April / May 2009 Issue 18

Production:

Implementing digitalenergy - lessons fromUS Air Force

The company thatmonitors 20,000 wells

Oil and gas industry ‘liketeenagers’ with datamanagement

Subsurface:

Using dynamic dampeners to drill 50 per cent faster

Secrets of networked drill pipe ™

Associate Member

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:57 Page 1

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DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:57 Page 2

Contents

Improvements with broadband networked drill stringNetworked drill pipe transmits data from downhole MWD/LWD tools at 57,000 - bps – far morethan the 6 bits per second commonly available using mud pulse. We asked National OilwellVarco how it works.

Communicating from downhole with a chirpCalgary company XACT Downhole Telemetry Inc. has developed a way of transmit 20 bits persecond (bps) uncompressed data from downhole to surface that is independent of the drillingfluid and formation properties.

Geotrace introduces ray-traced anisotropic PSTMSeismic data processing and data management company Geotrace has announced its newKirchMig tool for anisotropic ray traced prestack time imaging

Drilling technology - evolution or revolutionThe second plenary session of the IADC conference had the theme “technology – evolution orrevolution,” talking about how the drilling industry develops new technology, and whether itis innovative enough to develop new technologies and methods needed to help produce theoil which the world needs

50 per cent faster drilling – with APS active damperAPS Technology has developed a system to keep your drillbits in constant contact with theformation by reducing bit bounce and stick slip– which could help you drill 50 per cent faster,and make your drill bits last 25-30 per cent longer

SPT Group launches new version of DrillbenchNorwegian software and simulation company SPT Group has launched a new version ofDrillbench, its software for simulating and modeling drilling operations

7

April / May 2009 Issue 18

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal

Digital Energy Journal is a magazine for oil and

gas company IT professionals, geoscientists, en-

gineers, procurement managers, commercial

managers and regulators, to help you keep up

to date with developments with digital technol-

ogy in the oil and gas industry.

Each issue of Digital Energy Journal print maga-

zine is mailed to 2,000 oil and gas executives,

with a further 500-1000 copies distributed at

trade shows, as well as being downloaded ap-

prox 2,000 times as pdf.

Subscriptions: Apply for your free print or elec-

tronic subscription to Digital Energy Journal on

our website www.d-e-j.com

Printed by Printo, spol. s r.o., 708 00 Ostrava-Poruba,

Czech Republic. www.printo.cz

Digital Energy Journal213 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9FJ, UKwww.digitalenergyjournal.comTel +44 (0)207 510 4935Fax +44 (0)207 510 2344

Editor Karl Jefferyjeffery@d-e-j.com

Technical editorKeith Forwardforward@d-e-j.com

SubscriptionsKarl Jefferyjeffery@d-e-j.com

Advertising and sponsorshipAlec EganTel +44 (0)203 051 6548aegan@onlymedia.co.uk

Lessons from the US Air ForceThe oil and gas industry could learn a few lessons from the US Air Force in working out thebest way to implement and integrate new technology, says Houston oil and gas consultantDutch Holland of Holland & Davis

The company that monitors 20,000 gas wellsOklahoma company Universal Well Site Solutions has implemented its remote monitoring andcontrol system at 20,000 coal bed methane wells – including technology to switch your pumpand on off remotely

Sword – developments with electronic documentationEuropean business software and applications company Sword Group is aiming to take oil andgas engineering document management to a new level – where documentation systems canreally be used to help maintain safety and efficiency

Oil and gas industry “teenagers” with data managementThe oil and gas industry is like “teenagers” with data management – getting there slowly, butstill needing some prodding, cajoling and forcing to get them to do it properly, delegates toSMI’s E&P Information and Data Management conference in London on Feb 10-11 heard

Using live 3D drawings instead of technical documentationSilicon Valley company Right Hemisphere has a new vision for technical manuals of the future– replacing them with live 3D images of the equipment

22

Oil and gas production

17

3

1

Front cover: IntelliServ's networked drill pipecan carry data at 57,000 bits per secondfrom measurement tools in the bottomholeassembly and for the first time all along thedrillstring. In the photo - the electronics inthe link subs get checked before beingassembled into the pipe.

6

23

LeaderPlanning this September’s Offshore Europe conferenceWe interviewed Thomas Thune Andersen, this year’s chairman of Aberdeen’s Offshore Europeexhibition and CEO of Maersk Oil, about plans for this year’s event on September 8-11

Western Geco’s land seismic systemWesternGeco has launches UniQ; a new integrated point-receiver land seismic system.Pronounced ‘Unique,’ the system can record up to 150,000 live channels at a two millisecondsample interval

Norway – broadening its data reporting requirementsThe Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) is considering broadening its reportingrequirements, forcing companies to supply both their pre-stack data as well as all relevantprocessed post-stack, and implementing mechanisms to ensure that data from relinquishedareas is collected and efficiently managed

Exploration and drilling

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DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:57 Page 1

The 5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTEGRATED OPERATIONS IN

THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, TRONDHEIM, NORWAY 29–30 SEPTEMBER 2009

Established by the Research Council of Norway

Kyoto University

Partners in the Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry:

Cooperating academic partners:

eFieldsSmart FieldsDigital Oil FieldsFields for the Future

International meeting place for business and scienceIO 09 Science and practice is the international meeting place that will bring you to the network and give you trends and opportunities for research and business in integrated operations. You will meet the players from oil companies, suppliers, research laboratories and

price situation in order to improve productivity and save costs.

Where Science and Practice meetThis conference is about the methods and tools for integrated operations, today and in the future. IO09 is the place where science and practice meet. It will present the experience from some of the most advanced oil companies, system suppliers and research institutions

meeting place for generating new impulses in the further development of integrated operations practice. See: www.ioconf.no

SessionsIO 09 will highlight aspects of the technologies and work processes for better productivity and safety.

2. Smarter oil and gas world – experiences and solutions 3. Pushing the boundary of integrated modeling4. New work processes and collaboration environments

7. IO solutions for improved safety and environment

Sponsoring organization:

innovation and education on integrated operations. www.ntnu.no/iocenter

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:57 Page 2

Leader

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal 3

“The North Sea has always been a key melt-

ing pot,” says Thomas Thune Andersen,

chairman of Offshore Europe, also CEO of

Maersk Oil and a member of the executive

board for AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s

largest container shipping line.

“A lot of industry has been developed

and driven there. Everything around health,

safety and environment (HSE). A lot of that

has been exported.”

“We have a lot of companies who have

developed from there. They have a long term

future. They are doing things in the Middle

East and so on.”

So it seems reasonable to expect that

there will be plenty of interest in this year’s

Offshore Europe conference and exhibition,

which is (alongside Norway’s ONS, held on

alternate years) the largest event for North

Sea oil and gas.

“Fundamentally it is my hope that any-

one who has joined Offshore Europe leaves

it inspired, with more enthusiasm to go back

to their job,” he says.

“I've been to a number of Offshore Eu-

rope sessions. It seems like a place where

things are happening and a vehicle for new

ideas. I thought it was quite exciting to be a

chairman.”

The 2007 event attracted 40,000 visi-

tors each day, with 1,455 exhibitors, and ex-

hibition space this year is already sold out.

There is a lot of confidence in the success

despite the economic downturn.

“It’s our obligation now to make sure

exhibitors get the value out of that,” he says.

“We hope some people will make a bit of

business.”

“The main thing that we would hope to

achieve from this conference when it is over,

will be to have addressed young people – ei-

ther joining the industry or who have an in-

terest in the industry – who can come and

get inspired and learn about what the oppor-

tunities are for them.”

“Offshore Europe attracts people of all

different aspects,” he says. “It’s a forum

where people can talk. There's few places

where people in the industry get together. We

want an environment where it’s easy to net-

work.”

It is important that people aim to make

contributions to the event as well as look for

what they can get out of it. “The quality of

what comes out is as good as what comes

in,” he says.

The theme this year is “energy at a

crossroads,” looking in particular at technol-

ogy, climate, industry operational models

and people.

The themes were decided on 12 months

ago. “The world has turned upside down in

some ways since we did it,” he says. “But

the topics are more relevant.”

Technology and innovationNew technology will be a key area for Off-

shore Europe. “We want to share the latest

technology, trendsetting stuff,” he says.

“We are getting more input to the tech-

nical papers - it is evidence that the industry

is very much alive,” he says. “It’s important

there are hardcore technical papers.”

Mr Andersen defines two different

types of innovation – traditional innovation,

such as where a large company develops

new ideas, and open innovation, when new

ideas are developed by diverse groups of

people.

For open innovation to succeed, com-

panies need to be open to the idea of inte-

grating with other companies, and entering

partnerships, he says.

Mr Andersen strongly believes that

there is a continued need for integration and

partnerships in the oil and gas industry, par-

ticularly to get new technologies being de-

veloped and used.

“You need a good transparency of

where the technology is, and less focussed

about who brings it to market, so we allow

some of these ideas to come faster to the

forefront,” he says. “The need for being open

and sharing is more important.”

Mr Andersen’s views about integration

have been influenced, to some degree, by his

Danish background. “Denmark is fairly

small - in certain areas we are world class

but we can't be experts in all things,” he says.

“When we have been doing things in

Denmark - it has been done very much with

partnering,” he says. “It shows a need for in-

tegration.”

ClimateThe event, on Sept 8-11 2009, is just a few

months before the United Nations Copen-

hagen Climate summit on December 6-18

2009, where there are high expectations that

the world might agree on new targets for

greenhouse gas emissions.

Connie Hedegaard, Danish Minister for

Climate and Energy, and host of the Decem-

ber United Nations summit, will address Off-

shore Europe.

The outcome of the Copenhagen sum-

mit could affect the oil and gas industry in

many ways – such as by helping encourage

carbon capture and storage, encouraging

lower energy use in oil and gas extraction,

and reducing overall oil and gas demand.

“For me, climate change is a pretty

wide subject,” he says. “If there is to be a

low carbon future – how does that impact

us? What does it mean for the oil industry to

make sure we reach the goals?”

“Then it’s an issue of - how can we ex-

tract resources with the lowest energy foot-

print? What is the best way of doing these

things?”

“We are preparing our role in industry

to make sure we can be socially responsible

companies, and working out what the right

targets are.”

"Fundamentally it is my hope that anyonewho has joined Offshore Europe leaves itinspired" - Thomas Thune Andersen,chairman of Offshore Europe, also CEO ofMaersk Oil

We interviewed Thomas Thune Andersen, this year’s chairman of Aberdeen’s Offshore Europe exhibitionand CEO of Maersk Oil, about plans for this year’s event on September 8-11.

Planning this September’s OffshoreEurope conference

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 3

4

Leader

digital energy journal - April - May 2009

to support the extreme channel capacities

and associated data volumes and quality con-

trol requirements, a new architecture has

been developed. Everything is redesigned,

from the GAC sensor and the ground elec-

tronics to the recording truck and camp data

processing trailers,” says Mr Papworth.

