Seismic data specialists Seitel is fleshing out its Solutions unit (PDM Vol. 5 N 9) into an internet-enabled virtual seismic data store. The unit will serve both Seitels own internal needs particularly for the management of its massive petabyte seismic library and will offer oil and gas companies an enterprise data management system based on the storage solution provider model.
IBM SAN
Last month, Seitel partnered with IBM for the design of what is claimed as one of the worlds largest Storage Area Networks (SAN) and bought Canadian data access specialist EDM Products Inc. This month, Seitel has bolstered its data management offering with the acquisition of Windows-based transcription and data capture software from Lacey Digital.
Corridor
The backbone of the Solution is the North American Energy Corridor a high speed virtual link between Calgary, Denver, Houston and New Orleans. The SAN architecture comprises IBM storage products including the Shark Enterprise Storage Server, IBM tape storage devices and Tivoli Storage Manager.
SANford
Head of IBMs Storage Systems Group, Linda Sanford said Seitel is taking a visionary step that places it at the forefront of the petroleum industry, changing the way traditional oil and gas exploration is done.
Frame
Seitel CEO Paul Frame added The combination of IBM's storage solutions capability and Seitel's content including our seismic data library, create a leading-edge solution to oil and gas exploration that has never before been offered to the industry . We chose IBM as our technology partner because we are taking Seitel into the next generation of oil and gas exploration. IBM is a partner that understands our vision, has the products and skills to implement it and is the leader in e-business.
Coward
EDM CEO Paul Coward will remain in the Solutions unit, giving Seitel a seat on the board of the PPDM Association and chairmanship of the Seismic Standards Committee. The addition of EDMs products extends Seitels scope beyond seismic into inventory tracking, well data, and pipelines. See our interview with Paul Frame on page 3.
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Veritas DGC Inc. has acquired Denver-based Reservoir Characterization
Research and Consulting, Inc. (RC2) for $33 million worth of Veritas stock. Robson Veritas Chairman Dave Robson commented, RC2's best-in-class
technology, talented people and worldwide experience are a great fit with our
integrated seismic data interpretation and analysis services. The acquisition
of Reservoir Characterization and Research will significantly enhance our capabilities
for specialized reservoir services that improve decision-making, optimize production
and reduce risk. Bashore Reservoir Characterization president William Bashore added
We will benefit from the complementary technologies and global reach Veritas
provides. Combined, our two organizations will offer the most complete line
of services available from any one company in the reservoir characterization
market, spanning well correlation, geological modeling, seismic inversion, reservoir
simulation, project development, petrophysics, AVO and visualization. RC2 acquired
fluid flow specialist Heinemann Oil Techology last year. More from www.veritasdgc.com.
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While attending the IAGC e-commerce in geophysics conference
in Houston this month (see report on pages 6 and 7) I am sure that I heard a
couple of speakers make what amounts to an e-biz Freudian slip. This involved
the classic illusion of new businesses, that of confusing turnover with profit.
I heard one speaker enthuse over the billions of dollars that were transiting
through the upstream Acquisitions and Divestiture (A&D) market, with the
distinct implication that a large proportion of this was to come the way of
the e-market. London Stock Exchange Well OK, no doubt some of it will, but how much? If x billion
dollars worth of business goes through a market, what is the profit made by
the marketplace? Well one rather famous marketplace, the London Stock Exchange
(LSE), was up for sale recently. Although the deal was not done it did expose
an estimate of the value of a marketplace. This was of the order of one billion
pounds sterling. A lot, but not an astronomical amount, much less than the billions
of dollars that energy e-biz is going to generate. 6.5 trillion! I got on the web and did some further digging, with interesting
results. The LSE made some 34 million profit on 175 million turnover last
year. But this of course is the turnover recorded in the LSEs books, what they
charge clients for their services. Some more digging revealed the turnover
of the LSE itself. This was a staggering 6.5 trillion in 2000. Now mapping
a stock market across to a vertical e-biz is far from a perfect fit. I would
have liked to do further research on cattle, or fruit and vegetable markets,
but will simply observe that the people running them dont look as though they
are in the billion dollar category! Salomon Smith Barney If we take the ratio of the LSEs overall turnover ( 6.5 trillion)
to marketplace profit ( 20 million) we have a rather sobering ratio of 1:325,000.
For fun, lets map that across to some E&P disposal market values. A survey
by Salomon Smith Barney last year put the upstream A&D market at $30-50
billion annually. Taking the upper figure, and applying the LSE ratio of market
value to marketplace profit this implies profits to all the market owners of
an under whelming $ 140,000. Wrong? One thing is of course wrong with this analysis. Most of the
profit made in share trades is not made by the marketplace, but by the market
makers - the brokerage houses. More surfing revealed that the overall commission
rate for UK equity business is 0.15%. This gives a marketplace turnover to market
maker turnover ratio of a more respectable 1:667. In other words, the E&P
A&D market makers turnover becomes $75 million. With a reasonable amount
of competition, well run businesses could be expected to translate this into
profits of the order of $10 million. Still rather a modest figure for the world-wide
A&D market. Baird Similar fundamentals have been behind the failure of many dot
coms recently. A propos of this, Schlumberger CEO Euan Baird comments As the
dot.com technology bubble fades it is becoming increasingly clear that the winners
in the Internet age will be companies with excellent products and market shares
in specific verticals who are able to aggressively enhance their business model
with these new technologies. Indeed, if you have a business like Schlumbergers
you should indeed be able to leverage it through the internet. But for the rest
of us, is the internet just a technological veneer around traditional activity?
