AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Long Beach, April 2007

Multi-attribute interpretation in Petrel 20071

Around 5,200 attended the 2007 Conference and Exhibition of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, held in Long Beach California. The conference took place right on top of the Willmington field which has produced 2.65 billion bbls of oil and 1.2 TCF gas over 75 years. It still produces 75,000 bopd from 1,300 wells. Despite the sessions on CO2 sequestration and alternative energy, the AAPG is a somewhat unreconstructed skeptic when it comes to global warming. The party line, as expressed by president Lee Billingsley, is that a human origin is ‘not proven’ and that taxing energy to reduce consumption will have a deleterious effect on the exploration and production effort. The AAPG is likewise doubtful that ‘peak oil’ is real – preferring a future of ‘plateau’ production lasting out through 2050 and beyond. The fly in the ointment is the possibility of runaway consumption using up these plentiful reserves before that time. On the exhibition floor, we spotted new offerings in the field of seismic-less interpretation, including Fugro-Jason’s PowerBench which now handles extreme well log counts. GeoGraphix also offers flexible cross section-based geologizing from well logs, with structural model building on the fly. For Schlumberger, the big event was the launch of Petrel 2007 which is moving into basin-wide exploration of large data sets on a PC. Landmark’s response is a revamped GeoProbe with enhanced model building and currently, a 64 bit advantage. A special session on automated interpretation included a Terraspark’s automated fault extraction and ‘fault probability volume.’ Paradigm was showing a seed parent count technique that is used as a facies indicator. But the most popular activity for the modern geologist is model building – for just about everything from structural geology, sedimentation, rock mechanics and geochemistry. The visualization session offered a good snapshot of where the majors are with high-end virtual reality. ExxonMobil described use in training geologists through virtual field trips. A presentation on BP’s HIVES showed a growing application portfolio used across the company from exploration to engineering offshore platforms. Perhaps the most interesting thing we heard at the show was the news of renewed intra-company cooperation between Halliburton’s Sperry logging arm and its interpretation software division Landmark. We will be reporting further on these developments in our next Technology Watch report from the Society of Petroleum Engineers Digital Energy Conference where we heard similar noises from Schlumberger’s wireline and Information Solutions units. The demarcation lines between logging and software are something of a ‘final frontier’ for the major vendors and it is not hard to see significant synergies from breaking down this ‘silo boundary,’ even if you have probably heard this one before ...

Highlights Visualization Session

IFP’s OpenFlow infrastructureLandmark’s DecisionSpace R5000 preview

Schlumberger’s Petrel 2007MetaCarta GeoIntel for Petroleum

Roxar’s FracPerm 2.0

1 Image courtesy Schlumberger.

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AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704

Contents TW0704_1 Presidential address – Lee Billingsley .................................................................................................................. 3 TW0704_2 Role of independents – from wildcat to Wall Street ............................................................................................. 3

0704_2.1 Role of independents – Monika Ehrmann, Locke Liddle & Sapp ................................................ 3 0704_2.2 Building an EU independent – Vincent Hamilton, Tethys Oil ..................................................... 3

TW0704_3 World oil reserves – Hedberg Conference summary ............................................................................................ 3 TW0704_4 Alternative Energy Session................................................................................................................................... 4

0704_4.1 Geologic application of climate change models – Eric Barron, University of Texas-Jackson.... 4 0704_4.2 The D-Space program, e-access to the Raymond Levey, Utah Heavy Oil Center ....................... 4

TW0704_5 Division of Professional Affairs (DPA) Lunch – Bobby Ryan, Chevron ............................................................. 4 TW0704_6 Automated interpretation session.......................................................................................................................... 5

0704_6.1 11:05 – Automated fault extraction (AFE) – Geoff Dorn, Terraspark ........................................ 5 0704_6.2 New Interpretation assets from computer assisted interpretation – Huw James, Paradigm....... 5

TW0704_7 Visualization Session............................................................................................................................................ 5 0704_7.1 BP’s HIVES – Jim Thomson, BP ................................................................................................. 5 0704_7.2 Visualization data server – Theo Meyer, Panoram Technologies ............................................... 6 0704_7.3 Hi end visualization in geoscience and training – Marek Czernuszenko, ExxonMobil ............... 7 0704_7.4 Colocated visualization – Thorsten Holtkämper, Fraunhofer Institute ....................................... 7 0704_7.5 Visualization in Shell – Ken Bradford, Peter Diebold, Shell....................................................... 8 0704_7.6 Large data sets on commodity hardware – Phil Weatheril, Shell................................................ 8

TW0704_8 Exhibitors.............................................................................................................................................................. 8 0704_8.1 Datacon ’RocksOnline’ online core store ................................................................................... 8 0704_8.2 de Groot-Bril – 3D Wheeler transform in SSIS ........................................................................... 9 0704_8.3 Exploservices OP Finder – A&D prospect database .................................................................. 9 0704_8.4 French Petroleum Institute (IFP) ................................................................................................ 9 0704_8.5 Fugro-Jason Power Bench ........................................................................................................ 10 0704_8.6 IES Petromod 10.0 – new lithology database............................................................................ 10 0704_8.7 iGeoss – Dynel 2D/3D finite element-based restoration ........................................................... 11 0704_8.8 IHS Petra, Enerdeq and Acquisition Screener .......................................................................... 11 0704_8.9 Innerlogix QC Pro new release ................................................................................................. 11 0704_8.10 Intellection QemScan automated petrography device ............................................................... 12 0704_8.11 Landmark................................................................................................................................... 12 0704_8.12 MetaCarta – GeoIntel for Petroleum ........................................................................................ 14 0704_8.13 Midland Valley Exploration – 4DMove..................................................................................... 15 0704_8.14 Neuralog – NeuraDB extends to digital log data ...................................................................... 15 0704_8.15 Paradigm/IFP KINE3D Structural Modeling with GoCad. ...................................................... 16 0704_8.16 Petrosys – Direct Connect to Petra ........................................................................................... 17 0704_8.17 Roxar New release of FracPerm ............................................................................................... 17 0704_8.18 Schlumberger Information Solutions......................................................................................... 18 0704_8.19 Seismic Micro Technology – Kingdom Suite 64 bit release ‘real soon now’ ............................ 20

