ExxonMobil is to upgrade its Enterprise Resource Allocation sofware SAP R/3 to the latest web-enabled version - MySAP.com. mySAP.com will now become the primary backbone for global business. Web-enablement means that potentially all of ExxonMobil’s 100,000 downstream employees can access the system - even while on the move.
Consolidation
The new software is intended to consolidate systems subsequent to the Exxon/Mobil merger. Individually, both Exxon and Mobil were longtime SAP customers and have already upgraded from SAP R/2 to SAP R/3.
Kohlenberger
Jerry Kohlenberger, president of the ExxonMobil Global Services Co. said “We have been SAP customers since the late 1980s, and we are excited to continue to build upon our investment in SAP solutions, to meet our business objectives of maintaining best-in-class business performance.”
Supply chain
ExxonMobil will leverage the SAP industry expertise to connect global operations and reduce costs. ExxonMobil expects to improve the performance of its chemicals business unit supply chain. mySAP.com Human Capital Management and the mySAP.com Workplace will strengthen global human resource management capabilities.
Competition
“In an environment of intense competition, companies need to develop innovative ways of increasing operational efficiency to maintain a competitive advantage,” said Wolfgang Kemna, CEO of SAP America, Inc.
Kemna
“ExxonMobil is meeting the challenge to stay competitive by integrating mySAP.com solutions to streamline its global business processes. In selecting mySAP.com, ExxonMobil builds a flexible foundation that will allow it to quickly respond and remain competitive.”
Bucking the ‘buy not build’ trend in E&P software, Chevron and Schlumberger are to cooperate on the development of new reservoir optimization tools.
Simulation
The program will focus on speeding reservoir simulation and on improve modeling of geology and wells. Both companies will share in the intellectual property resulting from this initiative.
San Ramon
An eight-person team will work on the project in Chevron’s San Ramon, Calif. facility. Software developed under the program may be commercialized by GeoQuest.
NMR
In a separate agreement, with Paradigm Geophysical and Chevron are collaborating
on the transfer of Chevron’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technology to
Paradigm’s
GeoLog product.
Paul
Chevron’s VP Technology Don Paul said “We are pleased to leverage our reservoir characterization expertise and to make it available to the industry through our cooperative technology development agreement with Paradigm.”
We were kindly supplied with a review copy of the latest edition of James Murtha’s book*, “Decisions involving uncertainty, an @Risk Tutorial for the Petroleum Industry.” First off, this is not really a book about uncertainty analysis. It is an oil industry-specific version of the @Risk manual. As such it does a credible job and walks the reader through the use of forecasting, volumetrics, porosity and saturation modeling with uncertainty (or perhaps that should be with clarity?). @Risk offers many bells and whistles, with lognormal, triangular error distributions and user-assigned dependencies of variables.
Monte Carlo
All in all a straightforward introduction to the subject of Monte Carlo analysis (MCA). Incidentally, for those who already have the book, there is little that is new. In fact there is less in this issue that in previous editions, the Lotus 123 references have been eliminated. Elsewhere the main changes concern the alignment of the text and illustrations with later versions of Excel and @Risk itself.
Why?
You may be wondering why this brief book review appears in this month’s editorial. The reason is that in chapter 1, Murtha asks “why do risk analysis,” and makes the case for stochastic (statistical in other words) as opposed to deterministic analysis. It seems to me that in this simple introduction, Murtha, like the whole risk analysis industry, overlooks an alternative was of analyzing risk. A much simpler way in fact. Let me explain. Murtha offers the universal problem of computing volumetric reserves as a starting point for his argument.
N=A*h*R
Where A is the area in acres, h is the net pay in feet (European readers will excuse the quaint units) and R is the recovery factor (bbl/acre ft.). The argument moves on quickly through the deterministic approach (which gives a single value) through the scenario approach (worst, most likely, best) and on to stochastics, the subject of the book. For those of you who have not come across MCA, the technique involves performing a large number of ‘simulations’ of the reserve calculation using input values picked at random from within a probable distribution. It is the ‘casino’ aspect of the method that gives it its name.
Fun
MCA is above all great fun. I remember the first time I saw a colleague program a MCA simulation, and we watched the old HP plotter whack, whack, whack the crosses onto the paper, building up a cloud of points showing the range of possible values of oil in place. MCA has the virtue of being simple to implement, and requiring considerable compute resources to run on all but the simplest models. A dream for the computer buff. But is it always necessary?
Error Analysis
Certainly, oil companies today are extremely interested in computing uncertainty, but if you have a million cell reservoir model, and a few dozen input variables, a fully fledged MC simulation for every input would probably take longer than the field’s life-span to complete. While pondering Murtha, I remembered something from high-school days. Wasn’t there a way of doing the error analysis more deterministically? In the old days this was called “error analysis.” Well I won’t get too far into this, the old memory isn’t what it was, but it involves “drunken walks” for added parameters and added errors for multiplied terms. Error analysis says if there is a 5% error (standard deviation) in each term of the A*h*R equation, then there will be a 15% error in the computation. Easy!