Or are there still opportunities for quantum change and completely new businesses? Processive interpretation In my own modest contribution to the IAGC proceedings I argued
that there were indeed lots of such opportunities emerging. For geophysics,
many of these will apply to the frayed boundary between processing and interpretation.
I ventured that bandwidth could provide much greater integration between your
unstacked, off-site data and your interpretation workstation. That there was
a real opportunity here to provide a multitude of new services such as pre-stack
depth migration on demand, AVO, rapid access to partial gathers and management
of such complex datasets. All facilitating a move from interpretive processing
to processive interpretation. Cap Gemini Randy Alexander of Cap Gemini Ernst & Youngs analysis
of transaction types was interesting in this context. Most all of the portal,
procurement and marketplace type business falls into the low margin area of
e-commerce. It also requires multi-party agreement on the standards and protocols
to be used - which historically has proved hard to reach. On the other hand,
the high tech, bandwidth-enabled processes fall into the attractive high added
value category. But what is even better, you only need standards and protocols
agreement between the contractor and the client to get up and running. Could
the integration of high tech processing into the interpretation workflow be
the real low hanging fruits of geophysical e-business?
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PDM Seitel made $135 million in seismic data sales in 2000,
how did you get here? Frame We began building our non-exclusive seismic
library in 1982. Today this comprises over 1 petabyte of data. The 1999 book
value of the seismic library is $399 million. Much of this comes from the acquisition
of other oil company or seismic contractors' libraries. We have a reputation
for being very strong in sales, but I believe that our success comes equally
from our skills as buyers of seismic data. PDM Do you shoot seismics yourselves? Frame We do not shoot seismics, but we do employ seismic
contractors to acquire data for us. For instance we are currently the largest
acquirer of seismic data in Louisiana. PDM You have an exploration subsidiary DDD [an
allusion to 3D seismics]. How did you get into exploration? Frame In 1992, we saw an opportunity with the retreat
of the US majors from domestic exploration and formed DDD, our E&P operating
division, to selectively acquire such properties. The total value of such properties
has been estimated as $15 billion, so it is quite a business opportunity. DDD
also allows Seitel to leverage our seismic data library. PDM How about processing? Frame We do processing internally, for our own use.
We are currently reprocessing data for an upcoming exploration hotspot - Wyoming
- which has not seen any significant activity since the late '80s. PDM You dont see any conflict of interest between your
E&P activity and seismic sales? Frame This used to be an accusation leveled at Seitel,
but the reality is different. Exploration is fundamentally a land, not a data
play. PDM During Seitels lifetime, the industry has had a roller
coaster of a ride. What are your secrets for survival? Frame We have managed large data resources for the
last 20 years - seeing the business through four downturns. Our action in the
fall of 1997, when we counter cyclically stopped new acquisitions and retrenched,
meant that we emerged from the downturn in much better shape than others who
had carried with their investment programs. Today, Seitel, unlike some of its
competitors, is in good shape and ripe for expansion - which is why we are so
excited about Seitel Solutions (SS), our new data management unit. PDM You have made quite a few press releases about
the Solutions unit, what exactly are your plans for data management? Frame We know that the new world order is e-business
with some sort of a virtual data store, offering real-time access to massive
datasets - but we are not sure exactly what medium will be used, an electronic
marketplace, a portal or what? Both technology and business models are in their
infancy. Having said that, we believe that we understand the business fundamentals
better than any. SS is planned as a Virtual Data Store (VDS), with inter and
extranet capabilities. We have partnered with IBM to facilitate this technology
and have a valid business model and a real desire to succeed. We also have the
experience and people necessary to implement our plan. We will be demonstrating
the ultimate solution for archive retrieval within 6 months. The productized
VDS will offer web based GIS access to the Seitel libraries. PDM Do you eat your own dog food? Frame Seitel Data will be the Solutions units first
customer. SS will be a solution provider to over 20 of our clients who use our
facilities management, archives and database management. But yes, our own internal
usage of the system and technologies underpin the venture. Seitel is its own
best client, which assures a minimum usage pattern and mandates good technology. PDM What sets you out from your e-business competitors? Frame We are not just a web page! Our data management
experience, our relationship with IBM and Tivoli are helping us create a strong
intranet solution, which in 6 months will be going on the world wide web - but
when it does, it will not be hollow. PDM And what are the obstacles to achieving this? Frame The expense and time needed to take all our
data onto the web. We are talking to our major clients to try and establish
an equitable business model for the compression of physical data warehouses
to digital. This is a very comprehensive process involving bar coding of inventory,
imaging of tapes and post facto data management. Our software is configured
to an optimized workflow - we do not want to re-engineer our established processes.