TW0704_9 ‘Data’ Poster Session .......................................................................................................................................... 20 0704_9.1 Rock property volumes from well logs – Les Denham, Interactive Interpretation & Training . 20 0704_9.2 Geological Metadata – Don Downey, Chevron......................................................................... 20 0704_9.3 Geophysical data in 3-D GIS – Tony Dupont, Earth Science Associates .................................. 20 0704_9.4 National G&G Data Preservation Program - John Steinmetz, University of Indiana .............. 20 0704_9.5 SLB Log mnemonics – Eric Hatleberg - Schlumberger............................................................. 20

TW0704_10 Other papers, conferences and consortia of note............................................................................................ 20 0704_10.1 Geologic mapping of high angle and horizontal wells – Arve Thorsen et al., Inteq.................. 20 0704_10.2 Schoonebeek redevelopment study in Petrel – Hermann Priebe, Shell et al. ............................ 21 0704_10.3 IFP BRGM CO2 Symposium 4-5 October Paris ....................................................................... 21 0704_10.4 IFP Cellular Automata for Turbidite Systems ‘CATS’ .............................................................. 21

TW0704_11 Technology Watch subscription information ................................................................................................. 21 Technology Watch subscription information

This report has been produced as part of The Data Room’s Technology Watch reporting service. For more on this subscription-based service please visit the Technology Watch home page or email tw@oilit.com.

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TW0704_1 Presidential address – Lee Billingsley The petroleum geology business is challenged by limited geoscience exposure for K-121. University geoscience programs have been reduced or eliminated, particularly those relating to petroleum geology and US government funding of Department of Energy research is down. The ‘big crew change,’ the retirement of the baby boomer generation, is imminent. To fix this, Billingsley suggests a better alignment of high school and university education with the needs of industry. He also advocates that ‘boomer’ geologists do not just retire to golf courses, they should ‘pay it forward,’ by contribution to the education of a new generation of geoscientists. An ‘irrational’ public and government perception of energy supply and demand has led to calls for increased taxation of fossil fuels, especially to combat global climate change. Lee disagrees with this, saying that, ‘Increasing energy costs are the result of demand rising faster than supply. Redeployment of capital through industry will result in increased energy supplies. Redeployment of capital through taxes will decrease energy supply.’ Today, fossil fuels are the most cost- efficient energy source. Market-driven energy choices provide the best opportunity for the ‘healthy economy’ that will allow for the development of technologies to reduce emissions and provide alternative energy sources. All areas with potential are open for environmentally responsible oil and gas development. Geologists should be called upon to provide both perspective and solutions to global climate change. The AAPG’s role is to provide a bridge between academia and industry, between government and the public, between government and industry, between the public and industry2.

TW0704_2 Role of independents – from wildcat to Wall Street

0704_2.1 Role of independents – Monika Ehrmann, Locke Liddle & Sapp 90% of oil and gas wells in US are drilled by independents that also produce 50% of US crude and 60% of natural gas. Independents contribute to domestic production as opposed to ‘foreign’ energy. Ehrmann offers some advice to independents on their way from ‘wildcatter’ to Wall Street. Lesson 1: Define your scope and divest non core assets. Successful Independents ‘are good at identifying core, money-making assets.’ Lesson 2: Set goals, determine risk levels. Set geopolitical, operational and financial limits and perform routine measurement. Lesson 3: become an expert – for instance like Mitchell Energy’s successful gel frac technology in the Barnett shale. Lesson 4: Marketing and communications – see Chesapeake, Dale etc.

Q&A How is cost escalation affecting independents? Making them more selective and taking on more risk. Should they build their own drilling rigs? Maybe now. Then spin off the company. But investors want riskier oil exploration not less risky oil services3.

0704_2.2 Building an EU independent – Vincent Hamilton, Tethys Oil Europe benefits from low political risk, is under explored in comparison with North America and offers favorable infrastructure and regulations. Following the 1986 oil price crash, the Majors left onshore Europe. But since then, there is a lot of new technology (seismic and drilling) that hasn’t really been applied. The USGS estimates show ‘sizeable’ numbers in 11 selected provinces – amounting to 22bn bn. bbls. oil and 9 trillion cu.ft. gas. In the US there is one well every 16sq. km. In Spain, one well per 684 sq. km. Deregulation (2002) in EU has opened a ‘pipeline geology’ play. Reference was also made to Chris Scotese’s Palaeomap project (www.scotese.com), to a new onshore play in Denmark, exploration in France and Spain. More from www.Tethysoil.com.

TW0704_3 World oil reserves – Hedberg Conference summary Richard Nehring presented the results of the AAPG’s Hedberg Conference on World Oil and Gas Reserves. The Hedberg meeting determined that world oil production will reach a ‘peak plateau’ by 2020-2030 with production at 90-100 mmboe/day – only 10-20% above today’s rates. The plateau ‘is likely to last’ 20-30 years before ultimate decline sets in. The AAPG’s sages note that the plateau is not due to a shortage of resources, but rather the 1 A North American designation for primary and secondary education. 2 The AAPG has adopted an uncompromisingly skeptical stance in regard to global warming, ‘Geologists who study past climate variations understand that current climate warming projections fall well within documented natural variations in past climate. Therefore, for scientific reasons, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists does not support placing a carbon tax upon fossil energy sources as a tool to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, nor do we support any implementation of the Kyoto Protocol prior to Senate ratification.’ The card concludes with the statement, ‘All of the principal causes of climate change are beyond the control of human beings.’ http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2006/07jul/climate_card.cfm. 3 Is the service industry really less risky than oil and gas?

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fact that ‘current world oil consumption is using up the world’s oil at a rapid rate.’ The AAPG’s current estimate for ultimate recoverable reserves is in the 3.4-5 trillion boe range, with the main increase due to unconventional resources in Canada and Venezuela.

