract at step 2026. Inquiry step 2028 determines if there is another tract and, if so, control passes back to step 2010. If no further tracts are to be entered, control passes to step 2030 wherein a lease may be added. At step 2032, the lessor detail, lease detail, and lessee detail are entered into the newly created lease record. Inquiry step 2023 determines if there exists another lease with respect to the tract and, if so, control passes back to step 2030. If an additional lease does not exist, control passes to step 2034 and a well may be added that is included with the lease. The well details, decimal interest, purchaser details, and operator details may be entered with the newly created well record at step 2036. Inquiry step 2040 determines if there exists another well, and if so, a new well record is created at step 2034. If no further well exists, the process is completed at step 2042.
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It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that this invention provides a system for managing mineral interests. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description herein are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive manner, and are not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms and examples disclosed. On the contrary, the invention includes any further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, as defined by the following claims. Thus, it is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments.
Claims
1-20. (canceled)
21. A system for managing mineral interests, comprising:
- a repository of information including lease information for a plurality of different land assets, the lease information including a land area identifier as well as one or more of a royalty amount for the lease, an identification of a lessor, an identification of a lessee, and a term of the lease; and
- a set of computer-readable instructions stored in non-transitory memory configured to provide selected lease information from the repository in response to receiving a search query.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein the search query is received via one or more communication packets transmitted over the Internet.
23. The system of claim 21, wherein the search query is received from a computing device that is co-located with the set of computer-readable instructions.
24. The system of claim 21, wherein the lease information includes the land area identifier as well as a plurality of the royalty amount for the lease, the identification of the lessor, the identification of the lessee, and the term of the lease.
25. The system of claim 21, wherein the lease information includes the land area identifier as well as all of the royalty amount for the lease, the identification of the lessor, the identification of the lessee, and the term of the lease.
26. A method for managing mineral interest, comprising:
- storing mineral interest data associated with an area of land; and
- creating a display of the mineral interest data, the created display of mineral interest data being configured for presentation via a computer and including at least one presentation of a relationship between two or more of the following instances of information: at least one instance of a deed record, at least one instance of a lease record, and at least one instance of a well record.
27. The method of claim 26, wherein the instances of information are each associated with the area of land.
28. The method of claim 26, wherein at least some of the instances of information are associated with different areas of land.
29. The method of claim 26, wherein the at least one presentation of the relationship depicts a relationship between each of the instances of information.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 27, 2012
Publication Date: Nov 15, 2012
Applicant: AGELIO NETWORKS, INC. (Dallas, TX)
Inventors: William R. Sinclair (Dallas, TX), Robert E. W. Sinclair (Dallas, TX)
Application Number: 13/560,650