We want to bring the exploration team into the modern world by acting as consultants,
change managers, software vendors - whatever it takes, all clients differ. In
10 years time everyone will be pulling data from virtual datastores onto the
Visionarium screen. PDM Isnt 10 years a long time frame? Frame Not really, the greatest error that the outside
world makes about oil and gas technology is in underestimating the time and
resources needed to accomplish major projects like this. We still deliver most
of our data in a cardboard box! It will take many years before we see the end
of the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouses! Especially since data volumes are
exploding to fill the space we gain by technological advances. The driver behind
the move to digital delivery is time and data completeness. Together these represent
opportunity for the oil and gas industry. Seitel knows this well, we collect
the thinking of some 60 major clients on E&P data management and over 700
companies have contributed their ideas.
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The Calgary-based The Public Petroleum Data Model (PPDM) Association
has released Version 3.5 of its petroleum data model. The major release adds
seven new modules to the business-driven petroleum data model and significant
enhancements to another eight. Spatial support The new model offers additions to technical data definitions,
release documentation and diagrams, support module reference guides, sample
data sets, data mappings and support for spatial enabling the data model. Improvements
in the land module facilitate administration and management of contractual agreements
which cover virtually every aspect of the oil and gas industry, from exploration
to production. Land New land coverage includes provisions, partnerships and interest
sets, obligations, accounting and operating procedures, spatial or aerial extent
and legal disputes. Principle subject areas have been added for stratigraphy
and for management of geologic data, information and interpretations.
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Knowledge Systems, Inc. (KSI) claims improved functionality
and increased user access for Version 8 of its Drillworks/Predict geopressure
analysis software. The new release of offers additional
hardwired shale index and volume methods, the Amoco overburden gradient method
and the Bowers sonic and interval velocity methods. Chevron Chevron has successfully used the new software, in conjunction
with a regional structural and stratigraphic interpretation model, to predict
pore pressure and fracture gradient for five frontier deepwater Gulf of Mexico
sub-salt prospects. Actual pressures fell within the most likely range for
4 of the 5 wells drilled. ASP The software is also now available over the internet on a pay
per use basis. More from www.knowsys.com.
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Palisade Corp. vendors of the popular Excel plug-in for risk
analysis has released a new version of its parallel computing infrastructure,
the @RISK Accelerator. The Accelerator splits up a simulation and shares it
out between available CPUs over a network. Each CPU completes its portion of
the simulation and sends the results back to be compiled. All this is transparent
to the user. The result is near linear increase in speed with each additional
CPU used. Macros @RISK Accelerator V.2 is intended for running large, complex
@RISK models for mission critical decision making, such as simulation of portfolios.
The latest version adds enhanced support for @RISK 4.0, custom macros and add-ins
in user models. The upgrade is free for current @RISK Accelerator 1.0 users.
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Announced last October (PDM Vol. 5 N 10), the first Biztech
for Energy standard for production data capture to ERP integration has at last
(at least partially) been released to the public. Elements of the spec are now
available on the www.biztech4energy.org
website, under the ratified specifications section. XDR What is on the web gives a glimpse of how the spec is developing
and of the underlying technology. This is XML, of course, but the data definition
is held in XML-Data Reduced (XDR) schemas. These define the individual elements,
attributes, and relations used in the XML structure. This is a decidedly Microsoft-esque
flavor of XML, and we were intrigued that this was adopted by an organization
that included Oracle. Or perhaps not. Oracle is no longer listed as a member
of B4E, so the world order is not troubled!
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At the London meet, Seb Lessware of UK-based Laser-Scan described
the Open GIS Consortium's Interoperability 2000 project designed to provide
interoperability between Geographical Information Systems and map data servers.
The Mapping Testbed project provides XML-based standards for map servers, feature
servers and specifies standard query language (also in XML) for performing complex
GIS queries such as find all the oilifields within 2miles of this pipleline.
The project uses a new markup language - Geography ML. Bobbit John Bobbit introduced two new XML data specifications. In addition
to the two well log standards announced last year (WellLogML for data and LogGraphicsML
for plots) the new specifications cover geophysics and E&P databases. The
new geophysical modeling language is designed to provide portability of SEG-Y
seismic data by mapping the SEG-Y header information into XML. The self describing
nature of XML and the file portability should help processing centers and seismic
data librarians manage the plethora of antique and varied 'flavors' of the format.
The specification is intended for the header information, and will not affect
the binary header or trace data. PEF XML Another new XML initiative is PEF XML. The POSC Exchange Format
is a specification for migrating E&P databases. The move to XML will bring
this technology into the web-age. More from www.posc.org.
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Oracle 8i and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Integration provides
a timely snapshot of real-world IT. The book covers topics from the integration
of the title, to web data access, security and the role of XML. The book sets
out to provide the lowdown on how the competing databases work. Replication The importance of tools such as SQL Server DTS, Oracle Migration
Workbench, Universal Data Access, replication and Microsoft BizTalk server are
clearly explained. The book is refreshingly free of the abstraction and obfuscation
that many authors use to cover their lack of hands-on experience. Chapters on
data storage, optimization, networking, migration and internet integration make
this book a great overview of the subject - ideal for the manager in a hurry
who wants to see what can (and should) be done to get maximum benefit from modern
databases and infrastructure. Practitioners will still have to RTFM, but this
book will help them decide which of the myriad of volumes on their shelves to
consult. Web The chapter on web tools and solutions offers tips for mobile
computing, and building Enterprise Information Systems with tools like Microsofts
Digital Dashboard or Oracle Portal. Finally, a chapter looks at the future and
offers an enlightening discussion of the commercial battle being waged between
the IT behemoths. Merak The new book from Stephen Chelack is in no way specific to upstream
IT. But Chelacks experience as Senior Database Architect with Merak has given
him extensive experience of both Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. Chelack told
PDM We've used many of the migration techniques in the book not only in development
but also in QA and support. Buy now! All in all, this book is a great overview of today's heterogeneous
IT systems and is full of useful ideas for tying things together. Essential
reading - buy it today! Oracle 8i and Microsoft SQL Server Integration
by Stephen Chelack. M&T Books 2001. ISBN 0-7645-4699-6.
