Exploration:

- searching for oil with

supercomputers
- a new way to grid the
subsurface
Fracturing:
- using tiltmeters and
microseismics to
monitor your frac

March 2009 Issue 17

Production:
- when your IT department gets in the way Associate Member
™
- wi-fi in North American oilfields
 WHAT
YOU
SEE
IS
WHAT
Vision for Energy YOU
> Strategic consulting GET
> Seismic imaging
> Velocity analysis
> Structural interpretation
> Stratigraphic delineation
> Formation evaluation
> Reservoir modeling
> Pore pressure prediction
> Well planning and drilling

Vision is Certainty
Leading science, breakthrough innovation and exceptional people.
Providing customers with the intelligence to minimise risk and optimise
subsurface asset management. Paradigm. Unconflicted, unsurpassed. www.pdgm.com
 Contents
Leader
Repsol’s Kaleidoscope Project – finding oil under salt using microchips
Spanish oil and gas company Repsol has developed a supercomputer, using the microchips
originally developed for the Sony Playstation, to help look for oil and gas beneath salt in the
Gulf of Mexico and Brazil 2
Exploration data
March 2009 Issue 17 Reducing risk in new exploration through modelling
Digital Energy Journal
SMT has launched a new software module, called 1D Forward Modelling (1DFM®), which enables
geoscientists to use data from existing wells when doing seismic interpretation 3
213 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9FJ, UK
www.digitalenergyjournal.com WesternGeco’s land seismic system
Tel +44 (0)207 510 4935
Fax +44 (0)207 510 2344
WesternGeco has launched UniQ, a new integrated land seismic system whichcan record up to
150,000 live channels at a 2 millisecond sample interval 5
Editor Big improvements in gravity survey technology
Karl Jeffery
jeffery@d-e-j.com
Big improvements in gravity survey technology means that it is being used to determine the
best prospects to drill, not just to get a quick overview of the potential of a region 6
Technical editor JewelSuite – high definition modelling of the subsurface
Keith Forward Netherlands oil and gas software company JOA has developed a tool which, it claims, make it
forward@d-e-j.com

Subscriptions
much easier to model the subsurface, because (unlike on traditional subsurface modelling
tools) there is no need to try to make the grid blocks align with faults 7
Karl Jeffery EarthStudy 360™– Detailed Seismic Analysis at Subsurface Image Points
jeffery@d-e-j.com Paradigm has created a new method of imaging and analyzing seismic data – with emphasis

Advertising and sponsorship

Alec Egan
on extracting detailed images and information from geologic targets and their associated
local reflecting surfaces 9
Tel +44 (0)203 510 6548
aegan@onlymedia.co.uk Visualising everything at once
Dynamic Graphics has developed a tool which can visualise multiple datasets from an oil field
simultaneously in 3D and 4D – from an overall view of the basin to a view of the individual wells
Digital Energy Journal is a magazine for oil and
gas company IT professionals, geoscientists,
engineers, procurement managers, commercial
and reservoirs – and you can see how it changed over time as well. It can be used by everyone
associated with a project 12
managers and regulators, to help you keep up Disk data storage for seismic - $1000 per terabyte
to date with developments with digital
technology in the oil and gas industry.
Landmark offers incentive for operators to finally give up tape with a new online, disk-based
storage system for technical data 13
Each issue of Digital Energy Journal print
Making hard drives tough enough
magazine is mailed to 2,000 oil and gas
executives, with a further 500-1000 copies
Data storage company EScon Ltd was asked to develop a hard drive data storage system
tough enough to use on seismic vessels 14
distributed at trade shows, as well as being
downloaded approx 2,000 times as pdf. Our
website has between 600-800 sessions a day Drilling, completions and production
and our social network, www.itpetroleum.com,
has 348 members. Monitoring fractures with tiltmeters and microseismics
Halliburton has boosted its well stimulation and optimisation service through its recent
Subscriptions: Apply for your free print or
electronic subscription to Digital Energy
acquisition of Pinnacle Technologies, the leading and most experienced provider of real time
tiltmeter and microseismic mapping and reservoir monitoring services 15
Journal on our website www.d-e-j.com Using the best drilling sensors
James Burks, product line manager with National Oilwell Varco´s M/D Totco division, believes
that his company´s drilling rig sensors are better than others on the market 18
Front cover: Fitting digital energy around your IT department
Using
Dynamic
Graphics
Your IT department can often be at cross purposes with your digital energy strategy, says Dr
Dutch Holland. Here are some ideas how to resolve the problem 21
software to
display wells,
production
Communications
and reservoir
information Schlumberger – Wireless and WiMAX communications in North American
in the same oilfields
image. See Through an exclusive agreement with ERF Wireless, Schlumberger is offering 1.5Mbps wireless
page 12. data communications for oilfields in North America, which will eventually be available for
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Printed by Printo, spol. s r.o., 708 00 Ostrava-Poruba,
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March 2009 - digital energy journal 1
 Leader
Repsol’s Kaleidoscope Project – finding
oil under salt using new microchips
Spanish oil and gas company Repsol has developed a supercomputer, using the microchips originally
developed for the Sony Playstation, to help look for oil and gas beneath salt in the Gulf of Mexico and
Brazil.
Spanish oil and gas company Repsol has put
together a supercomputer – with the help of
microchips developed for the Sony Playsta-
tion – which is looking for oil and gas be-
neath salt domes in the Gulf of Mexico and
Brazil, among other places.
The computer has a processing power
of 120 teraflops - equivalent to 600 Playsta-
tion 3s, or 10,000 Pentium 4 PCs.
The Kaleidoscope supercomputer is
analysing the seismic data using the Reverse
Time Migration (RTM) algorithm, which
needs more than one order of magnitude in
computing power than coeval algorithms,
according to Repsol’s director of geophysics
Francisco Ortigosa.
The results of the data processing have
already been put to good use. “We already
have prospects that will be drilled this year
as a result of the supercomputing,” Mr Or-
tigosa says.
"We hope there will be a lot more oil
discoveries because of the Kaleidoscope
project – this is why we’re making all this
effort," he says. "We are really on the living
edge. We are going very much beyond what
anybody imagined before.”
Repsol's Kaleidoscope Supercomputer at
Cyrus One (Image courtesy of CyrusOne)
2 digital energy journal - March 2009
RTM techniques have been known
about for a long time, but could not be used
due to the cost of the computing power need-
ed to run them. “The chief impediment to the
large-scale, routine deployment of RTM has
been a lack of sufficient computer power,”
he says.
It has always been possible to put to-
gether an enormous computer by linking to-
gether PCs, but (until now) the limitation has
been the enormous electricity consumption
it would have.
"Anyone could get a petaflop by link-
ing lots of computers together, but it would
need so much power, it’s not really feasible,"
he says. "It would need megawatts of pow-
er.”
But Repsol’s supercomputer with the
new microchips covers just 8 racks, cover-
ing 21 square feet of floor space; the power
consumption is 750 watts per square foot
(15.7 Kw in total).
The RTM seismic algorithm is good for
understanding complex fractures from 3D
seismic data, and understanding seismic da-
ta for reservoirs beneath salt. It also provides
data which can be used to make better cal-
culations of other parameters such as pore
pressure. In future, it will also be used to
make a better removal of statics (noise) from
land seismic data.
The algorithms needed to be re-coded
to run on the new chip, also to ensure that
the amount of computing power needed to
run them was minimised. Mr Ortigosa calls
this 'lean computing'.
The Kaleidoscope project began in
2006, following the launch on the market of
both IBM PowerXCell 8i processors and
new Linux PC technology, in 2005.
Full data processing work began in No-
vember 2008; and Repsol already has jobs
lined up for 2009 which will keep the com-
puter occupied for the whole year.
Collaboration
The Kaleidoscope project brings together the
expertise of a number of different companies
and organisations.
The supercomputer itself is operated in
Houston by a company called CyrusOne,
which runs a large data centre and supercom-
puters for other companies.
"We already have projects that will be drilled
this year as a result of supercomputing" -
Repsol’s director of geophysics Francisco
Ortigosa
The project team includes Houston
seismic imaging company FusionGeo
(formed by the Nov 3 2008 merger between
Fusion Geophysical LLC and 3DGeo, a
company founded by Stanford University
professor Biondo Biondi), and the Barcelona
Supercomputer Center (BSC), which also
hosts Europe’s third largest computer,
MareNostrum.
The original research was made with
3D Geo, together with Stanford University’s
Stanford Exploration Project (SEP), an in-
dustry funded academic consortium aiming
to improve the earth structures that can be
constructed from seismic data.
The original development and testing
of the code was carried out on the Mare Nos-
trum supercomputer in Barcelona, the 9th
largest supercomputer in the world, which is
located inside a former chapel and has a peak
performance of 94.21 teraflops.
"The Kaleidoscope project brings to-
gether oil companies, service companies,
and computing companies," Mr Ortigosa
says. "If we want to innovate – first of all we
need diversity.”
It was also important that none of the
companies in the group were competitors in
any way, which would have impeded free
communication between them, he says.
Seismic algorithms
Understanding a reservoir beneath salt using
seismic is very complex because you can’t