The high channel count point-receiver

technology is combined with a continuous

Western Geco’s land seismic systemWesternGeco has launched UniQ, a new integrated point-receiver land seismic system. The system canrecord up to 150,000 live channels at a two millisecond sample interval.

“One of the biggest components is car-

bon capture and storage,” he says. “It is get-

ting a lot of support. There's a huge focus on

it right now - a lot of research and develop-

ment. I think we will see great break-

throughs.”

“There's different players involved -

power stations [to separate out the carbon

dioxide], engineering companies [to trans-

port it] and oil companies [to inject it in un-

derground reservoirs].

Mr Andersen is particularly interested

in the idea of using carbon dioxide to help

get more oil out of ground (enhanced oil re-

covery). “I think its hugely important as a

general concept,” he says.

Operating modelDiscussions will be held at Offshore Europe

about gradual changes in the operating mod-

els of the oil and gas industry.

“There are a number of unique things

happening around state control of resources,

access to resources, and what's happening

with the resources,” he says. “There's a need

to look at trends and the operating model.”

“If we were 3-5 years in the future and

look back, we'll see this as a time there were

some structural changes. It would be excit-

ing to have a discussion around that.”

“We’ll have a panel of people from the

different groups – national oil companies, in-

ternational oil companies.”

PeopleThe people issue is most important, he says.

“How do we attract and motivate people and

in a way which is sustainable?”

“The most important thing is we show

the outside world that this is an industry with

a lot of future.”

However, “we can't turn a blind eye to

the fact that there's an economic crisis out

there,” he says.

During the economic downturn, it is

important that companies ensure that their

core competencies are protected.

“No-one feels they can do this without

a sophisticated and professional approach,”

he says. “We’re getting into deeper water

and more harsh climate environment. There

will be quite a lot of companies who will see

their competitive advantage in being at the

forefront of technology.”

In particular, the industry should be en-

couraging more children to study science

and engineering. “Overall we're short of peo-

ple with a science and engineering back-

ground,” he says. “I think that's a whole

mindset around education.”

The Offshore Europe event will work

together with the Oil and Gas Academy OPI-

TO (see www.opito.com), which will bring

in large numbers of school children to the

event on the final day. Also a large number

of students are expected to attend.

Geophysical services company WesternGe-

co has launched a new land acquisition and

processing seismic system called UniQ. The

system combines high channel count point-

receiver technology with support for ad-

vanced simultaneous source techniques.

Field tested in the Arctic and the desert,

UniQ can address land seismic challenges in

a multitude of environments from the hottest

deserts to freezing conditions.

“The system is designed to extend the

capacity, flexibility, reliability, efficiency

and quality of land seismic data acquisition,

particularly in areas of complex geology and

high-noise environments,” says UniQ land

marketing manager, Stuart Papworth. “UniQ

can be used for fast-moving, fit for purpose

exploration surveys and also wide-azimuth,

broad-bandwidth appraisal and development

surveys,” he adds.

A high channel countUniQ builds upon the existing high fidelity

provided by the broad bandwidth Geophone

Accelerometer (GAC) sensor and the West-

ernGeco Q-Land point-receiver acquisition

and processing system. Q-Land, launched in

2002, is acknowledged for its capabilities of

acquiring up to 30,000 live channels. UniQ

however, takes Q-Land successes further,

boasting support for up to 150,000 live chan-

nels at a 2 millisecond sample interval.

According to Mr Papworth, “The abili-

ty to acquire and process high-channel-count

point-receiver surveys has brought about a

step change in the quality of onshore seis-

mic imaging.”

Mr Papworth explains why a high

channel count is important, “In current land

projects, source points are often repeated

twice or more in order to acquire well-sam-

pled full-azimuth (FAZ) data. This is ineffi-

cient and expensive: twice the shot points

means it takes twice as long to complete the

survey with double the costs. So, how do you

reduce the number of shots?

“The great thing about seismic is that

geophysically, sources and receivers are in-

terchangeable – you can compensate for hav-

ing few receivers by having more shots, and

vice versa; you can reduce the number of

shot-points by increasing the number of live

receivers. This is where the extreme channel

counts supported by UniQ come in. UniQ

enables us to field the right number of point-

receivers to do any job optimally, including

efficient full-offset, FAZ land surveys - the

‘holy grail’ of seismic.”

Precision ImagingUniQ, however, is not simply a scaled-up

version of existing land systems. “In order

The UniQ GAC is a motion sensor that deliverssignificantly reduced signal distortion andincreased bandwidth

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 4

Leader

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal 5

acquisition system that eliminates dead-time

between acquisition records, and supports si-

multaneous source techniques. Seismic data

are continually streamed from the sensors to

the central system so that there is no delay-

inducing system cycle time between shots.

System timing is GPS based, increas-

ing accuracy, and the GPS time-stamps are

used to separate the data into shot-records

either in the recording truck or in camp. The

field planning software, source and record-

ing control systems and camp data-process-

ing facilities are all designed to work in an

integrated manner to enable efficient equip-

ment layout and optimized data handling

while ultimately reducing the time from shot

to processed deliverable.

Receiver lines are formed by connect-

ing sensor strings back-to-back to create

long segments that are powered at both ends.

Each string does not require a take-out, and

there are no heavy lines cables to deploy and

retrieve.

Cut a sensor string anywhere, and data

and power continue to flow from both sides,

keeping the sensors up and running until the

break can be repaired. A network of light-

weight fiber-optic cables replaces the tradi-

tional single backbone, and automatically

routes data via an alternate path in case of a

cable break.

The UniQ sensors are also plug-and-

play, running their own self-tests before be-

ing ready for acquisition seconds after con-

nection. Sensor data are completely self-de-

scribing, sending coordinate, test, and envi-

ronmental data back to the recorder for in-

corporation into the seismic data headers.

“This reduces the risk of errors in data

processing and speeds up turn-around-time,”

says Mr Papworth. “Clean data is essential

to producing high quality imaging results at

any stage of oilfield exploration and devel-

opment.”

UniQ is also fully compatible with all

the high productivity vibrator techniques that

are becoming standard.

Desert Explorer vibrators probe shifting dunes of indeterminate velocity and thickness to imagethe rock formations beneath

For more information about UniQ, please

visit www.westerngeco.com/UniQor email seismic@slb.com

If you like Digital Energy Journal, you will be

pleased to hear that we offer free subscriptions of

our magazine as pdf or on print, as well as a free

bi-weekly e-mail news service.

To register, please visit our website and type in

your email address in the box provided (red arrow)

and press ´go´.

Register to receive regular copies ofDigital Energy Journalwww.digitalenergyjournal.com

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 5

6

Leader

digital energy journal - April - May 2009

Norway – broadening its data reportingrequirementsThe Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) is considering broadening its reporting requirements,forcing companies to supply both their pre-stack data as well as all relevant processed post-stack, andimplementing mechanisms to ensure that data from relinquished areas is collected and efficientlymanaged, says Eric Otto Toogood, project manager of DISKOS, the data repository operated by theNorwegian Petroleum Directorate in collaboration with the Norwegian oil industry.

NPD is keen to include pre-stack data be-

cause many companies are asking for it. “A

lot of smaller companies coming to Norway

would like to go back to field data using

modern reprocessing techniques,” he said.

DISKOS is also expanding its efforts to

track down non-reported data – where com-

panies have data they are supposed to sub-

mit, but they don’t.

It is also keen to prevent companies

from supplying data to the NPD in propri-

etary formats, because it does not feel so

confident it will always be able to read the

data when it needs to, decades into the fu-

ture. “We have some proprietary formats,

that we are keen to replace with open stan-

dards, but this can often be a technical chal-

lenge” he said. “We really want to get away

from there.”

DISKOS wants to be able to make data

from relinquished acreage more widely

available. In other words, if you don’t want

to drill in a certain area, there is an obliga-

tion to relinquish the acreage but the chal-

lenge remains in giving other companies ac-

cess to all the available data – i.e. maybe to

have access to most, or all of your data.

“There might be tough fighting when

we change reporting requirements,” he ad-

mitted.

NPD is keen to make it easier for peo-

ple to use and access the data. “We want

make the data available to non expert users,”

he said and is looking forward to the imple-

mentation of a more sophisticated, user

friendly front-end in the PetroBank software

currently being used by Diskos.

The DISKOS service recently changed

its service provider for managing the opera-

tions. The previous contract was awarded to

Schlumberger for 2004 to 2008, and now to

Landmark for 2009 to 2014.

The DISKOS initiative began original-

ly as the Geobank project in the early 1990’s

and began normal operations in 1995 run by

the company PetroData as a repository for

post-stack seismic data, with 5 companies

involved; now there are 52 members and da-

ta coverage has expanded to well and month-

data management point of view is a complex

process, particularly when moving it from

one storage media to another one, especially

if older media look like they will become ob-

solete.

“You have to reformat data – it’s an ex-

pensive business,” he said. “The main issue

is the ability to read media. We need to keep

data for at least 10 years and hopefully a lot

longer. You need durable systems that can

withstand change.”

“Putting data into a managed solution

such as Diskos solves all of these problems

as the data sets are continually being re-

freshed onto new media through an agree-

ment with the service provider. The current

approach is to have a mix of technologies

where both tape and disc based solutions

work in concert, giving the best of both

worlds.”

The database has about 120 terabytes

in it, with 16 people employed to manage it.

The data is passed through quality control

checks as it is entered into the database. It is

normally in SEG-Y format for seismic data

and a number of standard formats for well

and production data, he said.

In the past the NPD had physical data

stored on paper, sepia, film, microfilm and

tape, which is the typical situation facing

many companies worldwide today. One key

task is often in digitising paper well logs. “It

is time consuming but enables us to do more

with the data,” he said.

“We think we’ve set up a high quality

database. We’ve had a lot of members, I

think they’re getting value for money,” he

said.

The DISKOS members typically down-

load around 3.5 terabytes of data per month

out of the database, he said.

ly production data.

Any oil company can join DISKOS;

Norwegian Universities are allowed to ac-

cess non-confidential data for academic and

research purposes. There are opportunities

for companies other than oil companies to

access ”public” data, but without online ac-

cess. Giving non-oil companies online ac-

cess to the database is a priority for Diskos

in 2009.

Managing the dataOne of the biggest challenges for DISKOS

is managing the enormous amount of data.

The rate of data collection is increasing

all the time. “2007, 2008, and probably 2009

are record years for acquiring seismic data

in Norway,” he said.

The Norwegian government keeps data

about all the seismic surveys which have

ever been carried out and all of the explo-

ration wells, so that it always has the best in-

formation possible about what has been

found out so far about its oilfields and the

resource potential of the Norwegian conti-

nental shelf in general.