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Norsk Hydro is to establish Norsk Hydro Technology Venture (NTV),
a venture capital fund which will invest in energy sector R&D projects implemented
outside of the company's own operations. The fund has been allocated with 350
million NOK (about $ 40 million) for its first four years. Rostrup The fund will inject capital into companies developing projects
which are of importance for Hydro such as oil exploration and recovery. A prerequisite
of investment is that the fund achieves a rate of return on a par with that
stipulated for Hydro's other businesses. Jrgen Rostrup, currently financial
director for Hydro's oil operations in Norway, has been appointed head of NTV.
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The International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC)
and the International Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) co-hosted a one-day
conference on e-commerce in geophysics in Houston this month. Some 200 delegates
showed up to hear McKinseys Roger Roberts give a downbeat keynote speech, with
warnings of serious underperformance in the world of e-commerce at large. As
of March 2000, some six hundred B2C sites were funded. Today, only three are
profitable. B2B is picking up slack with tremendous enthusiasm to drive change
across the industry. Inflated But these also have had inflated revenue projections with 70-100%
annual growth forecasts bringing in tens of billions of funding and talent.
The real numbers have proved a fraction of the forecasts. In 1999, despite some
$12 billion invested in B2B, a meager $300 million in revenues was actually
generated. For Roberts, the near term story is incoherent, many early ventures
are morphing their business models to focus, for instance, on application
function provision over the web. Others have moved into hosting private marketplaces
for large players like Ford and BHP Steel. But the graveyard is beginning to
fill, with over 100 companies folding in the last few months, and there are
more to come! Roberts still believes that the blend of old economy values with
the speed of the new can create significant business value. He concluded with
a great quote from none other than Bill Gates The impact of new technologies
is always overestimated in the first year and underestimated in the 10 years
that it takes for them to take effect. Magyar IndigoPool president Dan Magyar was more enthusiastic. He believes
that it is still early days, and that now we are starting to see the value.
To support this he offered some numbers from a recent survey by Salomon Smith
Barney. The acquisitions and disposals market place is estimated at $30-50 billion
annually, Authorizations for Expenditure at $85 billion, and the MRO procurement
marketplace is composed of $65 billion E&P-specific expenditure and another
$20 billion generic. But some e-commerce companies have had a rough ride. From
April-September 2000 ten companies have been 'removed' from the list of active
traders - either by liquidation, or through lack of credibility. Virtual Prospect One success story, for Schlumberger, is a private marketplace
developed for BP. Virtual Prospect (VP) provides electronic access to resources
that allow third parties to evaluate some of BPs undeveloped exploration opportunities.
This allows BP to concentrate its limited resources on high value opportunities.
A VP pilot has been running since November 2000. There will be more on Virtual
Prospect in next months PDM. For Magyar, e-commerce is a great enabler, the
business model is evolving and sharing of benefits is as yet unresolved. But
the geophysical industry is poised to benefit from the new technologies and
businesses. A question from the floor raised the issue of intellectual property
rights. Magyar agreed that spec survey licensing was a critical issue which
has a technological solution - data can be viewed without being retrieved and
stolen! [Comment - so there is no seismic Napster... yet!] Trade Ranger Trade Ranger (TR), according to CEO Allen May, is developing
e-catalogues and standards for upstream transactions. While it is still early
days and no one is making any money, standards are emerging from companies
like i2, Requisite technologies, Intermart. ExxonMobil is very pro-active.
May advocates inter-hub standards We need to get agreement between TR, OFS
Portal and PetroCosm. Cap Gemini Randy Alexander described how Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has
re-organized a major geophysical companys business. E-procurement was introduced
and claimed to be highly successful and with major long-term impact on the companys
business. 10-20% discounts were obtained from suppliers through better control
of the buying process. A word of warning though, in general less than 20% of
implementations bring the hoped-for gains. Do not expect a reduction in head
count as a result of e-procurement, which involves reengineering the buying
process. Alexander offered an insightful analysis of purchasing categories.
These can be organized into a matrix of high and low cost against high and low
operational value. Low cost items are all amenable for e-procurement. High cost
low value items will likely merit a change of purchasing strategy, while high
costs high value items will probably always need a non-e treatment. Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs director Eric Mullins described the future for
oil and gas B2B players, as as clear as mud. There is potential for growth,
but M&A (which Mullins defines as including bankruptcies!) will continue.