send a seismic ray through the middle of the
salt – you have to bounce it around the edge
of the salt to get it into the oil reservoir and
out again.
It’s a bit like doing a complex shot in
snooker when you have to bounce the white
ball around a pack of red balls to reach the
black.
Just like for snooker balls, sending seis-
mic rays around complex paths is possible,
but much, much more difficult.
Normal seismic algorithms (the means
of understanding the path a seismic ray has
taken from the ray which emerges at the sur-
face) are fine for a ray which just goes down,
hits a reflector which is roughly horizontal
and bounces up to the surface again.
But these algorithms don’t work well if
they are hitting a reflector which has an an-
gle of more than 60 degrees from the hori-
zontal.
So a new seismic algorithm has been
developed called Reverse Time Migration
(RTM). Simply put, RTM is about modelling
the seismic wave both forwards and back-
wards - you model how you think the seis-
mic wave has travelled from the source into
the subsurface, you model how you think the
seismic wave have travelled from the sub-
surface back to the surface, and then use
computer modelling techniques to work out
what the wave might have done in the sub-
surface.
Microchip
The processor (microchip) being used is the
same one included in the Playstation 3,
called 'Cell' and designed by IBM, with the
help of Sony and Toshiba. "This chip is ful-
filling all the requirements," Mr Ortigosa
says.
Each cell has 8 synergistic processing
elements (SPEs). For a chip to be able to do
the require amount of processing, it needed
to be a multicore processor, which could do
many calculations at once. “It’s impossible
for any single chip to reach this amount of
power,” he says.
Another chip will be released in 2 years
time with 32 SPEs on it - so it can do four
Leader
The Stena Drillmax is the drillship Repsol uses
to drill possible oil locations identified with
Kaleidoscope's imaging technology.
times the processing, Mr Ortigosa says. "In-
stead of having 120 teraflops we will have
half a petaflop."
The cell chip uses Linux programming,
and all normal Linux tools can be used with
it.
The computer code needed to be rewrit-
ten for the new chips. “It is very difficult to
port codes which are written for Intel or
AND chips and import them into Cell,” he
says. “Although it is easier to port codes
written for Power PC computing.

Reducing risk in new exploration

through modelling
SMT has launched a new software module, called 1D Forward Modelling (1DFM®), which enables
geoscientists to use data from existing wells when doing seismic interpretation.
SMT has launched a new software module,
called 1D Forward Modelling, which enables
geoscientists to use data from existing wells
when doing seismic interpretation.
A major assumption behind 1D Forward
Modelling (1DFM) is that rock properties
generally change only in small ways across
short distances (eg 100m scale).
So, when trying to understand the sub-
surface of a new region, you are probably bet-
ter off starting with the known properties of a
neighbouring region (ie the well you have al-
ready drilled) and making small adjustments
to it, until you have synthetic seismic data that
closely matches the actual seismic data
recorded in the new region you are looking
at.
For example, you might have an idea
that the rock properties in the area of interest
are very similar to the rock in a well that has
already been drilled – but that reservoir is
filled with water instead of oil. Changes in sonic or density porosities are modeled using Wyllie’s time averaging equation and
You can create synthetic seismic of the a simple volumetric average of the densities. Users can vary the mineral content and the
well you have already drilled, with all prop- mixture of fluids in the pore spaces
erties the same (except for the reservoir you

March 2009 - digital energy journal 3

 Exploration data
are looking at, which is changed from oil
filled to water filled) so you can test this idea.
Or alternatively, you can make small
changes to the rock properties in the well, de-
velop synthetic seismic, and then go through
your seismic data of the whole region to see
if the seismic data for any point matches your
synthetic seismic – which might suggest that
the rock properties at that point match the re-
vised rock properties of your well.
Using SMT’s 1DFM, the process can be
carried out iteratively – make small tweaks to
the model and create new synthetic seismic,
and then build up an idea of the subsurface of
the new region which gets better and better.
The tool is particularly good for trying
to understand seismic AVO (amplitude vs off-
set) responses; you can develop synthetic
seismic based on your model, and compare
that to the actual AVO data recorded in the
field.
Properties which typically might be al- Reliable shear velocities are imperative for the calculation of offset traces to be used for AVO
modeling. If a dipole (shear wave sonic) log is not available then the shear velocities must be
tered include the Poisson ratio (ratio of rock derived from a normal sonic log or a log that can be converted to a usable sonic log. 1D
strains in different directions); porosities; Forward Modeling accomplishes this by a simple workflow as illustrated in the above screen
pressure and shear wave sound velocity; hy- shot.
drocarbon/water ratio in the rock (based on
Gassmann’s equations). paring the synthetic seismic with the actual The first company to recently purchase
You can also see what happens if rock seismic, and try to get your model closer to 1D Forward Modeling is Seismic Ventures, a
properties from one layer are repeated in an- what is actually observed through a number Texas based seismic data processing compa-
other rock layer at another level (by cutting of iterations. ny.
and pasting log data from one depth to anoth- It is called ‘1D Forward Modelling’ be- Seismic Micro Technology (SMT)
er), which reveals if the thickness of a rock cause you are starting with one (1) dimension- claims to be the global market share leader
layer changes. al data (log data in one wellbore) and create for Windows based geoscientific interpreta-
The input data you need from the well other possible geologic models from that data. tion tools. The company’s KINGDOM soft-
includes compressional (P) and shear (S) The software is being sold as a module ware suite can be used for a full range of dif-
wave sonic data, and rock density data. extension to KINGDOM, SMT’s flagship in- ferent geophysical and geological interpreta-
The software will draw a synthetic seis- terpretation software. tion tasks, all running from the same database.
mogram with a normal offset (what you
would get if the sound wave went vertically
down and up).
“We take the new seismic survey and
match that to the synthetic – and hopefully
there’s a nice perfect match,” says Mike
Paine, lead product manager for 1D Forward
Modelling at SMT.
“Otherwise, I go back and edit the data
values for these three well logs until I can cre-
ate synthetics that match the real seismic field
data.”
“I can say – I have tight sand at the well
– what would porous sand look like? - and
then make synthetic seismic,” he says.
Using 1DFM, geoscientists can also get
a feel of the sensitivity of the geology to the
seismic data (how much the seismic data
would change if the rock properties were to
change) – and hence an idea of how accurate
the estimations of rock property are likely to
be.
Ultimately you can eliminate possibili- Fluid substitutions provide a valuable tool for modeling various fluid scenarios that might
ties, or work out a range, within which the explain an observed amplitude variation with offset. The technique of substitution used here is
through the application of the low-frequency Gassmann equations. As shown in the dialog
right answer must lie. boxes, users can vary the mineral composition, fluid mixture, as well as the specific physical and
You can keep tweaking the model, com- chemical components of the fluid.

4 digital energy journal - March 2009

 Exploration data

Big improvements in gravity survey

technology
Big improvements in gravity survey technology means that it is being used to determine the best
prospects to drill, not just to get a quick overview of the potential of a region.

Gravity surveys are an essential part of explo-
rationist’s tool kit. Being able to measure the
gravitation signal from the earth helps deter-
mine the rock’s density and thereby creating
a picture of the subsurface geology. But con-
ventional airborne gravity surveys have their
limitations, says industry specialist ARKeX.
With low signal bandwidth and a low signal
to noise ratio, conventional gravity surveys
are good at mapping geology on a regional or
basin scale, but not down to prospect (poten-
tial drilling target) level.
ARKeX is utilizing a new technology
called Gravity Gradiometry to obtain ultra
high resolution data with a high bandwidth
and a high signal to noise ratio. The resulting
information is then used to map the geology
down to prospect level and show features that
would be invisible to conventional gravity
surveys.
One of the problems with conventional
airborne gravity surveys is that it is very dif-
ficult to correct for the acceleration of the
aeroplane in the gravity reading. A conven-
tional gravity surveying device (explained
simply) is a weight hanging on a spring – the
greater the gravitational pull, the more the
string stretches. The sensor needs to be very
sensitive to detect the precise changes in grav-
ity, which indicates the density of the rock be-
neath.
Unfortunately, acceleration of the plane
in different directions will also impact how
much the spring is stretching. In order to cor-
rect for that, you need to know how much,
and in which direction, the plane is accelerat-
ing. This is done using GPS (global position-
ing satellite) but it is not a precise correction
so the final data contains a lot of ‘noise’ and a
lot of the detail is lost.
Gravity Gradiometry, by contrast, does-
n’t measure gravity, but the gravity gradient.
That is the rate of change of gravity over a
unit distance. Again, explained simply, it uses
two separate weights on two separate springs,
one above the other. They move in time with
the aeroplane (or ship) so any acceleration ex-
perienced by the weights is common to both.
If however, there is a change in gravity (due
to a rock structure beneath), the distance be-
tween the weights will change and this is what
is measured. This is the gravity gradient. Be-
cause gravity gradiometry can record minute
gravitational changes, it can map structural
rock density in such high resolution, features
that conventional gravity shows as noise can
be seen as distinct features.
Gravity gradiometry technology will
shortly be improved even further, with a new
device called the EGG (Exploration Gravity
Gradiometer), which uses superconductivity.
This will be even more sensitive and be able
to map an even wider range of geologies.
“It’s phenomenally sensitive,” says Dr.
Mark Davies, Chief Scientist with ARKeX,
one of the leading companies in the field.
“The EGG will be able to measure rock struc-
tures with small density contrasts, which
would be impossible with today’s technolo-
gy.”
Gravity Gradiometry has already been
used extensively in North America, Africa Gravity gradiometry has become
"phenomenally sensitive" - Dr. Mark Davies,
and the Middle East. In these areas it has Chief Scientist with ARKeX
proved to be extremely useful across many
exploration settings. In a mountainous Thrust
Belt region of Muskwa Kechikia, British Co-
lumbia (notoriously difficult and expensive to accepted in the industry. Most [of our cus-
survey with seismic technology), gravity gra- tomers] are on their 2nd or 3rd survey,” says
diometry successful showed why a Major oil Dr. Davies.
company drilled a dry well in the region and High resolution data that can be acquired at
where the main structure could have been low cost, andwhen mounted in a plane, can
found. It has also been used to map salt bod- fly over difficult terrain that would hinder oth-
ies in West Africa, again extremely difficult er exploration, means Gravity Gradiometry is
using seismic. becoming a useful tool for independents and
“The technology is starting to become majors alike.
The mountainous region of Muskwa Kechikia, British Columbia, Canada. It would be very hard
to do a normal land seismic survey here - doing a gravity survey from an aeroplane is an
attractive option