TW0704_4 Alternative Energy Session

0704_4.1 Geologic application of climate change models – Eric Barron, University of Texas-Jackson Only in the last decade has it been possible to model palaeo climate at the basin scale. Barron compared data-driven and model-driven approaches. A new approach uses a weather forecasting-like ‘model driven’ approach and includes more spatial ‘realism,’ including position of continents and calculating palaeo-storm track corridors. Models now couple oceans and vegetation effects and ice cover albedo. Models can go down to 30km resolution and include nested models within models. Models are used to understand sea level variations over time. In the more recent past (30,000 bp) rainfall in Europe has been tested against pollen data. A new discipline, ‘geological forecasting’ has emerged.

0704_4.2 The D-Space program, e-access to the Raymond Levey, Utah Heavy Oil Center

US EIA oil price forecast to 20301.

Last year’s report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), ‘International Energy Outlook, 2006’, forecast a decrease in the oil price till 2015 then rise to $60 by 2030 in today’s dollars. The University of Utah’s Heavy Oil Center is implementing an ArcIMS map server (text search available on http://ds.uhoc.utah.edu/dspace/index.jsp and map search on http://map.uhoc.utah.edu/website/uhoc_ims/viewer.htm) a.k.a. the D-Space with drill down to papers online, maps and tables. A RAND study found a potential of 50kbbls/day from mining and surface retorting from a plant costing $5-7 billion. To be economic this needs $70-95bbl oil. A DOE pilot project is planned with 100Kbopd using Shell’s ICP technology. This would cost $8bn with annual operating cost of $500mm/year. The US Bureau of Land Management is inviting lease proposals in CO, UT and WY. Applicants who can prove technology will get more acreage.

Q&A What do you do with the waste? Waste is a potential show stopper. In situ process is less polluting but a big issue.

TW0704_5 Division of Professional Affairs (DPA) Lunch – Bobby Ryan, Chevron Bobby Ryan, VP Exploration Chevron, gave the Division of Professional Affairs lunchtime address. The title of his talk was ‘Mapping the Route of the global energy industry’ or ‘a tale of five discoveries.’ Ryan is skeptical about peak oil but warns of access issues, demand growth and ‘challenged’ new resources. Current projections see all energy sources growing with unconventional (extra heavy oil and bitumen) growing most. Demand will increase especially for transport. Ryan also pointed out that a 1% reducing in consumption equates to 180 million bbls/year which compares with 1-2 large discoveries. To offset these issues we need ‘discoveries’ in exploration, recovery, renewables, efficiency and talent. Ryan was music to the geologists’ ears when he announced that ‘the world is full of undiscovered resources.’ These are estimated at 1.8 trillion boe, located in Siberia, Greenland, GOM, Guinea and Middle East. The GOM deepwater Wilcox trend holds an estimated 100 bnboe recoverable of

1 Source - International Energy Outlook, 2006.

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which 2.3 bnboe have been discovered to date. A map of drilling since 1997 showed lots of dry holes and a few discoveries. Chevron has posted ‘consistent exploration success’ with a 45% ‘success rate’. There is great potential for significant gains from a few percent increase in recovery.

TW0704_6 Automated interpretation session

0704_6.1 11:05 – Automated fault extraction1 (AFE) – Geoff Dorn, Terraspark

Terraspark’s automated fault extraction

Terraspark2‘s automated fault extraction technique starts with a coherency volume. Lineament enhancement is used to produce a ‘fault probability volume’ (FPV) used for fault extraction. The technique increases interpreter efficiency – collapsing one man month to around 2 hours, including testing and QC, for a complex North Sea dataset. Continuity is enhanced by the ‘black box’ FPV technique. This works best on high angle faults in competent formations. AFE ‘does for faults what horizon autotracking does for horizon picking.’ The project has support from the Terraspark consortium which includes Anadarko, BHPB, BP; Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Paradigm. More from Geoff Dorn – gdorn@terraspark.com and www.terraspark.com.

Q&A We use a similar tool in Chevron. Do you use it for exploration or development? Both – but it is only an ‘80% solution.’

0704_6.2 New Interpretation assets from computer assisted interpretation – Huw James, Paradigm3 3D propagator leverages seed points and tracks in direction of best correlation, keeping track of points tracked – best seeds, best parents, most descendants etc. Surfaces are plotted in color according to number of parents to reveal disconnected areas. James showed results from environments of different complexity. There is a suggestion that the number of descendants may relate to depositional facies. Paradigm is also working on fault tracking with Terraspark (above) and on more user-involved fault picking on amplitude (or other) volumes. This is ‘less ambitious’ than AFE – more analogous to horizon tracking. Fault picks are very sensitive to accurate migration velocities. Auto tracking techniques ‘follow the data,’ whereas interpreters will ‘smooth to geological likelihood.’

TW0704_7 Visualization Session

0704_7.1 BP’s HIVES – Jim Thomson, BP Jim Thomson (BP) cited NOAA visualization guru Alexander MacDonald as saying ‘if people visualize something, they tend to understand it.’ To help its multidisciplinary teams ‘understand’ the subsurface, BP began building its Highly Immersive Visualization Environment (HIVE) in 1999. Today it has 17, three of which are high-end, triple-head, front projection systems with curved screens and stereo displays. Intriguingly, this massive,

1 http://aapg.confex.com/aapg/2007am/techprogram/A111652.htm. 2 Formerly the BP Center of Visualization at the Colorado School of Mines. 3 http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2007/07018annual_abs_lngbch/abstracts/lbJamesH.htm.

