Speaking at the 2021 Esri EU Petroleum User Group (PUG) Brian
Boulmay (Esri) presented the OSDU Geospatial Consumption Zone. From the
early days of what was originally the open subsurface data universe,
now just ‘OSDU’, folks were asking for mapping functionality. This is
now embedded as a core OSDU function with Esri contributing to what is
termed the Geospatial Consumption Zone. The GCZ exposes a web mapping
service using either Esri or the OGC’s web services. The GCZ is, in
OSDU terminology, a ‘layered service’
operating above the core services foundation. Currently the GCZ
supports well and seismic data. This will be extended to allow for the
extraction of shape files or GeoJson-formatted data to support arbitraty
bounding-box selection of seismic data and other workfows. The final
OSDU package will include a geospatial indexing utility that will build
the geometries, a geospatial storage capability, most likely Apache
Ignite, and an ability to produce open source map services, most likely
based on Koop, a JavaScript toolkit for
connecting spatial APIs. There is also the potential for OSDU to expand
into other fields like new energy, ecological and emissions-related
activity via the Open Footprint Forum, sharing the same geospatial
underpinning. Boulmay summed up saying that ‘Data integration and
interoperability is hard. OSDU represents around 200 people working at
this to provide an open source environment for upstream data access’.
Usable products should be available real soon now. More on the GCZ in
this short video and from OSDU.
Scott Noulis (Esri) presented Esri’s platform approach to emissions monitoring. GIS brings multiple measurement technologies together. GHGSat provides weekly averages of methane in the Permian basin. Analysts can zoom int to an AOI, set alerts and focus inspection efforts. Satellites can be tasked to zoom-in on specific areas. On-the-ground IoT sensors, OGI gas cameras and thief hatch sensors can be rolled-up into the big picture. In-vehicle cameras and methane sniffers also ran. ArcGIS Workforce can be deployed to manage field personnel, issuing work orders and alarms. Tablet-based forms collect data in the field. Inspection data is collated back in the office, enhancing situational awareness through remote sensing, IoT and ‘mobility’. This is a ‘multi-scale problem that is very amenable to GIS’.
Mark Jones and Jorrit Jorritsma provided an update on Shell’s myMap, now deployed world-wide with a support staff of 200 geomaticians in 15 countries. In 2020 myMap was retooled to align with Shell IT’s cloud strategy. The move to a secure SaaS platform was ‘not just a simple lift and shift’ operation and involved a change from file-based data to an API/web services paradigm, along with the move from the on-premise infrastructure. This made for a ‘considerable migration effort’. Shell’s myMap had some 10 years of community content to evaluate. And there were no off the shelf migration tools so Shell developed its own in Python, and now has several myMap apps and tools including ‘deCarbon Works’, ‘Project Discovery’ (see below) and other ‘energy transition hubs’. The cloud-based system works with web services-style enterprise apps including FutureOn (digital twin), Autodesk Civil3D (engineering), I Hawk (drone software) and, of course, OSDU and ArcGIS Online. In the Q&A it emerged that some non-cloud subsurface applications were progressing more slowly to retool to the new paradigm and security model. Also, it emerged that there was a certain amount of ‘forward-looking’ material in the cloud advocacy, ‘the depth of map services has been greatly exaggerated’. Some ArcGIS Online functionality is still the ‘stuff of dreams’. Things will come good in a couple of years, ‘we are on a journey’. Shell’s is currently a blended cloud/on-prem approach.
Brian Boulmay elaborated on the merits of ‘enterprise-pattern deployment’. GIS is now a comprehensive imaging and remote sensing application. A new SiteScan application extends the functionality of the Drone2Map desktop drone mapping app for multi drone planning and acquisition. A new product ‘ArcGIS Velocity’ offers cloud native IoT function in the GIS to track people and events in the field. Esri now also offers a graph database in the form of ArcGIS Knowledge. Matt Ballard (Esri) explained how a graph database stores the relationships between entities, as opposed to rows and columns. ArcGIS Knowledge allows graph algorithms and spatial analytics to be applied to the supply chain, showing a map of suppliers, raw materials and their interconnections.
Josh Townsend (BP and IOGP) presented on the recent update of GIGS,
the IOGP’s toolset that assures the ‘Geospatial integrity of geoscience
software’. Despite the best efforts of GIGS V1 (since 2011) poor
quality spatial data still poses a ‘significant and severe risk’ with possible
errors of tens of kilometers. The GIGS 2.0 toolkit
including test data, checklists and guidelines. V2.0 was built by BP,
Petrobras and EIVA A/S, and is managed by the
IOGP’s Geomatics unit*. The
framework for testing and improving spatial integrity is available at
the GIGS portal. Testers can find machine
readable tests, a new help system and a package of synthetic geoscience
test data with global coverage including wells and 3D seismic volumes.
GIGS is currently working on a Python bridge. More on GIGS in the Oil
IT Journal contributed paper from Josh Townsend.
* See also the great video explaining the new plate tectonics-compatible dynamic coordinate reference system.
James Bowler and John Arundell presented Shell’s Project Discovery, a map-based business intelligence system for Shell’s marine unit. Shell has up to 2,000 vessels at sea at any one time, across multiple lines of business. Discovery provides the big picture of this activity for, inter alia, insurance purposes. The system shows real time vessel locations and capabilities and seasonal weather data, allowing for rapid response to situations such as wars, and container ships grounded in the Suez Canal! Maritime data in the system includes vessel destination, pilot status, bunkering, cargo and more. Discovery is built on myMap, Shell’s branded edition of ArcGIS Online (AGOL). The system was configured with standard Web App Builder functionality. This has proved to be a ‘stable, repeatable way of exposing map services’. Discovery makes use of FME Server Workspaces for data ingestion into a pipeline that passes through SDE, ArcGIS Pro and AGOL. The system is accessed through a map interface configured for each use case. For insurance purposes, a widget can select and display downstream vessels in a geofenced high risk area for analysis.