“We need user friendly systems and to

be able to find data over the long term and

we want to reduce the cost of moving data

around.”

One of the biggest challenges is keep-

ing DISKOS as complete as possible. There

is no easy way of knowing if DISKOS has

got all of the available data in its system,

even though there are very specific regula-

tions to ensure that all seismic, well and pro-

duction data data gathered on the Norwegian

continental shelf are reported to the authori-

ties.

A further challenge is making sure that

all of the data is high quality, and not dupli-

cated, he said.

There is a disaster recovery site over

10km from the main operation database,

where a back-up copy of all the data is

stored. If there is any problem with the main

database the back-up copy can be opera-

tional (for read only purposes) in 5 days.

Looking after data from a traditional

This article is based on a speech given by

Mr Toogood at the SMI E&P Information

and Data Management conference in Lon-

don on Feb 10-11 2009

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 6

7

Exploration and drilling

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal

Improvements with broadbandnetworked drill stringNetworked drill pipe transmits data from downhole MWD/LWD tools at 57,000 - bps – far more than the6 bits per second commonly available using mud pulse. We asked National Oilwell Varco how it works.

National Oilwell Varco reports that its Intel-

liServ Broadband Network service delivered

high-definition subsurface information in

more than 60 wells since its commercializa-

tion early 2006, drilling over 610,000 feet in

four continents in onshore and offshore envi-

ronments, in vertical, deviated and horizon-

tal wells.

The abilities with a broadband network

and data acquisition all along the drill string

is enormously helpful in making operational

decisions in real time, and placing the well-

bore in the right place while continuously

monitoring what is happening downhole.

The broadband network carries data at

speeds of 57,000 bits per second – far more

than 1 to 20 bits per second typically avail-

able with other technologies for communica-

tions from the drill bit, such as mud pulse,

electromagnetic or acoustics.

Further, the broadband network has a

constant signal strength with increasing well

depth, while the data-rate typically degrades

from 20 bps at shallow depths to as little as

1bps at extreme depths with mudpulse.

Many people have tried to develop

wired drill pipe over the years, but they could

not find a way of getting around the problem

on how to establish connections between

lengths of drill pipe allowing data flow across

that would not be affected by dirt or mud on

the connections. For example, a typical met-

al to metal connection (such as the cables that

plug into your computer) would not work.

GrantPrideco developed a double shoul-

dered premium connection (subsequently ac-

quired by National Oilwell Varco in Decem-

ber 2007) that helped solve the problem: In-

stead of having a live metal to metal data con-

nection at the pipe joints, an inductive coil

was placed on the secondary shoulder.

The inductive coil generates a magnetic

field from the current supplied on a coaxial

cable, which runs through each length of drill

pipe, connecting with the inductive coil on

the other end of it.

The data therefore is communicated

through the magnetic field at the connection

and not from metal to metal contact, so coils

covered in dirt do not affect data communi-

cation.

Still, it is important to keep the coils as

close together as possible: The further they

properly cleaned. Pack-offs - a build-up of

cutting beds in the wellbore that resulted

from insufficient hole cleaning – can be pin-

pointed, as well as the location of a forma-

tion fluid influx as they happen.

“All major MWD/LWD service

providers can connect to the bottom end of

our network with successful deployments in

four continents,” he says. You can also to

send instructions to, and diagnose problems

with, downhole tools without having to pull

the tools out of the hole.

“We can actuate tools, diagnose in case

of problems, we update their settings. We

have seen cases where we reprogrammed

tools downhole, while without the connectiv-

ity of the broadband network this would have

required to trip the tools to surface to perform

this task.”

“When the tools are used on a broad-

band network, you have the bidirectional

communication with the ability to fine-tune

the settings of the downhole measurement

tools and have the ability to diagnose tool

problems while the tools are still downhole.”

Mr Veeningen says that the technology

could also be used in completions and well

tests.

“The next generation downhole tools

could be actuated with a click of a mouse, as

opposed to running slick line,” he says.

are apart, the more signal at-

tenuation. Electronic re-

peaters, running on batteries

are installed every 450m of

drill pipe – to boost the sig-

nal.

Although the concept

of a broadband network

looks very simple “it took a

long time to figure out how

to do it,” says Monte John-

son, R&D Manager software

and electronics, with Intel-

liServ, the division of NOV

which developed the net-

work.

The broadband net-

work provides full range of

benefits. For example, “10%

time savings has been real-

ized simply through the abil-

ity to quickly downlink in-

structions to the rotary steerable tools instead

of the normal communications using the mud

pumps for downlink communications,” he

says.

“This result in better borehole manage-

ment as the rotary steerable commands can

be sent more frequently.”

All service companies connectDaan Veeningen, business development man-

ager, Intelliserv, emphasizes that NOV pro-

vides the oil industry a network, not just a da-

ta communication link from the bottom of the

drill pipe to surface.

Sensors placed at network nodes all

along the drill string at discrete intervals take

measurements of the annular pressure and

temperature. This high-definition informa-

tion in real time helps ensuring the hole is

Intelliserv's wired drill pipe - an inductive coil onthe end of each pipe section communicatesdata to the next length of pipe, withoutneeding a direct metal to metal connection

IntelliServ's networked drill pipe can carry data at 57,000 bitsper second from measurement tools in the bottomholeassembly and for the first time all along the drillstring. In thephoto - the electronics in the link subs get checked before beingassembled into the pipe

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 7

8

Exploration and drilling

digital energy journal - April - May 2009

Communicating from downhole with a chirpCalgary company XACT Downhole Teleme-

try Inc. has developed a way of transmit 20

bits per second (bps) uncompressed data from

downhole to surface that is independent of the

drilling fluid and formation properties.

This impressive data rate is a big im-

provement on the typical 0.5 to 3 bps for mud

Pulse and the 3 to 6 bps for EM telemetries.

XACT predicts it will increase this rate to 40

bps this year.

To date XACT has drilled more than 125

wells using acoustic technology, including a

vertical well of more than 3,000m measured

depth.

Many companies have tried using sound

energy to carry drilling data from the bottom

hole assembly (BHA) in a live drilling envi-

ronment, but have not been successful.

“The trick”, says Dr. Paul Camwell,

XACT’s CTO, “is to understand the acoustic

channel – i.e. work within the constraints of

how the acoustic energy moves up the drill

pipe, and the optimum way it should be de-

coded at the surface.”

The original work was carried out at San-

dia National Labs (New Mexico) under the di-

rection of Dr. Doug Drumheller in the 80s and

90s, and today XACT leads the industry in

carrying out the R&D necessary to protect and

commercialize the technology for drilling ap-

plications.

The acoustic wave utilized by XACT

travels through the drill string independently

provide complementary technologies. For in-

stance, XACT’s through-bore tool aides the

deployment of the ThruBitTM suite of Surel-

ogTM logging tools, and XACT’s high data

rate and third-party interface enables a lower

cost drilling and logging solution for clients.

XACT clamps an Electronic Acoustic Receiver(EAR) around the kelly saver sub to receiveacoustic data sent from near the drill bit tosurface via the drill pipe walls, and hence byradio to the driller.

of drilling fluid and formation properties, de-

pending only on the presence of metal drill

pipe. Thus underbalanced drilling is a natural

application for their tool.

The telemetry signal is carried in the drill

pipe and comprises data bits that are encoded

via a series of chirps - a sweep of frequencies

in the 650Hz range. The energy source that

generates the chirps is a piezoelectric stack

that transforms high voltage electrical waves

into mechanical waves, these being introduced

into the surrounding steel of the acoustic

telemetry tool and hence into the drill string

where they propagate at speeds of approxi-

mately 5,000m/sec.

XACT is also presently commercializing

distributed sensor nodes that can be placed at

appropriate distances along the drill string.

These, like the primary tool in the BHA, are

able to measure drilling parameters such as

pressure, temperature, shock and vibration.

The distributed nodes can also detect and de-

code the acoustic signals received from below

and relay them on to the surface at higher pow-

er, thus providing greatly extended telemetry

range.

The major investor in XACT is Shell

Technology Ventures Fund 1 BV. The fund is

managed by the independently-owned compa-

ny Kenda Capital BV. The Fund specializes in

funding companies that provide ‘step-change’

technologies primarily in the upstream oil and

gas sector, particularly when such companies

Schlumberger – new drilling telemetrySchlumberger has launched the Orion II*

telemetry platform to increase the rate of data

transmission to surface from their downhole

logging-while-drilling (LWD) and measure-

ment-while-drilling (MWD) services. It also

cancels drilling and rig noise that adversely af-

fects data quality.

Downhole, new compression algorithms

increase the quantity of data transmitted at a

given physical telemetry rate, and new signal

modulation methods push mud pulse signals

further.

At the surface, new signal detection and

noise cancellation methods demodulate ex-

tremely weak signals at high physical teleme-

try rates to enhance data quality.

In fact, the system can send 12 bits per

second of actual data through the mud - called

physical telemetry.

The system also possesses new data com-

pression technologies that can compress a data

stream as high as 120 bps -

known as effective telemetry.

When a service runs the Orion

II telemetry platform 120 bps

are effective on a 9 bps physical

telemetry rate.

Log curves can be com-

pressed instead of compressing

individual pieces of data. “This

enables an excellent compres-

sion ratio with no deviation from

recorded data,” says Gilles Vie,

Schlumberger product champi-

on for Orion II.

The system was used on

the longest well ever drilled, at

40,320 ft well for Maersk Oil Qatar.

During the project, 3 bps were sent while

drilling at depths up to 35,000 feet where the

MWD was downlinked to 1.5 bps telemetry,

which was used to total depth. During the proj-

ect, Maersk Oil Qatar also ran the Schlumberg-

er PowerDrive* rotary steerable system, geo-

VISION* imaging-while-drilling service and

adnVISION* azimuthal density neutron tool.

*Mark of Schlumberger

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 8

9

Exploration and drilling

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal

Geotrace introduces ray-tracedanisotropic PSTM

The new technique is particularly useful

when imaging seismic data with long off-

sets (close to the horizontal), including seis-

mic that is being used before horizontal

drilling. Additionally, the inclusion of

anisotropy provides more accurate imaging

in the presence of rocks in which the veloc-

ity varies as a function of direction.

Geotrace’s Anisotropic Ray-traced

PSTM goes beyond the fourth and sixth or-

der Taylor Series used for most “curved ray

PSTM” implementations and uses one-di-

mensional ray tracing to more accurately

image data with longer offsets and/or more

complicated velocity models. The follow-

ing synthetic test illustrates the superiority

of the ray-traced method over curved ray in

an isotropic medium where long offset data

needs to be flattened.

The addition of the time anisotropy

parameter, eta, further complicates the im-

aging challenges. It becomes necessary to

include this parameter in the ray-traced im-

aging to properly flatten gathers when

anisotropy is present. This is illustrated in

figure 2.