Futzing?
Why do the proponents of MCA not consider error analysis? Could it be because it is too simple? That deprives engineers of the pleasure they get from plowing through reams of MCA computations? Deprives them of their futzing in fact.
Dubious
In these days of empowerment, tools like MCA allow just about anyone to do science that is arguably outside their own “core competence”. In other industries, like drug testing, statistics are performed by... statisticians! Giving a tool like @Risk to a geologist, engineer or financial manager may not be the most straightforward way of analyzing risk. In fact, as a model’s complexity grows, the results will probably make for rather dubious science. Pulling triangular distributions out of thin air, and coupling and uncoupling variables at will, may be within reach of the software, but the result? It will probably be something of a drunken wander away from the truth, proving yet again the Churchillian epithet alluded to in the title.
Faith
Putting it another way, whatever they tell the shareholders, to launch a multi-billion dollar development offshore west Africa on the basis of a couple of exploration wells and a 3D seismic survey takes more balls and faith than statistics!
*Decisions involving uncertainty, an @Risk Tutorial for the Petroleum Industry. James A. Murtha, ISBN 1-893281-02-7, 2000 Palisade Corp.
IHS’ Petroleum Economics and Policy Solutions (PEPS) Service is now available on the Web. PEPS is a proven source of E&P statistical information and analysis of legal, fiscal, contractual and environmental terms, business environments and political risk.
CD-ROM
Hitherto PEPS customers received quarterly data updates on CD-ROM. The new online service will give customers weekly updates and on-line PEPS customers will have access to the new E&P Costs Analysis module. An additional Discovery Economics module will be added to the Web version “real soon now”. The economics module lets PEPS users evaluate after-tax economics of any undeveloped oil or gas discovery in the world.
Kellas
Graham Kellas, head of Economics Services at IHS Energy Group said “Our customers encouraged us to develop the online service so they could access PEPS and all the latest data from any location over the Web. The range of information and analysis covered in PEPS is invaluable to our customers, many of whom are negotiators and members of senior management who travel extensively.
Up to the minute
They depend on having up-to-the-minute analysis of the latest commercial terms, policy developments and risks. The new online service will complement our existing telephone and e-mail customer support efforts. This support is provided by a global team, which is comprised of petroleum economists, contract analysts, political risk analysts and other experts who have access to IHS Energy Group’s E&P database.”
Browser access
PEPS web access is through any standard Internet browser. No client software or data is required. For an online PEPS demo, visitors can access the IHS Energy Group Web site at www.ihsenergy.com/peps. Enter "pepsdemo" as both the I.D. and password.
PetroWeb’s Autodesk-based GIS front end is to be used as an entry point to the IHS Energy data hosting center announced in last month’s PDM. The companies have signed a strategic agreement to provide “best-of-breed” Internet solutions to the petroleum industry, including application service provider (ASP) and data service provider (DSP) components. Data service provision involves the update and maintenance of data, and allows a client company to eliminate the associated expenses of managing these functions in-house.
Data hosting
IHS Energy Group will provide the databases, data hosting center and data management systems, which are built on IHS’ PIDM and IRIS21 data bases. PetroWeb, the e-commerce arm of Petroleum Exchange, will offer its Internet-browser-based map interface to deliver real-time data access to third-party commercial and internal corporate data. With PetroWeb, oil and gas companies can view, purchase, and download data from IHS Energy Group in a secure environment. Such data can be combined with internal databases using their corporate Intranet assuring integrated data delivery to the desktop.
McCrory
Mike McCrory, executive VP and COO of IHS Energy Group said “PetroWeb’s strength lies in its capability to link our commercial data with the customer’s own proprietary data in a single, map-based interface.” Darcy Vaughan, president and CEO of PetroWEB added “The combined strengths of IHS Energy and PetroWEB will provide the marketplace with cost-effective solutions based on the latest technologies for accessing, managing and delivering data.”
Seitel, Inc. has formed, a wholly-owned subsidiary, Seitel Solutions Ltd., to create a web-enabled data management system that will provide access to the largest seismic data library in North America. The Enterprise Data Management System will be based on a Storage Solution Provider (SSP) model.
Frame
Seitel President and CEO Paul Frame said “Our goal is to create a network of information that we own and control, and that generates significant additions to revenue, opportunities and shareholder value.”
Leakey
The implementation of the Enterprise Data Management System will be led by Bill Leakey, who recently joined Seitel, Inc. as Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Leakey was previously CTO with Kelman Technologies.
