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Teras is an integrated capital allocation system designed to capture and exploit
information generated by multidisciplinary asset teams. The acronyms say it all - Teras is
The Economic and Risk Analysis System, while the main software tool Pecos is the Petroleum
Economic Simulation Evaluation. Teras provides the economic modeling tools, including
Monte Carlo simulation, but extends the usual analysis. A typical Teras computation might
begin with a portfolio of projects, a fixed capex and a required NPV. optimizer An optimizer identifies various combinations of projects that meet the requirements and
then analyzes the portfolio to minimize risk. Further simulation leads to a selection of
project combinations which maximize NPV until an 'efficiency frontier' is reached.
Landmark has already been cooperating with EAS in the context of Mobil’s Technical
Computing Solution initiative. DSS Decision support and capital allocation are at the core of Bob Peebler’s
‘nirvana’ level- 4 of integration. Peebler told PDM that he believed that in a
few years time, the EAS deal would be looked back upon as one of Landmark’s most
significant acquisitions ever.
.. while Landmark bags EAS (July 1999)
Landmark Graphics Corp. has bought Economic Analysis Systems (EAS). EAS’ Teras Pecos solution combines economic analysis and decision support.
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You cannot fail to be impressed with Microsoft's all-encompassing IT offering and
seductive marketing. I'd like to share some thoughts on how Microsoft has got to where it
is now, and to prepare you for the next level onslaught from Redmond, because believe me,
what's brewing around COM, XML and SQL Server will affect us all. end-user first Microsoft's strong starting position is not so much the OS as the application-end of
the business. It has been by providing massively functional applications and selling them
cheap that Microsoft has achieved dominance. Once everyone in the organization is on
Office, the choice of NT follows. But not yet that of SQL Server. So how is Microsoft
going to rein-in that segment of the market? By offering massively functional database
applications just like they did with the word processor before. region-growing? Don't believe me? How about being able to perform 'region growing' and other
sophisticated statistics on data in your production database from your desktop? But I'm
getting ahead of myself, I'd like to walk you through three high-impact solutions as seen
from the key end-user standpoint. OLAP - Data Mining Do you remember how the database vendors sold us SQL a while back by saying that we all
needed ad-hoc queries? We did and we probably still do, but how many ad-hoc queries have
you performed today? My guess is none because using SQL to query a moderately complex
database is like "kicking a whale across the beach with your bare feet". Rather
than spending three weeks (a real-world figure) writing one SQL query, the trend is to
have a separate 'data cube' database, with data extracted from the production database and
pre-arranged so that it can be attacked by On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP). Now
Microsoft has not invented OLAP, but BG didn't invent the OS, the word processor or the
spreadsheet. They just made all this technology accessible and cheap. This is what is
about to happen with OLAP. Instead of spending $50,000 on some obscure software, you will
be soon have 'in-your-face' region-growing and data mining, right out of Office. MTS - concurrency Another potential killer application is data loading and synchronicity. You know the
problem, multiple databases, multiple data-entry points and ensuing chaos! Enter Microsoft
Transaction Server – providing a cheap, configurable link to all your organizations
databases. Pop a Visual Basic ‘business logic’ layer on top of that, and you can
ensure that one validated x-y coordinate is transformed and replicated across the
organization. Interoperability But my main take-home concept from the show is Microsoft’s enthusiasm for XML as
the preferred route to interoperability. Of course XML is intended to be a CORBA and Java
Beans killer, but the spin-off, unless the technology is hijacked, is a credible route to
interoperability that avoids the old problem of standards that only work if everyone
implements them in exactly the same way. Next month’s PDM will look at XML in depth,
in fact if you would like to contribute something, feel free. Meanwhile, you’ll fine
lots more on TechEd on pages 6 & 7 in this issue and also an exclusive interview with
Microsoft’s industry architect James Utzschneider. fly in the ointment? It would be dishonest of me not to end by relating the preparation of this month’s
PDM. Good news, the DTP is now entirely done in-house using Microsoft Publisher – a
fabulous, $100 program which drives a monster typesetting machine at my local
printer’s with no problem. But… it has crashed about 20 times today, causing
blood pressure to rise and much gnashing of teeth. So please Microsoft, sweat some more of
the small stuff! If you do, then believe me the current FTC case will look like a storm in
a teacup when all these new goodies are up and running.
