New software from Landmark Graphics, scheduled for release towards the end of the year will facilitate decision support for upstream asset teams. The web based software will share interpretation results between workers, adding an economic dimension to Landmark’s earth model. Decision Space (DS) will integrate technical and business tools in a “virtual desktop.” Browser-based and ASP- ready, DS will support and enable the industry move towards e-business.
Gibson
Landmark CEO John Gibson told PDM “Historically, applications have been developed in a domain-specific manner by entrepreneurs with a passion for their subject. Today, requirements are different, software needs to be multi-domain and to serve multi-discipline teams. We need to eliminate the barriers between disciplines and focus on the work process as a whole. The key to this is decision support. But Decision Space is more than just a new product for Landmark. We have literally re-engineered the whole company around this need for multi-disciplined software and decision support.”
Up and running
The first release of DecisionSpace is already up and running in key customer environments on a developmental basis. This release, based on the Windows NT platform, focuses on delivering value to asset teams who deal with the delineation and development phase of the oilfield life cycle. Key features of the first release include the solution’s ASP-ready, Web-based approach to the workspace using the DecisionDesktop common interface and the integration with Landmark’s Uncertainty Collator.
Tightly coupled
Business and financial processes are tightly coupled with information and knowledge resources in the new virtual workspace. The new tool reflects Landmark’s long march from vertical geotechnical supplier to a new paradigm of technical-to-business integration (T2B). The addition of an e-commerce component has allowed the Landmark marketeers a new flight of fancy - DecisionSpace is to raise T2B to the power of ‘e’.
Norsk Hydro E&P has selected GeoQuest as its world-wide integration platform. IT manager Trond Hanesand said “This represents an opportunity to upgrade our technology and provide a more integrated workflow.” Speaking at the GeoQuest forum earlier this year, Hanesand revealed that Norwegian companies spend twice as much on IT as others, and outlined Hydro’s plans to for a 40% reduction in IT costs and major software rationalization.
Shake-out
The shake out has now taken place and Hydro is rebuilding its IT from ground up with GeoQuest tools. Finder is to be the corporate data store (PetroBank is maintained for seismics) and GeoFrame will support applications from GeoQuest and third parties. New GeoQuest software announced in the deal includes StratLog, WellPix and GeoViz 3D. The software replaces PGS’ Tigress reservoir suite.
20TB
GeoQuest will generate new project databases for some 20TB of shared project data resulting from the merger of Hydro and Saga Petroleum earlier this year. Third party software retained after rationalization includes FAPS, IRAP, GeoDepth, VoxelGeo and IRMS.
Many moons ago, when I was actually a software buyer, rather than a scribe, I saw a demonstration of some intriguing software. If my memory serves me well (unlikely) I think the company was Landmark, and I think the product was called Smart Windows. Just to situate how long ago this was, I propose we map the 50 years or so of Information Technology’s history to the 4,000 million of the Phanerozoic time scale.
Palaeozoic
This puts the late ’80’s back in the Paleozoic of the information age. These were interesting times; there was the advent of graphical computing and the emergence of “open standards” which would shortly lead to the demise of the platform of choice of the time, Digital Equipment’s VAX. At the dawn of the IT Cambrian, the open standards movement came up with its first real success story, X-Windows, the graphical API of the Unix world.
Too smart?
The Smart Windows product allowed individual X-Windows to share data and events in real time. Changing a parameter in one window made computations in another window - such as a log cross plot - change simultaneously. What intrigued me about the software was that it was too smart! Heck this functionality went way beyond the world of E&P computing and had potential applications wherever X-Windows was used. It was in short horizontal, not vertical software.
Horizontal
But what does a vertical developer do when it stumbles of some key horizontal software? Suddenly the potential market is no longer E&P, but the IT world at large. Chasing the new market would involve quite a shift in corporate focus, and of course require in-depth analysis of the potential new market. I guess that Smart Windows did not pass muster as a world-beating idea. I imagine that such functionality is now given away free with the X-Windows API. And that Landmark (if indeed it was them) continued to focus on its core, vertical sector.
Going horizontal
But another company has reacted differently to similar circumstances. Back around the IT cretaceous period, Prism Technologies were developers of Business Objects for the E&P gentry. But in the middle of the tertiary, PrismTech faced a horizontal/vertical turning point. To support E&P business objects, PrismTech had to develop a lot of horizontal infrastructure. In the end it was this stuff that PrismTech pursued - in a multi-million dollar deal with Inprise (ex-Borland). PrismTech have gone horizontal, and Open Spirit is now reborn as an independent Corporation (see page 4 of this issue).
Frayed boundary
On close inspection, the fine line between horizontal and vertical software becomes a frayed boundary. All software uses other tools - widgets, operating system functionalities, and shell scripting glue to keep the ship afloat. Nowhere is this more evident than in internet portal development. I would encourage you to refer to our coverage of the First Conferences Internet Portal Strategy conference on pages 6&7 of this issue. I personally was fascinated by the interplay of horizontal web technologies and vertical bespoke development that emerged from the presentations. As organizations dash to deploy information portals the question arises - do we develop our own from the ground up or do we use some horizontal tools to jump start development.
Apache
The second great success of the open software movement is the Apache web server. All you need to get your portal up and running is an Apache server and some “commodity” (the ultimate accolade for horizontal software) tools for web page development. Front Page, Navigator are all your users need to know to do useful work. Commodity internet hardware provides hitherto elusive scalability. So while the vertical vendors bang on about the knowledge management revolution, really it is already here thanks to these powerful tools.