Online divestiture process will increase as digital data management pervades
the industry. Mullins seven rules for successful B2B e-commerce success are;
be the first mover and shaker, have operational and financial scale, be user-centric,
grow organically, have multi-market applicability, go for profitability and
finally, have scalable management teams. Remember If at first you don't
succeed, you're outta here! BP Digital Business Steve Peacock, BPs head of digital business believes that geophysics
will benefit from a connected e-world. Geophysics is global, data and information
intensive and boasts a variety of business relationships. It is also already
extensively interconnected and the supply chain is ripe for integration. BP
has integrated e-business and Information Technology into the new Digital Business
unit. BP is an aggressive experimenter and early adopter. Peacock entreats
us to Think big, start small, scale up quickly and re-invent business models
and processes. More e-ntreaties; go for smart standardization, show me the
money and burn the boats la Cortez! Killer e-biz Killer applications of digital business will include live data
coming back from facilities and seismic while drilling. 4D surveys may be generated
quarterly from permanent oilfield sensors. BP is thinking laterally and has
become a service provider - offering excess bandwidth capacity in the North
Sea to other operators and telephone operators in Norway and the UK. Another
venture offers excess capacity on BP copter flights in the North Sea - using
web-enabled logistics. Peacock believes that If you are not doing digital business
- soon you won't be doing business. Infosec John Coghlan of Schlumberger Infosec provided some words of
caution as to the security of the public internet. Coghlan advocates a Virtual
Private Network (VPN) to assure secure access and authentication over the intranet
from anywhere in the world. The solution is productized by Schlumberger as Smart
Corp - employee badges and SmartCard for computer resource access control. GeoNet GeoNet Services Randy Premont offered a sideways look at bandwidth
pricing and announced the (fictitious) First Annual Bitster Awards - for bandwidth
in Houston. Awards were made in three categories: Houston metro area network,
wireless broadband and international. Phonoscope took the metro area prize with
its fiber optic network - a work of art according to Premont. Advanced Radio
Telecom took the wireless prize, and Qwest the international award. GigaBit Typical costs today are $8,000 per month for 1Gbit bandwidth
in Houston and $13,500 per month for 45 Mbit international (to Europe). Bandwidth
is growing and 2.5 Gbit is standard today with terabit links in the foreseeable
future. Uses of such bandwidth include processing - where Tadpole is already
selling CPU cycles over the net. A GeoNet survey shows take-up of e-business
in the upstream to be slower than anticipated. One uncertainty is bandwidth
resonance whereby demand grows to choke supply - as on Houston's road system!
But some companies are doing it right, - like Global Crossing which has grown
from nothing to a $4 billion revenue company, as big as the whole geophysics
industry, since it started out only three years ago. Data Management PDM editor Neil McNaughton believes that effective e-business
is predicated on interoperable systems. But, despite the evolution of upstream
information technologies from stand alone applications through a variety of
federating technologies interoperability has proved illusive. Most of the industry
initiatives aimed at providing silver bullet solutions so far failed. Lightweight Today, the desire to have corporate wide access to information
systems is bringing new lightweight interoperability paradigms. These should
offer interesting e-business opportunities as components of geophysical workflow
can be isolated and handled off-site. Such components include pre-stack depth
migration, AVO and other processes implicating un-stacked or partially stacked
data. Compute-intensive Using e-business, compute-intensive tasks can integrate the
corporate workflow in an external service provision mode. Many other aspects
of the workflow from data loading to inventory and document management are amenable
to e-enabled solutions. Some of these need not deploy sophisticated technology.
Email and FTP are just as efficient tools for e-business as the hubs and portals
of e-commerce. E-business between a geophysical contractor and client should
be easier to achieve, since agreement on systems and data standards needs only
to be achieved between two parties. The hubs require many to many agreement
on standards and work processes - a tougher nut to crack in the commercial world.
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Merak originally partnered with John Howells Portfolio Decisions
Inc. (PDI) last year (see PDM Vol. 5 N 4). The agreement called for the incorporation
of PDIs portfolio management concepts into Meraks Capital Planning software.
The development is now completed, and Capital Planning now includes some of
the functionality of the PDI Perspectives portfolio management application.
The combination of these products brings Merak's software development and PDI's
portfolio processes together to help companies analyze portfolio and risk optimization. Howell PDI founder John Howell said, The initial release will add
Perspectives functionality to manage business performance and to identify projects
that are strategic to the corporate strategy. The release incorporates analytic
methods and enhanced graphic capabilities for more effective data analysis in
Capital Planning. Clients will immediately be able to assess their business
plans relative to their strategy and define alternative investment scenarios
to balance their business performance. The first release of this combined product
will be shortly. Roadshow Concomitant with the rollout, Merak are embarking on a Capital
Planning road show - kicking off in Calgary. More on other show locations from
www.merak.com.
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Core Laboratories has acquired all of the outstanding shares
of Houston-based Core Petrophysics, Inc. (CPI). The transaction was a share-for-share
exchange, no other terms were released. CPI, which had 1999 revenues of approximately
$5,000,000, is a technology leader in the petrophysical characterization of
partially consolidated and unconsolidated reservoirs, which make up the majority
of deepwater fields around the world. Deepwater The addition of CPI proprietary technologies and deepwater wellsite
expertise will strengthen CoreLabs position in deepwater reservoir characterization.
CoreLab is currently working on deepwater reservoir description and production
enhancement projects in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Brazil and offshore West
Africa. Multi-client The multiclient Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Reservoir Study now
contains over 150 wells with 34 participating companies. With the addition of
CPI geologists, Core expects to continue to expand the Deepwater Study.