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Cost issues and technology are forcing oil companies to re-evaluate the role of
Information Management (IM) in their organizations. The push is to develop strategies that
explicitly add value to the business. Such strategies will be based on just in time data
delivery to asset teams, and will be achieved with minimal in-house data management. The
basis for such a radical conclusion is Wilson's observation that companies that are 'good'
at data management are not necessarily good at business. Wilson's consulting company,
Paras has attempted to analyze exactly how data management adds value to the business.
Wilson has likened this to the marketing executive’s dilemma. He knows that 50% of
the advertising budget it wasted, but doesn't know which 50% it is. efficiency frontier Paras' analysis is based upon an analysis of the efficiency of investment - in both
general E&P and on IT. The figure below shows a comparison of reserves added per
license as a function of IT spend for a variety of North Sea permits. There is great
dispersion in the data points suggesting that costly IT does not necessarily add value to
a company. Furthermore, an ‘efficiency frontier’ is soon reached beyond which
more spend does not bring more reserves. Other analyses suggest that IT spend is mainly
driven by head count. Paras, in collaboration with Exprodat have further analyzed the
decision making process in E&P. They break down the E&P process into into
'technical' and decision making processes. They argue, and many G&G-ers will take
issue with this, that the technical interpretation process is no longer a differentiator
between oil and gas companies. It is the decision making process that sorts the men from
the boys in the E&P sweepstakes. Wilson likens the interpretation process to a
production line 'manufacturing' prospects and proposes Taylorian metrics such as number of
prospects generated per interpreter-month as efficiency measures. Vexed The issue of data and information management must now be viewed in the context of
whether it is helping to reduce the cycle time for the prospect production process. If
this is not the case, then we should not be spending money on it. One vexed area for
efficiency seekers, as PDM readers are well aware, is the area of interoperability. Wilson
believes that much software deployed in the E&P shop will never be integrated and
regards this as a barrier to efficiency. The reason? Commercial pressures and lack of
vendor cooperation. The solution? Single vendor providers or at least constrained
multi-vendor environments such as implemented by Conoco, Mobil and Vastar, or most
recently by BP Amoco. emotional A related problem is that of burgeoning Application portfolios - Wilson believes that
interpreters are too emotionally attached to their software and that efficiency gains are
to be achieved by chopping out those underused applications. over-scienced Wilson maintains that much E&P is 'over-scienced', which has led to these expanding
portfolios. Wilson has examined the seismic interpretation process closely and sees this
as "3D all the way". A minimum IM infrastructure has been defined to support
this. Many companies have 2 or 3 mapping programs and as many cross section generators.
They may further have similar software running of UNIX and NT. All this would benefit from
serious rationalization. Choose an integration platform, and retreat from the 'best of
breed' ideal. RIP CDS One major target for efficiency gains is the Corporate Data Store (CDS). Here Wilson is
unequivocal. The CDS is dead! Or rather should be reined-in and focussed around a
high-level repository of corporate knowledge. The main reason for the failure of the CDS?
The fact that there is only ever one data flow, from the CDS to the projects. Data just
does not go back into the CDS and add value. So if it is incapable of capturing the value
added data, why not get rid of it altogether. All the bulk data management should be
managed by off-site third parties. Where will all the money saved be spent? On the high
added-value end of the business - the Decision Support. Other analyses performed by Paras
compare headcount with success in terms of reserves added. Wilson suggests serious
under-achievement in this field, if people are not drilling wells or interpreting seismic,
why have them? DISKOS For Wilson, the prime example of an efficiency-producing project is the Norwegian
Diskos which he describes as "a phenomenal success". Other pointers to the new
world order - capable suppliers like GeoQuest providing IT and Data Management support and
IHS with ‘just in time’ data. What is left to keep in house? The knowledge,
textual information tracking the decision process, the context in which decisions are
taken and most important of all, the Knowledge Base, back populated with mission-critical
information from the projects.