Development of the product began in

2008, and it has been in production for sev-

eral months.

“We’ve used this in a very complicat-

ed area in Oklahoma in the over thrust re-

gion—a particularly challenging area for

time imaging," says John Weigant, vice

president of geotechnical applications with

Geotrace.

“We've seen some very nice results,

specifically better results than we got in the

past. It is particularly good for long offset

events as well as deep subtle faulting that

is so critical in unconventional resource

plays.

“It is particularly good for long offset dataand in the presence of anisotropy” - JohnWeigant, vice president of geotechnicalapplications with Geotrace

data and in the presence of anisotropy. It in-

corporates the geology and other known

properties of the areas and allows us to

work closely with our clients to tie together

all of the available information. Ray trac-

ing, combined with the inclusion of

anisotropy, gives us a more accurate time

image,” Weigant added.

Geotrace’s implementation of state-of-

the-art interactive velocity analysis tools al-

lows for fast analysis and picking of both

velocities and the anisotropic parameter eta.

Figure 3 shows the results of using this

workflow in a very difficult imaging area.

The technique helps with both dipping

Seismic data processing and data management company Geotrace has announced its new KirchMig toolfor anisotropic ray traced prestack time imaging.

Figure 1: The synthetic isotropic gather on theleft has been prestack migrated using a sixthorder curved ray algorithm in the center anda ray traced algorithm on the right

Figure 2: The synthetic anisotropic gather onthe left has been prestack migrated using anisotropic ray traced algorithm in the centerand an anisotropic ray traced algorithm onthe right

Figure 3: Anisotropic analysis and Ray Traced PSTM (right) have improved the moreconventional sixth Order Curved Ray PSTM result on the left. The dipping events in the upperleft of the section as well as the subtle faulting in the lower right have both been improvedthroughout the 3D volume

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 9

10

Exploration and drilling

digital energy journal - April - May 2009

Drilling technology - evolution orrevolutionThe second plenary session of the IADC (International Association of Drilling Contractors) conference inAmsterdam, March 17-19, had the theme “technology – evolution or revolution,” talking about how thedrilling industry develops new technology, and whether it is innovative enough to develop newtechnologies and methods needed to help produce the oil which the world needs.

Lance Cook, global wells technology manag-

er with Shell, and chair of the session, stressed

that “we'll need all the innovation and innova-

tive people we can get to get the hydrocarbons

the global economy is projected to need in to

the pipelines.

“I feel that this industry is quite innova-

tive,” he said. “If our industry wasn’t as inno-

vative and capable of delivering, the prognos-

tications that peak oil would occur in the

1970s or 1980s would have been correct.”

“I believe the unprecedented economic

growth of the last century was enabled by the

cheap energy this industry provided,” he said.

“In 2005, we took 60 days to drill a

13,500 foot well in a tight gas field. Now it’s

a little over 3 weeks, with technologies like

rotary steerables and underbalanced drilling.”

“Meanwhile the wells are producing 3-4

times more than in 2005, due to technology

improvements in areas like fracturing. So a

drilling rig in 2009 can put 10 times as many

hydrocarbon molecules in the pipeline as it did

in 2005.

“If the auto industry did as well as that,

they'd be making 400 mpg cars.”

Mr Cook noted that in this economic en-

vironment, it can be easier to find manufac-

turing space to build new/prototype equip-

ment. “In the recent high activity times – get-

ting manufacturing space was nearly impossi-

ble,” he said.

Mr Cook observed that many revolution-

ary steps are driven by a crisis. “This industry

is brilliant when we get into a corner,” he said.

One example is Shell's work to develop

expandable casing, which was pulled from the

lab to solve a tricky problem. “We couldn’t

reach our objectives even with a new genera-

tion drillship we had commissioned. If we did-

n’t deliver a new method for getting the wells

to their objectives,we would have had to ex-

plain how we spent $350m on this new gener-

ation drilling rig for nothing.

Bob Bloom, NOVBob Bloom, senior vice president of National

Oilwell Varco, emphasized that people operat-

ing modern drilling equipment have access to

a wide amount of information that wasn’t im-

mediately available in the past, and with to-

day’s advanced computerized controlled sys-

tems, we can combine human intelligence and

experience with the control software to “pro-

vide safer, more efficient, process oriented

drilling operations.”

Drilling companies have been focusing

on knowledge transfer utilizing advanced

computer based training systems combined

with detailed hands-on courses and on-the-job

training. “Training new personnel has certain-

ly been the most critical industry issue over

the last several years and we've done a great

job in that, and we're continuing to," he said.

"I don't worry about the 'great crew

change' - I think we'll get through it very well,"

he said. "There will be a big reserve of

boomers who will get tired of the golf course

and will come back. I have 3 associates 74

years old who came back to the industry."

One of the greatest breakthroughs in

drilling technology occurred in 1981 when the

top drive was developed, he said. "It revolu-

tionized our drilling performance and was one

of the most important changes in rig machin-

ery in 100 years."

With a top drive, it became possible to

drill down triples or quads (tie together three

or four lengths of drill pipe) and back ream

(drill backwards in the reverse direction) while

circulating drilling fluid.

Another important development was the

high pressure washpipe, which can operate at

pressures of up to 7,500 psi – where as con-

ventional washpipe systems can fail in under

50 hours of operation at high pump pressures

and elevated rotating speeds, he said.

High pressure wash pipe "has enabled

top drives to run over 1000 hours in high tem-

perature, high pressure and high speed appli-

cations without changing the washpipe," he

said. "That can save millions of dollars every

year in rig maintenance and unproductive

downtime."

One technology which didn't make it was

submarine drilling rigs (drilling from sub-

marines). "A project started in 1958 but it was

never built - the technical challenges were too

big," he said.

However those efforts led to the estab-

lishment of a company called " National Ad-

vanced Drilling Machines". This company de-

signed a 3000 HP land rig which could be op-

erated by one person - everything was mecha-

nized with little need for human involvement

on the drill floor.

This rig was also not successful - it had

a 16 per cent down time and was very diffi-

cult to move. It had one of the first computer

control systems, using vacuum tubes, which

were easily damaged and needed replacing

every time the rig was moved.

“I don't worry about the great crew change” -Bob Bloom, senior vice president of NationalOilwell Varco

“This industry is brilliant when we get into acorner” - Lance Cook, global wells technologymanager with Shell

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 10

11

Exploration and drilling

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal

However, some of this mechanical tech-

nology ended up being incorporated in the

NOV top drive, he said.

NOV is developing a new modular

drilling concept called the SPRED Rig, which

can drill wells three times more quickly than

today's rigs, and do casing and concreting op-

erations simultaneously on different well cen-

ters.

Another exciting new technology is us-

ing hammer mill technology on offshore rigs,

which can thermally treat turnings allowing

them to be dumped safely overboard without

causing environmental damage. "This can

save millions of dollars annually from not hav-

ing to transport drilling wastes to shore for

cleaning and disposal," he said.

Moving into the future "we need the right

people in our companies – they need to be in-

novative, not afraid to fail, and enjoy collabo-

rating with others" he said.

Mr Bloom said that new ideas often

come from small groups of 1 or 2 people.

One example is the active heave draw-

works (the pipe hoisting mechanism on some

new offshore rigs). "It was conceived in the

1980’s in a relatively slow time," he said.

"One man championed that idea for 4-5 years

and there were a lot of naysayers, but eventu-

ally the idea was accepted and proved to be a

revolutionary product for the industry."

Luis Cortes Xavier Bastos, PetrobrasLuis Cortes Xavier Bastos, general Manager

of Well Construction Engineering, Petrobras,

said that “technology has added a lot of com-

plexity to our construction process – it added

to the risks,” he said.

“Drilling performance has not improved,

in how much power reaches the cutting edge.

Only a small fraction of power reaches the

drillbit – most is wasted in friction.”

“Non productive time has been constant

at 20-30 per cent for the past 20 years.”

“Lost time accident rates are high com-

pared to other areas of the oil business,” he

said.

An interesting trend for the future will be

niche intervention vessels – drilling rigs for

specific types of drilling jobs. “A rig is not a

swiss knife, you can’t use it for everything,”

he said.

“Are there any outsiders preparing a rev-

olution – eg in space, robotics, nanotech in-

dustry?” he asked. “I don’t know but we have

to be aware of them.”

“Innovative developments are often driv-

en by necessity – ie people invent new things

when they are forced to,” said Mr Bastos.

Tim Juran, SeadrillTim Juran, executive vice president, Seadrill,

noted that although the basic rig format hasn't

changed in

30 years, the

specifica-

tions have

changed.

For ex-

ample, the

typical maxi-

mum depths

of water be-

ing drilled

through have

increased

from 1,500

feet in 1981

to 10,000

feet now;

whilst typical

well depths

have in-

creased from 15,000 feet in 1981 to 35,000

feet now.

Hoisting capacity has increased from 500

tons in 1980 to 1250 tons now; drill rig power

has increased from 8,800 hp on 1981 to 56,000

hp now, and rotating power has increased from

35,000 lb ft (using a kelly drilling) to 105,000

lb feet (using a top drive).

In 1981, rigs were typically kept in posi-

tion using mooring lines, but now they usual-

ly use dynamic positioning, he said.

The number of data points has increased

from under 50 to over 10,000.

Pro-active formal risk assessment sys-

tems have evolved.

Drilling is planned around the technical

limits of the equipment.

The crew complement on platforms has

increased from 80 beds to 200 beds - “and

they’re all filled,” he said.

Troubleshooting has changed from “see

it / fix it” to remote diagnostics, he said.

Crew are given formal training, not just

“soak time” (time on the platforms where they

are expected to absorb everything).

The current generation of rigs, he said,

can be described as 6th generation – which he

described as having prominently dynamic po-

sitioning, ultra deep drilling capability, next

generation control systems.

They also have a turnkey shipyard deliv-

ery – where the entire rig is put together with

a shipyard, and the shipyard contracts directly

with the drilling equipment manufacturer to

provide the drilling system.

There is plenty more to be desired, he

said.

“We must compress the competency de-

velopment cycles for our people – that is ab-

solutely essential.”

Mr Juran said he would like to see a stan-

dard operating environment developed for

drillers, where they are provided with only es-

“Innovators often come whenthey are forced” - HalvorKjørholt, chief researcher,drilling and wells,StatoilHydro

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 11

ger' – a

drilling tool

which can be

used for ex-

ploration – it

literally

drills down

by itself and

clogs the

hole behind

it.

It is im-

portant that

oil compa-

nies make

the effort to

support

small com-

panies,

rather than

only work

with large service companies, as many are

tempted to do. “We make a lot of effort to sup-

port small companies,” he said. “Small com-

panies come up with good ideas but not a com-

plete product.”