6 digital energy journal - March 2009

 Exploration data

JewelSuite – high definition

modelling of the subsurface
Netherlands oil and gas software company JOA has developed a tool
which, it claims, make it much easier to model the subsurface,
because (unlike on traditional subsurface modelling tools) there is no
need to try to make the grid blocks align with faults.
Most subsurface modelling
techniques divide the subsur-
face up into a number of cells
by aligning pillars with fault
planes. This is known as pil-
lar gridding and has been
around now for some 10
years.
However on the JOA
software, all of the pillars
(vertical lines) can be ab-
solutely vertical. No smooth-
ing or simplifications of
shape are required to be made
to the model, to make it fit to
a grid. The company claims
that it is the most "accurate Figure 1 illustrates how the same data looks like with a
geological software tool traditional pillar grid program (above) and with the JOA
available in the market." software Jewel Suite (below).
With the JOA software,
the grid is orthogonal - it
doesn't matter if the fault or unconformity larly configured Petrel licence from Schlum-
surfaces are complexly arranged. “The pil- berger.
lars always remain vertical in the Jewel Suite The tool can be used on its own or eas-
model – in effect it is like putting a cookie ily integrated into other software such as
cutter though the sub surface,” says Jonathan SMT’s Kingdom Suite. “It is completely
Jenkins from JOA. scalable: we have built huge comprehensive
On the JOA system, there is no need to models for some of the biggest oil and gas
fit whole cells around corners; this is differ- fields of the world,” he says.
ent to most traditional gridding software,
where users often change diagonal fault lines Problems with traditional gridding
into stair steps to fit in cells. “This unneces- Users of traditional pillar gridding tech-
sarily reduces the fidelity of the simulation niques can have a lot of problems when try-
model,” he says. ing to create grids around faults, as figure 2
Models can be built much more quickly illustrates.
with the JOA system, the company claims. In When dealing with complex fault
one case, "we took a model someone took 6 geometries, you can end up with squashed
months to build in other software and rebuilt cells that are harmful to the stability of sim-
it in 5 days and we kept the faults geologi- ulator calculations and require extensive
cally accurate,” says Mr Jenkins. manual clean-up.
The JOA models can also be updated “We are often surprised by the ingenu-
much more easily. “If you decide a fault ity and tenacity of modellers building rather
should be in a different place, you can update complex models with frankly, inferior tools,”
the model with a single operation,” says Mr he says. “ It is a very tedious process how-
Jenkins. ever, and once you feel the power of an or-
Normal gridding software can be fine thogonal grid and the integrated solutions
for relatively simple fields, but the JOA soft- around it, most never want to go back.”
ware should prove particularly useful in com- Often assumptions or fudges are made
plex faults with many faults, Mr Jenkins says. to try to make the pillars fit around the faults.
The JOA software is available at, the Sometimes, as a remedy, pillars are on-
company promises, half the price of a simi- ly lined up with one fault accepting that pil-

March 2009 - digital energy journal 7

 Exploration data
Figure 2 - modelling complex fault geometries can lead to squashed cells that need manual
clean-up
lars are ‘travelling” along the other fault
plane - Fig 2. Example (b); this way one suc-
ceeds in capturing geometry in pillar grids
but it becomes nearly impossible to calcu-
late reliable flow properties between cells on
either side of the fault.
These twin issues are responsible for
too many sub surface having faults ‘verti-
calised’ – something done 20 years ago and
nowadays unacceptable to modelling small-
er and more complex reservoirs.
“Modellers are a clever bunch and to
reduce months of mindless editing, they will
sometimes not model the faults interpreted
on seismic,” says Mr Jenkins.
“The other trick is to create ‘pancake’
geocellular models. By making models real-
ly thin one can avoid geometry problems,”
he says.
“This approach barely covers single
reservoir units,” Mr Jenkins continues. “It
ignores stacked reservoirs, deeper layers and
The JewelGrid can connect to a wide
range of subsurface simulation techniques,
for instance finite element models used to
analyse and predict movements as triggered
by the production of oil and gas.
JOA has recently demonstrated at a big
industry exhibition a JewelSuite set-up that
combines high-performance cluster hard-
ware with smart software solutions, reduc-
ing the simulation time for field-wide Geo-
mechanics by orders of magnitude.
About JOA
the overburden. So what about flow of hy- JOA is based in Delft, Netherlands, and
drocarbons or water between different reser- provides support from offices in Houston,
voirs? Or what of the potential of modelling Moscow, Jakarta, Aberdeen and Sta-
the full field? With so many approximations vanger.
accuracy is lost or too roughly measured, this The reservoir engineering solutions
is unacceptable.” are built in Albuquerque (New Mexico)
where all new code is also exhaustively
Connecting to simulators tested.
Simplifying your finished grid model, so you The company was founded in 1999,
can use it in reservoir simulators, is easily originally building bespoke software for
done, as figure 3 (below) indicates. Shell. See www.jewelsuite.com
Figure 3- It is fairly easy to simplify your detailed geological model (left) to a simpler model you
can use for reservoir simulation (right).

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8 digital energy journal - March 2009