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centrally funded investment came from headquarters, ‘no one asked for them.’ The latest systems are being upgraded with high resolution DLP projectors. BP’s HIVE technology is under constant review. In the early days of BP’s visualization effort, GeoProbe was the driver. Today the visionarium portfolio has grown to include CadCentre’s ReviewReality1, Fledermaus VR, Dynamic Graphics’ CoViz, WalkInside and GIS. Thompson is a great believer in rear projection. This allows users to ‘walk up’ into the ‘intense zone’ of collaboration at the screen face. Flat or curved screen HIVE is a matter of taste – but users prefer flat. Other neat stuff includes SmartBoards alongside the HIVE for low resolution stuff like PowerPoint and TeraBurst technology for ‘hive to hive’ collaboration. This has had a ‘huge impact’ on knowledge sharing and travel. BP is working on a GIS framework and toolkit although take-up has been slow with a lot of ‘skunk work.’ GIS systems for pipeline and asset management are under evaluation and BP is also developing a ‘paperless’ mapping system using TouchTable technology. HIVES are powered by SGI Onyx, but this technology is at the end of its life. SGI is ‘no longer in this space’ and BP is currently testing several high end three channel 128GB machines. Large format SXRD 4K projectors represent the biggest leap in resolution yet. An 8.3 megapixel 56” holographic LCD display also ran. BP is looking for a single vendor to design and create and deploy the solution. The project is centrally funded and driven, ‘no one asked for it!’ BP maintains a VisTech SharePoint site for users.

0704_7.2 Visualization data server – Theo Meyer, Panoram Technologies

Panoram’s remote graphics architecture2.

HPC High performance computing is moving to graphics processing units with the ‘MetaVerse’ revolution (virtual reality). ‘Telepresence’ technologies turn a human face into a photorealistic avatar. Both these technologies are enabled by remote graphics architectures (RGA) – ‘moving pixels not data.’ RGA compresses pixels for display on up to 8MP thin clients such as the Panaoram PV720 immersive thin client. This uses Matrox GXM technology to slice data across 3 screens. Panoram also announced a new low cost stereo display ‘real soon now.’ Loading data from the server to a 128Gig workstation can take hours and causes bandwidth ‘havoc.’ If you have 20 geologists starting their day this way ‘you will bring the company’s network to its knees.’ Panoram’s remote graphics architecture addresses these problems. Blades and data servers can be placed in a data center with Gig Ethernet, Infiniband, or other high performance interconnects for very high performance and low LAN traffic. Pixels are served by Remote GFX to thin clients. More from Theo.Mayer@panoramtech.com and www.panoramtech.com.

Q&A What resolution is the new ‘movie’ format? 4096x2060 a.k.a. ‘4k,’ projection systems exist, but production systems are not ready yet.

1 Now a component of Aveva Plant. 2 Image courtesy Panoram Technologies.

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AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_7.3 Hi end visualization in geoscience and training – Marek Czernuszenko, ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil deploys a comprehensive interactive stereo collaborative 3D solution with a ‘walk through’ display. Rendering is performed by clusters running ‘Windows, Linux or Unix at the high end.’ The facility is used for training geologists – particularly with visits to ‘virtual outcrops.’ These are built from LIDAR and field geology1. Used for virtual field trips which are ‘safer and cheaper’ than the real thing. The facility allows for fly-overs of digital terrain models, blending satellite imagery, geological maps, etc. Downstream, VR is used to walk through CAD models, anticipating problems with plant and avoiding design changes and errors. Plant operator training is also provided via the visionarium. Immersive well planning is performed using full VR technology supplied by TerraSpark. The downside with the VR facility is that accuracy and functionality available in desktop applications may be lost. ExxonMobil’s clusters are equipped with NV Quadro 3000G graphics cards.

0704_7.4 Colocated visualization – Thorsten Holtkämper, Fraunhofer Institute

‘Bent Pick Ray2’ collaboration from Fraunhofer Institute3.

Fraunhofer Institute’s ‘i-Cone’ display system is a 240° panoramic display with ‘wrap-around’ stereo for all users. Another product, the ‘TwoView’ display uses a different set of projectors for each user to provide ‘co-located’ collaboration with full awareness of the other. Users’ fields of view are separated by polarizing filters – there is no longer need to look over a user’s shoulder to see a stereo ‘sweet spot.’ On the software front, Fraunhofer offers the ‘Bent Pick Ray’ (BPR), a ‘collaborative manipulation’ technique for multiple users being co-located in the same virtual environment. BPR avoids object locking, merges multiple inputs and provides feedback to different users. A VRGeo Demonstrator leverages the BPR to share results of VRGeo Consortium’s work – members include Statoil, BP and Shell. More on VRGeo from http://www.iais.fraunhofer.de/773.html?&L=1.

1 See also our Technology Watch report from the London Geological Society ‘virtual geology’ meeting, January 2007. Available at http://www.oilit.com/1_tw/2007_contents/0701_Geolsoc_Outcrop_to_Asset.pdf. 2 ‘The Bent Pick Ray: An Extended Pointing Technique for Multi-User Interaction,’ Riege, Wesche, Holtkaemper, Froehlich, IEEE 3DUI Symposium, 2006. 3 Image courtesy Fraunhofer Institute.

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AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_7.5 Visualization in Shell – Ken Bradford, Peter Diebold, Shell

Shell’s VR Center in action1.

According to Kevin Bradford, the workstation has entrenched geologists’ and geophysicists’ isolation. It’s time they talked to each other! Shell’s strategy of using open systems to leverage technology plays to support a return to a collaborative environment. It’s all about integrated subsurface evaluation—from basin modeling, through rock, fluid, reservoir and pressure prediction. Holistic, parallel workflows may leverage heat flow, gravity magnetics and sea bed logging. How do you achieve a holistic view across multi data types? Some believe volume interpretation and visualization are the silver bullets. Shell is working to enable holistic workflows by evolving the visualization space. The proprietary systems of yesterday have been replaced with Linux-based clusters, GPU rendering and multi core, multi CPU systems. Displays now use High Definition LCDs and soon, DLP. Co-location involves bringing rooms to teams—moving away from intimidating complex structure to a ‘natural’ environment. Collaborative environments in Shell scale from desktops to visionaria and the real time operations center. Shell currently has 13 VR Centers with full immersion and stereo, 17 ‘rooms’ and 20 ‘locations’. Shell is working hard to disabuse those seismologists who still favor the ‘paper on screen’ approach and has now reached ‘critical mass’ in the seismic interpretation community.