IADC – advanced rig technologycommitteesThe International Association of Drilling Con-

tractors (IADC) has established an 'Advanced

Rig Technology Committee' to help imple-

ment new rig technologies, chaired by David

Reid, vice president, E&P technology & busi-

ness for National Oilwell Varco.

The Committee's mission is to improve

rig safety and efficiency with sound operating

procedures, good automation and standardised

automation. It will look at the control philoso-

phy, the communications protocols between

equipment, personnel competency, and find-

ing ways to implement a comprehensive au-

tomation of the complete drilling process, in-

cluding integrating surface and downhole

equipment, and completions systems.

It has subcommittees for oil and gas op-

erators , reliability (looking particularly on the

top drive), guidelines (application of technol-

ogy), control motions (looking at static and

non static motions in drilling control), soft-

ware interface group – communications be-

tween manufacturers, and future technology –

trying to understand future needs.

In particular, the subcommittee will be

encouraging drilling contractors to provide

more detailed reports of problems they are en-

countering with top drives, which can be

shared with equipment vendors. It will also

maintain a database about which technology

is being used where.

Further information is on the IADC web-

site www.iadc.org – click on the section at

the top 'committees'.

12

Exploration and drilling

digital energy journal - April - May 2009

sential information.

“I’d like to see us improve integration of

the rig with third party services,” he said.

“I want to take remote diagnostics to the

next level – make predictions before down-

time occurs.”

“We have to continue to figure out how

to prevent hurting people and get to the point

where we’re not hurting anybody,” he said.

Halvor Kjørholt , StatoilHydroHalvor Kjørholt, chief researcher, drilling and

wells, StatoilHydro, said that Statoil currently

gets 60 per cent of production from subsea

wells (wells with a Christmas tree on the

seabed). “The trend is to put more and more

advanced equipment on the seabed,” he said.

Average drilling performance in terms of

metres per day has been fairly constant over

the last decade. “There were some improve-

ments around the year 2000 but then it went

back again,” he observed.

Non productive time for rigs has stayed

at a fairly constant 20-30 per cent between

1998 and 2008, he said.

Improving this will probably require

more automation, he said.

“Drilling is almost 100 per cent manual-

ly controlled,” he said. “People make mis-

takes. We have very little room for mistakes –

there’s not much forgiving in an operation to-

day. People are slower than computers in re-

acting.”

Besides the official calculated non pro-

ductive time, there is also what Mr Kjørholt

terms the unofficial nonproductive time – the

difference between what is achieved and the

technical limit of what the drilling rig can do.

For example, on average a pipe connec-

tion takes over 2 minutes – but an automated

system could do it in half a minute. With a lot

of pipe connections this adds up to a large

amount of wasted rig time.

“I propose – a focus on automation and

control processes,” he said.

“It is less dependent on individual's skills

and interpretations. We can handle low mar-

gins. We can have fast detection and reaction,

and superb repeatability. You can get closer

to the technical limit.”

In future, Mr Kjørholt hopes to see a bet-

ter understanding of hole stability and hole

cleaning. “We can limit operations in the well

to what is necessary,” he said.

Mr Kjørholt said there is something of a

conundrum with the way the oil price encour-

ages innovation. “When the price is low you

can’t afford working on new ideas – when the

price is high you don’t have the time,” he said.

“Innovators often come when they are

forced,” he said.

One of the most exciting new technolo-

gies being supported by StatoilHydro is a 'bad-

David Reid, vice president, E&Ptechnology & business forNational Oilwell Varco,Chairing the IADC AdvancedRig Technology Committee

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 12

13

Exploration and drilling

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal

50 per cent faster drilling – with APSactive damperAPS Technology has developed a system to keep your drillbits in constant contact with the formation byreducing bit bounce and stick slip– which could help you drill 50 per cent faster, and make your drill bitslast 25-30 per cent longer.

Connecticut company APS Technology Inc

has developed an Active Vibration Damper

(AVD™) for drilling, which can enable rate

of penetration to be increased by 50 per cent,

and make each drillbit last 25 to 30 per cent

longer, whilst helping to protect MWD/LWD

electronics.

It has already been used to drill 8 wells

in Texas and Wyoming.

The AVD uses a patented damping

valve section employing a proprietary fluid

containing micron sized magnetic particles,

which changes the tool’s damping character-

ictics when a magnetic field is applied.

This fluid technology, known as “mag-

netorheological”, was originally developed

over 100 years ago, and has been used as a

damper on Ferrari cars, but this is the first

time it has been used to stabilize drillbits.

Drill pipe is typically an inch or more

smaller in diameter than the drilled hole, so

there can be a lot of rattling about, also

known as “whirl”. Weight-on-bit (WOB) and

rotating speeds may vary from moment to

moment.

Stabilisers are commonly used to try to

stop the drillpipe from whirling, but some-

times the stabilizers and drill bit get stuck as

the drill pipe rotates and moves downwards,

and then periodically jerk, a phenomenon

known as “stick/ slip”. Another type of

harmful vibration is axial vibration or “bit

bounce”.

The force a drillbit makes against the

rock due to whirl, stick/slip and bit bounce

can exceed 50 times the acceleration due to

gravity (g), a force big enough to cause a lot

of damage to the drillstring components in-

cluding bits stabilizers and MWD instrumen-

tation..

The AVD is designed to detect and

adapt to the resulting vibrations within mil-

liseconds.

Normal dampening techniques (such as

springs) do not work as well for stabilizing

drillbits, because the level of vibration

damping is constant – and sometimes drillers

need a lighter or stronger damping coeffi-

cient to get the smoothest ride. Spring may

also oscillate at certain speeds.

The APS tool constantly measures the

forces on the drill bit, and how viscous the

dampening fluid around the drill bit needs to

be, to keep the drillstring properly damped.

A magnetic field of appropriate strength is

applied around the MR fluid which causes it

to change viscosity. The MR fluid changes

from a free flowing oil to a extremely vis-

cous grease (with viscosity of cold peanut

butter) in milliseconds. The viscosity of the

MR fluid and therefore the damping charac-

teristics of the AVD tool can be continuous-

ly adjusted based on drilling conditions.

The magnetic field used to change vis-

cosity of the MR fluid is created by large

coils, which use up to 150 watts of direct

current electricity generated by a mud tur-

bine alternator -- also made by APS Tech-

nology -- within the AVD.

“I like to refer to it as a damper with a

programmable viscosity oil,” said Steve An-

dersen, vibration product line manager with

APS.

The company won funding from the US

Department of Energy to develop the idea,

and it also partnered with a drilling compa-

ny for a certain period of time (under re-

quirements for DoE funding that companies

must be in partnerships).

Dirk Bosman, regional manager for

Middle East and North Africa with APS, be-

lieves that the company has faced some ob-

stacles in AVD’s take-up, because it relies on

the support of drilling companies – who also

make a lot of money selling drillbits – and

are not so keen on any technology which

makes the drillbits last longer.

So it is important that oil and gas oper-

ators are well aware of the technology, so

they can demand that their drilling contrac-

tors use it and share in the cost savings de-

livered by longer bit runs and improved

ROP resulting from use of the AVD

tool.

The company is setting

the price of the tool so it

will be cost effective

when used both off-

shore and on-

shore.

Many of

the staff of

APS were previously employees of a com-

pany called Teleco Oilfield Services, which

was acquired and became Baker Hughes IN-

TEQ in 1992. Teleco was the first company

to develop commercial measure while

drilling (MWD) tools in the late 1970s.

If the drill bit is steadier, it can drill muchfaster

Drilling with APS Technology - a dampenerchanges viscosity 10 times a second, to keepthe drillbit as steady as possible onthe rock.

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 13

14

Exploration and drilling

The biggest strength of the software, says

Agnes Scott, senior account manager –

Americas with SPT Group, is the ability to

model transient effects within any drilling

operation.

For example, the difference in mud

pressure while drill pipe is being pulled in

and out; the way mud expands as it goes

deeper underground and increases in temper-

ature; the way the well slowly returns to ge-

othermal conditions (the same as the rock

around it) if there is no drilling going on.

Most other drilling simulator packages

on the market only offer a steady state simu-

lator, she says.

By modelling transient aspects of the

drilling, the software can go a few per cent

further than most other drilling simulation

packages on the market, she says.

Drillbench is used primarily in narrow

margin (particularly difficult) drilling opera-

tions, such as high pressure/high tempera-

ture wells and deep water applications,

where you have to manage the drilling mud

carefully, taking into consideration both tem-

perature and pressure effects.

The new version of the software has

improved layout, reporting functions, and

easier exporting of data.

The new version has a tool to model the

gelling effect of your drilling fluid – the way

fluid will gradually thicken if drilling is

stopped, making it slightly harder to start

drilling again.

“It makes a huge difference to opera-

tional parameters,” says Ms Scott. “Mud

companies give you standard gelling param-

eters – everybody knows that – but it has not

been possible to visualize it before.”

The new software has tools to model

multlple fluids in one circulation – eg when

during a cementing operation, the well is

filled with a spacer, cement, spacer and then

mud. You can model the whole process in

one go.

Using DrillbenchThe software is designed to be used both

while a drilling operation is being planned,

and also while it is running.

During drilling operations, by compar-

ing the drilling data with what is expected,

you get a quick indication if something

might be going wrong, she says.

And when an operation is completed,

you can run another simulation, to see if can

see if you can get the actual results in your

simulator, to get a judgement of how accu-

rate you data is.

The software is often used after a

drilling operation when people say “we saw

something strange, can you try to see what's

happening,” she says.

The software can be used for training

and preparation purposes, to get a better un-

derstanding of the well’s operational limita-

tions and to be better prepared for unplanned

events.

The software has been under develop-

ment for 11 years – this is the version 5.

TestimonialsBP Aberdeen uses Drillbench for well plan-

ning and follow up, and also crew training

on high pressure, high temperature wells in

the UK.

Shell USA says that it used Drillbench

to simulate its underbalanced drilling proj-

ect, and managed to discover underbalanced

drilling features it couldn’t have found using

steady state software.

Baker Hughes Inteq says it used Drill-

bench when planning drilling for its Marlin

A-5 well, and found the program made ac-

curate predictions of the downhole tempera-

ture and density profiles, as confirmed by the

downhole measurements.

StatoilHydro says it used Drillbench

when drilling its first deepwater exploration

well in Angola. It needed to drill the well

deeper than originally planned, and it used

the software to work out how it could safely

stretch the well design and saved one casing

string.

Wild Well Control Inc (USA) says it us-

es Drillbench to assist clients with critical

well planning and resolution of problems, in

particular analysing kicks and emergency re-

sponse operations.

StatoilHydro Zagros Oil & Gas, Iran

says it used Drillbench to plan wells of over

5000 total vertical depth in a remote area of

the Iranian desert, to identify limitations, op-

timize the casing program and cut costs, us-

ing the software both in planning and execu-

tion.