Cost benefit
Which leads me to another aspect of the horizontal vertical divide. Just as commodity hardware benefits from the economies of scale that bring you supercomputer graphics performance from your Playstation II, commodity software is cheap AND powerful. Or rather it should be. Not all of it is. Occupying the IT space right alongside the portal, and in some instances, actually owning it, the newly re-invented document management vendors manage to provide commodity-type services at a very high price tag. Is this sustainable?
What’s Next?
You may have noticed that my geological time scale analogy failed me as I approach the present and begin to speculating about the future. Which led me to wonder - when does the Quaternary actually end? What comes next? Do we go on for ever living in the last millisecond of the Pleistocene?
The organization formerly known as COM for Energy held its second annual membership meeting in Microsoft’s Houston offices last month. Around 50 showed up for the BizTech For Energy Foundation (B4E) meeting whose theme was "e-standards Powering e-business.”
Abusalbi
President Najib Abusalbi (GeoQuest) claims that B4E is a “vibrantly active community, which has produced tangible results and which has even more substantial, near term plans that will create value for the energy industry.” Four working groups have been operating at different pressure points along the business to technical frontier. The original proof of concept work, concerns the integration of well planning and ERP (see PDM Vol. 4 N° 8).
Owner operator
Work on production data to ERP integration has resulted in the first official B4E standard (see sidebar). Adrian Gottschalk, from PricewaterhouseCoopers gave an update on work in progress on interest owner/operator financial information exchange. Some concern exists here about re-inventing the e-wheel—since PIDEX has already published an AFE spec. Another development area is the linkage between land, division order and ERP, this work is headed up by Girish Bora of Tobin.
Q&A
In a question and answer session IndigoPool president, Satish Pai warned that “IndigoPool will go forward with or without agreement by consensus.” But Pai does see a future for collaborative standards for meta data. A similar caveat came from Ray Cline, CTO of SAIC’s Grand Basin co-venture with Landmark. Cline opined “Our focus is on Landmark products and databases, leveraging data warehousing approaches.”
Community
B4E membership fees are on a sliding scale according to company revenues—from $2,500 to $25,000 per year. This gives access to the specifications. B4E has now set up shop on the Microsoft Net communities site supporting collaborative work and a chat room. Currently, community membership is restricted, but you can apply on http://communities.msn.com/biztechforenergy.
~
PDM comment—the puzzling thing about B4E is how the standards
are to be deployed. Our current understanding is that although B4E has “announced,”
a standard, this does not mean it is released to the public domain. One suspects
a little reticence on the part of the fee paying members to hand over the fruits
of their labors!
The B4E “standard” is not so much code as a set of transaction
definitions and the contents of those transactions. B4E is attempting to define
a series of transactions that would provide a “common” format for moving data
generated on the technical side of E&P over to the business side. Right
now there is a disconnect between those two business functional units and data
from technical applications has to be transcribed into the on the business packages.
This leads to duplication of effort and inefficiencies in operation, not to
mention a lack of responsiveness to requests for data on which business decisions
are made. B4E is currently faced with the daunting task of comprehending a confusing
array of interface requirements. If we can set a standard for moving that data between the two
broad functional business units, then our respective organizations can write
to one transaction format with some assurance that that data can then be moved
between these two suites of applications. This of course will reduce our respective
development cost and time to market with these interfaces. So, though code will
be generated on both the sending side and the receiving side, we are not specifying
(or providing) the actually implementation code, but rather the format that
resulting data should be written or read in.
As forecast by PDM, the first technical-to-business integration
standard is no longer COM-based, but instead consists of “a set of XML schema
and DTDs integrating production field data capture and Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) such as SAP R/3.” SAP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Landmark Graphics, and
TietoEnator defined and submitted the integration objects to BizTech 4 Energy
in May. GeoQuest also participated in a review of the defined schema and supported
the submission, now ratified by BizTech for Energy (B4E) as a supported standard. Breuker Jens Breuker, SAP’s oil and gas industry manager said “Integrating
an E&P company’s technical production applications with an ERP is a key
step in improving the workflow and communications between the production operations
and business support organizations within the company. SAP will use these XML
documents with our Energy Integration Platform (EIP) to support a common point
of origin for shared technical and business master file data and a single point
of entry for transactions.” Submissions Additional submissions to B4E are expected to continue as the
organization’s process and technical committees have begun to hold monthly virtual
meetings and have formed work teams to address specific areas of member interest.
The process committee aids in the development of use cases and business benefits,
while the technical committee reviews technology and defines the methods for
documenting and implementing B4E standards. Land In addition to a continued focus on integration of Land, ERP,
and production data collection systems, work groups have been formed to address
two additional areas. The first of these will address standards for distribution
of data among operators and their joint interest owners, royalty owners, regulatory
and service company constituents. The second work group will address standards
for drilling workflow integration using technical drilling support applications,
e-procurement applications, and ERP applications.
The Open Spirit saga continues with the formation of the Open
Spirit Corporation (OSC) supported by Chevron, Shell and Schlumberger. Each
is to own an equal share of the new company which has been set up to further
develop and market the Open Spirit middleware for E&P applications. OSC
will be chaired by Neil Buckley – formerly president of U.S. operations with
Merak, now a division of GeoQuest. OSA has also just announced the first commercial
release of its middleware. Shell Open Spirit’s origins lie in in-house developments, mainly by
Shell and in the POSC business objects initiative, back in 1996. The middleware
was initially developed by UK-based Prism Technologies. Prism Tech was originally
very keen on the potential market value of upstream component software. But
the development of the infrastructure and services necessary to support these
business objects eventually proved a more fruitful pursuit than the objects
themselves. Prism Tech has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Inprise
(ex-Borland) for horizontal object technology and turned its back on upstream
IT. Buckley So now the three remaining Open Spirit protagonists have set
up shop on their own. Buckley said “Open Spirit represents
a significant advance in our industry’s ability to share information and develop
innovative collaborative solutions in a distributed environment. Until now,
there has not been a comparable framework capable of integrating data and applications
from multiple sources in the E&P industry.” V 2.0 Open Spirit V2.0 – the first commercial release of the middleware
is now shipping. The initial release includes the Open Spirit Base Framework
and the Subsurface Data Module supporting 3D seismic and well data servers for
GeoFrame and Open Works. The release includes Java and C++ support for Solaris
and Java support for Windows NT and 2000. OSC CTO Clay Harter said “With this
release of OpenSpirit our customers will be able to integrate their applications
across multiple vendor datastores and computer platforms.” More from www.openspirit.com.