EarthStudy 360 – Detailed Seismic Analysis
at Subsurface Image Points
Paradigm has created a new method of imaging and analyzing seismic data – with emphasis on
extracting detailed images and information from geologic targets and their associated local reflecting
surfaces.
Oil and gas software company Paradigm
has launched a new offering to assist geo-
scientists in analyzing the subsurface mak-
ing use of the seismic method. The offering
is being made available to a select group of
oil companies seeking to optimize their re-
turn on investment from a general class of
seismic acquisitions that are characterized
by the richness of their azimuth recordings.
Branded as Paradigm EarthStudy
360™, the collective solution incorporates
software and people with a strategic serv-
ice element designed to allow participating
oil companies to generate and interpret de-
tailed images of the subsurface that reveal
continuous surfaces, small and large-scale
discontinuities, illumination directions, and
subsurface reflectivity data that can be used
to understand reservoir properties and
reservoir heterogeneity.
The new system is designed for appli-
cation to both legacy and modern seismic
acquisitions that sample the subsurface
more fully in azimuth. Legacy acquisitions
include many onshore 3D seismic acquisi-
tions, while modern seismic acquisitions in-
clude the rich and dense onshore seismic
acquisitions and the wide azimuth acquisi-
tions carried out in offshore environments
to illuminate data beneath highly irregular
structures like salt bodies. The new system
is also ideal for application to ocean bottom
recorded seismic data.
What is unique about EarthStudy 360
is that it decomposes and images the seis-
mic data into full and continuous azimuthal
data sampled locally at subsurface reflect-
ing surfaces. This decomposition and
preservation of “in-situ” azimuthal data,
contrasts strongly with traditional seismic
imaging procedures that average (sum) da-
ta over the azimuth component, compro-
mising seismic resolution and often elimi-
nating useful information contained in the
directional data.
“The decomposition of subsurface
seismic data into full azimuth data is car-
ried out with a rich, bottom-up, exploding
diffractor ray tracing procedure that sam-
ples the data in all angles and all directions,
without imposing assumptions about the
orientation of subsurface reflectors,” says
™
Duane Dopkin, senior vice president of
technology with Paradigm. “Carrying out
this rich ray tracing with billions of rays at
selected image points within oil company
project time frames, is what makes this ex-
citing technology both innovative and prac-
tical.”
EarthStudy 360 was first launched at
the annual SEG exhibition in Las Vegas, in
November of 2008. Like the transition
from 2D to 3D data, the transition from sin-
gle or limited azimuth data to full azimuth
data requires more than one product to take
advantage of the implementation. Earth-
Study 360 is not a point product solution;
rather a “system of technologies that
process, image, characterize, and interpret
full azimuth-data” says Mr. Dopkin.
Benefits of Application
EarthStudy 360 has application to a broad
range of exploration and development im-
aging problems that can benefit from full
azimuth decomposition and imaging. It is
engineered for application to full volume
imaging, target-oriented imaging, and even
imaging along planned or actual well paths.
EarthStudy 360 was designed to ad-
dress a broad range of exploration and de-
velopment objectives that can exploit the
full benefit of directional seismic acquisi-
tion and imaging.
It is ideally suited for wide azimuth
acquisitions that seek an improved illumi-
March 2009 - digital energy journal
Exploration data
nation beneath complex structures such as
basalt sheets and salt structures that distort
seismic images.
It is also ideally suited for understand-
ing the orientation and density of fractures
that serve as permeability conduits in frac-
tured shales or carbonates. The system has
special AVAA (amplitude versus angle ver-
sus azimuth) methods to specifically en-
hance the signatures of these fractures.
EarthStudy 360 can also be applied to
mature fields where reservoir compartmen-
talization is often subtle and difficult to de-
tect. Here EarthStudy 360’s capacity to de-
tect local differences in seismic amplitude
and waveform can have a significant impact
on the drilling program.
It is also applicable to the exploration
and development of unconventional hydro-
carbons, such as heavy oils, that are con-
fined to the shallow subsurface. Here,
EarthStudy’s capacity to sample the near
subsurface with high angles can have a
huge benefit in these heavy oil plays.
Preserving the Azimuth
Attempts to preserve useful information
contained in azimuthal data with traditional
imaging procedures usually involve parti-
tioning of the input acquisition data into a
limited number of “surface” azimuth sec-
tors and then processing, imaging, and in-
terpreting the sectors independently.
Although this procedure has been ap-
9
 Exploration data
plied with limited success, it still averages
azimuth data over the range of the sector
and, more importantly, this sectoring is
based on surface orientation (azimuth)
rather than the in-situ orientation of the lo-
cal geology and the local reflecting surface.
Additionally, the sectoring approach creates
a burden for geoscientists that have to deal
with the practicalities of dealing with mul-
tiple datasets.
EarthStudy 360’s rich ray tracing pro-
cedure enables the decomposition of seis-
mic data into two types of full azimuth data
gathers – directional and reflection. No sec-
toring of the input data is required. By na-
ture of their full azimuth, both types of da-
ta gathers carry full 3D representations of
data, potentially sampled at every grid
point. More importantly, geoscientists not
only have new data types to analyze, but
have fundamentally new ways to interact
with the full seismic wavefield.
View all directions
Imagine being able to lower a camera into
the subsurface of the earth and record a
10 digital energy journal - March 2009
continuous animation that captures the sur-
roundings in all directions and all angles.
By combining (or mapping) a rich bot-
tom-up ray tracing procedure with the fully
recorded seismic wavefield, EarthStudy
360 simulates this procedure and creates a
wealth of seismic reflection (acoustic am-
plitude) and directional (dip and azimuth)
data that can be selectively sampled, cre-
atively combined, dynamically visualized,
and further processed to secure images of
the subsurface that can reveal details re-
garding the presence of micro factures, ori-
entation of faults and fractures, the influ-
ence of anisotropy, the directions of con-
tributing illumination, the elastic properties
of target reservoirs, and the extent (bound-
ary) of those reservoirs.
“We are still on the learning curve
with respect to the application of Earth-
Study 360’s new seismic data “deliver-
ables”, stated Mr. Dopkin. “We believe the
technology and procedure has a huge po-
tential to change the way geoscientists use
and interpret the directional sampling of
seismic data.”
 2GVTQNGWO0GVYQTM'FWECVKQP%QPHGTGPEGU
A Division of Phili p C . C r o use a n d Asso c ia t es In c .

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CONFERENCE AND EXHIBIT

M AY 1 2 - 1 4 , 2 0 0 9
R E N A I S S A N C E H O U S T O N H O T E L – G R E E N W AY P L A Z A
HOUSTON, TEXAS USA

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Increasing query rates for the right data and information at the critical time continue to provide challenges
to the E&P industry. With all the changes in tools, data, people, processes, the dilemma of “Your Data’s
Here Somewhere” is frontline to efficiencies and success, while preventing costly mistakes and failure. Data
integration of all those silos within the enterprise is still a daunting problem - yet is low hanging fruit that
will continue to greatly improve efficiencies in the E&P enterprise.
Enabling e-discovery can help personnel dig for data. Many approaches can meet the challenge, and
while no one approach is the “magic” way, attendees to this conference will hear real-world best practices
and implementations from those companies leading the efforts to knock down data and information
management barriers that confront our industry – seismic, G&G, well, field, production and reservoir data
and information. It’s all about making quality data driven decisions.

%*#..'0)'5(146*'1+.#0&)#5+0&7564;
:: Integration & Processes :: Quality of Data
:: Cost Effective Solutions :: Interoperability
:: IM and Knowledge Management :: Quantity Management
:: Security and Archival :: Enterprise Architecture
:: Cataloging :: Standards

Presentation authors are global. This event has been designed for
data and information management practitioners and users.
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 Exploration data

Visualising everything at once

Dynamic Graphics has developed a tool which can visualise multiple datasets from an oil field simultaneously
in 3D and 4D – from an overall view of the basin to a view of the individual wells and reservoirs – and you can
see how it changed over time as well. It can be used by everyone associated with a project.

Dynamic Graphics of Alameda, California

has developed a 4D (3D + time) reservoir vi-
sualisation software module which enables
you to visualise all of your data together for
your production operations, and see how it
has changed over time.
It gathers all of the data from different
departments into a format which everyone in
the company can use – without (for example)
paying for more expensive licenses for reser-
voir modelling software, and having to learn
how to use it.
This means that, for the first time, the
engineering department can work with sub-
surface data from seismic, which had previ-
ously been restricted to people in the geo-
science department.
This means that it can function as a com-
munication tool for both technical staff, from Above and below: Dynamic Graphics has a software tool which can be used to visualise
different disciplines, and non technical staff. different data sets from an oilfield simultaneously - including reservoir information, wells, well
“Geologists don’t have to know how to logs, flowlines and platforms
run Eclipse. Individual disciplines can access
the output from other groups together with corporate data. “We want to, for example, ex- ware for carbon capture and storage visuali-
their own data,” says Jane Wheelwright from tend the number of drilling formats,” she says. sations, enabling anybody who is interested
Dynamic Graphics. “It brings together the The tool can show what is happening to see how the carbon dioxide will be pumped
different disciplines and the different pack- over time – so you can see both the new wells underground and what will happen to it after
ages into a common environment.” which have been drilled, and how the reser- that. “For carbon capture, there will be a real
In one company, engineers used time voir is draining (as worked out from time need to communicate with different people,
lapse seismic data with predictive simulation lapse seismic data). Time sensitive data can both technical and non technical” she says.
models to figure out that the water injection include reservoir simulations, time lapse seis- “You can show what is happening without re-
wasn’t working. “They managed to stabilise mic, production data (eg from WITSML sorting to a spreadsheets and lists if figures.”
a field before the pressure caused problems. feeds) and information about which well was The tool can also be used to make pre-
Most engineers aren't familiar with the seis- drilled when. sentations to management, rather than use
mic from their own fields.” The company has already used the soft- PowerPoint.
Like Google Earth, you can see entire
oceans or countries at once, and then zoom in
to see the subsurface of specific wells and
fields, with all the data you have.
You can see a 3D view of the informa-
tion, or see cross sections. You can visualise
the flow of oil, gas and water through the sub-
surface.
It is possible to connect other informa-
tion to the visualisation – eg if you click on a
well, the system can show you a photograph
of cores from it. “We have to combine all the
data at our disposal,” she says.
There is no limit to what can be includ-
ed in the image – it can include seismic data
volumes, well and rig locations, well logs, 3D
structural models, information about coast-
lines, field boundaries, satellite images, digi-
tal electronic models of platforms, geologic
maps, LiDAR data.
DGI is still developing new ways to in-

12 digital energy journal - March 2009

 Exploration data

Disk data storage for

seismic - $1000 per
terabyte
Landmark offers incentive for operators to finally give up tape with a
new online, disk-based storage system for technical data.

Landmark, a brand of Halliburton’s

Drilling and Evaluation Division, has
launched PetroStorTM a new data storage so-
lution which promises to finally enable re-
liable data storage for the same price as
tape and provide real-time access to seis-
mic files and archived project data, says
Marc Spieler, director of Technology Op-
erations with Landmark.
The PetroStor technology lowers
archival storage costs to around $1000 per
terabyte by combining fast, high capacity
hard drives with data management software
from NetApp and data compression appli-
ance from Storwize.
Although a terabyte of hard drive stor-
age can be purchased for as little as $140,
many companies still expect to pay $3,000
to $10,000 per terabyte for data storage on
disk, Mr Spieler says.
The PetroStor solution is designed for
oil and gas customers who find themselves
facing an increasing amount of seismic da-
ta, as well as a growing need to access proj-
ect data archives as they explore prospects
in more complex formations and re-exam-
ine mature assets.
A big advantage of storing seismic da-
ta on disk drives is that seismic interpreters
can be given direct access to it, says Mr
Spieler.
“Today, if an interpreter wants to look
at the pre-stack data, a lot of times that’s
on a tape somewhere,” he says. This can
mean days or weeks of waiting while the
tape is located and transported.
Interpreters may choose to just make
do with the information they have rather
than waiting for the tape to be available –
making the resulting analysis less accurate
than it could be.
With PetroStor users can get both
seismic files and archived data from net-
work drives via their computer desktops,
as easily as from their computer hard drive.
Landmark offers a number of services
to complement the PetroStor solution, de-
signed to help companies make their data
more accessible, including support in mi-
Landmark's PetroStor - store your data for the
same price as tape
grating their existing data from tape to
disk, indexing files and incorporating
metadata.
Tape vs disk
Users have always preferred the accessibil-
ity of disk drive storage, but it has been
cost prohibitive in the past, because it typ-
ically costs 4 to 5 times as much as tape,
Mr Spieler says.
“A lot of customers have tens of thou-
sands of tapes which they store in various
locations,” he says. “When it comes to ac-
cessing the data, it can take days or weeks
because someone has to manually find the
tape and load the data.”
There is a further issue of tapes decay-
ing over time, and often, archived data is
in an outdated format adding the extra step
of transcription to ensure the data is pro-
tected.
Similar issues can also occur with
hard drives, of course, but it is much easier
migrating data from one disk technology to
another when you can do it with buttons on
a keyboard.
Landmark’s solution also gets around
the problem of people wanting to have their
own copy of the data – when data is stored