ConocoPhillips Scandinavian division

says it used Drillbench for decision making

in two difficult high temperature, high pres-

sure wells, and the software made a big con-

tribution to the company’s ability to reach its

planned targets.

SPT Group launches new version ofDrillbenchNorwegian software and simulation company SPT Group has launched a new version of Drillbench, itssoftware for simulating and modeling drilling operations.

“Mud companies give you standard gellingparameters – everybody knows that – but ithas not been possible to visualize it before” -Agnes Scott, senior account manager –Americas with SPT Group

Simulating and modelling drilling operationsusing DrillBench

digital energy journal - April - May 2009

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 14

SPE Offshore Europe is where the E&P community meets to find the solutions required to keep up with an accelerating technology race, and understand the demands of a changing industry committed to ensuring security of supply in an increasingly complex world.

Learning. Innovation. Debate. Solutions.

Register for free for the conference and exhibition at www.offshore-europe.co.uk

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 15

Oil and gas production

16 digital energy journal - April - May 2009

Germanischer Lloyd and Noble Dentonmerge to create largest oil and gasengineering consultancy

The company will provide a broad range of

technical services and consulting, to help oil

and gas companies make sure that what they

are doing is safe.

Both companies already have many

joint clients in the oil and gas industry, in-

cluding ConocoPhillips, Shell, BP, BG,

Chevron, Exxon, Total, ONGC, Saipem, Sta-

toilHydro, Transcocean.

Germanischer Lloyd clients include

Hess, Talisman, Wood Group, Saudi Aram-

co, Repsol, Gaz de France, Petronas, and

Noble Denton clients include Petrobras, Ak-

er, APL, Heerema Energy.

GL employs over 5,500 skilled engi-

neers. It was founded in 1867, and its 2008

revenues were Eur 544m.

Noble Denton employs around 900 em-

ployees. It was founded in 1904, and its 2008

revenues were GBP 100m (Eur 108m).

Pekka Paasivaara, member of the Ex-

ecutive Board Germanischer Lloyd, says that

many oil majors are looking for an engineer-

ing technical consultancy with a global

reach, and GL is keen to be that company.

“Oil companies are searching for a technical

services partner on a global scale,” he says.

This is particularly true for national oil

companies, which often do not have the in-

depth technical expertise in-house which in-

ternational oil companies have.

The combined company has offices in

all oil and gas centres, including Houston,

Mumbai, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore,

Doha, Abu Dhabi, London and Aberdeen.

“Most clients are asking for local presence,”

says Mr Paasivaara.

Services include technical and opera-

tional assurance (agreeing that plans are

technically and operationally OK), inspec-

tion, safety and risk consulting, engineering

design, software, testing, helping maintain

reliability, casualty investigation, as well as

project management.

The focus is on all areas of oil and gas

industry and energy – including renewables

and power.

Technical assurance is providing com-

panies with a second opinion that what they

are about to do will be safe. For example, if

a company is transporting a $500m topside

from South Korea to Africa, “you want more

than for one company to say ‘trust us, it will

be alright,’” says John Wishart, group man-

aging director of Noble Denton,

Both companies have undertaken a

range of acquisitions over the past few years.

Last year, GL bought Advantica Group,

the former consulting arm of upstream gas

company BG, among a range of other acqui-

sitions, and Material Consulting Services, a

downhole consulting business in Houston.

Over the past few years Noble Denton

has acquired Martech Unlimited, a company

specialising in tanker vetting services, Po-

seidon Maritime, a dynamic positioning con-

sulting company, among other acquisitions.

Noble Denton has deep expertise in

deepwater oil and gas, including about dy-

namic positioning of platforms, complex

mooring systems. It has expertise in the full

range of offshore equipment, including drill-

ships, FPSOs, floating LNG, pipelines, plat-

forms OSV, subsea systems.

It has a strong presence in Norway,

where it is able to get involved in a lot of the

technical development for offshore equip-

ment.

Growth areasThe companies are

keen to provide more

services for the grow-

ing wind energy sector

– both onshore and off-

shore. Germanischer

Lloyd already has a

large consulting busi-

ness in wind power – it

is currently helping

Gaz de France install a

wind park in Mexico.

There is particu-

lar growth in demand

for technical expertise

in the deepwater envi-

ronment, including in

West Africa, Brazil,

Gulf of Mexi-

co and

Venezuela,

says Mr

Wishart.

“There's

emerging

technology -

there's always

a greater need

for assurance

and integrity,”

he says.

Carbon

capture and

storage is

seen as an in-

teresting busi-

ness area.

It would

also like to

expand further globally – including in Chi-

na, Russia and Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Brazil,

West Africa, India and Australia. It also

wants to build up the corporate knowledge.

Noble Denton is one of the few compa-

nies in the sector which is able to provide in-

dependent advice, says Mr Wishart. “In our

case, we have no-one behind us pulling the

strings.”

Two engineering technical assurance companies, Germanischer Lloyd and Noble Denton, have mergedoperations to form what is probably the world’s largest oil and gas technical services company, with 6,400employees in 80 countries.

“Oil companies aresearching for a technicalservices partner on a globalscale” - Pekka Paasivaara,member of the ExecutiveBoard Germanischer Lloyd

Noble Denton is one of the world's largest offshore consultancycompanies

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 16

Oil and gas production

17

Lessons from the US Air ForceThe oil and gas industry could learn a few lessons from the US Air Force in working out the best way toimplement and integrate new technology, says Houston oil and gas consultant Dutch Holland of Holland& Davis.

New technologies can be powerful and mind-

bending, especially in digital energy (DE).

Ever stepped into a visualization (“viz”)

center and put on the 3D goggles to watch col-

orful strata spun upside down and inside out?

Technologies can fascinate, intrigue and, most

importantly, change how the world works in

ways often dramatically better than yester-

year.

New technology can also be perplexing

when being moved from scientists’ hands in

research and development to everyday appli-

cation within an organization, as companies

attempt tying new technologies into opera-

tions.

Although technology integration was

not invented just the other day, the results in-

variably make it seem as if that were the case.

Implementation scenarios still play out ad-

versely at too many companies trying to

bridge R&D and operations. Why is the tran-

sition still so difficult and what’s the solution?

Apples, oranges and test pilotsWhen executives attack problems within their

companies, the tendency is to draw upon

knowledge about their specific industry, their

experience within that industry and experi-

ences of colleagues and customers within that

same industry.

Looking outside oil and gas, therefore,

seems to be comparing apples and oranges.

In other words, management is advised to

stick to the business they are in when brain-

storming for answers.

But the real-world tells a different story:

“Look anywhere for solutions and find them

in seemingly unlikely places.”

For example, who would guess that a

world-class solution for complex technology

integration for the oil industry might actually

come from the United States Air Force (US-

AF)?

The USAF invented the box, referred to

as an “intelligent interface” (Figure one), be-

tween R&D and operations to not only sup-

port technology integration but to actively

participate in product and mission innovation.

Since its formation in 1947, the USAF’s

mission has called for continually improving

technology. Therefore, being technically-ori-

ented thinkers and overachievers, they devel-

oped an intelligent interface which has been

the key to innovating and integrating every

new aircraft into operations for more than half

a century.

So, to

get inside the

world’s most

effective inte-

gration of new

technology,

temporarily

suspend the

whole idea of

working at an

oil company,

don the test pi-

lot gear and

get ready to

see how ex-

cellence is

routinely

achieved.

Home to the USAF intelligent interface

is Edwards Air Force Base, where the Test

and Evaluation Squadron and the USAF Test

Pilot School are located.

The test squadron ensures that all new

technology meets mission requirements and a

pivotal part of the process focuses on using

operational personnel who have completed

test pilot school. In other words, the interface

includes people from both operations and

R&D sides.

However, not just anybody can be air-

borne at Edwards AFB; only the best and

brightest are selected for this prestigious

school, with some applying several times be-

fore acceptance.

Ten years of pilot experience is required,

of which five years must be in a command po-

sition.

Further, although bravery and flying

skills are requirements, much more is de-

manded. This includes scientific and engi-

neering knowledge, critical and reasoned

judgment and managerial skills of the first or-

der.

They must also have an affinity for me-

chanical systems, an ability to “feel” the air-

plane, a well-honed sense of what is happen-

ing at all times and mature, reasoned judg-

ment. Upon acceptance, applicants undergo a

40-week intensive training program directed

at taking day-to-day operational opportunities

and turning them into real technology proj-

ects that come back as airplanes.

Applying this to digital energyIn the ongoing goal to make new technology

“work” for a company’s greater good, simply

linking an innovation to operations is not

enough.

The use of an intelligent interface helps

ensure that the power of DE technology is

used to enhance daily business operations,

now and in the future.

The technology integration problem

stands out when people try to take complex

and sophisticated DE innovations and tie

them into a complex and sophistical opera-

tions system … without the use of an intelli-

gent interface.

In place of an intelligent interface, how-

ever, is often a very unsophisticated integra-

tion approach staffed by transaction-oriented

personnel, frequently with little or no opera-

tional experience.. A passive, transaction in-

terface just is no substitute for an intelligent

interface that can analyze, modify and im-

prove the both operations and the technology.

Depending on one’s perspective that

may seem doable or difficult but, whichever

applies, the DE/intelligent interface must op-

erate with a set of attributes. If not, once

again the necessary integration either will not

happen or will be exceptionally bumpy and

ultimately unsatisfactory.

One, a DE Intelligent Interface must be

a formally chartered function, not a set of in-

formal practices that may or may not have

worked in the past.

Two, it must have leadership backing

and assigned responsibility to do this inter-

face, backed both by operations and the R&D

or IT side.

Three, the Intelligent Interface must

“Look anywhere forsolutions and find them inseemingly unlikely places” -Dutch Holland, CEO,Holland & Davis

Figure 1 - the US Air Force likes to see researchand development well integrated withoperations

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 17

and insertion, not have “technology done to

them.”

On the downside of not getting the po-

tential of technology due to not interacting

and innovating around it, again an AF simi-

larity exists.

Not achieving technology integration

would be like the AF commissioning Boeing

to build an airplane, but never having the op-

portunity to test it and see if it could fly new

and different types of missions.

This causes them to miss out on a huge

element of both innovation and integration

since many innovations come from the Ed-

wards AFB test environment and go back to

Boeing for airplane improvement.

What’s happening right now is that the

best and brightest still work very hard to get

into test pilot school because they know it is

the critical link between R&D and the flying

world. This is precisely not where the DE

world currently is.

In other words, more operations people

need to figuratively stand on stage and reach

out for the opportunities continually emerg-

ing from DE. The DE culture really needs

people who want to make things happen.