Announced at the AAPG, (PDM Vol. 5 N° 5) TerraSciences’ TerraStation software
will be available for rental “real soon now” through GeoNet Services.com Inc.,
the Houston-based Application Service Provider (ASP). TerraStation II is a geological
and petrophysical workstation with borehole imaging and geochemical analysis
functionality. Browser When the ASP offering is up and running, TerraStation users
will be able to access software and data over the web from a remote location,
with only a web browser as client software. An account will first have to be
initiated with GeoNet. User data can be stored on GeoNet’s secure servers. Apart
from the low client-side overhead, ASP is claimed to eliminate other costly
aspects of IT such as providing users with the latest version of the software,
without the need to install upgrades. Likewise the administrative burden of
installing and maintaining software is eliminated. Backup Because the software runs on high-end processors at the GeoNet
site, costs of client side hardware are diminished. Automated data back-up can
also be handled by GeoNet. TerraStation has announced availability of the new
service as “sometime in the first quarter of 2001.” This makes for a near one
year lead in from first announcement to commercialization. While this may not
impact TerraStation’s business, this does suggest that time to market for GeoNet’s
innovative service is a little on the long side. More from www.geonetservices.com.
Alan Wong has moved from PGS’ data management division to take up the
post of manager of e-business for multi-client services with the PGS’ exploration
division. Andrew Szescila, is now COO of Baker Hughes Inc., Szescila
was previously VP of oilfield operations. Landmark subsidiary GeoGraphix has named Colin Gray as
marketing manager for its Europe, FSU and ME regions. Gray was previously with
IHS Energy’s PI(Erico) unit. Another London-base GeoGraphix appointee is Bill Verkaik as
business development manager. Verkaik used to manage GMA Europe.
Landmark signed with Petrobras’ Colombian unit earlier this year for the rationalization
of its data management, information sharing and data transfer. The agreement
is designed to increase integration of drilling, production and exploration
and development systems through implementation of Landmark technologies and
business processes. John Gibson, Landmark’s president and CEO said “Ultimately,
the increase in integration is designed to help Petrobras Colombia achieve its
production goal over the next three years. With this agreement, Landmark will
deliver its experience in project management and help Petrobras meet its business
objectives of increasing production and reserves. Landmark will assist Petrobras
Colombia in the deployment of integrated technologies that will serve as the
foundation for interdisciplinary processes.” Brandao Renilton Brandao, new technologies advisor for Petrobras in Colombia added
“Integrated processes, people and data, supported by technology and infrastructure
will help Petrobras in Colombia reduce the data processing cycle time and increase
productivity. Through this agreement, we expect to accomplish the objective
of continuing the growth of our Colombia operation and meeting our business
objectives at a lower cost. Colombia operations are growing substantially and
we expect to becoming the second largest producer in the country.” Machnizh According to Jorge Machnizh, Landmark’s VP for Latin America operations, “Our
goal is to help Petrobras in Colombia improve risk assessment and speed up their
decision-making process through a thorough understanding of their business objectives.
Through this agreement, we will assist them in transforming this into greater
productivity at a lower operational cost.” Cooperation between the various upstream standards organizations
was briefly on the agenda last year as POSC set out enthusiastically to set
up a new inter org body “Open Energy Exchange” (PDM Vol. 4 N° 10) Although this
overture was met with coldish shoulders from the rest of the dot orgs, one project
has survived, in a somewhat truncated format. Feasibility Since the first E&P data was modeled, users have been crying
out for tables to be populated with reference data. POSC and Calgary-based PPDM
have been working together for one year on a pilot project to provide standard
populations of reference tables to evaluate feasibility and establish a methodology
for a full-scale project. The six initial reference tables are well elevation type, country
name, media type, seismic dimension, seismic energy type, seismic recording
format. Follow-up The PPDM Association is following up on the pilot by incorporating
other industry-specific reference data sets, to ensure the continued development
of new reference tables, and to maintain existing tables, is presently preparing
a detailed Business Plan. The results of this Business Plan will dictate the
scope of the continuing project. Collaboration The PPDM Association and POSC will continue to work together
to further reference value standardization within the industry. The results
of the Pilot Project are available at the following websites: PPDM Association
http://www.ppdm.org/ POSC http://www.posc.org. ~ PDM comment - POSC and PPDM have to be congratulated on
this cooperative effort. But it is a pity that the scope of the reference data
collaboration is so limited. Most users expected a far greater depth of reference
data to emerge from the project. The bitter truth, as one data vendor put it
at the reference group’s kick-off meeting last year, is that reference data
is costly to collect, and even costlier to maintain. A serious attempt at providing
and maintaining really useful reference data would appear to be beyond the means
of the standards orgs at the present time. The First Conferences’ Intranet Portal Strategy for Energy Conference
was held in Houston this month. PDM was at the show and discovered that, although
Portals are very much in the news, the reality is that experience, and real-world
deployment are rather limited. As one attendee put it “We came thinking we were
behind the curve, but there is no curve, nobody knows anything!” Despite the
lack of answers, the consensus was that this was a great event for those just
starting such a venture. The need for portals comes from the explosion of information-rich
sites within the corporation and the expectancies of the user community. Business A theme of the meeting was “let the business drive the technology”.