The rapprochement between CGG and Paradigm Geophysical has provided a fast-track to commercialization for software developed by French oil conglomerate TotalFinaElf. Most all CGG interpretation software, from Integral Plus to Stratimagic, originated as in-house developments by Total or Elf. Stratimagic for instance, originated as the Elf-developed Sismage software. TotalFinaElf has signed further agreements, directly with Paradigm, for the implementation, within Paradigm’s GeoLog, of in-house developments Diamage and Facimage.
Patented
Diamage offers tools for advanced interpretation of array wireline log information, while Facimage introduces automated facies classification techniques. The tools, patented by TotalFinaElf, have been developed over years of testing and calibration with core data, and are said to facilitate the analysis of large volumes of well log data.
GeoLog
Elf Exploration Production is a corporate-wide user of GeoLog and its petrophysics interpretation package. Integration of the two products within GeoLog will be carried out in Paradigm’s Well Technology R&D Center in Brisbane.
Bourdarot
TotalFinaElf Petrophysics Technical Manager Gilles Bourdarot said “We will benefit from having our proprietary techniques available to all engineers and operating subsidiaries in a well-supported, commercial environment. This will give our scientists more time to pursue original research.”
Weiss
Paradigm Chairman, Eldad Weiss said “As a result of this agreement, TotalFinaElf’s experience will soon be available commercially.”
Seismic Unix from the Colorado School of Mines Center for Wave Phenomena is acknowledged as being the standard for open source code seismic processing software. For PC users, the source code has been recompiled for Windows, and a graphical front-end added, by Geneva-based GeoSoft. The resulting commercial package, Visual_SUNT is now available in a new release, version 5.
Jenny
GeoSoft chairman Jacques Jenny told PDM, “ Since version one, released in 1998, Visual_SUNT has become a popular tool in universities throughout the world. In addition to the visual interface, Visual_SUNT provides tools such as interactive FK analysis, frequency spectra and deconvolution. Key feature of version 5 are, powerful and easy geometry input, residual statics, unlimited number of traces and a powerful new printing module.
Batch
All the usual Seismic Unix modules are available in Visual_SUNT with the familiar Windows interface. You can process a complete seismic section without writing code or use SU’s powerful batch capabilities. Visual_SUNT is now without any doubt the best ratio price/powerful and the most easy to use for 2D seismic processing.
Teaching
This program is used in many Universities all around the world for teaching.” The new versions are available on CD-ROM from GeoSoft. A sister product, WinSism 8 is also available for refraction processing. Compilation of the UNIX code, previously handled by Hugh Winkler of Scout Systems, is now performed by GeoSoft. More from www.wgeosoft.ch.
XoX Corporation now offers a wellbore planning add-on for its PC-based 3D visualization environment, Shapes Prospector. The new tool, Shapes Planner (SP), is a 2D/3D planning tool for wellbore trajectory design and quality assurance. Planner is fully integrated with ShapesProspector, Xox’s earth modeling software and is said to “eliminate costly mistakes, and reduce cycle time” since wells are viewed in the context of a full 3D geologic model.
Interpolation
ShapesPlanner supports standard interpolation schemes, generates minimum length path subject to constraints such as pre- and post-hold, minimum radius and dog-leg severity, and computes intersection angles with surfaces and faults in fully linked 3D, map and cross-section views.
Senn
XoX Corporation President Mark Senn said “ShapesProspector and ShapesPlanner are the value leaders in earth modeling and well planning, By moving well planning and geological interpretation closer to the well site, exploration and production companies can realize significant savings.
Complex
The Shapes family’s portability and advanced functionality enable geologists to interpret complex geologic structures and perform site planning in half the time at a fraction of the cost.” Xox claims that ShapesProspector is the only PC-based product capable of handling multiple Z values in salt dome mapping. More from www.xox.com.
IHS Energy Group has moved from acquisition to divestiture mode, judging from a recent deal with Geological Data Services (GDS) of Addison, Texas. IHS has sold the assets of its Reservoir Geology Division, including ReservoirID, its reservoir-geology database, to GDS. GDS develops and maintains subsurface, log-derived formation-top files. Formed in 1984, GDS has data files covering West Texas, the U.S. mid-continent, and several Rocky Mountain basins.
580,000 wells
These files include more than 580,000 correlated wells and 270,000 additional uncorrelated wells. Other GDS products include the exclusive distribution of the Topographic Mapping Company’s digital land grid, and the construction of customized, proprietary-data files. Under the terms of the deal, GDS has an exclusive license to the ReservoirID data, which contains more than 100 parameters and calculations for each producing reservoir, including log-derived porosity calculations, water saturation levels and reservoir thickness calculations.
Anadarko
Nearly all of the data purchased is in the Anadarko Basin, located in Northwest Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle.
