At the Paris Forum 2000 GeoQuest confirmed the opening-up of their software products to third party developers and other vendor datastores. The open strategy comprises three components

GeoQuest acknowledge this as a change in strategy 'driven by industry needs'. In fact over the last year, GeoQuest have moved from being something of a laggard, to the forefront of the openness field particularly with the backing they are now giving to OpenSpirit.

Ax Hesterman from Shell gave the keynote presentation on OpenSpirit as seen from Shell's perspective. Hesterman's presentation offered an interesting insight into the commercial pressures behind OpenSpirit. While both PGS and GeoQuest have responded to Shell's integration position by offering to join the OpenSpirit Alliance and port their apps to the new framework, Landmark only offered to use OpenSpirit as a means of integrating in-house developed applications.

GeoQuest's ambitious targets for the deployment of OpenSpirit are:

Interoperability demonstration using commercially targeted applications SEG, Nov 1999

Products ready for commercialization cycle Dec 1999

Complete OpenSpirit implementation over the next 2-3 years.

Following Pilenko's focus on automation, announced at last year's Cannes Forum (see PDM Vol. 3 N° 4) the Oilfield Services group participated in a proof-of-concept demonstration with a live hook up to the Villejust test well in the Paris Basin. Jean Marc Soler demonstrated real time data communications allowing the wireline unit to send log data during acquisition to LogDB and GeoFrame with control of remote operations through an InterAct video linkage.

Such data transmission is claimed to be secure, and part of Schlumberger's commercial offering today.

This technology will help to ensure that the 'wellsite' geologist will actually witness the logging operation instead of supping at the local café. Forum 2000 may have been a success in 1999, but will pose a problem for GeoQuest marketeers in the year 2000. What will they call the Forum then?