0704_7.6 Large data sets on commodity hardware – Phil Weatheril, Shell Phil Weatherill (Shell) continued with the lower end visualization theme, describing how Shell is performing multi-scale volume interpretation on the desktop. The aim is to perform true 3D observations of petroleum systems and less ‘PowerPoint interpretation.’ This approach is enabled by high end workstations like the HP XW 9300n and Appro’s WH5548. These can be used to animate very large volumes and view whole petroleum systems, enabling ‘powerful scenario testing.’ Volume interpretation software does the ‘heavy lifting’ but integration with other applications is also key. Shell’s flagship in-house developed 123DI seismic interpretation application performs rapid horizon auto tracking over large areas. It is easy to add-in manual picks in poor data areas Shell uses as spreading ‘egg yolk’ approach to change mindsets and seed early adoption. The outcome is that use of volume interpretation is on the rise and there are signs of the collaborative approach taking hold.

TW0704_8 Exhibitors

0704_8.1 Datacon ’RocksOnline’ online core store Canada’s oil sands effort is generating cores ‘by the truckload.’ To help manage and analyze them, Datacon has developed RocksOnline, a software and services package for core imaging. The idea is to be able to move physical cores out to very low cost storage and access digital data over the net. A companion product, RocksViewer offers a rather comprehensive display of core information including synchronized views of different wells, core and photomicrograph imagery all accessible through an intuitive interface. Up to 20 core views can be displayed at the same time. More from www.dataconimaging.com.

1 Image courtesy Shell and Barco.

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AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_8.2 de Groot-Bril – 3D Wheeler transform in SSIS

dGB’s autotracking of chronostratigraphic events1.

DGB’s sequence stratigraphy interpretation system (SSIS), a plug in to OpendTect, now offers a 3D Wheeler transform. Automated workflows track chronostratigraphic events between conventional horizons. More from http://www2.dgb-group.com/ssis.html

0704_8.3 Exploservices OP Finder – A&D prospect database OP-Finder reps collect information on A&D opportunities from sources including oil and gas companies, state agencies and consultants and from trade shows including NAPE, AAPG and APPEX. The information is collated and published on www.op-finder.com. Custom email alerts on opportunities and closing dates are also provided to subscribers. Originally developed as a multiclient project for Total and Cepsa, OP-Finder was released for public use in November 2006 and now has around 600 opportunities.

0704_8.4 French Petroleum Institute (IFP)

IFP wave equation migration (with Parallel Geoscience2) IFP’s wave equation depth migration (WeDM) code is now to be offered by Parallel Geosciences.

IFP OpenFlow – new software infrastructure

IFP Condor history match leverages OpenFlow infrastructure3.

OpenFlow (previously known by its code name ‘ICarré4’) is a new geoscience software integration platform from the French Petroleum Institute (IFP). OpenFlow will be a shared infrastructure for software from IFP R&D consortia and its marketing arm, Beicip-Franlab. OpenFlow includes a geosciences data model and database support for Oracle, PostgreSQL, mySQL. Other features include data management functions, data import/export,

1 Image courtesy de Groot-Bril. 2 Now part of TGS-NOPEC - http://www.oilit.com/2journal/2article/0704_10.htm. 3 Image courtesy IFP/Beicip-Franlab. 4 I Squared.

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visualization tools, workflow builders and connectors for algorithmic plug-ins. OpenFlow is compliant with industry data format standards including Rescue and OpenSpirit. OpenFlow leverages the Eclipse software development framework. A plug-in based architecture supports third-party commercial applications as well as in-house solutions. The first IFP apps to port to the new environment are FracaFlow (fracture network characterization) and CondorFlow, (history matching). These will be joined ‘real soon now’ by PumaFlow, the IFP’s next generation reservoir simulator. OpenFlow was developed with Sun’s Java Data Objects.

Basin Modeling Workshop, Houston, 5-6 December 2006 1

©IF

P

Seismic Data + Geological Concepts

Basin Deformation

Diffusion-oriented modelingDIONISOS

TEMIS

Basin Evaluation / Prospect Ranking

IFP – stratigraphic modeling with Dionisos and Temis1.

Basin wide stratigraphic modeling with IFP tools (above Dionisos and Temis) will be supported by GeoFlow infrastructure in the future. More from www.ifp.fr.

0704_8.5 Fugro-Jason Power Bench Fugro-Jason’s PowerBench is a re-write of the Jason WorkBench suite with the addition of PowerLog. Fugro has been building up its interpretation portfolio with the acquisition of Jason in 2000, Fast Tracker and Volumetrics in 2002 and Petcom Powerlog in 2003. Fugro has also developed a streamline simulator, RockStream. The PowerBench Geology demo involved a contour map made from gamma ray logs. A simulated lithology map was made from a very large number of logs – a ‘seismic-less’ interpretation approach. PowerViz is a colorful 3D seismic volume and wells viewer with linked cross plots. More from http://www.fugro-jason.com/.

0704_8.6 IES Petromod 10.0 – new lithology database IES is about to release V10.0 of its PetroMod basin modeling package. A new lithology database, developed in collaboration with Doug Waples complements the standard IES dataset. A crustal heat flow processor computes heat flow maps throughout time and a heat flow calibration module speeds calibration. A 3D TecLink add-on, originally developed for Repsol, enables full thermal, maturation and 3-phase/n-component petroleum migration to be performed on 3D structural models. More from www.ies.de.

1 Image courtesy IFP.

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AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_8.7 iGeoss – Dynel 2D/3D finite element-based restoration

Dynel2D functionality – from seismic, palinspastic reconstruction to stress field1.

The finite-element structural modeling package Dynel, new at the AAPG, was development by iGeoss from earlier work by the Stanford Rock Fracture Project (Sponsors Shell, Total, Chevron, Repsol, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, BG and BHPB). Dynel uses finite difference calculations to model cell deformation and map stress and fractures. More from www.igeoss.com.

0704_8.8 IHS Petra, Enerdeq and Acquisition Screener IHS Petra 3.1.9.0 includes IHS Enerdeq Direct Connect (a.k.a. the ‘wired prospect’) for creating and refreshing interpretation projects with the latest IHS data. IHS also announced Acquisition Screener for acquisition and divestiture teams. Acquisition Screener helps identify and validate potential acquisition targets through operator rankings, valuations, activity trends, operating expenses, ownership and reserves. More on AS from Neil.Job@ihs.com.