Conference speakers offered lessons learned in fields such as security, the
need for cultural change, work patterns, user acceptance, and technology skills.
All of which can prove a lengthy process. Before rushing to construct a portal
because it’s the technology du jour, ask yourself what you’re doing and
why. For instance, if you want to increase productivity, is this the best way?
Unless the staff and the company both will benefit from the portal, it probably
won’t work. If there is no business problem to solve, you don’t need an enterprise
portal. Another pitfall is implementing a site too quickly which can lead to
solutions that aren’t fully functional. The message was; take it slow, and while
you can think big, it pays to act small and put a pilot site out for viewing
and comments — feedback can go far to ensure that people get what they want
and need. “Show Me the Money” was the leitmotif of one feedback session. Millions
of dollars are being spent on intranet/portal strategy and execution, begging
the question—“How can we realize more return out of Information Technology,
how do we leverage our existing technologies?” A to-do list of action items
that can make life easier for the portal team, and which should help evaluating
the return on investment (ROI) included: Changing senior management’s view of the portal from a cost
to an asset Meeting expectations within budget Controlling runaway senior management’s expectations Sponsorship from management Getting the organization to move at “web speed.” Enterprise John Keeble described how Enterprise’s Intranet began as a simple
home page in 1996. User-driven development and a lot of trial and error ultimately
determined the content. Website diversity reflects the fact that geologists
see the world differently from engineers. Each community has its own site. The
incorporation of dynamic information (news feeds, oil prices, press releases,
etc.) proved a “honey pot” for viewers and reduced e-mail overload. Dynamic
sites also allowed for a mix of external and internal information. It proved
easy to add news items coming from a network of news providers. On the downside,
such composite pages can be slow. Enterprise had found that unified, dynamic
information sources are a powerful knowledge management tool. Needless to say,
such a system is far from maintenance free, but Keeble advises that the control
of the Portal should stay with the users and that the IT department needs keeping
at bay! Chesapeake Lon Winton set out to solve Chesapeake’s production volume reporting
problems, created by late and incomplete data from multiple sources. Analysis
was hard because of the different data bases and reporting delayed and mostly
paper based. Winton was also confronted with the fact that IT had a stranglehold
over the intranet. A quick fix solution using an “intranet in a box” was first
deployed in 1999 to disseminate information. By January 2000, production volume
reporting had evolved considerably. Volume data collection was consistent and
timely providing a quick response to process/systems issues. A business intelligence
tool had been acquired and a production volume “mart” established, with daily
production volume reports published to the intranet. Intranet “in-a-box” As the environment evolved, the “intranet in a box” solution
began to show its limitations. Control of the Intranet was wrestled from the
IT department and a “co-focused” intranet home page home page was designed.
At the same time, a web master, graphics artist and page master were designated.
Now the intranet offers a daily production summary page with tables and graphics,
a page for source of variance and a downtime report for wells off production.
Production volume reporting now includes integrated operations and financial
data, routine analysis, prototyping and hourly operations reporting. Winton
considers that the original “in a box” strategy was a mistake, and believes
that the intranet should avoid being run as “an IT project.” Ultimately, success
came because the project addressed a business need and obtained sponsorship
from outside the IT department. Chesapeake’s intranet is now built around Microsoft
FrontPage, Interdev, Brio and Microsoft IIS. Visual Basic scripting and Java
are also used. Petris One company which believes that it has stolen a march on the
competition is Petris Technology. President Jim Pritchett describes the e-business
value proposition as “making data more valuable, easy to find, easy to use and
higher quality.” Typical data problems are that users can’t find data, or can’t
use it because of poor data quality. E-business offers “vertical” data management
through timely access to data (hardcopy, legacy systems), search engines, re-formatting
and data exchange technologies. While such systems may not solve all data issues
at once, Pritchett is convinced that the ability to browse and inspect data
is a key first step in the process. Petris’ flagship projects include the Winds
data browser originally developed for Anadarko, and the Internet Data Room (IDR).
The IDR now incorporates technology for collaborative working including voice
telephony over the internet and webcams to facilitate arm waving over the internet. Texaco Rick Diaz defines the Enterprise Information Portal as a “knowledge-based
application that allows access to internal and external information with a single
entry point and which personalizes information needed to support informed business
decisions.” Most importantly, the main driver for the EIP is the business, or
as Diaz puts it, “the bottom line.” For Diaz, E&P companies will be forced
to adopt knowledge management because of the aging workforce. With a median
industry age of around 50, combined with low enrollment in the disciplines that
feed the upstream, the corporation will have to retain knowledge workers longer,
increase their productivity and must manage knowledge as a corporate asset.
Diaz claims “Knowledge management must become a way of life.” Texaco hasn’t
fully implemented an enterprise knowledge portal yet. To have done a portal
two years ago would have meant jumping the gun, not least because the tools
have been slow to mature. Texaco is currently selecting a portal solution, reviewing
vendors and products, and trying to anticipate how the market will evolve. Schlumberger Ken Landgren’s (Schlumberger GeoQuest) observes a paradigm shift
from today’s GIS browser. Currenly these read-only systems answer questions
like “what do we have in this locality?” The job of populating the project data
store is still very time consuming. Schlumberger’s view of the (near?) future
is of a “data cube” of structured and unstructured data spanning geotechnical,
financial, corporate and HSE-type information. The third dimension to the cube
is access technology – from repository management through web access, and the
Portal. For Landgren, the “The Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) concept is
not just a web front end to an intranet, rather it is a single personalized
point of access to relevant information and applications.” EIP supports demand-driven
pulling of information, based on an individual’s role or function. Such a facility
requires the development and implementation of “e-business practices.” Schlumberger
is ready to do the same for E&P with Decision Point. The debate In the panel discussions it was clear that significant added
value is anticipated from inter-company collaboration facilitated by portal
technology. This will support real-time interaction between joint venture partners.
