Oil ITJ - What are Schlumberger
Information Solutions’ top-level objectives today?
Toma - To deliver on our vision of the
smart field—the next paradigm shift for upstream productivity. Euan Baird’s
1996 vision was of delivering a 15% percentage point improvement in recovery.
A global one percent increase in recovery equates to a year of production.
Oil ITJ - So how is the Smart Field (SF) going
to achieve this?
Toma - SF links the field and the office
more closely and facilitates concurrent analysis of field data and financial
information—making the right decisions in a timely manner. In drilling, this
might mean real-time collaboration with external stakeholders or with co-workers
in the Visionarium. All this requires secure global, managed access in and out
of corporate firewalls.
Oil ITJ - Where does Petrel
fit in?
Toma - The key software component of
the SF is the Living Model (LM). The LM holds the current best estimates of
reservoir characteristics. The LM allows for real time well path planning—no
more ‘blind drilling’! The LM includes seamless access to enterprise knowledge,
data and financial information—coupled to the Living Business Plan. Where does
Petrel fit in? The LM is the heart of the SF and Petrel is the heart of the
LM!
Oil ITJ - Schlumberger now has at least three
‘solutions’ for seismic interpretation alone - can we expect rationalization?
Toma - We can’t ask our clients to throw
away everything they have got! We have attempted to encourage rationalization
of our two seismic interpretation suites IESX and Charisma - but the camps are
entrenched!
Oil ITJ - But how do you
differentiate the UNIX tools from Petrel?
Toma - GeoFrame focuses on the high end,
seismic interpretation market, producing a high uncertainty, coarse model suitable
for refinement and further interpretation within Petrel.
Oil ITJ - Last year the
Petrel folks were going head-on with Unix interpretation systems—how can you
maintain this differentiation?
Toma - GeoFrame and Petrel are complementary.
GeoFrame provides multi-user UNIX/Linux tools for high data volume interpretation.
During and following reservoir delineation, the PC-based Petrel is more appropriate. Today’s
32 bit Windows-based PC is still limited to 2GB of memory.
Oil ITJ - If there is no
product retirement, how do you separate Unix workflows from Petrel workflows?
Toma - Our software offering comprises
three ‘pillars’. First is the GeoFrame-based enterprise solution. Next, Petrel’s
‘asset performance’ solution focuses on integration and working in depth. Finally
the simulation ‘pillar’ centers on ECLIPSE. We intend to share intellectual
property across the three pillars.
Oil ITJ - What about geological modeling?
Toma - Mapping and geological
tools will be available in both GeoFrame and Petrel. But Petrel is now our definitive
3D modeling tool - we made the acquisition to fill a hole in our product line
- and to gain market share - Petrel is N° 1 in 3D modeling and is showing incredible
growth.
Oil ITJ - How does all this integrate?
Toma - OpenSpirit is the key to
seamless software integration in SIS. Petrel was already deploying OpenSpirit
to link with GeoFrame successfully. In fact Open Spirit Corp. is doing well
- standing on its own feet - and it made a positive net from sales growth in
the first two months of 2003. No vendors will today deny the success of Open
Spirit.
Oil ITJ - What about enterprise IT?
Toma - Schlumberger Information Solutions
wants to be the enterprise integrator of choice. This is a tremendous growth
market for us. IM solutions are 20% software and 80% services. Leveraging third
party tools is also a strength for us—particularly through
SchlumbergerSema.
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