In order to do this, there must be a for-

mal organization spin, perhaps taking

“lessons learned” from the USAF. Not de-

pending on informally touching base across

the interface between R&D and flying, the

USAF employs a carefully planned DE intel-

ligent interface.

Today, this same kind of interface, while

only existing in some oilfield companies, is

something to which all companies can realis-

tically aspire and benefit from.

Oil and gas production

18 digital energy journal - April - May 2009

have a mission focus, not a technology focus.

Four, the interface should have functions

shown inside Figure 2.

Essentially, the DE/Intelligent Interface

is powered by the disciplines and principles

of systems and change engineering.

Staffed by the highly qualified opera-

tions personnel, these people should have

some of the key attributes as those in the AF

test pilot school. That includes ten years in

operations, five years with bottom-line re-

sponsibility and high credibility with opera-

tions personnel.

Additionally, they are marked and des-

ignated as “comers” in the organization and

known as Operations Stars, or proactive lead-

ers who are “consciously competent.” The lat-

ter refers to being able to articulate what op-

erations needs, wants and is doing.

They are anchored in “what we do in op-

erations and the way we do it,” not in the the-

oretical way it “ought to be done.” More vis-

cerally, these individuals have business oper-

ations “in their bones.” They have a general

understanding of the IT environment rather

than knowing the “nuts & bolts” of DE tech-

nology and they must keep conversations fo-

cused on the mission first.

Reaping the benefitsThe idea of figuring out how to best make DE

pay off, using the context of the USAF, is to

challenge readers to take some or all the ideas

and evaluate their own DE implementation

effectiveness, competence, horsepower and

future potential.

Even though DE was not unveiled the

other day, it is still relatively new and person-

nel at companies throughout the world are

continuing to determine how to best get their

collective arms around both DE technology

and its integration problems.

How new? Consider that the Society of

Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in April is hold-

ing its seventh annual conference on DE. In

contrast, the USAF would have already held

its sixtieth conference.

That means that the entire interfacing

process, no matter how far it has come, is still

in its infancy compared not only with what it

is and could be but with what it should be.

The upside for USAF test pilots is that

by completing the school, they get an impor-

tant career boost; some become astronauts.

On the oil and gas side, leaders in the energy

business of tomorrow are those who will be

able to harness technologies, including DE,

for their operations.

And who are the leaders? They are the

ones who actively and aggressively find tech-

nologies that enhance operations in the first

place, then getting these technologies inte-

grated. They will lead technology innovation

Figure 2 - the functions of the intelligentinterface

Tell us about your experiencesWe’re always looking for digital oilfield

implementation stories, cases (good and

bad) and good ideas to feature. Send your

input to dutch at hdinc.com

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:58 Page 18

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:59 Page 19

Oil and gas production

20 digital energy journal - April - May 2009

SpecTec – new asset managementsoftware for oil and gas

The company that monitors 20,000 gaswellsOklahoma company Universal Well Site Solutions has implemented its remote monitoring and control systemat 20,000 coal bed methane wells – including technology to switch your pump and on off remotely.

www.universalwellsite.comUniversal Well Site Solutions of Oklahoma

reports that its wireless well remote monitor-

ing system has now been installed on over

20,000 coal bed methane wells – across the

US, and also in China and Australia.

All of the equipment to be installed at

the well head is supplied as a single unit,

called a UniSkid, which includes electricity

cleaning filters, pressure sensors, flow me-

ters, and radio data communications equip-

ment. The unit is supplied on a skid.

Once the skid has been delivered to the

well head, installation includes connecting it

to any water or gas inflow, and to the water

and gas outflow from the well.

A pressure sensor is installed in the

well, just above the downhole pump, if there

is one. By comparing downhole pressures

with surface pressures, you can identify if

anything is blocking the flow.

The system can be running within an

hour or two of completing the well, says

Cathy Conner, CEO of Universal Well Site

Solutions. “We try to make it as easy as we

can.” Universal Well Site Solutions prides it-

self as being a total solutions provider, offer-

ing technology, training, software support,

consulting and other services to its clients.

The company also produces web soft-

ware which can be used to view the data over

the internet, giving you a 'dashboard' view of

what is happening, including production,

pressures, pump operations and water pro-

duction.

You can also send new controls to the

pump over the internet – one of the examples

of plant equipment which can be controlled

over the internet (most companies use the in-

ternet for communications related to moni-

toring only).

The system is probably most useful with

low pressure gas fields, which benefit from

continual monitoring and adjustment to keep

the flow optimised.

Ms. Conner originally got involved with

the company as a customer in 2002 – she

owns a number of coal bed methane gas wells

in Alabama, and wanted a way to monitor

them from her home in Oklahoma. She was

consequently involved in the acquisition of

the company in 2005, and still uses the tech-

nology. “I manage my Alabama wells here

in Oklahoma,” she says.

Since it started using the technology,

Ms. Connor's company managed to increase

the life of its rod pumps from 6 months to 38

months, because the pump was only operat-

ed when it was needed.

“It saved the wear and tear on downhole

equipment,” she says. “You’re only utilising

the unit when necessary. Normally, you run

the pumps 24/7 or have them on some kind

of a timer – so you’re basically guessing how

long they are needed for.”

The company has trained its support

staff so they can fix problems with all of the

equipment in the unit, including meters, sen-

sors and communications equipment.

“You don’t have to have specialists

from all of those different vendors to try to

make everything work,” she says. “That

seems to be the biggest problem we see in the

field.”

The company spends 25 per cent of its

gross revenue on research and development.

“For a small company we do a lot of R+D,”

she says.

Last year, the company made improve-

ments to its downhole sensor, to make it eas-

ier to calibrate and test.

The company normally uses spread

spectrum radio for the data communications,

which it has found to be the most reliable

communications method.

The company is working on the best

way to add a camera to the system so you can

have a view of the wellsite, which can often

help solve problems, particularly when some-

thing breaks. “If you wanted to restart a pump

unit and you could see that a pony rod was

sticking out of the well, you wouldn’t restart

it,” she says.

Oil and gas production

Universal Well Site Solutions - supplies asingle unit on a skid which can be installed atthe well head, to enable remote monitoringand control

Cypriot oil and gas asset management com-

pany SpecTec has launched version 9 of its

Amos Business Suite software, for asset

management on offshore vessels and plat-

forms, including managing maintenance and

purchasing.

The company’s software is used on

around 650 drilling sites, and a number of

Floating Storage and Offloading units

(FSOs) and Floating Production Storage and

Offloading Units (FPSOs). SpecTec is also

the largest software company for the deep

sea maritime industry.

Customers include ENI, which uses the

software on 150 sites; Ocean Vanguard;

MODEC International; Frontier Drilling;

Jindal Drilling; Saipem and Lukoil. It has

software on offshore vessels in Libya and

Kazakhstan. The company estimates that its

business in the oil and gas industry is grow-

ing by 20 per cent a year.

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:59 Page 20

Oil and gas production

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal 21

WITSML and PRODML are both data ex-

change standards established by the Energis-

tics organisation.

WITSML is used for data streams from

the well (such as data from MWD, LWD,

survey and well logs). PRODML is used for

data streams from production equipment

(such as SCADA systems, PLC, production

allocation and reporting applications).

“We can take data from a range of dif-

ferent hardware and software vendors and

convert it to WITSML or PRODML on the

fly,” says Amit Mehta, CEO of Moblize.

“We pull data from the field into our

servers, or drilling and production domain

software packages. We help seamlessly ex-

change the data between these applications

in both drilling and production domain.”

Mr Mehta likens a well planning, exe-

cution, completion and maintenance project

to a building project. “Say I hire 15 contrac-

tors to build it – a safety engineer, electri-

cians. They all do their work, but the owner

wants to see, how fast can I build the build-

ing because I’m paying them day rates,” he

says.

“It’s the same in oil and gas – all these

different engineers are involved in well life

cycle – they all want a subset of data in their

expert applications to make their expert de-

cisions with the data,” he says.

“That’s where WITSML and PRODML

plays a good role – you can combine all that

data and store it in one place, exchange a

subset of data between variety of applica-

tions in both drilling and production do-

mains, easily enabling integration and infor-

mation exchange,” he says.

It should be cheaper, faster and simpler

than doing lots of point to point integrations

– establishing new interfaces between all in-

dividual pieces of field equipment and all

different pieces of analysis software.

In the field, it installs a tiny portable

computer, sized a little larger than a hand-

held computer. The computer has solid state

hard drive and no fan, so there are no mov-

ing parts to fail. It is possible to attach a

monitor to the computer so field staff can

view and quality control data.

The tiny computer can be easily con-

nected to any wireless communications

equipment in the field, including RFID sys-

tems and mesh wireless sensors.

The company is opening new offices in

Brazil and Argentina to service its oil and

gas clients.

The new version 9 of AMOS has a great

deal of improved functionality for reliability

centered maintenance, says Giampiero

Soncini, CEO.

“We have more statistics, more analy-

sis. We improved our dashboard – to basi-

cally cover every single possible KPI – its

completely configurable – so you can do any

KPI you want.”

“There’s been a tremendous surge in re-

quests for condition based maintenance ,” he

says.

In particular, the system can integrate

with sensors monitoring rotating equipment,

thermography (heat sensors) and ultrasound,

which is used to verify that seals are water-

tight.

The new version also has functionality

to move equipment from one vessel to an-

other, so if a company (for example) has

moved a piece of drilling apparatus from one

rig to another they can also move the data

and import it into the asset management sys-

tem on the new rig.

Many oil and gas companies instinc-

tively choose SAP or IBM (Maximo) soft-

ware for maintenance management on off-

shore platforms, because they use the same

software on shore.

Mr Soncini tries to explain to cus-

tomers that SpecTec’s software, because it

was originally designed for ships rather than

for large corporations, can be more appro-

priate for running on a drilling rig or offshore

vessel than SAP and Maximo.

“We are much smaller than IBM and

SAP. We offer a complete different approach

– much more flexibility, availability all over

the world,” he says.

The SpecTec software is no bandwidth

hog – it is designed to work well using the

9.8 kbps data connections which the mar-

itime industry has been forced to work with

for many years.

The SpecTec software is designed so it

can be installed as easily as possible, with-

out needing dedicated IT technicians or SAP

engineers, which are not normally available

on vessels. “It installs by itself – we do a roll

out in less than 1 day – or 5 days is the max-

imum,” he says.

However SpecTec is not a small com-

pany, he stresses, with annual revenues of

around $50m and 240 staff members, includ-

ing 44 people in product development.

The version 9 is the biggest upgrade

SpecTec has ever made to its AMOS for

Windows software suite.

The software can integrate with all ERP

packages, including SAP, Oracle finance and

JD Edwards. “We interface with anything,”

he says.

It has functionality to raise non-con-

formities if you have a maintenance break-

down. “That is something even major com-

petitors do not have,” he says.