March 2009 - digital energy journal 13

 Exploration data
on a networked drive and accessible online,
all users can have convenient access.
Data management
As with a typical disk solution, data on the
PetroStor solution is protected in the event
of disk failure by the same enterprise-level
data protection used in standard NetApp
filers; maintenance to replace the failed
disk is simple, non-disruptive, and pro-
vides the users seamless access to their da-
Making hard drives tough enough
Data storage company EScon Ltd was asked to develop a hard drive data storage system tough enough
to use on seismic vessels.
Seismic surveys are typically undertaken in
extreme conditions, either on board a sur-
vey vessel at sub zero temperatures or from
the back of a truck in the searing heat of the
dessert.
This places demands on the data stor-
age system for temperature regulation, ro-
bustness and the ability to withstand salt,
sea and sand ingress.
Historically, tape has been used to
move large amounts of information from
field to data centre but this has many inher-
ent problems, not least of which is volume
with collection rates of 20Tb per day not
now being uncommon. Magnetic tape is al-
so very vulnerable to transit damage and
head alignment differences.
Meanwhile, disk storage solutions
have continued to evolve to the single re-
movable drive modules which are prevalent
today. These however have their own prob-
lems including drive handling, transporta-
tion damage and the accidental interchange
of data sets.
With survey costs usually running into
many thousands of dollars and often being
unrepeatable, it is essential that data must
be accurately stored and preserved during
transit.
Escon´s oil and gas industry customer
was looking for a new disk storage solution
for seismic data – and it soon became clear
that an appropriate product was not readily
available. A more robust bespoke design
for the specific requirements of the geolog-
ical surveying industry and their conditions
had therefore to be devised.
The company wanted a system with
the following features:
12 removable disks in a single drive
module weighing less than the 20kg regu-
14 digital energy journal - March 2009
ta.
The data is compressed as it is stored
on the disk drive, and decompressed as it is
retrieved – it all happens in real time and is
transparent to the user. In Landmark’s expe-
rience most seismic and petrotechnical data
can be compressed between 30 and 50 per-
cent.
Because PetroStor compresses and de-
compresses data in front of the filer, users
will see read and write times decrease since
latory health and safety requirement for
maximum weight of an object one person
can move.
To be able to insert and remove the
disk drive module over 5000 times without
it breaking.
A high performance fibre channel host
interface
An advanced electronic management
system to ensure the correct insertion and
removal of the disks.
Suitable cooling to keep the drives
within their safe operating curve, whilst en-
suring sand and salt are kept out.
A flight case suitable to protect the
module during transit.
The most difficult of the challenges
was the requirement to be able to insert and
remove the drive module over 5000 times
at very high data rates. Conventional SCSI
and SATA connectors achieved no more
than 4% of the requirement (200 inser-
tions).
EScon, together with design partners,
selected a spring probe connector to elimi-
nate the friction suffered by the male/fe-
male pairing whilst maintaining an opera-
tional drive data rate of 3Gbits/s.
This also had the added advantage of
providing a flat surface on the removable
drive, leaving no protruding connections
which may be damaged during transit.
To ensure the integrity of the data,
support for standard and advanced RAID
levels 5 and 6 together with Triple Parity
RAID was provided.
RAID stands for Redundant Array of
Independent Disks and it basically involves
combining two or more drives together to
improve the performance and the fault tol-
erance.
there is comparably less data being written
to and read from the disks. This will also
decrease the resource utilization on the fil-
er when being accessed by multiple users.
“What all this means for the users, is
that the PetroStor solution’s functions will
be transparent to them – they’re not going
to know where their data is sitting, they just
will know that they have access to it when
and where they need it.”
The data storage system developed by Escon
for the oil and gas industry
Combining two or more drives togeth-
er also offers improved reliability and larg-
er data volume sizes. A RAID distributes
the data across several disks and the oper-
ating system considers this array as a sin-
gle disk.
Twelve drives have in fact been com-
bined into one single removable drive mod-
ule which also incorporates shock mounts
for safer transportation in the reinforced
flight case.
It could not be assumed that the field
crew operators of the device would be prod-
uct or even computer conversant. To en-
sure correct operation an advanced power
management system has been provided with
a LCD screen directing step by step operat-
ing procedures.
This also utilises a loopback signal
check routine to confirm that all the disks
are correctly inserted before allowing the
system to be fully powered. The inclusion
of a simple recording of the systems usage
provides a warning when the device needs
replacement.
The relatively easy part of the brief
was the provision of a high performance
cooling system, redundant hot-swappable
power supplies and fan modules.