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Imation Corp. has announced a portfolio of Media Services designed to meet the needs of
corporate data center managers. Imation will provide data protection and maintenance
services for removable storage media. whole enchilada! Imation’s Media Services portfolio will include: Customized Preparation Services, including labeling and initialization, custom
packaging, and emergency delivery Maintenance Services, including tape cleaning, re-labeling, and degaussing Recovery Services, including recovering data from damaged or improperly stored media Duplication Services, including copy and conversion from a variety of formats Offsite Storage Services, securing media in underground or above-ground facilities to
protect data from natural disasters, as well as misplacement and loss. life-cycle "With more than forty years of data storage leadership, Imation has earned the
trust of our customers to help them manage their most valuable corporate assets –
their data," said Steve Ladwig, president, Imation Data Storage and Information
Management. "Given our expertise in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of
data storage solutions, offering full life-cycle media services is a natural evolution for
us," Ladwig continued. turnkey "By leveraging a nationwide network of qualified service providers, Imation will
offer a turn-key, single source solution for our customers." Imation Media Services
is the latest in a series of initiatives from Imation’s which includes Imation Web
Backup, the first in a series of Internet and corporate Intranet-based data backup and
recovery solutions to the mobile and desktop workforce. $2 billion In 1998, Imation reported revenues of approximately $2.0 billion and as of March 31,
1999, Imation employed 6,250 people worldwide.
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Danish software house Odegaard is set to automate seismic interpretation with its new
Automatic Layer Sequence Field (ALSF) product. Odegaard’s new technique provides a
detailed stratigraphic subsurface image from seismic data for identifying reservoirs
without requiring any interpreter input. inversion Odegaard claims ALSF is a powerful tool for deriving the low frequency component in
seismic inversion, one of Odegaard's specialties. The layer sequence is defined in two
stages. First a 3D trace analysis of the dip of individual reflections is performed then,
the dip information for the individual traces is combined to derive the layer sequence
field, resulting in a high resolution stratigraphic interpretation. dry holes Odegaard's deputy managing director Kim Gunn Maver claims ‘ALSF offers the
opportunity to eliminate incorrect background impedance in seismic inversion
interpretations which lead to dry holes and missed opportunities.’ The company
believes that the introduction of ALSF will speed up the seismic acquisition to drilling
cycle because a much less detailed interpretation process is required prior to inversion. PDM comment – no it is not the silly season, Odegaard really does intend to
speed up if not fully automate the process of seismic interpretation. Faults and other
discontinuities may still be added by hand. Makes us think that Hamish Wilson’s
prospect production line paradigm may not be all that far-fetched after all!
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COM It is no surprise that there is not much talk of CORBA at the Microsoft TechEd. What is
even worse for E&P aficionados of the OMG’s interoperability standard is that it
is not even taken seriously as a competitor for Microsoft's COM. A more serious contender
is thought to be Sun's Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), but that's another story. Microsoft
has been working on COM for a decade or so and is able to present a rather mature view of
interoperability. The current thinking is important in determining COM’s scope. COM
is no longer a cross platform interoperability standard. That role has been ascribed to
XML heralded as Microsoft’s CORBA/EJB killer (see below). COM is now more or less
officially limited to interoperability and component software on Windows. SQL Server We have heard recently from John Pohlman and others of the 'move to NT'. But for most
of E&P computing, this means that applications that used only to run on Oracle and
UNIX, now run on Oracle and NT. This is not what is considered a 'win' for Microsoft.
Microsoft's target is not UNIX, but Oracle. The goal is not (just) to replace UNIX boxes
with NT clusters, but to have enterprise computing move from Oracle to SQL Server 7. Our
reaction to this strategy was to think 'yeah, yeah they would like that wouldn't they' and
to further reason that it would take more than just price to make a Landmark or a GeoQuest
move their zillion lines of tuned code to a new database engine. Well of course this
reasoning failed to take account of the fact that those people at Redmond are coming from
a very strong position, and they are smart! See this month's editorial for more on the
strategy. MTS A key component of SQL Server is the Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). There is more
to this technology than meets the eye. MTS can be used without a SQL Server database to,
for instance, update, and synchronize a multiplicity of Oracle (or other) databases
running on either UNIX or NT. Not perhaps a very politically correct solution but who
cares? If clean authoritative data could be achieved by running data capture through what
one hopes would be a user friendly data entry point running MTS then that is good news for
everyone. XML At one point in the proceedings, I thought that I in a Geoshare meeting. XML, the cross
platform extension of HTML addresses the same isses as Geoshare, in terms of lose
integration. Microsoft may be bullish about COM, but the new spin is that the whole
Distributed Object approach for Business to Business data exchange is flawed! That it is
flawed whether you plan to use COM, CORBA, or Sun's Enterprise Java Beans. That the true
path to lose data integration is XML, tailored to industry specific business requirements.