Landgren insisted on the importance of cost-benefit analysis prior to portal
deployment. This can be hard to compute for relatively intangible benefits.
Landgren advocates establishing a strategy before asking for money. But there
was dissent on this point “connecting people is paramount, using return on investment
calculations tries to make it more scientific than it is.” Keeble explained that Enterprise is actually using the technology
to prove the effectiveness of E&P spending. To show that IT helps reduce,
for instance, exploration risk. Alan May, Trade-Ranger, warned “We are trying
to create new infrastructure for industry but the technology isn’t ready for
prime-time yet. In the asset trade marketplace, we want to bring as many buyers
and sellers together as possible. We also need to capture sufficient data, in
terms of knowledge shared or gained, to improve the supply chain.” Petrocosm Linda Sarandrea, Petrocosm agreed “It’s all about squeezing
inefficiencies out of the supply chain. It’s important to address the independence
of different types of players. It’s not just big integrated oil company ownership.
Many suppliers feel threatened and both buyers and suppliers need to own the
process. A B2B supplier search the technology, the process and serve it all
up to customers. Business, knowledge management, procurement must come together.
Service companies must see apply the process to themselves and ask ‘how can
I drive cost out of my own system?’” Iona Don Vines from Iona Technologies summed up “The Enterprise Information
Portal is a unifying view of enterprise information, applications and processes
to enable delivery of goods and services independent of geographic location.
Portals represent convergence of internet, intranet and extranet.” $14 billion If you are still not convinced by the need for an EIP, reflect
on this. A Merrill Lynch study puts the market for corporate portals at $14
billion by 2002. An estimated 80% of Fortune 500 companies will deploy EIP in
2000. Paradigm Paradigm Geophysical reports 10% revenue growth for third quarter
2000 as compared to one year ago. Total revenues for the quarter reached $14.3
million, and revenues for the year-to-date have reached $42.4 million, 11% up
on last year. Last year was a record year for Services revenue for the company
at $12.5 million for the year-to-date, 46 percent up on the year. A trend expected
to continue next year according to Chairman Eldad Weiss who commented “This
is the fourth quarter of positive earnings, with operating costs each quarter
this year holding steady. We consider the current global infrastructure to be
adequate to support an even higher level of product sales. The quarter was characterized
by significant activity in strengthening our product offerings and our strategic
alliances, through the Flagship, Chevron, Total Fina Elf and Sysdrill agreements.
Winning the TGS-NOPEC services contract (see opposite page) and the continuing
demand for our services by the oil and gas industry reinforces Paradigm’s strong
market position as the leading complete geoscience solution provider to the
industry.” Roxar Norwegian Roxar generated earnings before tax of NOK 6.2 million
for third quarter 2000 compared to a loss of 2.4 million for the same period
in 1999. Total revenues for the quarter were 107 million NOK against 80 million
for the same period in 1999. Revenues were NOK 294 million, year to date September
compared to NOK 281 million in 1999. Roxar’s operating earnings for the period
were 5.4 million compared to a loss of 2.8 million for the same period in 1999.
Software and Services had an excellent quarter due to strong software sales
throughout the quarter. Major new contracts were awarded from Statoil, Norsk
Hydro and BP, and sale of new licenses is up by almost 70% compared to the previous
year. The services business was steady in the quarter and the margins continued
to improve. The company expects software sales to remain strong in 4Q 2000. CGG CGG’s consolidated results for the first half of 2000 show “a
market still awaiting a true upturn.” CGG has decreased its operating loss compared
to the same periods last year, and increasing its order book by more than 70%
since December 1999. Revenues for first half 2000 were €295.5 million, up 19
% on the first half of 1999. Operating result was a €11.1 million loss, a significant
improvement from the two preceding half years, respectively negative at €23.7
and €32.4 million. The operating loss results principally from the low volume
of activity in Land seismic acquisition during the first half combined with
difficulties on certain large contracts, all other divisions having achieved
positive results. The business in the first half of 2000 still suffered from
the crisis affecting the oil services industry, and most particularly the seismic
sector, since late 1998, in spite of hydrocarbon prices which have returned
to high levels for more than a year. Most of the major operators have not yet
really resumed their investment programs, simply generating a volume of activity
which has stopped further market deterioration, and possibly generated some
improvement in specific geographical areas or business sectors, allowing to
foresee the prospect of a coming recovery. Sluggish The Processing-Reservoir SBU’s sales remained stable at Euro
53.4 million (USD 50.9 million) compared to both previous half years, reflective
of the currently sluggish conditions prevailing in the conventional processing
market especially in Europe. The Group is improving its position in the high
end segments of Imaging and 4D. Chairman Robert Brunck stated “We are still
coping with a paradoxical market where our clients’ situation has drastically
improved during these past months, but where the same clients are only slowly
resuming investing. CGG has already accomplished so much particularly in the
last month with our restructuring, the reinforcement of our balance sheet, and
the conclusion of four successive strategic transactions. I am confident that
we shall be able to fully reap the fruits of recovery, whenever such recovery
materializes.” PGS Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) reported 2000 third quarter revenue
of $246.9 million, an increase of 12% over the same period of the previous year.
