Geomatics

Shell releases its ‘Standard Legend’ to industry and academia

Shell has recently released an updated version of their Shell Standard Legend. The revised version includes new pipeline symbology and an additional symbol set in support of Urban Planning, as well as significant updates and restructuring of the well symbology.

Maps continue to be one the industry’s most important communication tools and are used in many aspects of the upstream business from exploration through to development, production and decommissioning.

Cartographic symbol standards are considered important to aid interpretation and understanding, and are welcomed by many discipline experts, but are not used consistently across the industry. IOGP works to promote the development of such standards and it recently published a Seabed Survey Data Model (available through OGP’s Geomatics Committee webpage). The model provides a cartographic standard for the map representation of seabed features interpreted from offshore hydrographic, geophysical and geotechnical surveys.

Similarly, Shell has developed a comprehensive cartographic symbol set to support hydrocarbon exploration and petroleum engineering, and can trace its origins back some 95 years. The so-called ‘Shell Standard Legend’ was first made available in 2014 for sharing with industry and academia.  The Legend is available in two separate publications (as PDF’s), one supporting the convention oil=red, and one oil=green, recognizing that these two mapping conventions are in use around the world by different Operators and governments. Each publication consistently uses one of these colour conventions throughout the document and categorizes the symbols according to:

  • Hydrocarbons (such as fields, prospects and shows)
  • Topography (control points, markers, offshore structures, contours, road symbols)
  • Geology (morphology, lithology, faults, chronostratigraphy)
  • Geochemistry (source rock, maturity)
  • Geophysics (seismic stratigraphy)
  • Wells (well symbols by hydrocarbon type and status)

IOGP’s Executive Director, Gordon Ballard, has welcomed Shell’s offer to release these documents to industry and is pleased to make them available for download:

In addition to the standard documents Shell also makes available files to support the Shell Standard Legend. These are available from the Esri Style gallery:

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, neither the IOGP nor any of its members past present or future warrants its accuracy or will, regardless of its or their negligence, assume liability for any foreseeable or unforeseeable use made thereof, which liability is hereby excluded. Consequently, such use is at the recipient’s own risk on the basis that any use by the recipient constitutes agreement to the terms of this disclaimer. The recipient is obliged to inform any subsequent recipient of such terms.

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