(originally posted on blogspot January 17, 2010)

The oil business (or bidniz as the old-hands call it) has evolved in drilling, containment, control, and distribution. But the top-level system view has gone largely ignored. Certainly there are pockets of progress. And certainly there are several quality companies producing centralized data solutions. But even these solutions focus on the acquisition of the data while ignoring the reason for the data.

“Simply put Digital Energy or Digital Oilfields are about focusing information technology on the objectives of the petroleum business.” (www.istore.com, January 17, 2011)

Steve Hinchman, Marathon’s Senior VP of World Wide Production, in a speech to 2006 Digital Oil Conference says “Quality, timely information leads to better decisions and productivity gains.” and “Better decisions lead to better results, greater credibility, more opportunities, greater shareholder value.”

“Petroleum information technology (IT), digitized real-time downhole data and computer–aided practices are exploding, giving new impetus to the industry. The frustrations and hesitancy common in the 1990s are giving way to practical solutions and more widespread use by the oil industry. Better, cheaper and more secure data transmission through the Internet is one reason why.” (The Digital Oilfield, Oil and Gas Investor, 2004).

Future Digital Oilfield development will include efforts to integrate drilling data into its engineering and decision making. This integration consists of:

1. Developing and integrating the acquisition of data from all phases of the drilling operation. The currently dis-joint data will be brought together (historical and future) into a master data store architecture consisting of a Professional Petroleum Data Model (www.ppdm.org), various legacy commercial systems, and various internal custom data stores.
2. Developing a systematic real-time data approach including data processing, analysis, proactive actioning, and integrated presentations. Such proactive, real-time processing includes collision avoidance, pay-zone tracking and analysis, and rig performance. Included is a new technology we a pushing for analytical analysis and recommendations for the best rig configuration and performance.
3. Developing a systematic post-drill data analysis and centralized data recall for field analysis, offset well comparison, and new well engineering decisions. Central to this effort will include data analysis, data mining, and systematic data-centric decision making.

Watch the Digital Oilfield over the next few months as the requirements for better control, better prediction, and better decision making take a more significant center-stage.

Related Posts:

The Digital Oilfield, Part 2
http://profreynolds.com/2011/01/the-digital-oilfield-part-2/