BizTalk XML is in reality the technology behind the misnamed(?) COM for Energy initiative. Here
a local dialect of XML, tailored to the Upstream will make up part of the Microsoft
‘BizTalk‘ XML-based initiative for ‘open’ business to business (B2B in
the jargon) data exchange. According to Paul Maritz, VP of development (until this week!)
"the next five years will really be about XML". The next issue of PDM will
include an in-depth look at XML. DNA Maritz explained that the web has proved a popular but static source of information.
Now the trend is for dynamic information on the web. Just as static web has been an
enabler for the sharing of documents, the new dynamic web will be an enabler of
interoperability through the exchange of live data. Windows Distributed Internet
Applications Architechture (DNA) is Microsoft's 'guiding' architecture, a three tier
division of labors into Presentation, Business Rules and Server architecture. This will
allow programmers to write applications that will work across multiple devices, so that if
an information request comes from the latest web browser, or desktop application, then the
full functionality of the client application will be serviced. If however, the requester
is a mobile phone, then an appropriate minimal subset of the information can be supplied. Digital Dashboard Outlook and the Digital Dashboard (DD) form Microsoft’s Knowledge Work offering.
These are extensions to Office which offer a customizable portal to information in the
organization. The DD is based on Outlook, HTML, XML, OLAP and Office 2000 and supports all
of these technologies native. DD Product Manager Mike Guilbert showed Bill Gates' personal
DD which, apart from the stock quotes, includes TAHO - a new cross-document intelligent
search capability which returns documents containing relevant information in native
format.
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Because the financial services industry - banking and insurance - are the real IT big
spenders, we expected to hear that they were well down the road of distributed computing,
one-time data entry , validation and suchlike. Wrong! These guys are in exactly the same
boat as E&P. spaghetti Their systems are islands of information linked with spaghetti just like ours. The
difference is that they have more resources to throw at the problem and probably manage
the overall business better than us. But at the cost of numerous (human) tellers and
clerks, lots of paper (still) and even more COBOL programmers keeping the ship afloat with
dedicated point to point data links. The sector consequently shares our interest in the
new object paradigm.
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PDM – XML is the talk of the show, but if it lives up to its promises, it will
open up IT to all-comers – UNIX, Java. Is this really Microsoft’s strategy? J.U. – Yes. HTML is a default, open format for Office 2000 and XML is used to
store the formatting information. PDM – Will XML be appropriate for the complex, large data objects in E&P? J.U. – Not all data types are amenable to XML, but binary data can be encapsulated
and XML supports C data types. PDM – XML has an anachronistic flavor, can it really compete with CORBA? J.U. XML is market driven. Distributed computing across the web cannot always support
tight integration – hence the need for something simple that can cope with an
e-commerce system which may take 12 hours to respond. PDM – What role will these technologies have in technical to financial computing
(ERP)? J.U. – ERP to date is like a mediaeval fiefdom with its own rules and regulations.
Communicating with such systems has been hard. We need to get ERP to implement a
’treaty’ - to offer-up say just five pieces of intelligible data. PDM - so what is wrong with COM or CORBA in this context? J.U. - We need robustness and simplicity - I do not want to trust your API, or to have
to use SQL-Net - just send me standard XML and I will do what I like with it. The
CORBA/business object approach is flawed because of the requirement to synchronize every
protocol stack on every system - in other words for all 'fiefdoms' to become part of each
other. This leads to the problem of the 'uberschema' an all-encompassing industry data
model which we know is unrealizable.
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Around 100 G&G software users attended the Annual Petrosystems User Group meeting
held last month on a Seine Riverboat. A sad note however was the untimely death of
Petrosystems’ marketing manager Marc Philton, killed in a car crash earlier this
year. Brunck CGG’s new boss Robert Brunck outlined the revamped organization of the company
describing the new - Processing/Reservoir business unit as a major new strategy for CGG.