Romain Collette and Lance Valeroso (TotalEnergies) presented on GIS use in oil spill contingency planning. Total’s system addresses ESG impact and biodiversity data management. Oil spill contingency planning involves mapping for anti-pollution strategies, tracking spill location and projected path alongside locations of societal and environmental ‘sensitivities’ i.e. high consequence areas. During a crisis, daily ArcMap updates are pushed to a WebGIS Portal for action and mitigation measures. Total Energies ‘Kompass’ application combines ArcGIS crisis datasets and the open source GeoServer. Failure during a crisis is not an option so AGOL is used as a backup. A demo showed a Gulf of Mexico oil spill and various HCAs along the coast, along with the locations of available mitigation measures such as buoys and booms and local ground crews for clean-up. Crisis support is a collaborative exercise requiring many competencies. Reactivity is key and GIS is a crucial component of TE’s crisis management process.
Martine Espeseth (Kongsberg Satellite Services) presented an oil spill drift model that relates observed satellite color and sheen with spill thickness variations. A machine learning model using Spot satellite observation of a 2019 Java Sea oil spill has been calibrated with sheen style, from patchy ‘rainbow’ sheen to ‘metallic’ sheen indicating an actionable continuous oil spill. The system includes an oil drift model to forecast spill direction and a ‘hindcast’ to help identify the guilty party. KSAT is now working to verify its model with time series data from SAR and optical satellites and ascertaining the usefulness of including more data in initiating and updating the model.
Ridley Smith (ENI Petroleum) assisted by Matt Cadwallander (40geo) and Rafael Schille (Fugro) presented ENI’s investigation into ‘loop current’ risk in the Gulf of Mexico. Loop currents are large-scale eddies that are shed by the Gulf Stream and whirl around the GoM. Strong loop currents are understood to have been a likely cause of the delayed commissioning of Chevron’s Big Foot platform. ENI Now monitors loop currents to provide an online common operating picture including vessel and helicopter tracking. The system combines surface measurement from drifting buoys and platforms and monitoring from NOAA’s Sea Surface Temperature satellite, all feeding into ArcMap. Fugro adds marine domain awareness from multiple data streams collected into 40G’s Raptor GeoIoT running in the Amazon cloud. Smith acknowledged the following institutions, LumCon, the Louisiana Marine Consortium, the Grand Lagrangian Deployment and the Maritime Academy at Texas A&M.
Kevin Goldsmith presented Project Zeus, BP’s methane identification and quantification program. BP plans to install methane measurement on all major oil and gas processing sites by 2023, publish their data and then drive a 50% emissions reduction. BP is also pushing it to non-operated joint venture partners to set a 0.2% methane target. VIIRS (visible infrared imaging radiometer) data from the Suomi NPP Satellite and NOAA 20 are downloaded daily. Data is filtered on source temperature, area and quality and clustered with the Python DbScan algorithm. The EU Tropomi nadir-viewing imaging spectrometer and Sentinel Hub API is exceptionally sensitive although spatial resolution low. The Maxar WorldView 3 pinpoints non-flaring events. In 2020 BP also invested in Satelytics. The Zeus Application is a BP-developed JavaScript front end for all of the above. Zeus leverages the Uber H3 hexagonal indexing system to select, name and save an AOI, and then generate a time series. BP is now working on automated alerts and the integration of ‘bottom up’ production data.
Chris Richardson BP presented BP’s UK carbon capture and storage initiatives (Net Zero Teesside, the Humber Hub and Northern Endurance Partnership) all now visible in One Map. This provides point and click to access bathymetry, site survey data and vessel tracking. The system leverages the EsriAzure Event Hub and Safe Software’s FME. The swipe widget has proved useful to compare past and current site states. Lidar/drone data is also viewable in the 3D App along with CAD site data.
Bee Smith and Jenny Gray (UK OGA) presented their work with the Esri Experience Builder a ‘no-code’ front end development tool. This has enabled the development of ad-hoc apps for, e.g., displaying the UKCS stock of suspended wells, the Energy Pathfinder app and more.
While windfarms are a little out of scope for Oil IT Journal it has to be said that this, and other energy transition activities, fits GIS like a glove. In fact the renewables sector is arguably even more amenable to GIS than oil and gas with its activity concentrated on the earth’s surface (where GIS shines) rather than in the subsurface (where GIS is not such a great fit).
The UK Crown Estate presented on the use of GIS to evaluate multiple
criteria for wind farm site selection using ‘analytical hierarchical
processing’ to combine
weighted constraints of wind strength, exclusion zones and more.
Renewable energy consultants Everoze
got a shout-out. More on the methodology and the results.
Simon Kettle (BP Global Offshore) presented similar work on global wind opportunities. ‘Not all wind energy resources are born equal’. BP’s One Map has allowed for combined risk segment mapping across wind speed, water depth, distance to grid and more. The North Sea looks promising.
Erlend (Geocap) presented a joint venture with Atkins and others into seabed investigations for offshore wind. The ‘Ground Model JIP’ integrate a wide range of data and formats into ArcGIS environment along with visualization with ArcGIS Pro 3D/2D viewers. More here. See also here for Geocap’s seismic viewer. Latest: from Kvinnesland (February 2022) ‘We are currently finalizing the JIP and plan to release the product within the next month or so. Once it’s available on the market the JIP will be over. However, we will of course continue to develop the product with new functionality going forward’.
The 2021 Esri EU PUG videos can be viewed on the Esri Events YouTube channel.
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