FOI release

EIR2022/00121: Well Water Temperature Data. Our ref IDA 285706

Case reference EIR2022/00121

Published 25 April 2022

Request

Request received: 29 March 2022

Dear British Geological Survey,

I am currently seeking access to this data as I am conducting a data gathering exercise for the purposes of feasibility study into repurposing of abandoned/ operating oil wells. The variables that I am looking for are the temperature of the water coming from the wells, their depth, location as well as the flowrate of the water.

Response

Response sent: 25 April 2022

BGS ref: IDA 285706

Thank you for your request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your request concerns environmental information and therefore we have considered it under the terms of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Your request was for data on the temperature of water coming from oil wells, their depth, location and flowrate of the water.

BGS holds information within the scope of this request. Most of this data is held in North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA, previously Oil and Gas Authority or DECC) well records. These records can only be made available through an appointed NSTA release agent. Details of appointed agents are available on the North Sea Transition Authority website; https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/data-centre/access-to-information-and-samples/ and therefore Regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs applies in that the information requested is already publicly available and easily accessible to the applicant.

There is also data that may be of interest to you in the Catalogue of geothermal data for the land area of the United Kingdom: third revision, April 1987. The data in here comes from a number of sources including water wells, oil wells, coal, radwaste, research etc. and includes temperature and heat flow data. The catalogue is available from our Sales department sales@bgs.ac.uk for £32.00

The NSTA open data centre (https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/data-centre/nsta-open-data/) may also be of interest to you since they have production data for oil and gas fields. This might provide a basic indication of potential flow rates (it separates oil, gas and water produced).

If you have any queries regarding our response or you are unhappy with the outcome of your request and wish to seek an internal review of the decision, please contact:

Head of Information Governance

Email: foi@ukri.org or infogovernance@ukri.org

Please quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are still not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may apply to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the review procedure provided by UKRI. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: http://www.ico.gov.uk/

If you wish to raise a complaint regarding the service you have received or the conduct of any UKRI staff in relation to your request, please see UKRI's complaints policy: https://www.ukri.org/about-us/policies-and-standards/complaints-policy/

Kind Regards

The BGS Enquiries Service

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