Monitoring fractures with tiltmeters and
microseismics
Halliburton has boosted its well stimulation and optimisation service through its recent acquisition of
Pinnacle Technologies, the leading and most experienced provider of real time tiltmeter and microseismic
mapping and reservoir monitoring services.
This past October, Halliburton closed its ac-
quisition of the assets of Pinnacle Technolo-
gies – an established expert in fracture diag-
nostic and reservoir monitoring technologies
– allowing the company to create a continu-
ous well stimulation monitoring and opti-
mization solution.
The complete offering now combines
comprehensive wireline-based logging and
perforating services, stimulation perform-
ance treatment (fracturing) and a fracture
mapping service in an integrated solution
that is also a flagship workflow of Hallibur-
ton’s Digital Asset, a collaborative Hallibur-
ton offering allowing operators to model,
measure and optimize their asset.
“We’re calling it Integrated Stimulation
Optimisation,” says Jonathan Lewis, vice
president, Halliburton Wireline and Perfo-
rating.
Well stimulation “is our largest single
franchise. It is a market which is becoming
increasingly sophisticated,” says Dr Lewis.
“By combining the experience and expertise
of Halliburton and Pinnacle we are now able
to bring new capabilities to customers world-
wide that will help them optimize their re-
turn on investment.”
Fracturing
Hydraulic fracturing, explained simply,
works by forcing high pressure liquid into a
well to crack the rock around the well bore
in the production zone. This makes it easier
for oil and gas to flow into the well – so you
produce oil and gas more quickly. Fractures
can be thousands of feet long.
Techniques to monitor these fractures
are particularly useful in tight gas and shale
fields, where the efficiency of the fracturing
is very important to the overall success of
the field.
Most ultra-tight gas fields would be un-
able to produce without fracturing - it only
really became possible to produce some of
these reservoirs in 1998, when thinner frac-
turing fluids began to be used. “In most cas-
es tight gas fields will barely deliver a puff
of gas on their own,” says Kevin Fisher,
president of Pinnacle.
Fracturing operations have been car-
ried out since 1949. However, for many
years there has been very little understand-
ing about how and where exactly the well
was being fractured – it was just assumed to
be a long horizontal crack from the well bore
into the reservoir.
Pinnacle takes the credit for first dis-
covering that many fractures were very dif-
ferent and more complex than how they were
thought to be, when it embarked on a proj-
ect in 2000 to try to map fractures in shale
reservoirs.
It discovered that, rather than being a
single straight crack, they were often a large
number of extremely complex cracks grow-
ing in multiple orientations.
This discovery led to the development
of new methods for fracturing shale rocks,
which led to a big increase in production.
Tiltmeters
A tiltmeter is something like a spirit level
(used to keep pictures hanging straight in
your home) – a tube with a bubble in it. Pin-
nacle’s tiltmeters use electrodes to monitor
the movement of the bubble, which are so
sensitive they can detect a movement of 1
molecule left or right. This is equivalent to a
nanoradian or a change in tilt of 1 part per
billion - the change in tilt you would have if
you had a rod as long as the distance from
the US East to West Coast, and you lifted one
end of it a quarter of an inch.
Pinnacle’s first tiltmeters, developed in
1992, could map fractures at a depth of
around 5,000 feet deep. Now it has tiltmeters
that are more sensitive and can monitor frac-
tures at depths of 16,000 feet. Pinnacle
claims to have a 100 percent market share of
tiltmeters for monitoring oil field fracturing.
Typically, between 15 and 100 tilt-
meters will be placed on the ground around
the well.
At a basic level, tiltmeters can provide
information about the direction in which the
rock has been fractured. According to Mr
Fisher, the readings from tiltmeters can give
an immediate indication of the size, length,
dip, quantity and direction of fractures, with-
out any complex computer processing.
“Just looking at a raw surface tiltmeter
vector map, I can tell you the orientation of
the fracture – it’s very intuitive to get from
March 2009 - digital energy journal
Fracturing
The readings from tiltmeters can give you an
immediate indication of the size, length, dip,
quantity and direction of fractures, without
any complex computer processing - Kevin
Fisher, president of Pinnacle
raw data to the final answer,” he says.
The data can also be used to make more
complex calculations to determine what kind
of fracture would have caused the change in
tilt which was detected at the surface. “We
can determine how complex the fracture is –
did we just get one long skinny frac – or a
multiplicity of fractures in several orienta-
tions,” he says.
“We want to find out, are we achieving
on site the desired goal – fracture height,
length and direction and is it in the pay
zone,” he says.
Microseismics
Microseismics are geophones (think micro-
phones) in the well bore, which can calcu-
late the location of any sound source from
the difference in time taken for the sound to
reach the different microphones, taking into
account the sound velocity of the rock, and
triangulating.
The microphones are located on the
tubing in the well, with 300 to 1000 feet be-
tween the top and the bottom one. They are
3-component geophones meaning that the
sensors point in different directions.
15
Fracturing
There is a lot of noise as the fracturing
fluid breaks the rock up, which is recorded
on the geophones.
The data from microseismics can be vi-
sualised as dots on a map around the well,
showing where rocks have been forced apart.
“Microseismic is more complex [than
tiltmeters] – you have to know the velocity
of sound in each layer that the sound is trav-
elling through,” says Mr Fisher. “You have
to run sonic logs and use other data and serv-
ices to develop a velocity model. In some
cases you must refine the velocity model as
the frac progresses.”
Using the data
The data from the fracture mapping can
sometimes lead to immediate changes in
how the fracture is being carried out.
For example operations can be imme-
diately halted if the fracture starts affecting
rock outside the reservoir.
“Many times during a fracturing job
we’re trying to give the operator that real
time look at where the fracture is going to
stay out of undesirable fluid contact,” says
Mr Fisher.
“While they’re watching the pumping
and volumes we can give them a bit of intel-
ligence,” he says. “For instance, we can in-
form the operator if a fracture is going a bit
downwards, and can make recommendations
to stop the downward growth. In this case,
the fracture engineer has a very useful tool
to come up with a better treatment.”
“You may have a fault a few hundred
feet away from the well bore – you might
want to do all you can do to stay out of the
fault.”
Over the longer term, the information
can be used when planning the next stage of
the fracturing job.
“Most of our mapped wells have 3-5
frac stages, often we map 15 or 20 times in
a horizontal well,” he says.
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Various tools are available to change
the fracture so that the rock cracks in a dif-
ferent way – including using liquids with dif-
ferent physical properties, different pres-
sures, blocking off the well in different
places, and using more of less proppant
(small balls of solid material sent into the
well bore with the fracturing liquid, which
ideally stays behind and keeps the rock
cracks forced open).
“Knowing where the frac grew in the
previous stage helps you plan what you want
to do on the next stage,” he says. “You might
be able to eliminate a frac stage if the previ-
ous stage already contacted the next inter-
val. If the fractures didn’t grow as tall as ex-
pected – you might have to frac another
stage.”
Over yet longer timescales, the fracture
mapping information can be used when mak-
ing a decision about how far away the next Well stimulation is Halliburton's "largest
well will be drilled and what orientation you single franchise" - Jonathan Lewis, vice
want to place that well, taking into consider- president, Halliburton Wireline and
ation how far the fractures from the first well Perforating
extend.
Information management ated from tiltmeters and microseismics and
Managing tiltmeter and microseismic data, plugged back into a frac model, that output
and presenting it to the right people at the then updates the earth model.
right time, can be complex. To do all this takes a sophisticated un-
Ideally, the new information should be derlying infrastructure for data management
combined with all available data about the and communications, which Halliburton has
reservoir, in a continually updated computer developed through its Landmark software.
model of what is thought to be happening in Landmark recently launched R5000, a
the subsurface (an earth model). synchronous release of technologies for the
This earth model can include informa- DecisionSpace® environment, which can be
tion about the rock types and reservoirs, with used to run all oilfield operations, with
data from a range of different sensors and everything running from a common database
logs. and data communications architecture.
The earth model can be used to help “We’re leveraging that common back-
plan the next fracturing operation, working bone infrastructure, which makes it much
out the best way to get the desired fractures easier for our customers to get rapid access
and taking into consideration how the rock to the data as we are acquiring it, and also
is expected to respond to different stresses. integrate it into a common visualization and
During the fracture, data can be gener- database,” says Dr Lewis.
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 Drilling, completions and production
Using the best drilling sensors
James Burks, product line manager with National Oilwell Varco´s M/D Totco division, believes that his
company´s drilling rig sensors are better than others on the market. He explains why.
Few drillers would underestimate the impor-
tance of the reliable, consistent information
provided by rig sensors.
They provide measurements ranging
from loads and pressures to distance and ve-
locity.
Determining the best suited sensor for
a particular job is just as important as its ac-
tual performance.
While sensors have been designed and
manufactured for many years in a variety of
industries, the oilfield presents unique chal-
lenges with its often hostile drilling environ-
ments.
Working closely with NASA, NOV
M/D Totco has created sensors that have
flown on the space shuttles. The company
has also supplied sensors to major defense
aerospace companies as well as all of the
U.S. armed forces.
Manufacturing sensors in itself is not
uncommon within the oil and gas industry.
However, constructing ones that meet the en-
vironmental challenges and operational re-
quirements in the increasingly demanding
and difficult drilling business, and doing so
with precision, is difficult.
One of the world’s largest drillship
fleets had been using another manufacturer’s
hookload pins to hold the loads for the
drillpipe. After attempting all possible alter-
natives, company personnel still could not
obtain accurate readings, which fluctuated
continuously, especially with extreme tem-
perature changes.
NOV M/D Totco was approached to de-
sign replacement sensors and, after a 1-1/2
year trial period, the company’s sensors have
been replaced with the new design through-
out its entire drillship fleet.
A Norwegian company was experienc-
ing widespread problems with malfunction-
ing sensors. It also approached NOV M/D
Totco for a new design, which now supplies
the company with pressure and force sensors
at a rate of about 1,000 devices per year.
Practically speaking, when reviewing
existing sensors or designing new types for
first-time applications, it may be helpful to
break them down into four broad sensor
groups: compression cells, tension links,
load pins and rotating pinions.
Compression cells
Most compression cells produced in the in-
dustry are single output cells, with some de-
18 digital energy journal - March 2009
signs having a second bridge for redundancy
purposes alone, in the event one bridge fails
to ensure continued rig operations.
NOV M/D Totco has developed a triple
bridge compression cell that has three
bridges placed and bonded inside the load
cell, with three separate 4-20 mA outputs uti-
lizing three onboard signal conditioners.
The first two bridges are used for re-
dundancy and the third bridge sends a signal
to a third party instrument or equipment to
provide accurate hookload data.
NOV M/D Totco outfitted rigs having
systems to control the brakes and other
drilling activities are directly tied to these
triple bridge compression cells. By moni-
toring all three bridges simultaneously, a
rig’s software can compare the outputs
among the three signals.
As a result, the automated rig system is
able to monitor the true hookload coming out
of these bridges to enhance the performance
of the overall drilling operation.
Anchors for hookload
Generally speaking, there are two types of
anchors for managing the hookload on a rig.
One is a pancake-style cell called a
compression anchor and the other is a ten-
sion-link style anchor.
For years, hydraulics have been used to
control both of these anchor types.
The pancake style is a flat hydraulic
cell with a diaphragm inside. When a load
compresses the anchor, a hydraulic output is
created.
The tension link style anchor is used
when the load is being pulled.
NOV M/D Totco manufactures both the
tension and compression types of sensors, so
the company can provide far better resolu-
tion of the hookload to enhance drilling per-
formance.
Moreover, it has gained a competitive
advantage in the marketplace by replacing
the previous hydraulics with electronics for
system control.
Hydraulics can provide operational in-
accuracies when extreme conditions exist,
such as weather, compression of air, hy-
draulic fluid level variations and vibrations
of the hydraulic hose.
In contrast, electronics improve overall
accuracy, which is invaluable to the driller
who is interested in accurate hookload meas-
urements, the variance being the weight on
National Oilwell Varco´s drilling rig sensors
bit—one of the main parameters used when
drilling a wellbore.
Load pins
A load pin is usually made of soft steel and
is placed between two structures to which a
force is applied.
This type of dummy pin can be instru-
mented and a sensor produced to detect the
load that is being applied to the joint.
NOV M/D Totco has used internal
gauging to greatly improve load pin design
compared to those previously manufactured
within the industry.
Typically, the strain gauge is placed on
the outside of the steel where it is exposed
to the environment.
In contrast, NOV M/D Totco machines
a half-inch hole through the center of the ma-
terial, which can be accomplished by chang-
ing the materials strength (usually 17-4 PH).
Then, concentration grooves are machined
into it to better direct the stress on the gauges
to improve repeatability. Finally, the hole is
seal welded on both ends.
Consequently, few failures have result-
ed because of the environment, particularly
from water. Water is the primary environ-
mental factor impacting most externally
gauged pins.
As an example, two-million pound ca-
pacity load pins have been used in the
Arkansas River navigational system, which
have been holding the gates for more than
fifteen years.
Rotating pinions
NOV M/D Totco also has developed a way
to actually measure the torque placed on
drive pinions in jack up rigs.
While the pinion is rotating, a signal is
 Drilling, completions and production
sent to the control system to alert personnel
regarding the amount of torque being put on
the jacking system.
In the past, companies typically had to
buy devices costing approximately $70,000
to attach to the pinion and measure its
torque. NOV M/D Totco’s pinion actually
measures the force that is twisting it, which
is the true torque that is being applied onto
its gears.
Thus, the process of measuring in itself
actually becomes incorporated into the pin-
ion design. The instrumented pinion is de-
signed and built to fit in the same space and
housing. A connector is then added to which
a cable can be attached.
After the existing pinion is removed,
the NOV M/D Totco pinion is installed and
connected to the cable. As it turns, a unique
micro switch transmits accurate millivolt
signals to a display.
Torque signals are now available to the
operator for better control without the usual
Making it easier to share well logs
Norwich based UK oil and gas software
company Geologix has developed a new on-
line service. www.wellxp.com, to enable
companies to share well log data with au-
thorized people connected to the project.
Well XP can receive data from Ge-
ologix´s GEO software, which is used by
well site geologists on their laptop comput-
ers, to gather well log information from serv-
ice companies, and provide initial interpre-
tation (eg to describe rock types encountered
at different depths).
For example, a company might have
Petris develops managed pressure tool
www.petris.com
Oil and gas software company Petris Tech-
nology has started offering risk management
software for drilling, in partnership with
software company Warrior, which has devel-
oped risk analysis software.
Petris will link its data management
and project engineering tools for drilling to-
gether with Warrior’s software.
The software has functionality to iden-
tify and rank the biggest risk factors when
drilling, and develop a risk management
plan. It can also analyse probabilities.
20 digital energy journal - March 2009
interference that occurs with low level sig-
nal transfer through slip rings. This elimi-
nates the need for having to monitor motor
amps and manually check each pinion for ac-
curacy, which reduces the speed and safety
of the drilling operation.
Moreover, real-time data is provided
with the brakes on or off.
Strain gauge sensor
Another unique aspect of the NOV M/D Tot-
co sensors is the 4-20mA strain gauge sen-
sor applications, which have an onboard sig-
nal conditioner.
This digital board has both a processor
and temperature sensor, which offsets any
unfavorable temperature effects. As the tem-
perature changes, so does the bridge.
The board uses a look-up table and ac-
tually offsets the milliamp signal to remove
any variance caused by temperature—an in-
novation that has been proven effective in
the field.
Schlumberger doing drilling (and capturing
´measurement while drilling´ (MWD) data),
and Baker Hughes doing mud logging. All
of this data can be pulled together at the well
site into the GEO software.
The data communication from GEO to
the well site acquisition systems can be made
using WITSML (Well Information Transfer
Standard Mark-up Language), the data com-
munications protocol developed by stan-
dards body Energistics.
It means that well log reports no longer
have to be faxed or emailed as a pdf; and ge-
Users can evaluate what certain
changes will make to the overall risk profile,
time and cost of the drilling project.
The tool should be particularly useful
for customers using Petris´ drilling software,
says Eric Deliac, senior vice president East-
ern Hemisphere, with Petris. “There´s a risk
of drillbits getting stuck, explosions and
things you weren't expecting.”
A lot more underbalanced drilling is
taking place at the moment, and this has a
lot more complex risks attached to it, he
says.
Quality control
Precise instrumentation incorporated into its
sensors requires NOV M/D Totco to adhere
to stringent quality control in the manufac-
turing process.
As such, NOV M/D Totco has a certi-
fied test facility, with all of its products man-
ufactured to ASTM E-374 (ASTM’s elec-
tronic certification body) standards, all of
which are traceable to NIST. The certifica-
tion system electronically captures all meas-
urement outputs from a sensor and reference
cell, which is calibrated simultaneously to
four decimal places in less than fifteen mil-
liseconds.
This information is fed into the SQL
(Structured Query Language) server data-
base, so if a sensor comes back for re-cali-
bration or re-testing, its specific serial num-
ber can be tracked in the system. Any re-cal-
ibrated sensor will have a running history of
each testing and its respective performance.
ologists don´t need to worry about storing
the data on their laptops or portable hard
drives.
Data can be exported out of Well XP in-
to subsurface data management software
such as Schlumberger´s Petrel.
The company is seeing a lot of growth
in Asia at the moment, says managing direc-
tor Samit Sengupta. It has offices in Jakarta,
Indonesia and Houston, Texas.
It is also building its web tools which
enable companies to share more information
to authorized users online.
Warrior
Technology
Services is a
specialist in
the oil and gas
industry, set
up by drilling
engineers, and
its software is
already used
by many
Eric Deliac, senior vice
drilling com- president Eastern
panies. Hemisphere, with Petris