The new unit will handle Data Management, Processing, GeoVecteur Software and Reservoir
studies. Brunck described the thread linking all of these as the service element of the
offering. Data Management is to play a key role in the new unit as the glue for all these
processes. challenge Reflecting on recent industry hard times, Brunck stated that this was a time of
challenge, with plenty of opportunities to seize. CGG he said, was to become a 'data flow
management company' - from Sercel’s hardware in the field to the reservoir
delineation services of Petrosystems. During the downturn, CGG has continued with R&D
spend and this year, has doubled investment in speculative surveys – during a time
when many oil companies were keeping their hands in thair pockets! Flagship Petrosystems recent acquisition of Flagship and NexModel, and pioneering work with with
POSC and Open Spirit - were said to demonstrate this. Petrosystems will be managed
independently from the parent group. "Be sure, CGG will emerge from these hard times
as a leading company for the year 2000," Brunck concluded. Arco H. Posamentier (Arco) offered a client testimonial to the efficacy of StratiMagic in
the extraction of stratigraphic information from 3D seismics. Posamentier's management is
committed (not ’emotionally attached‘!) to GeoQuest, but he is a determined
supporter of StratiMagic and conducts an ongoing battle against software rationalization.
StratiMagic is 'fast and user-friendly' and as a geologist, Posamentier is at home with
StratiMagic's concepts and performs iterative interpretation to test different hypotheses.
StratiMagic is not used for structural interpretation, but rather to develop a geological
context in which amplitude anomalies can be assessed, allowing for the management of
stratigraphy-related geological risk factors. Generally, in the analysis of 3D seismic
data, not single tool has all the answers. Stratimagic allows for 'slicing and dicing' of
the 3D cube 'every which way’. The geologist can then apply his or her background in
geomorphology and sedimentology to identify patterns overlooked by more geophysical
approach. PetroVision Eric Lefeuvre described Petrosystem’s data management offering, particularly with
Petrovision. Three different usage profiles are envisioned for Petrovision. PetroVision as the Corporate Database designed to store and deliver data to the
workstation PetroVision used in the National Data Repository for data delivery to clients and
subscribers A subset of PetroVision for use as a Seismic Archive - including associated
documentation. metadata PetroVision stores attribute data in a POSC Epicentre database. Bulk data is stored on
any Hierarchical Storage Manager or Near-Line Storage Manager. The system is said to be
hardware independent. RODE encapsulation allows for mixed and evolving use of tape and
disk storage. A GIS front end is in the process of 'evolving' to include an ArcView front
end. This comes in two flavors; ArcView may be 'encapsulated' in PetroVision, or
PetroVision clients can now use a 'generic' ArcView Application Extension front-end. This
allows for web-access to attribute data. Petrosystems are beta testing a Java applet for
managing metadata, but much of this development is waiting on Oracle 8i. Data loading objective is for 'transparent' loading to the workstation, and is direct
to OpenWorks, including 'poly-cut' polygonal extraction of 3D data. Data loading is
flexible to cater for the wide range of data formats - here benefit is claimed by loading
metadata to POSC entities rather than to database tables. Petrosystems are working on an
interactive data loader which will work through the logical model. schedule A year 2000 compliant PetroVision is scheduled for release mid 99 and a new version
using ESRI’s SDE and a web viewer will be released towards the end of the millennium.
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Troika International has just released Magma, a modular data manipulation package.
Magma handles the transcription of seismic and other E&P types of data. Magma runs on
a PC running Microsoft Windows NT, accessing tape drives via standard SCSI adapters,
including Adaptec, with no practical block size limitation. In particular, Magma can drive
an IBM 3590 at close to maximum speed. C++ Magma is written in portable, object-oriented C++. A graphical user interface is
provided for all modules, although this is separated from the underlying functionality. A
format-neutral utility module uses an embedded Tcl interpreter to allow scripting of
common tasks. The transcription module includes support for the standard SEG formats, as
well as QA plotting facilities. Hooks are provided for interfacing to third party systems
and databases while a modular structure allows support for proprietary formats to be added
as required. Troika possesses a comprehensive format library to facilitate this. Support
for 21-track is already available as an option. turnkey Magma can be licensed as a complete system, or on a modular basis. Six month licenses
are also available for project or evaluation purposes. Troika can assist in data analysis
and project QA. In association with Eurotech Computer Services, Troika can also provide
turnkey solutions with a wide variety of tape drives and connectivity. Eurotech can also
provide a data recovery system, which can deal with a wide variety of nine-track stiction
problems.