Bruce Smith, VP of U.S. Data Services with IHS said “The ReservoirID database is the covers nearly 45,000 well completions. This data supports GDS’ core business, so the sale made sense for both companies.”
Haines
GDS president Rick Haines added “The ReservoirID database and Reservoir Characterization Studies are tremendous contributions to the knowledge-base regarding the Anadarko Basin. The addition of these new data files to our existing database will enhance our clients’ exploitation and development efforts by allowing them to quickly determine re-completion and offset potential, as well as identify acquisition opportunities. In response to requests from our customers, we also plan to expand the Reservoir Characterization Studies to include other basins.” More from www.gdsdatamaps.com.
At last month’s SEG in Calgary, PDM caught up with a very busy Eldad Weiss, chairman and CEO of Paradigm Geophysical. Our first question was about the headline deal between Paradigm and CGG...
PDM - what is the intent behind the deal?Weiss - There is a clear need for integrated reservoir characterization and we have noted the changing role of geophysics in this respect and we are now integrating our software across the different disciplines. Paradigm is cementing its position in this field by adding Flagship’s product line to its portfolio. Integral Plus is an important addition because of the corporate data management platform*.
PDM - but Integral Plus was given very little visibility by Flagship.
Weiss - Perhaps, but we think differently. We see Integral Plus as an important data integration tool with strong DM capabilities thanks to the central Oracle database. This may have been hard to incorporate in Flagship’s “plug-in” positioning. But we do not have the same view and will be building on this infrastructure. Moreover the Integral Plus datastore is built around the latest Oracle technology. Of course we also like StratiMagic’s elegant solution to a complex problem and will be leveraging this and other of our products with our latest application - Reservoir Navigator which lets you move through the whole reservoir dataset, with multi-attribute 3D data on disk. This technology allows roaming through massive datasets on disk with low cost hardware.
PDM - we titled our latest issue - CGG Paradigm Rapprochement - is this a fair appraisal of the current situation?
Weiss - Perhaps, but we have constraints on the degree to which we will let CGG move into our equity. CGG cannot increase its equity position on the open market and Paradigm has an option to buy-back. The deal is intended to cement our technological relationship.
PDM - Both organization are CORBA aficionados.
Weiss - yes we see eye to eye on leveraging CORBA integration and are expecting significant technology sharing - especially in the field of 4D/4C processing and reservoir characterization.
PDM - but there must be a significant amount of overlap and rationalization in the offing.
Weiss - We do intend to rationalize infrastructure. To me it is like the European auto industry. There the same basic chassis serves in a variety of models. It will be the same for our shared infrastructure. We are now the only integrated platform covering the whole spectrum from pre-stack seismics to interpretation. We are #1 in seismic processing software, #3 in interpretation software and #5 in processing. Moreover, our customers appreciate our independent viewpoint.
*PDM Note—Integral Plus was one of the first integrated interpretation suites to work from a central database.
Halliburton and Landmark are teaming with time-lapse boutique 4th Wave Imaging Corp. of Laguna Beach California. Halliburton has entered into a strategic agreement with 4th Wave to offer time-lapse vertical seismic profile (4D VSP) services to its clients. Landmark is to cooperate with 4th wave on software development
Lumley.
4th Wave was founded last year by David Lumley, now President & CEO. Lumley was previously leader of the 4D Seismic Reservoir Monitoring program at Chevron Petroleum Technology Company. 4th wave has licensed proprietary 4-D cross-well technology from Chevron.
Shear-wave
Other services and software offerings cover 4D seismic reservoir monitoring and multi-component shear-wave analysis and interpretation. Landmark is to co-develop new 4D/4C seismic software for reservoir management. The strategic agreement will focus on the high resolution, repeatability and rapid reservoir snapshot capabilities available from permanently installed wellbore VSP sensor arrays.
Consortium
4th Wave is the focus of an industry research consortium working on the estimation of dynamic reservoir properties from 4D seismic data. The consortium, which kicked-off in March 2000, intends to perform R&D in the field of quantitative estimation and uncertainty analysis, of reservoir properties, such as oil saturation, pressure, and temperature, from time-lapse 4D seismic data. The intent is to be able to quantify the visual changes observable on repeat seismic surveys of an oil field in production. More from www.4thwaveimaging.com .
Plano, Texas based Infologic and Robertson Research are partnering on a global, web-based geochemical database, the Geochemical Information Repository (GIR). The GIR will offer clients access to, worldwide oil, gas and rock geochemical data, providing “total petroleum geochemistry support,” from software, through interpretation to project management.
E-commerce
An e-commerce paradigm offers pay-as-you use, or subscription-based access to GIR data, which can be displayed in any format. Data can be browsed at a global, regional, or sample level and proprietary corporate data can be integrated with the GIR data.