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Oilfield Systems is to include the POSC well log data standard
WellLogML into its E&P data exchange middleware, DAEX. Chart Nick Chart, Oilfield Systems' head of operations explained XML
is a formal, text-based format for describing data and documents. DAEX uses
XML for data transport through our link. Oilfield Systems is participating in
industry initiatives to define a set of standard XML representations of E&P
data types. We contributed to the definition of WellLogML and now provide DAEX
components both to read and write the format. We can now, for instance, load
WellLogML into OpenWorks, GeoFrame, Recall, Geolog and various proprietary databases
or produce it from these sources. Component Chart continued, DAEX is a total data movement solution. Traditional
approaches burden the user with the responsibility of tracking exchange files
and manually exporting and importing them. Also, the exported data file often
has to be edited to conform to the expectations of the receiving program. DAEX
automates the whole transfer process, relieving the user of this burden and
removing possible sources of error. More from www.oilfield-systems.com.
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The latest version of Schlumbergers IndigoPool e-marketplace
introduces a new application framework, and enhancements to security, data purchase
and entitlements management. Stellas IndigoPool operations manager Demetrios Stellas said In the
past 12 months, weve been chosen by more companies and governments to showcase
their global assets and data than all other upstream marketplace sites combined.
Today over 5,700 users and 546 companies, representing 105 countries, have posted
assets with a total value surpassing $4 billion on IndigoPool. Gremillet Spanish Repsol YPF is IndigPools latest major client. Repsol
is selling its Azerbaijani exploration assets and farming out acreage in Kazakhstan.
Repsol e-business director Bernard Gremillet said IndigoPool is key to our
e-Business strategy and will help accelerate the way we do business by making
our assets immediately visible to a global audience. We had a request for a
Data Book after only one week on the Web site.
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John Ashbridge is moving from Granite Rock to take up the position
of director of business development at Foster Findlay Associates. Susan
Findlay is moving to a technology transfer role which will see FFA bringing
more medical imaging technology to the oil & gas business. Urquidi Seitel has named Manuel Urquidi
as senior VP of international operations. Urquidi was previously chairman of
oilfield equipment co H.P.M. Harrison Gerry Harrison has moved from his position as Chairman of Aker
Geo, to join CGG as Executive VP of its Offshore Seismic Business Unit.
Harrison was previously chairman of Horizon, Eagle Offshore. Pettenati-Auzire Harrison replaces Christophe Pettenati-Auzire who is to become
Senior Executive VP of Strategy, Control and Corporate Planning, including Corporate
Marketing and Investor Relations. Auzire began his career with Schlumberger
and spent fourteen years with Coflexip before joining CGG in 1996. Czajkowski Charles Czajkowski has been appointed general manager of the
newly formed UK unit of Magic Earth. Czajkowski was previously with Arco,
Western Geophysical, Seiscom Delta and Landmark.
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Field engineers and geologists may be interested in a new positioning
device from Positioning Resources Ltd. PocketGIS can be used to control a camera
for geo-referenced photography, to sketch outcrops or to capture spatially referenced
scientific data capture. Windows CE PocketGIS software is an innovative, affordable and user-friendly
GIS product for seamless field data capture. Written for Windows CE, users have
the choice of a variety of handhelds. The ruggedized Husky FEX21 and Fujitsu
Pencentra 130 / 200 models are recommended for field use. PocketGIS works on
any Windows CE, PocketPC or compatible device. More from www.posres.co.uk
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Eye for Energy is holding a big e-commerce conference in Amsterdam
on the 26th and 27th March 2001. Focus is downstream procurement, supply chain
and CRM. But papers on Intranets, portals and bandwidth will interest the IT
generalist. Keynote Keynote speakers hail from TotalFinaElf, Amerada Hess and the
International Petroleum Exchange. More from www.eyeforenergy.com.
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A survey on the Shell Services International website set out
to test online buyer sentiment. The question asked was Does purchasing goods
and services on-line save you time and money? No! A surprisingly large majority (82%) of the 502 visitors that
voted, did not agree with the premise. If you are an e-purchaser, you can cast
your own vote on www.shellservices.com.
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Version 8.1 of CGGs GeovecteurPlus contains new interactive
and batch applications and major upgrades to existing code. The Seismic Data
Server allows users to access seismic data by line name, swath number or sail
line. A new interactive velocity picking tool GeoVel allows processors to stack
data on the fly. 4D Pick The new 4th Dimension Picking Station aids in event
location with a search algorithm incorporating an extra parameter such as offset,
or velocity. Batch Twenty five new batch processing modules and upgrades bring
new functionality to filtering, attenuation, restoration, deabsorption and deconvolution.
Near-surface and elastic modeling, pre-stack time and depth migration and attribute
analysis (including anisotropy) are also featured in the new software. QC A new processing module Lemur attenuates groundroll, based
on a least-squares method and removes linear noise while preserving amplitude.
The module is efficient on both dispersed and non-dispersed noise. Lemur can
be applied on linear or cross-spread gathers. More from www.cgg.com.