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The Public Petroleum Data Model Association (PPDM) will now provide the PPDM v 3.4.1
data model as an Oracle Designer 2000 Export File to members. The new format offers a
practical quick start for sites that use the Designer / Developer 2000 (version 1.3) suite
of products for application development or model enhancement based on the PPDM data model.
All table definitions, domains and ER diagrams are contained in this export file, to get
you "up and running as fast as possible". Contact info@ppdm.org for additional information.
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Caesar Petroleum Systems have added three new tools to PetroVR, the Oil a Gas Property
evaluation Suite. PlanVR allows for economic modeling, risk evaluation and also models
exploration, development, and operation activities. PSA EconVR is a an economic model builder customizable to any fiscal regime and deal
structure and ships with a library of models covering Production Sharing Agreements,
Service Agreements and Concession Terms. Finally, PortfolioVR adds tools for managing and
optimizing the project portfolio. More from
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Eldad Weiss, CEO is now also Chairman of the Paradigm Geophysical Board. Weiss
succeeds Jacob Nunietz who has held the post since 1993. Gil Hamilton is now executive VP
and CFO of IHS Energy. Hamilton was previously senior VP and Controller for the IHS
Group. Hamilton now reports to Chris Meyer, president, COO and CFO of IHS Group and
chairman of IHS Energy Group. The IHS Energy management team, or the "Office of the
CEO" is rumored to have suffered from the 'long knives' syndrome. Thue current line
up is Dave Noel, Information & Data Management Services, Susan Whitbread, Economics
& Consulting and Hamilton. Geodynamic Solutions has four new developers in its
ArcView/Oracle team handling its consulting and product development business. Geodynamic
will not however be pursuing the previously announced alliance with IHS Energy (see PDM
Vol. 4 N° 3) which was to involve the outsourced development of EDGE. Geodynamics will
remain a member of the PI ArchiTechs program and develop applications against the IHS data
sets.
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Michel Godel who was recently 'let go' by Petroconsulants has founded PetroNews S.A., a
new company specializing in petroleum exploration and production information services.
Other founder-directors of the Geneva-based concern are Moscow-based financier Amin
Mirabdolbaghi, and Gérard Mangold, described as a Swiss trading specialist. experience Godel, president of the new company has over 30 years of petroleum exploration
experience. PetroNews will concentrate its activities in the E&P information and consulting
business. The new company has hired geologists and geographers with significant experience
in this domain and senior consultants of "worldwide reputation". downsized Many of the new staff are understood to have been ‘downsized’ in the recent
IHS Energy restructuring of Petroconsultants. The new company’s business model is
familiar, information is to be obtained via local correspondents, state organizations and
direct contacts with oil companies. scouting service The data is will be classified, checked and computerized before being delivered to
customers online or on CD-ROM. Services include daily Scouting Exploration & Production reports, Field
analyses, and Consulting Reports. Areas to be covered first are CIS/Central Asia, West Africa and South America.
PetroNews services will be fully available as of September 1st 1999. SApphire The database will be set up using a customized version of Stephenson and Associates
SApphire product. SApphire allows the data to be viewed and downloaded using a web browser such
as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Clients will have access to SApphire via the PetroNews Web site and will not need a local copy. More from
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Veritas has successfully deployed its new Seismic Mobile Information & Control
System (Seis-MICS) remote survey technology which enables Global Positioning System (GPS)
survey data to be transmitted in near real-time via satellite from surveyors in western
Wyoming to a remote center in Calgary. Here, data quality control is performed in
real-time while the survey crew is still in the field. LEO sateillite Seis-MICS utilizes low Earth-orbiting (LEO) communications satellites to transmit small
packets of survey data, in the form of e-mail messages, directly from a surveyor's
‘LeoRider’ GPS backpack in the field to the remote ICC. Each backpack has its
own unique e-mail address, enabling effective two-way satellite communications in virtual
real-time between the ICC and the surveyors in the field. Millenium II Seis-MICS technology, is a component of Veritas DGC’s ongoing Millennium II
project, a global information system that will enable near real-time data, for all field
activities associated with the collection of seismic data worldwide, to be delivered to a
central site.