Encrypted
The web paradigm allows client access via a secure, encrypted web site from remote locations. Software allows for dynamic plotting and graphics capabilities (well summary plots, cross-plots, tabular reports, chromatogram visualization tools, etc.) – all of which will be accessible over the Web.
ArcView
The GIR database is Oracle, Access, and ArcView enabled using a proven cascading data model. Data is stored in raw, standardized, interpretive, and export layers.
The data model follows the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate guidelines for extending the POSC Epicenter Data Model into the geochemical arena.
POSC
Initially the GIR database will be populated with Robertson source-rock data. Seep, oil quality, and non-exclusive oil company data will be added in the future. Additional oil analysis for the GirWeb database is to be provided by Houston-based Baseline Resolution, Inc.. More from www.girweb.com.
Knowledge workers and support staff can have unlimited access to all five years of PDM’s coverage. As part of your corporate intranet, Petroleum Data Manager is now searchable using your own knowledge management and text searching technologies.
What’s on the site license?
Full text of nearly 1000 articles, an estimated 300,000 words.
850 E&P software and service companies indexed.
675 industry people referenced.
1180 products and service offerings cited.
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The PDM Site License is delivered monthly as a fully functional website. Written in HTML, with HTML indexes for the fastest browser response possible, installation is easy. Just unzip the files to the intranet directory of choice. A hot-link from a suitable entry point, allows unlimited browser-based Intranet access to the PDM Archive. For information on the PDM intranet site license, tel +331 4623 9596, fax +331 4623 0652 or email pdm@oilit.com.
Denver-based Terrasciences and Petroleum Software Technologies (PST) have agreed to give PST products direct access to the project well files of the TerraStation geological workstation.
Integration
This integration will provide a seamless link for PST’s industry-leading resistivity and SP log inversion modeling and neural network software, into the TerraStation environment.
Jagger
Terrasciences’ president Andy Jagger said “Our mutual clients can now expand their analyses without the time-consuming export and import of data. By adding Rt-Mod, SP-Mod, and the neural network product NNLAP, we are providing easy access to valuable new technologies that complement our own.”
Terrastation II
Terrascience recently announced a new release of TerraStation II, its geological and petrophysical workstation. Version 6.3 includes significant upgrades to the borehole imaging modules. Terrastation II now also performs geochemical analysis. More from www.terrasciences.com.
Tobin International Ltd. is to integrate and resell software from Cimage NovaSoft, the document management and eBusiness solution specialist. The Cimage NovaSoft software will be integrated with Tobin’s Land Suite, AquaTrac (water resource management) and a contract administration application. The Cimage NovaSoft products will add document management, records management and workflow capabilities to the Tobin products.
E&P
Targeted markets for the products include petroleum exploration and production, corridor and right of way management, power generation and distribution, land management, and facilities management.
Pemberton
Larry Pemberton, VP Sales for Tobin said, “We chose Cimage NovaSoft as our document management partner because of the strength of their product for managing large documents including engineering drawing and maps. Cimage NovaSoft understands and focuses on the markets we serve.”
Change management
Cimage NovaSoft solutions are typically used to store, distribute, and manage engineering drawings and related documentation, and to manage the change process. Cimage NovaSoft has over 650 installations in 30 countries. Its customers include British Energy, the US Navy, Amoco, Marathon and Mobil Oil.
70 years
Tobin has provided imagery and land management tools since it was founded over 70 years ago. In the interim, Tobin has transformed land management from paper-based systems to digital maps coupled with tabular databases, satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Alberta Energy Company (AEC) has selected J.D. Edwards to provide a global accounting solution and e-commerce infrastructure. Hayward Walls, AEC CIO, stated “Our goal is to be the first independent oil and gas company in North America to embrace electronic commerce on a worldwide scale. To achieve this, technology must help, not hinder our growth plans. We view J.D. Edwards as a leader in providing flexible and agile enterprise software, e-procurement and specific upstream oil and gas applications – all in a collaborative commerce solution that will enable us to realize cost savings significantly above our investment level.”
Paradigm Technologies
AEC’s e-commerce solution will be built with software components from Paradigm Technologies (a Petroleum Place company), J.D. Edwards and e-commerce specialist Ariba Inc. AEC accounting is based on Paradigm’s Upstream Solutions joint venture and AFE components, which incorporate J.D. Edwards’ OneWorld Xe infrastructure.
Aggressive
AEC is experiencing rapid growth through an aggressive international acquisition strategy and the J.D. Edwards solution will provide a common internal platform enabling AEC to integrate and streamline business processes and share information across newly acquired units.
Searles
Brian Searles, president and CEO of Paradigm Technologies adds “This announcement is the first of what we anticipate to be many joint wins in the oil and gas sector with J.D. Edwards.”
