I have previously expressed my scepticism about how
some of the “big data” learnings from other industries can be applied in oil
& gas and I confess that I still need paracetamol for my headache when one
of the behemoths of the world, or even of our industry, addresses the topic!
However, listening to some smaller companies with
regard to the application of their software to subsurface applications, I have seen
4 or 5 different levels of insight:
1. Optimising a particular technology’s impact on
production.
2. Figuring out which technology has the most impact
on production.
3. Noting that in mature provinces recovery factors
vary significantly between reservoir intervals, analysing what it is that most
drives recovery factors.
4. Recognising what drives the production “sweet
spots” in a basin.
5. And finally, concerning ‘prediction’ as opposed to
‘retrospection’. My thought is that we used geophysics, especially 3D seismic,
to become predictive with respect to Deep Water reservoirs – but it took a long
time (15 years, and lots of the Majors got there at roughly the same time). I
think we can do a lot more with the combination of 3D seismic + logs + core +
fluid analyses but at the moment this tends to produce ‘clouds of points’ - which
cry out for the type of multi-variate analysis some can deliver.
Beyond this, I have encountered small companies that
are using Analytics on for example:
Satellite data – many more satellites up there every
day, with an increasing range and diversity of sensors: present all sorts of
opportunities including onshore geology!
Simulation – the ability to simulate everything in a
city (I heard about a virtual Singapore the other day) to undertaking ‘what
ifs’ with North Sea infrastructure.
Multi-physics – how to integrate masses of satellite
data, non-seismic geophysics, seismic, ‘rock hammering’.
Just my observations!
