Oil Price and Innovation

From which was derivedthis LinekdIn Pulse

www.linkedin.com/pulse/oil-price-innovation-andrew-zolnai

BP statistical review

1986 – my first downturn• Started a venture called Cal-CAD• Before Windows existed• AutoCAD front-end to Sun workstations• PC-NFS link to well datasets• Video-tracing system

Canada

1988 – more innovation• Joined start-up CD PubCo• Put all well data from Western Canada Sedimentary Basin on one CD• Another CD held all the production data• Used a Texas School Board hashing algorithm• Leased CD reader with CDs as they weren’t prevalent yet• One oil co. had one tech visually check data with their mainframe• Yet clients asked that the text interface have a map interface

Canada

1992 – yet more• Found StrataWeb had a potential map front-end to CDs • After a few false starts, end up with Munro Garrett Engineering• And who do I meet, but some of the StrataWeb folks!• And they had created Argus, a script based map front end• Windows was still new, and Esri ArcView was also new

Canada

1996 – the big time• In three years went from 100 to 1,000 to 10,000 employees• Munro Garrett was bought by Landmark itself bought by Halliburton• Same desk, different paycheque• Move from Calgary thru Dallas and Houston to London• Argus was replaced by Esri ArcView to front OpenWorks system• OpenExplorer was a oil&gas runtime extension in Unix then NT• Sold the most Esri extensions across all industries worldwide then• Halliburton DecisionSpace is a descendant of that systemCanada CaliforniaTexas UK

The business of tech

Also in 1996• George Mitchell proposed ‘fracing’• That tech was pioneered by Halliburton 75 yrs prior

(Schlumberger logged wells, Halliburton did completions)

• Three other ingredients still missing• Directional drilling (tubulars)• Microseismic (monitor fracing)• Price of oil (< $20 / bbl then!)

Texas

2000 – big big time• Manage petroleum industry for Esri• Industry in the upswing globally• Esri benefitted of global economy• Petroleum User Group breaks 1,000 attendees 2004

Californiaworldwide

2006 – return to UK• Petris a small firm with Recall (1/3 global wells stored!) & GIS• GeoSolveIT a consultancy branching out in oil&gas• AGIP KCO business process re-engineering of data assets transfer• oilelefant.com a web based well data management start-up• 2010 next oil price crash following 2008 financial debacle• OpenWare, Esri’s Kuwaiti distributor with KUFPEC, KOC, KGOC etc.• Wipro (ex SAIC Oil&Gas) as Eastern Hemisphere geospatial lead• 2014 final oil price crash• Start zolnai.ca as sole proprietorship

Always keep a sense of humour