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Equipped with Hewlett-Packard C-class workstation technology, the new center is linked
to Veritas' NEC SX-4 supercomputers in the U.K., Houston and Singapore, enabling the new
center to offer enhanced services such as depth migration, velocity model building, AVO
processing, modeling and inversion. The new facility is the third satellite center to be
opened by Veritas EAME and offers Veritas’ clients close interaction with staff plus
the benefits of supercomputer power.
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Houston-based Petris Technology, is teaming with 1MAGE Software of Englewood, CO in a
strategic marketing alliance set to offer Internet-based document imaging to energy
companies. PetrisConnect will use a Web browser to interface with the 1MAGE Document
Management System. PetrisConnect can be easily deployed across entire organizations,
enabling users to interact with business application systems, processes and procedures
from any Web client. Web-enabled The ability to web-enable enterprise business systems with electronic document imaging
creates a dramatic return in information infrastructure. Data associated with the images
recorded into any database (e.g. MS Access, Oracle, and Uni-Data). PetrisConnect can
provide a virtual Internet library for all users, whether documents are scanned in one
location or many. Visual Basic PetrisConnect combines Microsoft Visual Basic and Java syntax for universal
development. The PetrisConnect application server runs on Windows NT and UNIX servers -
from single departmental machines to enterprise-wide configurations. Rene Calderon,
product manager for PetrisConnect said, "We are excited about working with 1MAGE.
Their expertise in document management along with their innovative approach to tightly
integrating document imaging with existing business application software fits nicely with
our strategy." Alliance 1MAGE Software, Inc. is described as a leading provider of electronic document imaging
systems to UNIX and NT relational database end users. David R. DeYoung, president of 1MAGE
Software, stated, "The alliance with Petris in the energy industry complements our
suite of industry-focused business partners." Other 1MAGE Alliance partnership deals
have been struck in automotive retail, healthcare and public safety. More from
www.petris.com and www.1mage.com.
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GIS specialist Geodynamic Solutions, Inc. (GSI), has unveiled its new website at
www.geodynamic.com. "GIS tools are rapidly emerging as a means of accessing and
analyzing information within the business enterprise and via the Internet," said Kirk
Barrell, President and CEO of Geodynamic. "Our new site contains information about
our growing company and industry specific GIS information". Interactive In the near future the website will display examples of interactive maps and allow
clients to purchase the products online. Geodynamic Solutions has several products
forthcoming that be showcased on the new website. converter A trial version of the Well and Production Data Converter can be downloaded and the new
GSI's web server product, ZeroIn, to be released in the fall of 1999, will soon be
accessible and will "demonstrate the power of Internet-based mapping and
analysis" of datasets from a variety of industries. More from
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BP Amoco is to standardize its drilling, reservoir engineering, geology and geophysics
applications on Landmark’s suite of software applications. The three-year deal
involves the deployment of Landmark software at 61 sites throughout the world representing
all of BP Amoco's major upstream assets. The software will replace in-house developments
and products from other vendors. BP Amoco join Mobil, Enterprise, Statoil and PanCanadian
in opting for a single-supplier solution for upstream applications. The deal covers all
project-based IT, from OpenExplorer through G&G to reservoir and drilling but excludes
'primary data management' - i.e. master data store and bulk data management which, in the UK, is currently
outsourced to GeoQuest. workflow BP Amoco's objective is to reduce learning times, establish globally-shared work
methods, and facilitate innovation and best practices throughout its E&P organization
by standardizing on a core set of integrated applications. The agreement covers a broad
range of Landmark technology and services with the portfolio centered around OpenWorks as
the integration environment and project management database. training Landmark also will provide support, training, and professional consulting services
throughout BP Amoco Exploration and Production worldwide. Bob Peebler, Landmark President
and CEO said "We're extremely pleased to form this relationship of distinction with
BP Amoco as they align their organization and realize their worldwide goals and targets
for profitability and growth. By standardizing on Landmark's open and integrated
solutions, we believe BP Amoco is positioning themselves for the future as the company
that is redefining how technology can drive profitability in the E&P industry." product comparison When merging, BP and Amoco had a unique opportunity to examine the extensive software
applications used previously, with the objective of improving integration and productivity
to meet business driven changes. Bob Peebler told PDM that Landmark’s long-held
belief in integration and openness were factors in BP Amoco’s decision, although no
specific integration of third party or legacy software is called for in the deal. standardization Christine Connelly, Vice President for Upstream Information Technology at BP Amoco said
"This agreement and the technology it brings are at the core of our efforts to
standardize work processes and therefore the tools which are needed. "Standardization
will further improve the effectiveness of our multi-discipline teams at finding,
developing and producing oil and gas in an optimized manner."