Third quarter operating profit was $50.4 million, representing a 20% operating
profit margin versus a 21% operating profit margin (before unusual items) for
the 1999 third quarter. Reidar Michaelsen, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive
Officer, stated, “Oil and gas companies have started increasing exploration
and production spending. We expect to continue expanding our production and
geophysical services businesses through deployment of our production expertise
and our advanced geophysical technology. Specifically, geophysical products
such as our PetroTrac suite of advanced reservoir technologies and our extensive
inventory of multi-client 3D data covering some of the most prospective regions
in the world should position PGS to capture a growing share of this higher spending.”
Geophysical services revenue was $122.1 million for the quarter, an increase
of 10% over the same period of 1999, yielding an operating profit of $16.3 million.
Multi-client sales revenue for the period totaled $62.2 million. The increase
in geophysical services revenue primarily reflects improved pricing levels in
the contract segment of the market. Demand for our multi-client 3D data has
remained steady. Dallas-based Reservoir Characterization Research and Consulting,
Inc. (RC)2 has signed an agreement with Landmark to develop a geostatistical
module for Landmark’s Stratamodel. The new software will perform geostatistical
simulations of geological and reservoir properties in Stratamodel and will provide
pre-processing and data analysis Geostatistical The project brings modeling functionality to Stratamodel users
said to address the bulk of an asset team’s geostatistical requirements. The
module will be provided by (RC)2 and marketed by Landmark as an RC2 module. Araktingi Udo Araktingi, RC2 CEO added “This agreement provides the large
Stratamodel user base with a set of tools crucial to the effective development
and management of oil and gas reservoirs. Not only will Stratamodel users be
able to integrate different data types, but also assess the risks associated
with development decisions such as placing a new well in the reservoir.” RC
Squared provides consultancy services and software to integrate a range of data
types, including core, well-log, well production and injection histories, well
pressure and seismic data. RC2 has backing from institutional shareholders First
Reserve Corporation, Altira. More from www.rc2.com. Hampson-Russell Software is leading an industry sponsored R&D
effort to develop software tools for use in time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring.
The Time-Lapse 4D (TL-4D) project has support from Alberta Energy, Chevron,
Pan Canadian, Texaco, Statoil, Agip, Total and YPF. The program includes a well
log toolkit, fluid replacement modeling, zero-offset synthetic seismic generation,
and a library of functions for the display, comparison, analysis and interpretation
of multiple time-lapse 3D data volumes. TL-PRO4D is developed using the standard
Hampson-Russell Software database structure. AVO This insures that pre-stack attributes from AVO, reservoir
property predictions from EMERGE and inversion results from STRATA can be easily
integrated into the 4D interpretation. The software also links to Landmark 3dv
interpretation files and OpenWorks well log databases. Hampson-Russell’s Keith
Hirsche told PDM “The project is ahead of schedule and we are projecting commercial
release of the software in March 2001. We have made 3 Beta releases to our sponsors
and several companies are already using the software.” More from www.hampson-russell.com. In the ongoing competition for spec superlatives, TGS-NOPEC
Geophysical Company has claimed a record for the industry’s “largest ever non-exclusive
3D pre-stack depth migration project,” covering approximately 15,400 square
kilometers in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico. On-line QC Paradigm Geophysical has been awarded the depth imaging which
will be carried out in its Houston data processing center. Paradigm is to install
software to permit on-line collaborative quality control in TGS-NOPEC. Services
will be performed using Paradigm’s e-Geoscience environment through a dedicated
telecommunications line between Paradigm’s Houston service center and TGS-NOPEC’s
Houston offices. Hamilton Hank Hamilton, TGS-NOPEC’s Chief Executive Officer noted, “Our
choice of Paradigm Geophysical is based on the company’s proven ability to produce
high quality results in this specialized form of subsurface imaging and on our
confidence that they can deliver on schedule.” GOM Lease sale The first phase of this project, covering approximately 2,700
square kilometers, is scheduled for delivery prior to the Central Gulf of Mexico
OCS Lease Sale in March 2001. Previewed at the AAPG convention earlier this year (PDM Vol.
5 N° 5), Rock Solid Images’ Attrib3D seismic attribute software is now fully
functional within the Magic Earth GeoProbe 2.0.1 visualization environment.
Rock Solid Images president Richard Cooper, said “Rock Solid Images and Magic
Earth are working together to integrate advanced seismic attribute computation
algorithms and associated classification and calibration tools. GeoProbe provides
a true 3D work environment for building rock and fluid property volumes. The
result - more targets, with a higher degree of reliability in substantially
less time.” Zeitlin Mike Zeitlin, President and CEO of Magic Earth commented “Adding
reserves quickly with less risk is the value Attrib 3D brings to GeoProbe seismic
interpretation. Geoscientists can now integrate the Attrib3D attribute technology
seamlessly into the interpretation workflow, from the first look at the data
to fine scale reservoir work involving simultaneous multiple attributes.” Geisler The technology is on display at the new Erik D. Geisler Visualization
Center in Houston. Magic Earth’s new facility is in honor of the late Erik D.
Geisler (1959-1998), one of the original developers of the software at Texaco.
The 7,000 square feet center houses the SGI graphics and a metallic gray “pod”
housing the immersive display system and collaborative work environment. IndigoPool, Schlumberger’s acreage trading portal has signed
with state oil co. Petronas to promote exploration opportunities in Malaysia.