Fitting digital energy around your IT
department
Your IT department can often be at cross purposes with your digital energy strategy, says Dr Dutch
Holland. Here are some ideas how to resolve the problem.
Within any organization a Digital Energy
(DE) culture does not magically appear,
seamlessly integrating people with technolo-
gy. Realistically, the organisational wheel
must first be reshaped to make it roll more
easily.
Why? Every organisation’s culture is
made up of several subcultures based on the
past and ongoing assumptions.
One involves how the people work with
and think about information technology (IT).
The working relationship with IT dates back
many years, or even decades, for most com-
panies. Many assumptions about IT may
have been created and reflexively accepted,
without ever being challenged as wrong.
The cumulative effect of this unchal-
lenged IT thinking might have been general-
ly benign except for its recent collision with
DE.
What happened is that managers have
tended to view DE through the same lens at
they view IT.
This is somewhat akin to watching a
movie with an exciting action hero who un-
expectedly meets an unhappy ending.
But, the oil industry has the opportuni-
ty of a lifetime because it can write a much
more upbeat ending to real-life DE at com-
panies throughout the world.
Overall, the objective is to have DE be-
come more than simply the introduction of
new technology into an oilfield company.
When done properly, the goal is to use the
power of digital technology to transform the
way the company does business into one that
takes the business to a new level of excel-
lence, accomplishment and profitability.
Just as a farmer must prepare his field
for planting, DE advocates must diligently
prepare the organisation’s “IT culture” be-
fore DE’s promise can be realised.
People don't want risk
Remember that risks are always associated
with introducing new technology within an
organisation, as is any new way of doing
business.
Typically these risks are absorbed at the
top level of management because they usu-
ally issue the go-ahead on new technology
after the case is made at lower levels.
However, lower level managers, in-
cluding the asset manager, are not equipped
to absorb R&D risks. So, placing R&D risks
on asset managers will accomplish little
more than killing DE innovation on the
launching pad.
Disconnect from your current IT
The first step in creating a viable DE culture
is to stage a “cultural disconnect” at senior
management levels from the current embed-
ded IT culture.
First, bring “incorrect” IT assumptions
to the surface by writing them down in ex-
plicit language in order to challenge each
and explain how the DE culture will work
differently. Then create the new DE culture
from a blank sheet of paper.
But what about the flip side? What if
the organization has actually been working
in a positive mode toward a DE culture?
If so, the IT assumptions its manage-
ment has are that IT will supply the means
for advancing productivity; business expec-
tations for IT projects will consistently be
met; IT projects will be on-target, on-time
and on-budget; IT Implementations will be
manageable and doable; and communication
between business and IT will be complete
and understandable.
Right direction is critical
Properly creating a new DE culture is criti-
cal not just to get the right puzzle pieces in
the right places. It is also the template for ad-
dressing problems and guiding workers in
performing their jobs within the new organi-
zational culture.
Yet, many organizational cultures are
not necessarily pointed in the right direction
in the first place, which is what often makes
the collision of IT and DE not unlike a train
wreck.
The reason for the wreck is not difficult
to ascertain even for laymen.
DE is typically seen by most workers
as if it were a television commercial for tech-
nology: “Deliver new productivity to your
company and solve all your problems with
our new software. No special work or skills
required.”
The truth is that the DE culture will re-
quire an engineering mindset especially for
implementation and business readiness.
March 2009 - digital energy journal
Production
Often the term 'culture' has a negative effect
on employees - ‘Digital Energy working
environment’ is better - Dutch Holland, CEO,
Holland & Davis
As a result, management typically
looks at DE they want to introduce at any
given time and invariably concludes the
technology will be fully and enthusiastically
utilized, after some good psychology-based
communication of course, beginning at 8 am
the next day.
Imagine the surprise at every company
that thinks this way when they discover this
mindset is simply inaccurate.
In brief, a company’s non-DE culture
may work quite well for all manner of tasks
and business objectives but, at best, may be
an awkward fit for the new DE working en-
vironment.
The solution, as for most business prob-
lems, is to shift into the proactive mode and
proceed forcefully in order to develop and
shape the company’s new DE culture, one
which is a glove-fit for its people and
processes.
This solution – for the company’s DE
future – begins and carries through on a pos-
itive, yet challenging, note.
At the outset, management draws up
expectations to be met at three different lev-
els within the organization: executive, sen-
ior management and technical professional.
Executive level
At the executive level leadership factors are
the driving force.
To maximize DE’s value in the work-
place, new technology should be deployed
21