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Microsoft - irresistible? (July 1999)
PDM's editor Neil McNaughton attended the Microsoft TechEd 99 conference and learned of the latest elements of Bill Gates' strategy for domination of the IT industry. New Microsoft targets such as interoperability and performant data access are of concern to us all. The obstacles will be assailed by the trusted Microsoft strategy of offering users a familiar interface, lots of functionality and low cost.
Corporate Data Store Dead! (July 1999)
Hamish Wilson’s UK based consultancy Paras has been studying the effectiveness of expenditure on upstream IT. He concludes that the technical process is now capable of being regarded as a ’prospect production line’, and that excessive IT and geoscience is showing diminishing returns. The smart money, according to Wilson, is spent on decision support IT, and on outsourced data management. The Corporate Data Store is the main victim of Wilson’s new world order. PDM offers an edited version of Wilson’s show-stopping paper presented at the Landmark WWTF.
Imation launches Media Services (July 1999)
A new service from data storage specialist Imation promises off-site storage and management of the whole data asset.
Odegaard automates seismic interpretation (July 1999)
Odegaard’s ALSF software promises to automate the seismic interpretation process.
PDM Conference Report – Microsoft TechEd ‘99 (July 1999)
A new venture for PDM was our attendance this month at the Microsoft TechEd '99, held in Amsterdam's RAI conference center. The subtitle of this, Microsoft's European technology forum was 'Get Fired Up'. We did. Notwithstanding any misgivings one might share with the FTC as to Microsoft's 'domination' of IT, we will attempt to convey here and in the current Editorial some of this enthusiasm for Microsoft's new technological offerings. We want to communicate what we have learned, and to imagine what may be. While we will not hype, we will neither seek to understand all the gotcha's and counter-arguments which will undoubtedly emerge. We had two objectives in going to the show. One was to get genned-up on the latest technology. But we also wanted to take a rain-check on how other industries were shaping up with their IT. How they were dealing with interoperability, with data management and generally, how they were getting along with the people from Redmond.
Is the grass greener on the financial services’ side of the fence? (July 1999)
Is IT in the well-endowed financial services sector light-years ahead of clunky old E&P computing? Seemingly not!
PDM Interview with James Utzschneider (July 1999)
Is XML for real? PDM quizzed Jim Utzschneider, Microsoft's Technical Architect, Industry Frameworks
Petrosystems User Meeting (July 1999)
Users of CGG’s Petrosystems software shared their experiences in Paris last month. PDM was there, and also heard CGG’s new CEO, Robert Brunck outline the group’s new strategy.
Troika’s Magma bubbles (July 1999)
New transcription software from Troika and service offering with partner Eurotech
PPDM Model in Designer (July 1999)
The PPDM data model is now available in Oracle Designer 2000 format for 'instant use'.
Caesar (July 1999)
New economic evaluation tools for PetroVR
People (July 1999)
People on the move in Paradigm, IHS and Geodynamic.
PetroNews – New Geneva-based Data Vendor (July 1999)
A new data vendor has been created by ex-Petroconsultants staff. Scouting information will be distributed with Stephenson & Associates SApphire database.
GPS breakthough from Veritas (July 1999)
New satellite-based survey system allows for real-time remote QC.
Veritas opens in Norway (July 1999)
Veritas has just opened its 22nd processing center in Stavanger.
Petris and 1MAGE team on E&P Document Management System (July 1999)
PetrisConnect, the Internet-based E&P data browser is to integrate web-imaging support from 1Mage Software.
Geodynamic’s website to showcase new software (July 1999)
Geodynamic’s new website offers free download of GIS software and demos of web-based mapping.
Wall-to-wall Landmark chez BP Amoco (July 1999)
Three-year software and services contract is Landmark’s biggest sale ever.
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