0704_8.9 Innerlogix QC Pro new release InnerLogix QCPro 3.7adds ‘parallel processing’ to QCPro along with automatic correction rules and data validity rule sets. QCPro now includes production data quality management. More from www.innerlogix.com.

1 Image courtesy iGeoss.

Technology Watch Report 11 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_8.10 Intellection QemScan automated petrography device

Intellection’s QemScan1.

CSIRO spin-out Intellection was showing QemScan, a hardware/software combination for automated quantitative petrology. The system uses a Zeiss eBeam mineralogical instrument tied to an energy dispersive spectrometer and QemScan’s iDiscover software. Currently offered as an off site service, but the plan is to develop a smaller unit for on site use. More from www.intellectioncorp.com.

0704_8.11 Landmark

DecisionSpace DecisionSpace is the successor to Landmark’s OpenWorks environment (GeoGraphix continues as a parallel track). DecisionSpace (DS) represents the bulk of Landmark’s R&D investment with the release of PowerView (PV) for Geology, PV for Seismic and GeoProbe and WellSeismicFusion for pre stack interpretation. This is the ‘biggest GeoProbe release for years,’ with multi survey 2D/3D regional interpretation. Power view rolls up ZMap Plus with seismic and geology display in a multi window 2D environment offering cursor tracking and shared memory (à la GeoProbe) with all data in RAM. Also all is in 64 bit so it is no problem to address a 10GB data volume. 64 bit Linux is something of a differentiator for Landmark. Today, the Windows version of DS excludes GeoProbe, ‘maybe next year there will be a viable 64 bit Windows.’ More from http://www.halliburton.com/divisions/Default.aspx?navid=454&pageid=1248

Decision Space R5000 ‘preview workflows’ Described as a ‘new interpretation environment,’ DecisionSpace R5000 brings a ‘common look and feel’ to Geo-Probe, PowerView and Well Seismic Fusion. Dynamic integration allows objects to be dragged and dropped between applications, updating interpretation results automatically. Prestack data is now accessible from GeoProbe and PowerView. Perhaps even more interesting is the beginning of a blending of workflows from Halliburton’s Sperry wireline unit with Landmark applications. The details are currently being figured out but the idea is that DecisionSpace will roll in more logging and tool-specific applications, leveraging Landmark’s Engineer’s Data Model and OpenWorks infrastructure. The idea is to support complex drilling activity like dual over-under wells (tar sands) with targeted modeling tools. R5000 has a brand new OpenWorks (OW) data model with seismic data references now in the OW database. This will let users build projects across different coordinate reference systems. Landmark is minimizing migration upheaval with tools for data clean up and a consulting practice to help with the upgrade. A variety of third party integration paths are on offer. The preferred route is for direct integration within DecisionSpace. For developers who just want data model access, revamped dev kits are available for OW and the EDM. There is also a GeoProbe dev kit. All of which makes for ‘tiered’ integration – ‘tight’ as DecisionSpace (DS) plug in, stand alone with DS shared infrastructure or stand alone on OW database. More from http://www.halliburton.com/divisions/Default.aspx?navid=454&pageid=1248.

1 Image courtesy Intellection.

Technology Watch Report 12 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 GeoProbe ezModel – framework building

Framework building with GeoProbe’s ezModel module1.

GeoProbe module ezModel seals faults against horizons to create a sealed structural framework suitable for reservoir modeling. More from http://www.halliburton.com/ps/default.aspx?pageid=842&prodid=MSE::1062600092683168.

GeoProbe ‘Digital Asset’

Image data in Geoprobe2.

Digital Asset (DA) offers a high level of integration around GeoProbe 2003.19.1. The new release offers synchronized probe, map and section views. DA adds OpenWorks attributes to GeoProbe for coherency studies etc. The image above shows a ‘pop up’ picture of a desiccated lake bed from an analog reference image base. 64 bit Linux boxes offer rapid automated horizon picking. More from www.lgc.com.

1 Image courtesy Landmark. 2 Image courtesy Landmark.

Technology Watch Report 13 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 GeoGraphix – Next generation geological interpretation.

Conformable bed mapping in GeoGraphix SmartSection1.

GeoGraphix SmartSection now includes well-based framework modeling and conformable bed mapping. A changed pick is immediately reflected in the contour map. A fault network tool builds does geometrically correct models, sealing faults to horizons. Arbitrary direction lines can be built that cross faults many times (including overthrusts). A credible tool for no-seismic interpretation. The image above shows a sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the Minnelusa formation. Takes all tops below an unconformity and projects and truncates them with results displayed as subcrop map view. More from www.geographix.com.

0704_8.12 MetaCarta – GeoIntel for Petroleum MetaCarta has put its oil and gas specific geographic search engine online at http://geointel.metacarta.com. You enter a topic and a geographical place name and see documents and their locations on a map. A mouse-over at a map location filters the document list appropriately. It is pretty neat.

1 Image courtesy Geographix.

Technology Watch Report 14 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_8.13 Midland Valley Exploration – 4DMove

New 4D Move from MVE1.

Midland Valley’s new ‘4D2 Move’ suite will be out later this year. The windows-based structural modeling application comprises a 4D ‘base’ product with modules for restore, sediment and fracture. Restore adds geomechanics according to tectonic scenarios. Sediment is a new tool for modeling turbidite flow. Sediment models flow through pelagic states to study sediment in suspension and shear/laminar flow boundaries. MVE is working on a carbonate modeler and the tool will ultimately be a general purpose sedimentation modeler. 4DFrac populates grid with fractures and computes a permeability tensor. The resulting reservoir model properties are passed on to ECLIPSE or Petrel. 4D Base collates the results from the other products for multiple scenario testing. The tool started out as an internal development for Shell. MVE’s FracMV GoCad plug in is being ported to Petrel. More from www.mve.com.