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The Autodesk GIS Design Server (AGDS) is described as the cornerstone
of the company's vision and strategy for bringing an end-to-end GIS solution
to energy and utility companies. AGDS will provide tight, flexible integration
between Autodesk's GIS products and a proven enterprise GIS server. Autodesk
GIS Design Server is based on the VISION technology acquired by Autodesk in
1999. The server seamlessly and quickly delivers location-based data to the
user's desktop, via the Web and in the field. The server works in concert with
the design and mapping capabilities of AutoCAD Map software, and the Web and
mobile features of Autodesk MapGuide OnSite. Oracle 8i Based on an Oracle8i database, the integrated solution is said
to elevate GIS into a mainstream business support system. The server scales
to thousands of operational users regardless of application type. Tight technical
integration enables information to freely flow from an Oracle data warehouse
to the server and onto mapping and engineering desktops. ERP The server uses standard open communications protocols, scales
across multiple networks and applications and integrates enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems. Thousands of concurrent users can access and edit maps
instantly. More from www.autodesk.com.
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The North American division of GeoQuest has chosen Holland &
Davis Inc. (HDI) to provide organizational alignment services for the implementations
of GeoQuest's US E&P data and information management solutions. HDI is a
Houston-based management consulting company. Founded in the 1970s, HDIs first
client was NASA. HDI provides strategy development and implementation (including
e-strategies), operational improvement, organizational performance management,
training, development, and project management. Gutman Geoquest VP for US operations, Larry Gutman said Our goal in
any implementation is for our clients to get the full business value from their
investment in GeoQuest's solutions. There are many important elements of a successful
implementation beyond getting the technology itself up and running. People using
new software need appropriate training, but there's a bigger picture to consider.
New technology frequently functions differently, making things possible that
were not possible before, enabling people to work more productively and to add
more value. HDIs organizational skills will help our clients realize this value. Nash Bill Nash, HDI president added Over the years, we've seen
companies underestimate or minimize their efforts in this area. We look forward
to working with GeoQuest's technical team and clients to help them gain full
benefit from their investments. More from www.hdinc.com.
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Schlumberger Income from continuing operations of $735 million and diluted
earnings per share of $1.27 were 61% and 57% higher than 1999 (before last years
unusual items). Chairman and CEO Euan Baird, citing a 73% increase in pretax
operating, anticipates that total activity in 2001 is expected to be well above
2000 levels as oil companies move more aggressively to explore for and to develop
new fields and to optimize older fields. Baird considers Schlumbergers domain
experience in leveraging Internet technologies sets it out from the crowd. Bubble As the dot.com technology bubble fades it is becoming increasingly
clear that the winners in the Internet age will be companies with excellent
products and market shares in specific verticals who are able to aggressively
enhance their business model with these new technologies. Paradigm Paradigm forecasts significant growth for 2001 with total revenues
targeted to reach $80 million compared to a reported $63 million for 2000. A
continued 50% growth in service revenues is also anticipated. Paradigm chairman
Eldad Weiss said, We plan to expand our seismic data processing capacity and
also to extend our service offering to reservoir studies. We will also offer
advanced production oriented seismic analysis - 4D and 4C, and additional leading-edge
technologies such as full wave 3D prestack depth migration. Weiss also indicated
that Paradigm was planning further acquisitions in 2001, with a focus on petroleum
engineering. PGS The picture from PGS is less rosy, with weaker than expected
results for fourth quarter 2000. PGS report that oil company spending on marine
seismics has yet to fully recover. Seismic data library sales are expected to
remain relatively flat and fourth quarter earnings will be significantly lower
than current estimates. Michaelsen Chairman Reidar Michaelsen said, We are clearly disappointed
that the poor market conditions which have prevailed for the past two years
have prevented us from achieving full utilization and adequate returns on our
assets. However, we have observed a gradual increase in business activity and
expect the overall geophysical market to continue its recovery as we move into
2001. The Company has now sold its interest in Spinnaker Exploration and its
data management business and, further, intends to sell or otherwise realize
value from other non-core assets during 2001. The sale of these investments
in recent weeks has improved the Company's liquidity position and allowed it
to reduce outstanding debt. We remain committed to the sale of the remaining
non-core assets which should allow for further debt reduction in 2001. Stop press!! PGS president Bjarte Bruheim
resigned effective 7 February 2001.
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Fremont, CA-based Magnetic Pulse Inc. has released new full
waveform sonic processing software XACTware. Using patented acoustic signal
processing technology, the multiple tool is said to deliver unprecedented accuracy
and speed. XACTware is logging tool independent and produces accurate results
from all of the currently available full wave sonic or acoustic tools. Phase XACTware computes phase distribution for each receiver and compares
matching signals from receiver to receiver within the specified time range.
Neither amplitude or frequency variations among receivers impact the accuracy
of the results. Comprehensive quality control features allow the user to quickly
identify problematic intervals in the logs and cross check each against the
recorded raw data for veracity. XACTware is available for Win95/98/2000/NT Desktops
and Laptops for on-site processing. Pulse MPI was founded in 1985 to commercialize pulsed technology
originally developed for military applications. This work led to the development
of the XHR pulsed induction tool - which uses 10 million watt pulses. More from
www.magneticpulse.com.