IndigoPool users will be able to link through to the Petronas Company Profile
for information on the three main Malaysian producing regions: Peninsular Malaysia,
Sarawak and Sabah. It is the first time Petronas has used the Internet for acquisition
and divestiture activity. Petronas believes a secure, neutral portal such as
IndigoPool will capture a bigger audience in promoting the exploration acreages. 3 million km IndigoPool has also signed new contracts with several international
E&P data vendors who are to market their online data through the ‘Pool.
By year end 2000, over 3 million kilometers of 2D seismic data; 150,000 square
kilometers of 3D seismic data; 2.5 million square kilometers of gravity data;
and data representing more than 1 million wells will be available. Geographical
coverage includes Australia, the Gulf of Mexico, Canada, the North Sea, the
United States, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Pai PoolMeister Satish Pai claims “Data vendors are choosing our
platform as their online marketplace for two reasons, First, data buyers will
be able to search, purchase and use data right on the site – a significant advantage. Global Second, the E&P industry is global – IndigoPool has the
reach to provide these vendors with services and potential clients from every
oil and gas center in the world. In the case of seismic data, IndigoPool has
major technology development underway that will ensure the most sophisticated
e-commerce tools are available for our clients.” More from www.indigopool.com
and www.petronas.com.my. Knowledge Systems, Inc. now counts Halliburton as a user of
DrillWorks/PREDICT geopressure prediction software, DrillWorks/PREDICT (DWP).
DWP will be used by Halliburton’s Energy Services unit for geopressure analysis. Bridges KSI president James Bridges said “Our goal from the beginning
has been to provide the oil industry with an intuitive tool that would reduce
drilling costs and increase safety. We are pleased to welcome Halliburton as
a new user of the system and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial
relationship.” More from www.knowsys.com. Palo Alto, CA-based GeoMechanics International, Inc. (GMI),
has entered into a strategic alliance with Landmark Graphics to integrate GMI’s
wellbore stability, image analysis and rock mechanics software with Landmark’s
interpretation suite. Through the alliance, Landmark will integrate GMI’s core
technologies with its product lines and will market and distribute GMI’s existing
software packages. Landmark and GMI will work on new products, building on GMI’s
existing partnership with Halliburton Energy Services (HES) to provide a full
range of geomechanical products and services for wellbore stability and all
stages of reservoir development. Barton Dr. Colleen Barton, GMI’s president and co-founder said of the
deal “The addition of geomechanics into Landmark’s earth model will improve
the evaluation of new prospects through integration with seismic data, expand
reservoir characterization through fracture and fault seal analysis, and optimize
drilling operations as well as platform and well placement.” The partnership
aligns GMI, Landmark and HES with ongoing initiatives within major E&P companies
to advance understanding of wellbore stability problems. Barton added “GMI has
worked with its oil and gas industry clients to solve drilling, well-planning
and production challenges facing the industry, including deepwater drilling
in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa. Our partnership with Landmark and HES
will allow us to deliver the full range of geomechanical applications, integrated
into a process that spans the entire life of an oilfield - from prospect generation
to collaborative well planning, execution at the rig site and long-term production
of the reservoir.” Stanford GMI was founded in 1996 by a team from Stanford University’s
Department of Geophysics. Their core group of geoscientists and engineers are
specialists in in-situ stress analysis, wellbore stability, wellbore image analysis
and drilling engineering. GMI’s technologies have been successfully applied
in drilling environments around the world by more than 30 of the largest international
E&P companies. GMI is a privately held company with offices in California,
Texas, Australia and Europe. More from www.geomi.com. Wellogix, Inc. is rolling out its eField-Ticket software, an
online version of the manual process currently employed for reporting oilfield
operational costs. eField-Ticket automates reconciliation of the invoice and
purchase order. Cope Product manager Scott Cope explained “During the drilling of
a well, many services are carried our by contractors. Once such work is performed,
the service company will submit field tickets summarizing what was done and
how much the products or services cost. These must be reconciled with the original
purchase order and final invoices before payment is made. For large operators,
business units today manually reconcile thousands of paper field tickets per
month. Business process With eField-Tickets, both oil companies and service companies
realize an improvement in current business processes.” Wellogix was formed by
the merger of WellBid, Inc. and eNersection. Wellogix’s collaborative software
lets operators and contractors communicate and refine the complex, technical
information required to deliver services needed during the life cycle of a well.