0704_8.14 Neuralog – NeuraDB extends to digital log data Neuralog is working with Oilware to add large scale digital library capability to its flagship NeuraDB raster and digital well log management system. More from www.neuralog.com.

1 Image courtesy Midland Valley Exploration. 2 Note this is a marketing ‘4th dimension.’ MVE’s legacy products already model structural evolution vs. time.

Technology Watch Report 15 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_8.15 Paradigm/IFP KINE3D Structural Modeling with GoCad.

Advanced structural modeling with the IFP’s Kine3D1.

Kine3D, developed jointly by Paradigm unit Earth Decision and the French Petroleum Institute (IFP), embeds structural restoration in Paradigm’s GoCad model builder. The solution targets basin scale structural studies as a precursor to petroleum system analysis. Full 3D restoration is said to improve model quality. At reservoir scale, deformation studies help predict the fracture density and direction. Restoration options include finite element mechanics with EDF’s Code Aster2 package. Kine3D includes balanced cross-section restoration tools, such as the IFP’s GEOSEC or LOCACE. GoCad adds a seismic backdrop to K3D.

1 Image courtesy IFP/Paradigm. 2 http://www.code-aster.org and http://www.code-aster.org/produit_doc/plaq_V7_GB.pdf.

Technology Watch Report 16 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_8.16 Petrosys – Direct Connect to Petra

Petrosys visualization of the Teapot Dome structure from within a Petra project1.

Petrosys’ high end mapping and volumetrics package now has a direct connect interface to IHS Petra Project. More from www.petrosys.com.au.

0704_8.17 Roxar New release of FracPerm

Fracture characterization with Roxar’s FracPerm 2.02.

Roxar has rleased V2.0 of its fracture modeling package FracPerm. FracPerm 2.0 includes a simplified workflow and a new plug-in structure for better integration with other tools. New functions add better visualization of well data, simpler ways of attaching fractures to sets and with color-coded fractures. New grid handling capabilities extend model stability over a wide range of modeling scenarios. Current users include Hydro, Lukoil, Saudi

1 Image courtesy Petrosys. 2 Image courtesy Roxar.

Technology Watch Report 17 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704

Aramco, ADMA, OMV, MOL, Surgutneftegas, Petrochina, Pertamina, and CuuLong Vietnam. More from www.roxar.com.

0704_8.18 Schlumberger Information Solutions

Petrel 2007 Launch

Good turn-out for Petrel 2007 launch.

Schlumberger offered a snazzy introduction to a pre-release of Petrel 2007. The message was that Petrel can now handle huge data sets on ‘commodity’ PC hardware. The demo dataset was a WesternGeco Survey over 800 US Gulf of Mexico OCS blocks (about 20,000 sq.km.) representing a 158GB of post stack data. To make things harder, a variance cube processing job was run in the background while the visualization proceeded. ‘Disk roaming’ and parallelized access across 4CPUs enabled processing while moving around the data set. The ‘commodity’ machine was a top of the range Dell with 33GB RAM and dual, twin-core CPUs. But the demo somehow lacked the pizzazz of early GeoProbe demos. There was too much Formula One, not enough geology.

Multiple seismic attribute cubes in Petrel 20071.

Our one-on-one with Schlumberger was more productive. We learned that Petrel 2007 is extending what previous versions did for reservoir modeling out to a more complete ‘regional to reservoir’ workflow including 2D and 3D seismics. At the other end of the spectrum, Petrel is to replace Eclipse Office as a front-end, pre/post processor for ECLIPSE. The Ocean Framework API is seeing take up by third parties including IKON, Petrosys, IHD, FFA, Mercury, SCM and Geomodeling. Some use the API to create Petrel plug-ins, others for data exchange with Petrel into stand alone apps. Petrel 2007 will also be real time-enabled2 to allow for drilling data to be viewed in the model. Data management will be improved with a ‘reference project workflow’ and there is better multi-user

1 Image courtesy Schlumberger. 2 ‘With WITSML.’

Technology Watch Report 18 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704

capability. Petrel can now leverage some of GeoFrame’s database cluster technology1. This will enable high end interpretation and visualization by attaching Petrel to a Linux cluster, taking Petrel’s capacity ‘up to Terabytes of data running across 256 CPUs.’ The technology involved has been ported from Schlumberger’s GigaViz. A Petrel ‘Virtual Reality’ edition will support tracked and haptic interfaces. Client-driven improvements in Petrel’s geology and modeling include hierarchical object modeling, truncated Gaussian simulation, channel modeling and an ArcGIS link. Fracture modeling is available in Petrel using Golder Software’s FracMan to create a discrete fracture network, conditioned with seismic data.

GeoFrame 4.4 Release (December 2007)

Horizon, 2D/4D and borehole integration in GeoViz (GeoFrame 4.4 Dec 2007)2.

GeoFrame’s footprint is exploration – GF does interpretation and structural modeling. Although there is a blurring as Petrel introduces more seismic interpretation. GF handles 100s of thousands of wells. Multiple 3D projects – 100s of 3D surveys. You can have 500GB of data in one project, supported by strong data management. Map half of GOM. Also GF is a skill set with a huge user base. GF offers stability and a strong data model. Developers have been with GF for a long time, adding enhancements – more so in the last two releases. Especially re visualization. The next release for instance, adds client-led pre stack workflows for Charisma and IESX – although there is no longer a division between these two products. Only the seismic canvas differs. All the underlying stuff is the same – it is ‘Geoframe’. We pressed Schlumberger on the relationship and differentiators between Petrel and GeoFrame, in particular, is there a road map for GeoFrame users to migrate to Petrel . The answer was an unequivocal No. GeoFrame remains a successful product with 10% growth worldwide for GF – ‘far exceeding our stretch goals.’ For certain use patterns there are roadmaps to Petrel – in gridding/CPS3 where you can create a 3D structural framework for import to Petrel – use Petrel’s strengths. GeoViz has matured in the last two years from display and visualization to mainstream structural interpretation3. 64 bit Linux or Solaris gives compute advantage over Petrel and other solutions – especially with database access. Finally GeoFrame data is in Oracle (not the case for Seabed). Summing up Schlumberger stated, ‘GeoFrame and Petrel both have strengths and we encourage our clients to use the tool best suited for the task and desired way of working. GeoFrame will exist in the marketplace and be actively developed for a very long time to come.’