Schlumberger’s IndigoPool.com e-commerce unit and Waterous & Co., an investment advisor specializing in oil and gas acquisitions and divestments (A&D) are to form a joint venture technology company. The new company will integrate business processes and technology to support the online A&D functionality of IndigoPool. Extrapolating from Waterous’ recent worldwide offerings, it is anticipated that over the next year, $3 billion of assets will be added to IndigoPool by some 50 oil and gas companies. To date, the total number of assets posted to IndigoPool tops 450.
Waterous
Waterous was founded in 1987 by Jeffrey Waterous and now has 50 employees and offices in Calgary, Houston, London, and Nassau. Since January 1998, the firm has rung-up a cool $6 billion in corporate A&D for its clients. The new IndigoPool A&D Web site will provide key technical information, third party databases, and a wide variety of evaluation tools to support buyers and sellers international oil and gas properties.
Advisory
Managing Director Adam Waterous said “We maximize our client’s value providing a multi-phased advisory process for each divestiture. Now, during evaluation, buyers can conduct the majority of their technical review by accessing comprehensive information, data and applications through IndigoPool.”
Pai
IndigoPool president Satish Pai adds “This is an important development for IndigoPool. Waterous is the global leader in oil and gas A&D – they bring a strong business perspective and depth of experience in real property deals.” More from www.indigopool.com and www.waterous.com.
T-Surf has released Jacta, a plug in for its flagship GoCAD geological modeling software. Jacta adds uncertainty analysis to reservoir description and modeling. Jacta walks users through the process of reservoir characterization and model building, capturing the uncertainty inherent in each domain measurement.
Uncertainty
Jacta captures structural uncertainty at seismic resolution as well as time-to-depth conversion errors. Internal architectural errors due to well density can similarly be quantified. Other error sources such as facies, petrophysical property distribution, fluid properties and contacts are integrated. Jacta provides a focus for the asset team by bringing together different domain specialists. This enables an integrated analysis of model construction and highlights the impact of different inputs, their uncertainty and interdependencies, on reserve estimation.
TotalFinaElf
The software was originally developed under contract to TotalFinaElf and is now used by Chevron, Texaco, BHP and other members of the GoCad consortium. Jacta links to Microsoft Excel for economic feasibility analysis. An optional link with StreamSim’s 3DSL, the streamline simulator, allows dynamic investigation of high-resolution geological models.
Petroleum Software Technologies is offering a free log calculator on its website . The software allows for quick-look calculations of porosity, water saturation etc. Recommended use is for trial and error determination of sensitivity to different parameters.
Day-time job
PST’s ‘day-time job’ is supplying neural net-based log interpretation software to clients such as BP, ExxonMobil and many others. Register and download the Log Calculator from www.petroleumtechnologies.com.
GeoQuest, has revamped the Eclipse reservoir simulator. The new release – “2000A” boasts more speed and over 120 new features. Migration from the blackoil simulator (Eclipse 100) to compositional simulator (Eclipse 300) is simplified. Other enhancements include unification of documentation, keywords and parallel processing compatibility. The compositional simulator has a new-generation linear solver, tuned for complex local grid refinement and a multipoint flux approximation for tensor permeabilities.
FrontSim
Users can now build, run and visualize FrontSim streamline simulation from within the Eclipse Office. Preprocessor and postprocessor enhancements include more gradients and parameters in SimOpt, support for graphics run files and order-of-magnitude speed gains for various file loading operations.
WellTest 200
Well tests of any complexity can now be analyzed by combining WellTest 200 analytical and numerical well test software with either the Eclipse blackoil or compositional simulators. Eclipse 2000A runs on Windows 98, 2000, NT, UNIX, Solaris, SGI IRIX and IBM AIX.
Landmark has revealed* more details on its new format for horizon and seismic data as deployed in the Interpret2000 suite. The continuing explosion of data volumes in seismic acquisition and interpretation is forcing a re-think of how these massive datasets are handled through the interpretation process.
Breakthrough
Claiming a ‘breakthrough’ in the management of such datasets, Landmark offers an environment where various new formats, lossy compression techniques and tiled data storage strategies are deployed in Interpret2000. The new tiled format helps manage large horizon datasets, offering significant improvement in display speed.
Bricks & tiles
Bricked and compressed formats perform similar functions for seismic data. All Landmark’s interpretations now read and write the new formats. New floating point data formats allow interpreters and data managers to optimize storage for 8, 16 or 32 bit datasets.
Fit for purpose
A variety of techniques help select fit-for-purpose compression strategies. The white paper is available from the Landmark website and offers a good introduction to the perplexing new world of multiple data sets, and the associated issues for the data manager.