Weatherford International, Inc. recently also invested in Wellogix and plans
to use the software. More from www.wellogix.com. The original Petrobras project to organize its seismic data
was initiated in the early ’90’s. The IBM/PGS PetroBank software in 1995 and
contract was signed with PGS and MR-DPTS in 1997 for the remastering of Petrobras’
seismic archive. Remastering operations began for real in December 1997. Changes Since the project started, there have been considerable changes
in Brazil’s oil sector. The Petrobras monopoly has ended and the Brazilian governmental
has created a new agency, the ANP which governs the petroleum industry’s activity
in Brazil. The ANP decided to put the Petrobras data into the public domain
and to refund Petrobras for the cost of the data itself and for the remastering
costs. The public domain rules concern 5 year old seismic data, and 2 year old
well logs. This led to the concept of a single data base, a national repository
based on PetroBank, sharing data management costs and making data easily available
to industry. The Banco de Dados E&P (BDEP) has been on-line since April
2000. BDEP is a consortium of oil and services companies, including (and sponsored
by) ANP. ANP has handed to CPRM (Brazilian Geological Service) the responsability
to operate the bank. My personal involvement is the project is as PetroBank
Project Coordinator for Petrobras. Currently, we have loaded all well logs,
about 80% of the post-stack seismics, and about 60% of the pre-stack seismic
available in Brazil (acquired by Petrobras in the monopoly period). Public domain Most of this data is in the public domain and is now available
to industry. I think that the pre-stack part of the project is the most exciting
one, (sub-contracted to PGS and MR-DPTS). This project was initiated in December
1997, and the current status is: 1- about 800,000 pages of observer’s logs scanned (load will
finish next month) 2- remaster to high capacity media and PetroBank load of 300,000
tapes with backup generation. Peak production of 18,000 tapes in one month. 3- recovery of sticky tapes 4- original media destruction - 30,000 already destroyed. Confidence Loading pre-stack data into PetroBank requires accurate metadata
linking files, geometry and shotpoint coordinates. Obtaining this information
requires a lot of effort, but it’s the only way to get high quality, useable
data, and to have enough confidence in the transcription process to be able
to destroy the originals. The 300,000 tapes remastered to date have been selected
following the analysis of some 350,000 tapes (10% were duplicates and were discarded,
and 4% missing something - coordinates, obs logs). People often believe tape
remastering is straightforward work. It is not! Remastering is a complex process,
much more than just changing tapes. This work can add significant value to the
seismic archive. PDM attended the launch of Tobin’s new Global Planner worldwide cartographic
software in Houston this month. Tom Murdoch, geospatial solutions director claims
that international workers are often frustrated by the lack of quality topographic
maps outside of Europe or North America. Tobin’s solution has been to provide
consistent, reliable world-wide map coverage. Russian The entry level global planner provides worldwide coverage from 1:500,000 Russian
military maps. An English language layer is added (allowing instant drill down
to a place name), along with vector information from the Digital Chart of the
World (DCW) in ESRI Shape file format. A further layer adds the Gtopo 30 Digital
Elevation Model (1 km US data). GP is bundled with Tobin’s DOMs View 2000 GIS
browser and editing system. DOMs View, based on ESRI’s Map Objects technology,
allows a credible basemap to be generated by zooming and panning to an area
of interest. ESRI symbology (for wells, pipes etc.) can be added to the maps
in DOMs View, as can text - which can be bent along geographic objects. Country Planner Global Planner is the first in a series of products that Tobin is developing.
Next in line will be the Country Planner - which will be based on the Russian
1:200,000 series maps ands will include Landsat ETM+ (7 channel satellite imagery). Warfare Tobin claim the Russian basemaps to be superior to the US equivalent.
Both were established with warfare in mind, but the US maps were designed for
air combat, while the Russian maps were made to support land-based warfare and
are much more detailed. For the ultimate in resolution, (if you are planning
an invasion), Tobin has access 1:50,000 scale maps. On demand, these can be
digitized at Tobin’s Moscow facility to produce very high detail to order. GP
will be available by year end 2000. The 3000 raster maps are compressed with
technology from MrSID and will be supplied on some 35 CD-ROMs.
What’s inside the BizTech for Energy Standard?
Lamar Traylor, General Manager B4E tells PDM just what the standard org will be delivering.
First T2B XML standard rollout
Biztech for Energy has unveiled its first standard. The XML spec will facilitate data exchange from the field to the accouinting system.
Open Spirit Corp.
Shell, Chevron and Schlumberger have founded the Open Spirit Corporation to market E&P middleware. The first commercial release of the platform is shipping now.
ASP TerraStation from GeoNet
TerraSciences is pre-announcing TerraStation availability from GeoNet for next year, suggesting a longish time to market for its ASP offering.
People
This month sees internal movement within PGS, Baker Hughes and GeoGraphix.
Landmark for Petrobras Columbia unit
Petrobras Columbia is to use Landmark software for data management rationalization, information sharing and software integration.
POSC & PDM join forces
The long-time rival E&P standards organizations POSC and PPDM have temporarily buried the hatchet. A modest cooperative effort has resulted in a set of shared reference data tables.
Intranet Portal Strategy
Over 100 attendees showed up for the First Conferences Intranet Portal Strategy for Energy event, held in Houston this month. Portal deployment is still in its infancy and all were keen to learn the tricks of the trade. While few would claim that there are “magic bullet” solutions to Portal development, experience from Texaco, Enterprise, Schlumberger and others was avidly shared. Real-world case histories and caveats made the show a rewarding experience for would-be Portal developers.
Service sector finances
Financial reporting from the oilfield service sector shows signs of a slight recovery. But some CEO’s complain that their clients, while themselves rolling in cash are still not signing the checks. PDM reports on third quarter financials from Roxar, PGS and Paradigm, and half year results for CGG.
RC squared to integrate Stratamodel
Landmark is to incorporate geostatistical software from RC squared into Stratamodel.
4D modeling consortium
Hampson-Russell clients fund time-lapse software project.
Paridigm gets NOPEC job
TGS-NOPEC Geophysical awards “largest ever” 3D pre-stack depth migration project to Paradigm Geophysical.
New software and facility for Magic Earth
Software for deriving rock properties from seismic attributes is on show at Magic Earth’s new visualization center in Houston.
IndigoPool serves Petronas, claims data milestones
Schlumberger’s IndigoPool is to support Malasian Petronas’ A&D activity, while reporting increased industry take-up of the e-business portal.
Halliburton now Drillworks user
Halliburton is to use KSI’s geopressure prediction software in strategic deal.
GMI, Landmark ally
Landmark is cooperating with GeoMechanics International to develop and remarket wellbore stability software.
e-Field Ticket
New software from Wellogix set to accelerate drilling e-business through automated invoicing.
300,000 tapes for Brazil repository
Following PDM’s report on the Brazilian National Data Repository last July, we were pleased to receive the following status report from Petrobras’ project coordinator, Mauro Ribeiro Morand.
Tobin’s Global Planner
Tobin has acquired rights to high detail Russian topographic maps of the world. These are now available in digital format for early stage oil and gas industry planning.