by executives communicating explicitly to
workers throughout the company.
In a crystal-clear, non-fuzzy way, exec-
utives should put forth what is coming
through the pipeline – not just floating the
new DE out in the workplace and allowing
employees to adopt or ignore it.
Simultaneously, as with a coach for a
sports team, these same executives must be
offering clear direction, while pushing and
prodding. Remember, DE is engineered into
a company, not sweet talked into it.
And to further help ensure that every-
one gets the point, a system must be put in
place to align objectives with accountability,
stressing that DE’s success or lack thereof
has real consequences. Failure will be penal-
ized and successful implementation leading
to full use of the system will be rewarded.
Senior management
Senior management has its plate full of re-
sponsibilities, too, in creating the new DE
culture.
The senior management level must in-
sist on a systems engineering to approach to
business readiness. In fact, they have to deal
with two different stakeholders: business
units and corporate.
On an everyday basis, this means when
corporate strategy hinges on DE leveraging,
senior management cannot set corporate
aside just to make the highest current profits
for their business units.
They must be on the same track as up-
per management in the respect of keeping
DE implementation momentum alive instead
of resorting to the simplistic “out with the
old and in with the new.”
Technical professionals
Technical professionals, who comprise the
third level, have to begin living in the pres-
ent and the future at the same time.
On the one hand, they have to continue
being very exacting and professional in their
technically-oriented work.
While this should be expected under
any circumstances, these traits are particu-
larly important when the organisation is
bringing new DE on board because these
qualities validate their input.
On the futuristic side, they must recog-
nize that the days of doing a considerable
amount of manual work and functioning on
relatively slow time cycles are over.
The environment now, hence the future,
is real-time and 24/7 instantaneous decision-
making. And, finally, as if these other re-
sponsibilities were not enough, they must
share knowledge and work collaboratively
in helping ensure successful DE implemen-
tations.
Production
Specific actions
Now comes what most people look for when
presented with a challenge, in this case, cre-
ating the new DE culture.
Yes, there is a game plan to achieve the
objective, so that guesswork does not have
to be brought into play.
Steps required for changing to a DE
culture are, most importantly, reward-based.
In other words, the new DE culture that is
being created must be clearly communicated
to workers while explaining that successful
implementation will be rewarded in various
ways, ranging from bonuses to promotions.
With that in mind, specific actions re-
quired for DE culture change are:
Identify the culture or new work envi-
ronment that everyone will be expected to
work toward, so that the organization can op-
timally leverage all the attributes that DE of-
fers. This must be communicated at all three
levels, not just on an arbitrary or spot basis.
Establish the opportunities for employ-
ees to best comprehend how they are aligned
within the new DE culture, through means
such as benchmarking and essentially hav-
ing them diagnose their niche within the or-
ganization
Help ensure that the transition to a new
DE culture is guided by a systems engineer-
ing approach. Pinpoint and communicate the
specific changes that must be made in how
the company presently functions and map
the route to implementation of the new DE
culture.
Inform employees that the organiza-
tion’s transition to a DE culture is project-
based (again removing any broad brush
thinking), which will hold managers ac-
countable for how effectively the change is
made.
Inject some “extras” into the reward
system to let everyone know that, just as re-
al consequences are in place to penalize fail-
ure, there are enhanced sweeteners for DE
culture implementation success.
Although this analysis has discussed
DE in terms of “culture,” it’s best to present
the change to workers at the organization by
using words such as “DE working environ-
ment” and “DE workplace.” Often “culture”
has a negative effect on employees.
About the author
For more than a decade Dutch Holland
has been the pioneer in applying a systems
engineering approach to change manage-
ment in the digital oilfield (Engineering
Organizational Change®{patent pending}
and Systems Engineering Approach to
Business Readiness®). Dutch Holland,
PhD, is CEO of Houston, TX-based Hol-
land & Davis LLC (www.hdinc.com)
Dates: 19th – 20th May 2009 2 00 More
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 Communications
Schlumberger – Wireless and WiMAX
communications in North American oilfields
Through an exclusive agreement with ERF Wireless, Schlumberger is offering 1.5Mbps wireless data
communications for oilfields in North America, which will eventually be available for entire basins.
Schlumberger has made an agreement with
ERF Wireless to be an exclusive reseller of
its wireless data communication services for
the oil and gas industry in North America.
This means that it will be offering the oil
and gas industry 1.5Mbps data communica-
tions using Wireless and WiMAX, in North
American oilfields, thus, enabling real-time
data collaboration between remote and field
operations. Oil operators are aspiring to im-
prove safety, environmental performances
and production while reducing costs. Mind-
sets are therefore changing from a conven-
tional operations mode to that of real-time op-
erations to support those expectations. This
requires a complex combination of people,
processes, and technology to remotely moni-
tor and analyze drilling data, update models
in real time, collaborate among teams, and
provide expert consulting.
ERF Wireless already claims to have the
largest wireless communications network
covering North American oil and gas opera-
tions, and the service is growing quickly, so it
may soon cover entire basins.
The data communications is non-con-
tended, which means that every single indi-
vidual site is guaranteed to get the full
1.5Mbps; there is also no limitation on the
amount of data that can be transferred. This
is something you do not normally get when
using a wireless communications service in
an airport, or from your home or office inter-
net service.
It is also fully encrypted, so there is no
way that anyone unauthorised can change or
read the data. ERF Wireless has set up simi-
lar wireless communications for banks, and
so has expertise with wireless data security.
Many oilfields are located far away from
cellular phone networks, and can only send
high bandwidth data by using satellite com-
munications or microwave, which are expen-
sive, and also suffer from high latency (a de-
lay due to the time to send the data to the
satellite and back). This latency can interrupt
the fluency of voice communications and
make machine to machine communications
very complex and unreliable.
With this wireless data communications
service, Schlumberger is able to help people
communicate in ways they were not able to
do before, like enabling drilling operations to
24 digital energy journal - March 2009
send data back to the office for collaboration
in real time.
“I believe it’s relatively affordable for
any client,” says Deryl Rice, business manag-
er for global connectivity services in North
America for Schlumberger. “Personnel sta-
tioned at the wellsite still have to routinely
travel offsite to locations that offer more reli-
able connectivity to upload operational data
for review by centralized experts. This new
service allows experts at the wellsite and oth-
er locations to collaborate effectively during
operations and not have to be restricted to pe-
riods between operations”.
The network is being expanded rapidly,
in areas where there is a large amount of oil
and gas activity and demand for the service.
“If a customer wants to go out to the
Rockies somewhere [not already covered by
the service] we can go there and set up a net-
work for them within a relatively short time
frame,” says Mr. Rice.
There are a number of government
grants available to support the roll-out of
wireless communications in local communi-
ties, which the industry might be able to take
advantage of, Mr Rice says.
The service is so reliable and secure that
it might ultimately be used for sending remote
commands to automation equipment, al-
though there are no plans for anyone to do this
so far, Mr Rice says. “The industry is pushing
us for using it to run equipment remotely and
this new service certainly paves the way for
that to happen in the not too distant future.”
Service
The service is specifically designed to meet
the oil and gas industry’s environmental, op-
erational and safety requirements in the land-
based oilfield. Schlumberger carried out an
extensive collaborative study that spanned its
technology segments to ensure that the quali-
ty of communications and associated Service
Level Agreements meet the needs of the mod-
ern oilfield.
”Whilst there are a large number of na-
tional service providers that offer commercial
grade communications, we found that oilfield
operations require a far superior level of serv-
ice,” says Mr. Rice.
ERF Wireless will undertake the work
of installing wireless data communications in
Installing wifi in oilfields across North
America - John Nagel, CEO of ERF Wireless' Oil
and Gas Services Division (left) with Deryl
Rice, business manager for global
connectivity services in North America for
Schlumberger (right)
the region and connecting it to the internet or
through to private corporate networks. ERF
has a dedicated oil and gas services sub-
sidiary.
The service uses a range of data proto-
cols, including Wi-Fi and WiMAX, which
transports the data of entire networks from the
wellsite to the office. The maximum distance
of an operational site from a wireless commu-
nications base-station can be up to 20km, says
Mr Rice.
The ‘backhaul’ (communications be-
tween the wireless data terminal in the field
and the international communications net-
work) can be made by fibre optic cable, or a
variety of other means.
Using the service
There are plenty of ways people and compa-
nies might benefit from the service.
For example, having reliable, fast data
communications is an important component
of all aspects of the ‘digital oilfield’ and one
which has often been missing or underesti-
mated to date. Meeting AFE (Authorization
For Expenditure) commitments, streamlining
productivity to reduce the completion times
and reducing NPT (Non Production Time) is
a common goal for all oilfield operations.
With a service like this, a range of data
could be sent back to the office and engineers
could monitor it from there. For example,
they could see live video feeds of site opera-
tions, and get log data, automation data, and
data from sensors in real-time.
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Connecting you and your business

Satlynx is a leading global provider of satellite Types of applications

communications services with over 12,000 VSATs
Real time data
in more than 130 countries and offers pioneering
satellite solutions to the oil & gas industry. Monitoring systems
Broadband internet
We serve both upstream and downstream
business from dispersed and hard to reach VoIP telephony
offshore rigs or maritime fleets through large
networks of gasoline stations, pipelines and
production plants.

info@satlynx.com
www.satlynx.com