* Interpret2000, Horizon and Seismic Data Formats, Kerr et Al, Landmark 2000 (www.lgc.com).
Synchronized
Production2000 synchronizes a dozen Halliburton/Landmark products to provide “integration and decision support for petroleum, reservoir, drilling, production and economics.” Production2000 also offers an integration bridge between the worlds of the geoscientist and engineer, by linkage of PC production systems and OpenWorks. Drilling engineers can now make access earth model information during well planning and production operations.
New platform
The following products will integrate the new platform;
GeoQuest’s Decision Point is an enterprise information portal to services, software and domain expertise. GeoQuest president Thierry Pilenko claims “With Decision Point, all end users, including E&P managers and executives, have better command of the critical information that is important to individual, team and corporate success. This information solution addresses the requirements of majors, independents and national oil companies.”
Personalized
Decision Point gives E&P professionals personalized access to validated information and analysis on the desktop and helps them collaborate with peers and managers throughout the company or throughout the world. From geology and geophysics to finance and risk analysis, Decision Point offers direct access to information located in data sources such as project databases, document stores, public and private information sources, data warehouses and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Structured
Information resources made available through Decision Point include structured data such as well data and seismic surveys (both public and proprietary), production, up-to-date financial performance indicators, and unstructured data such as reports and e-mail. The new GeoQuest service brings together the concepts of data management, access to data analysis tools, document classification, group collaboration, business intelligence, executive information and the company Intranet.
Community
Users can participate in online communities, obtain and analyze organized internal content sources, access available public industry information and manage corporate knowledge. Portal Technology offers ease-of-use, extensive personalization and the aggregation of content sources for decision-makers. Decision Point leverages GeoQuest’s PowerHouse center-based E&P data management, the IndigoPool.com online portal for buyers, sellers and traders of E&P assets and data and the LiveQuest application service provider (ASP) solutions.
A strategic alliance between Paradigm Geophysical and Aberdeen-based Sysdrill has given birth to new drilling and well operations software “DirectorGeo.” The tool integrates Sysdrill’s drilling engineering and well operations solutions with Paradigm’s flagship product, VoxelGeo .
Sysdrill
The deal gives Paradigm an option to acquire a controlling interest in Sysdrill. Founded in 1985, Sysdrill provides software and services for drilling engineering and well operations, notably the Directional Drilling System (DDS) and Director directional well planning tools which Sysdrill claims are used to plan the majority of the worlds deviated wells.
Weiss
Eldad Weiss, Paradigm’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer commented, “The alliance with Sysdrill is the latest of our planned strategies to provide the industry with a full suite of solutions. Incorporating Sysdrill’s technologies into Paradigm’s environment enables us to offer the industry comprehensive solutions in the integration of geoscience knowledge with drilling and well operations.
dedicated
We have not just gained access to superior software and services, but to a group of dedicated staff that add to the expertise and experience Paradigm is providing to the industry.” More from www.sysdrill.com.
BP, Norsk Hydro and Statoil have chosen Roxar’s IRAP RMS software as a component of their reservoir modeling. The deals have a total value of 10 million NOK, with a further 15 million NOK in annual maintenance fees. IRAP RMS software is used to create a 3D reservoir model from input such as seismic information and well data. IRAP RMS helps assess the uncertainties associated with a reservoir model and provides input to the simulator.
Gjerstad
Roxar CEO Torkell Gjerstad commented “We are pleased these leading oil companies, following extensive evaluations, have all selected the IRAP RMS suite as the most appropriate tool for their needs.”
Petris Technology, Inc has acquired exclusive internet publishing rights for the year 2000 edition of the Oil and Gas Finance Sourcebook (OGFS) from Hart Publications, publisher of Oil and Gas Investor. This information is the first data set available in the new advanced search feature of PetrisX, the “Internet Data Room.”
Financial networking
Hart’s OGFS is described as a ‘financial networking tool’ and contains profiles of investors, property purchasers, financial institutions and consultants. Users of the PetrisX Data Room can query the directory for companies and individuals whose profiles match a prospect’s criteria.
Spend, spend, spend!
The OGFS provides information on industry players with capital to invest in drilling and exploration prospects and for reserve purchases. Users can research a company’s backgrounds, its area of interest, deal criteria and spend history. The directory also offers contact information on investment decision-makers.
Loan financing
For those seeking loan financing, the directory includes information on other investment sources such as private capital providers, lending institutions, investment bankers, and alternative financiers. Hart’s VP Bob Jarvis said “We are very excited to have Petris publish the Oil and Gas Finance Sourcebook over the Internet. With Petris’ keen technology edge, this book becomes the online handbook for oil and gas companies and individuals seeking to finance some of their activities.” Visit PetrisX on www.petris.com.