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Veritas DGC and WesternGeco have signed an agreement with IndigoPool
on new technology for geophysical e-business. The companies will co-develop
standards and new technology to publish, market and license multi-client seismic
data on line. Multi-client Veritas and WesternGeco own and market multi-client seismic
libraries totaling over 3 million linear kilometers of 2D data and 540,000 square
kilometers of 3D data. The combined libraries cover virtually every important
oil and gas-producing basin in the world. Under the agreement, the companies
will publish their respective data libraries on the IndigoPool Web site. Seismic Storefront The technology developed by the venture will be available to
all owners of seismic data through IndigoPool. Using this new technology, sellers
will be able to create and manage a private Seismic Storefront within the
IndigoPool e-marketplace, from where they can reach a global pool of buyers,
exchange highly technical information with their clients, and conduct secure
business transactions online. The Seismic Storefront will be accessible on the
IndigoPool Web site or directly through the sellers own Web site. Woodruff Varitas e-business director Randy Woodruff said Adopting technology
that makes it easier for customers to do business with us in an e-commerce setting
has been our goal in this collaboration with IndigoPool. Magyar IndigoPool president Dan Magyar added We are pleased to join
with the leaders of the geophysical industry to create true e-commerce technology
for the benefit of the global multi-client seismic business. IndigoPool is already
the premier site for global oil and gas properties and exploration acreage,
with more than $3 billion in current listings. With this new venture, we combine
the oil and gas properties business with the seismic data business in a single,
powerful e-marketplace.
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Veritas expansion (January 2001)
Veritas has acquired Reservoir Characterization Research and Consulting Inc. for $33 million of its own stock.
Whats a market worth? (January 2001)
With dot com failures and cold water poured on energy e-biz financial forecasts, PDM editor Neil McNaughton wonders just how much a market is worth. The answer seems to be not a lot but other business models for upstream e-business look more promising. Could it be that we have been missing some real opportunities for geophysical e-business?
PDM Interview Paul Frame, CEO Seitel (January 2001)
PDM talked to Seitel CEO and Team Ferrari racer Paul Frame about the new Seitel Solutions technology and business.
PPDM V 3.5 (January 2001)
A major release of the Public Petroleum Data Model is claimed to facilitate GIS linkage.
Predict V8.0 (January 2001)
Version 8 of Knowledge Systems geopressure analysis software boasts new features and an ASP offering.
@Risk faster now (January 2001)
A new version of @Risks Accelerator adds macro support and enhanced parallel processing capacity on unused LAN CPU cycles.
Biztech standards emerge (January 2001)
New standards for production to ERP integration are now available on the Biztech for Energy public website. They are based on Microsofts XDR data extension to XML.
POSC XML Roadshow (January 2001)
POSC has been spreading the e-commerce word at meetings in Stavanger, Houston and London. Highlights include two new XML based initiatives for SEG-Y and the POSC Exchange Format (PEF).
PDM Book Review - Oracle and SQL Server Integration (January 2001)
The new book by Merak database guru Stephen Chelack provides an excellent overview of modern database technologies and integration.
Hydro research fund (January 2001)
Norsk Hydro is setting up a 350 million NOK venture capital fund for energy sector R&D.
IAGC E-Commerce in Geophysics (January 2001)
Described as a roadmap for the future, the International Geophysical Contractors Associations conference on e-commerce in geophysics was well attended with over 200 delegates. But the climate has changed since we reported on the POSC e-business show last November. Reality, in the form of under-performing dot coms and evolving business models has replaced HypeML. The impact of this on the geophysical industry is far from clear.
Portfolio management for Merak (January 2001)
Merak has completed the integration of PDIs portfolio management concepts into its Capital Planning suite.
Corelab buys Core Petrophysics (January 2001)
Core Laboratories has completed its acquisition of unconsolidated reservoir specialist Core Petrophysics.
DAEX adopts XML (January 2001)
DAEX can now trade data with systems using POSCs WellLogML exchange format.
New fish in the Pool (January 2001)
Schlumbergers IndigoPool claims more online assets than all other upstream markets. Latest customer is Repsol YPF.
People (January 2001)
This month sees moves to Foster Findlay, Seitel, CGG and Magic Earth.
Pocket GIS (January 2001)
New software provides mobile map integration and data capture for fieldworkers.
Eye for Energy Europe (January 2001)
E-Business conference to be held in Amsterdam, 26-28th March 2001
Shell e-buyers disappointed (January 2001)
An online survey by Shell Services suggests that e-commerce clients are not impressed.
Geovecteur Plus V8.1 (January 2001)
CGG has released a new version of its seismic processing package GeovecteurPlus.
Autodesk GIS Design Server (January 2001)
Autodesk has announced the GIS Design Server - for storage and management of map data. The new map server supports thousands of distributed users from an Oracle 8i database.
Holland & Davis to help GeoQuest clients (January 2001)
GeoQuests North American clients will now have access to implementation and change management consulting services from Holland & Davis.
Company Financials (January 2001)
End year results from Schlumberger, Paradigm and PGS show contrasting fortunes for the service sector.
Full wave acoustics (January 2001)
Magnetic Pulse Inc. has developed new patented signal processing software for full waveform sonic log processing.
Seismic Storefront (January 2001)
WesternGeco and Veritas are cooperating on the development of seismic e-commerce standards and technology for use on the Schlumberger portal IndigoPool. The Seismic Storefront will be open to all IndigoPool customers.
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