1 Linux is Petrel’s ‘primary’ cluster solution; Windows CCS 2003 has been ‘introduced.’ A Vista 64 bit version of Petrel is due by year-end 2007. 2 Image courtesy Schlumberger. 3 à la GeoProbe!

Technology Watch Report 19 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_8.19 Seismic Micro Technology – Kingdom Suite 64 bit release ‘real soon now’

SMT was showing a Log Pack (used to be PetroPlus) and VelPack (previously VelIT) and announced a 64 bit release for later this year.

TW0704_9 ‘Data’ Poster Session

0704_9.1 Rock property volumes from well logs – Les Denham, Interactive Interpretation & Training I&I T has developed a technique for producing pseusdo seismic data from well logs. Logs are digitized and sampled to characterize 200’ intervals – used to map to sand percent volume at mega scale, for instance over the whole of the Golf of Mexico. dGB’s OpendTect is used to display the results, with rock properties mapped to a SEG-Y volume. Tools are available for computing shear wave parameters, rock properties and fluid substitution. A large scale display of wet sand, normal incidence reflectivity at 5000’ for the GOM took 2 days to run. The technique can be used for calibrating and planning seismic acquisition.

0704_9.2 Geological Metadata – Don Downey, Chevron Metadata approaches can be divided into ‘taggers” and ‘searchers.’ Taggers believe in adding complete metadata so we can search. Searchers believe that tagging is a waste of time and that powerful search tools can do everything. Metadata helps catalog, search and assess quality of seismic data, well logs, maps and more. Adding ownership information, data location, coordinate system information maximizes information usefulness. Downey’s metadata experience began by adding provenance information to an IHS dataset using ESRI’s ArcCatalog. Downey began by developing metadata workflows for his projects, but soon found geoscience metadata support was lacking. Geologists need better metadata elements and standards. Today, document properties such as title, author and creation date are harvested and recorded in metadata documents automatically1. But this needs to be extended to oil and gas specific codes and keywords. Metadata editors, templates and xml stylesheets are useful for populating multiple datasets within a project. Too few geologists take the time to enter metadata – and they are not helped by complicated editors. Adding metadata may even be necessary in the context of legal compliance. AAPG Ethics requires citation and protection of other’s datasets and intellectual property. More from http://aapg.confex.com/aapg/2007am/techprogram/A111299.htm.

0704_9.3 Geophysical data in 3-D GIS – Tony Dupont, Earth Science Associates ESA leverages the new ESRI MultiPatch feature in ArcGIS 9.2 to add seismic imagery to its 3D GIS. The technique requires a lot of RAM and is limited to a few 2D lines. More from http://aapg.confex.com/aapg/2007am/techprogram/A111936.htm.

0704_9.4 National G&G Data Preservation Program - John Steinmetz, University of Indiana USGS, operating under section 315 of the 2005 Federal Energy Policy Act has asked for $30 million to preserve the nation’s G&G data asset. More from http://aapg.confex.com/aapg/2007am/techprogram/A110825.htm.

0704_9.5 SLB Log mnemonics – Eric Hatleberg - Schlumberger Well log datasets currently include 50,000 specific curves, with approximately 1,000 curves added every year. A single log may involve 100s of curves – many currently underused by petrophysicists – partly because of confusion and relative obscurity of mnemonics. A new web delivered service now available to fix this www.slb.com/mnemonics/. Mnemonics from other vendors are available on the www.spwla.org website.

TW0704_10 Other papers, conferences and consortia of note It’s hard to summarize eight parallel tracks running for three days. What follows is an eclectic assemblage of IT-related presentations that we attended or have been able to locate in the rather hard to browse Abstracts CD2. It is clear that computer modeling plays a huge role in today’s geology. But a search for ‘modeling’ brings up only 18 papers. Looking for software names is not very fruitful either. Petrel, Geographix, SeisWorks get one citation each. The word ‘consortium’ only appears once in the abstracts. The pressure for ‘non commercial’ papers means that many authors do not say what ‘tools of the trade’ they are using.

0704_10.1 Geologic mapping of high angle and horizontal wells – Arve Thorsen et al., Inteq. Describes the role of the geological model in horizontal well placement and real time recalibration of the model against the formation to keep the drill bit within the reservoir. More from http://aapg.confex.com/aapg/2007am/techprogram/A109994.htm.

1 For information on metadata in Adobe PDF documents see http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2005/10/metadata_and_pd.html. 2 The printed Abstracts volume is an unindexed collection ordered by first author’s name, a complete waste of time!

Technology Watch Report 20 © 2007 The Data Room

AAPG – Long Beach, 2007 TW0704 0704_10.2 Schoonebeek redevelopment study in Petrel1 – Hermann Priebe, Shell et al.

This reprise of a paper presented at last year’s EAGE provides a good illustration of Petrel modeling and decision support on Europe’s largest onshore oilfield. More from http://aapg.confex.com/aapg/2007am/techprogram/A112180.htm.

0704_10.3 IFP BRGM CO2 Symposium 4-5 October Paris Second international symposium on the Capture and geological storage of CO2. More from http://www.co2symposium.com/IFP/en/CO2site/IFP-ADEME-BRGM_Int-Symp-CO2-2007_Announcement.pdf.

0704_10.4 IFP Cellular Automata for Turbidite Systems ‘CATS’ New IFP consortium to develop cellular automata for turbidite depositional modeling. See for instance http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2006/06053lopez/index.htm. More from Simon.Lopez@ifp.fr.

TW0704_11 Technology Watch subscription information This report has been produced as part of The Data Room’s Technology Watch reporting service. For more on this subscription-based service please visit the Technology Watch home page or email tw@oilit.com.

© May 2007 The Data Room

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1 Available from http://www.earthdoc.org/detail.php?paperid=B010&edition=2.

Technology Watch Report 21 © 2007 The Data Room