A new tape subsystem has been released by IBM. StorageSmart LTO Ultrium Data Cartridges support the Linear Tape-Open Cartridge Memory (LTO-CM) chip, which reads and writes data with a radio frequency transmission.
Simultaneous
The LTO-CM enables simultaneous transfer of cartridge during media load and unload cycles, improving data access speeds. AImed at the midrange and network tape storage environments, the new subsystems provide scalable solutions through to multi-terabyte libraries.
High-end
The high-end StorageSmart SL7500 Tape Library offers around a terabyte per square foot of floor space. Individual tape capacity is quoted as 100GB (uncompressed*) and data transfer to and from the media is currently around 15mb/s. Currently the drives are SCSI-attached, with fibre channel connectivity via third party NAS and SAN gateway adapters.
FCAL
Future plans include a native Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop attachment (FC-AL) interface. Other features include a barcode scanner for optical cartridge recognition and automated tape inventory. A touch-screen LCD panel enables local review of library status and provides control over local functions.
*PDM Note - IBM’s marketing material entertains some confusion as to data capacities and bandwidth. Here all figures are uncompressed.
Neil Baker has been appointed director, of Canadian archives operations with Kelman Archives, replacing Geoff Martin.
A2D
A2D Technologies has names Butch Belcher business manager of its southwest region based in Midland, Texas. Belcher was with Baker Hughes before joining A2D two years back.
PetroCosm
Beverly Scippa is now marketing and communications manager with PetroCosm (www.petrocosm.com). Scippa was formerly with Petris Technologies.
Veritas
Pete Bratton is moving from Calgary to join Veritas’ Guardian Data Seismic group as business development manager.
Kelman
Richard Hood and Bill Leakey have both moved from Kelman Technologies to take up positions with Houston-based Seitel Inc. Javan Meinwald has left Paradigm to become VP Sales for Neuralog Inc.
DEAL, The CDA/UKOOA information portal has announced the rollout schedule for its first service offerings. Already up and running are the Information Services - “iDEAL,” and the Data Marketplace “uDEAL.” The DEAL Unified Data Network - eDEAL is due for release on 15th December 2000.
iDEAL
iDEAL offers quick and simple access to a single, complete and reliable reference set of basic spatial and attribute data over the UKCS. DEAL prime contractor BGS is assembling the data from a variety of sources and populating the DEAL database after quality assurance.
uDEAL
uDEAL is a catalogue of UKCS geotechnical data products. The service is intended as a marketplace for users and vendors alike. Data vendors can publish details of their data products on DEAL by associating them with an existing spatial object (a well for example) or by creating objects on an existing map layer (creating an outline polygon showing the areal extent of say a regional geological report). Such information will be made visible to end users through the DEAL GIS interface. Fully-fledged e-commerce is envisaged in the future.
eDEAL
DEAL’s most ambitious concept will be a paying service. uDEAL extends data marketplace to include entitlement and e-commerce. uDEAL draws distributed data stores together into one unified virtual system. Users will be able to see what data exists and what data they are entitled to. First targeted data type is SEG-Y stacked seismic.
Schlumberger
Schlumberger, although first in the UK’s data portal business with the LIFT facility, was originally excluded from DEAL. But the service behemoth has ‘dealt’ itself back in, with the acquisition of DEAL hosting contractor, Data Marine Systems (DMS). DMS was acquired last month by Schlumberger’s Network Solutions unit for an undisclosed sum.
Flinois
Network Solutions president Xavier Flinois explained “This acquisition will enhance our global delivery infrastructure for secure connectivity. DMS owns and manages both a global VSAT based network and an extranet that provide secure and remote network access to over 100 companies in the oil and gas industry.” DMS was founded in 1988 and has grown to become a 200 employee company generating $50 million turnover.
OPNet
DMS private network, OPNet offers a 2MB/sec bandwidth in the North Sea, with an upgrade to a new fiber network underway. DMS director Alan McLeod plans to “reproduce our successful Aberdeen-based partnering network in other regions such as the US, Latin America and East Asia” with help from the new owners.
The US Minerals Management Service (MMS) has produced a CD-ROM of geographical data for the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf-wide Information System (GWIS) is a geographic database containing information on environmental resources along the Gulf of Mexico coastal and near shore areas from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Tampa, Florida.
NOAA
The database was developed jointly by the MMS, GOM States and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The CD contains a consistent overview of marine and coastal data for the study area and was designed for oil-spill contingency planning, oil-spill response, and environmental planning and assessment in the marine and coastal areas.
ArcView
The GWIS CD includes information on environmental features such as terrestrial and marine wildlife, managed lands, transportation, and socioeconomic features. GIS data is provided in ArcView shapefiles with tabular data in dBase format. The CD-ROM is available from the MMS for a very reasonable $20.00. Buy yours now from www.mms.gov.