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    Enabling role of information technology: where are the limits?

    Dec. 1, 1997
    In an effort to provide a diversity of views on the trends, technologies, and pivotal events that are likely to influence the offshore petroleum industry in 1998 and the years following, Offshore Magazine is pleased to present individual forecasts from the six members of the publication's Editorial Advisory Board.

    Bjarte Bruheim
    President and Chief Operating Officer
    Petroleum Geo-Services
    Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) through its subsidiary PGS Data Management (PGSDM) is, by its GeoBank concept, focusing a significant amount of resourses towards data management, regarded as one of the key areas for the future success in the E&P industry.

    Some of the most important technology developments in this area are taking place in Norway, and PGS is playing an important role in this. The GeoBank is built on IBM's PetroBank technology.

    In a drive to improve the cost effectiveness of the E&P industry in Norway, the oil companies and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) determined that an effective data management was one of the areas of highest cost savings potential. With the significant volume growth in seismic data after introduction of 3D and now 4D, effective data management is imperative.

    The objective was to establish a common database for the industry, ensuring minimum duplication of stored data and rapid and efficient data access and data trade. PetroData can today offer an extensive volume of high quality cultural, seismic and well data on line to the Norwegian oil industry. At the end of 1997, the Bank managed 1.4 million cdp (common depth point) km of 2D data from 800 surveys and 12.7 million cdp km from 220 3D surveys, together with composites and raw traces from 750 exploration wells on the Norwegian continental shelf.

    On average, 40 concurrent users from 15 E&P companies are accessing the bank. This activity peaks at over 60 concurrent users during the busiest days and is growing steadily as more users get trained to use the bank. The daily loading and unloading from the bank is now averaging 30,000 km and 100,000 km, respectively, with a peak download of 1,200,000 cdp km experienced in one week.

    The E&P companies, as well as the authorities, are claiming significant cost savings from using the bank. The users claim that retrieval and workstation loading time of data sets have come down to hours when using the bank, in comparison to days and weeks using historical methods.

    The benefits of GeoBanking is not only the direct time saved associated with managing data, but it also improves productivity of the E&P professionals by allowing them to spend their time focused on the task of finding and producing oil and gas at a competitive cost.

    PGS, through its GeoBank initiatives, offers a one-stop shop suite of services for data management. These services are today available on a worldwide basis and current operations are located in areas highly focused on exploration activity. GeoBanks are today established in Houston (US), London (UK), Stavanger (Norway) and Perth (Australia), and in the near future several new GeoBanks in key locations around the world will be operational.

    The GeoBanks are used by major and independent oil companies, as well as to meet PGS' internal needs. These companies and PGS are experiencing significant efficiency increases, in particular when handling the large amount of seismic volumes which results from today's seismic acquisition methods.

    E&P executives and decision-makers want faster turnaround on projects and faster overall cycle time with increased certainty in the prospect interpretations. PGS meets these needs by using the GeoBank solution in order to acquire process and deliver high quality data to the market faster. We are experiencing an increasing awareness in the industry that these objectives can only be achieved through effective data management, and we regard the GeoBanks as the solution to today's and tomorrow's data management challenges.

    Bjarte Bruheim is President and Chief Operating Officer of Petroleum Geo-Services ASA. He has more than 15 years experience in the use of 3D marine seismic technology. Previously, he was President of PGS Exploration (US) and was also employed by Geco Geophysical Company (Schlumberger). He graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim University, with a master's degree in physics.

    Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.