Moblize –WITSML and PRODML data inone database by one supplierHouston company Moblize claims to be the first company in the world to be able to supply data streamsin WITSML and PRODML format together, so companies can easily store both in the same database, andreceive the data streams from a single supplier.

“We have more statistics, more analysis. Weimproved our dashboard – to basically coverevery single possible KPI” - Giampiero Soncini,CEO, SpecTec

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22 digital energy journal - April - May 2009

Sword Group, a business software group with

HQ in Lyon (France) but with offices around the

world, is taking oil and gas documentation man-

agement to a new level, ensuring that everybody

gets the documents they need, all versions are

managed, all tasks are completed and everybody

knows if someone is getting behind.

Oil and gas clients include AMEC Oil &

Gas, BP, Chevron, Husky Energy, Marathon,

Murphy Oil, PetroChina, Petrobras, Qatar Gas,

Santos and Talisman.

The company has done over 13,000 proj-

ects in over 26 countries. In 2008 Sword Group

achieved $266m revenue on a growth of 13% and

made about 18 per cent profit on it.

Sword’s oil and gas documentation busi-

ness unit, Sword CTSpace, supplies systems to

ensure the right documents are sent to the right

people and actually opened and checked (some-

thing you can never be sure about when you just

e-mail them).

It delivers document management systems

which are good enough that people actually use

them before and during safety critical work.

It can help manage large volumes of differ-

ent types of documentation; and it can create sys-

tems which show which of your partners is keep-

ing up with their documents and who is behind.

Documentation systems can make a big

contribution to safety – but only if people com-

plete the right documents, and check the right

documents, before doing a job.

“You have to make sure people don’t rely

on printed data (for safety),” says Jeremy Ander-

son, VP Product Marketing for Sword Group.

“You have to say, look on the system if you want

something.”

Documents can still be printed out for use

when doing work, but the master document stays

on the computer system.

The management and distribution of docu-

mentation is getting more and more complex all

the time, making it more important to have a sys-

tem to manage it.

For example, more companies are working

with subcontractors; project timescales are get-

ting tighter; regulations are getting more complex

and the number and complexity of claims is in-

creasing.

Sword does not advocate replacing docu-

ments entirely with live data – as many other

companies have done – because a document, as a

specific version of the truth at a specific time

which everybody agreed upon, is very important

in engineering.

“Data in a database is live – people change

it all the time,” says Mr Anderson. “But docu-

ments get signed off and as approved versions of

the data.”

Complex document systemsThe software tools can manage the complex doc-

uments often found in engineering, for example a

well log supplied as a 20 foot roll of paper. “The

conventional document management system

can’t do that very well,” he says.

The software can do printing in batches –

for example if you need a print out a folder of

electronic documents with 5 different sizes of pa-

per in it.

It can manage the versioning / revisions of

documents - it is common in engineering to man-

age documents with a series of versions and revi-

sions (where a ‘version’ of a document is one

which everybody agrees on, and a ‘revision’ is a

change made by individual people which are not

necessary agreed by everyone). The document

gradually moves up from version 0 revision 1, re-

visions 2, 3 etc, when it is approved by every-

body it becomes version 1 revision 0.

The software can also be used when a large

amount of documents need to be transmitted to-

gether at one point – for example when a project

is being handed over from one company to an-

other.

Document transmittal The company can set up systems for document

routing, when documents need to take structured

routes through the company with certain people

assigned roles to do certain things (such as give

their approval or confirm that something has been

done).

People are given a list of all the documents

they have to approve or go through as a list of

tasks.

“We build a transmittal matrix showing

which document / drawing goes to which peo-

ple,” he says. “You define document types and

who it goes to internally and externally.”

“We agree how many days people have to

make comments, and the process it takes to be a

‘approved document’.”

In connection to the document transmittal

system, it can set up dashboards, where you can

monitor how documents are progressing. You can

easily spot

vendors or in-

dividuals who

are taking a

long time to

respond or

complete their

paperwork.

“Engi-

neers are great

at building

things and get-

ting behind on

the paper-

work,” he

says. “Some-

times the con-

struction is finished 3 weeks before the paper-

work is finished. If you know where problems

are you can do something about it.”

Integration with financialsSword provides project and program manage-

ment system integrated with corporate financial

systems.

Financial systems often have a large

amount of data which would be useful for engi-

neering and project management, such as orders

placed and payments made against invoices.

Sword takes this information and by managing

the budgets of the project provides expenditure to

date, forecast expenditure, cash flow projections

and financial risk metrics.

Sometimes financial data is even more

closely integrated with the project management –

for example a project plan might stipulate that a

certain amount of money is released at a certain

stage of the project.

Fusion ShareSword recently launched a new tool to manage

engineering documents which are stored in Mi-

crosoft SharePoint, which many companies have

adopted as a corporate collaboration system

On its own, Microsoft SharePoint is not en-

tirely suitable for managing engineering docu-

mentation, Sword believes, so it provides addi-

tional functionality to bridge the gap.

The product was developed jointly with

Zachry Engineering, Texas, USA. It was

launched at the Daratech Plant 2009 conference

in Houston in February. The first implementation

will be made in Spring 2009.

Sword – developments with electronicdocumentationEuropean business software and applications company Sword Group is aiming to take oil and gasengineering document management to a new level – where documentation systems can really be usedto help maintain safety and efficiency.

“You have to make surepeople don’t rely on printeddata (for safety),” - JeremyAnderson, VP ProductMarketing for Sword Group

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Oil and gas production

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal 23

Oil and gas industry ‘teenagers’ withdata managementThe oil and gas industry is like ‘teenagers with data management – getting there slowly, but still needingsome prodding, cajoling and forcing to get them to do it properly, delegates to SMI’s E&P Information andData Management conference in London on Feb 10-11 heard.

When it comes to data management people

in the oil and gas industry are like teenagers,

said Alan Smith, managing consultant with

RPS Paras Consulting, speaking at the recent

SMI conference on E&P Information and

Data Management (London, Feb 10-11

2009).

“People may be in their 50s but they

don’t understand they need to be helped and

worked on to get them to manage data and

information properly,” he said.

What data managers have to do is

“about guiding, cajoling, setting the bound-

aries, grounding them if they do something

wrong, helping them get on their feet.”

And just like trying to get your

teenagers to keep their rooms tidy, you can

try many different methods to encourage

staff to keep their data tidy. Some will work

better than others, but there is no magical so-

lution which will solve the problem.

Oil and gas industry people often don’t

have a clear enough idea of the effort they

need to put into data management, their re-

sponsibilities, and how to get the most out

of it, he said.

Data is very important to the oil and gas

industry. As Paul Gregory of Petris (previ-

ously president of Intervera) put it, the oil

industry can’t see its oil physically, the way

an aeroplane company can see its aeroplanes

or a manufacturer can see its factories. In this

sense - data is all the industry has.

ProgressThe painful question was raised by some del-

egates to the conference – is there actually

any progress being made on data manage-

ment?

Attitudes in the industry are changing,

said Alan Smith, managing consultant with

RPS Paras Consulting. “People used to say -

I don’t want to spend $5m doing data – I can

drill a well for that amount of money.

“Now we have many managers going

into industry who have grown up using digi-

tal systems – they’ve grown up with the data

and they know it needs sorting. There is a

move towards companies recognising DM is

essential, not a cost they want to avoid.”

One delegate observed that the indus-

try is doing things that it wasn’t doing be-

fore – such as geosteering drillbits using re-

al time seismic data.

Dag Heggelund, data quality manager

with Schlumberger Information Solutions

(SIS) observed that conversations in compa-

nies are changing – instead of just “where’s

my data,” it is moving to “you loaded up the

wrong survey – why did you do that?”

Martin Turner, GIS co-ordinator with

Hess Ltd, said that the questions he is receiv-

ing around the company change from people

asking where their data is, to people asking

questions about their data. “That’s how we

monitor DM improvement,” he said. “My

method of tracking is the number of com-

plaints I get walking around the building. I

used to get a complaint from somebody

every day. Today I get a complaint once

every 3 months.”

“Data management is more unified

now,” he said. “We have a single system, not

silos.”

There are simple questions you can ask

to assess your progress. Are people finding

their data from the corporate repository – or

getting it from the person who was working

on it last, asked Flemming Rolle, manager

of information and application systems with

Dong E&P Norge.

Another good question is, are people

developing their own data management sys-

tems and databases – or working with the

corporate ones, suggested Mario Fiorani,

manager of the data and corporate database

with ENI’s E&P Division.

“We always overestimate the change

that will occur in the next two years and un-

derestimate the change that will occur in the

next ten,” said Paul Gregory, quoting Bill

Gates, founder of Microsoft. “9 years ago,

people were fighting data accessibility is-

sues,” he said. Now [all the challenges are

about] people,” he said.

Tarun Chandrasekhar, product manager

with Neuralog, said that people should not

anticipate radical fast changes to data man-

agement. “It’s all incremental, like software

upgrades.” he said.

Clay Harter, chief technology officer

with OpenSpirit corporation, observed that

ironically, demands for data management

have increased a great deal over the past few

years, which means that people are more

aware of the limitations of their data man-

agement system. “5 years ago, people were

happy enough to have to go and find some-

thing,” he said. “Now people recognise there

are problems.”

Meanwhile, Janet Hicks, senior prod-

uct manager with Landmark, observed that

people’s expectations are expanding rapidly.

“An explosion of data makes it much harder

to quality control it,” she said.

Ms Hicks questioned the regularly re-

peated figures about how much of an oil and

gas person’s day is spent looking for data.

“Is it an old wives’ tale?” she asked.

Some companies are doing data man-

agement audits similar to their financial au-

dits, said Clay Harter of OpenSpirit. “They

are looking at how they exchange and man-

age data,” he said. “Audits aren’t easy to do.

But it can be a way of measuring changes.

There is still a lot more things which

people would like to do. “Combining geo-

logical fluid models with reservoir models is

impossible today,” said one delegate. “We

have reservoir engineers who say they have

given up asking for these solutions because

they’ve been asking for 10 years. That’s a

massive challenge ahead of us.”

“There is a move towards companiesrecognising DM is essential, not a cost theywant to avoid.” - Alan Smith, managingconsultant with RPS Paras Consulting

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24 digital energy journal - April - May 2009

Making people feel inclinedAs we struggle with the challenge of trying to

persuade our colleagues to leave their data in

good condition for the next person, it is worth

bearing in mind that this was something peo-

ple were very good at in the past.

“25 years ago, we had more of a culture

of finishing a project with proper ‘closure’,

with all the relevant documents completed,”

said Clay Harter, chief technology officer of

OpenSpirit Corporation.

“We’ve gotten away from having clo-

sure. We need to change the value we place

on properly documenting what we’ve done.”

Dr Sandy Smith, project manager of

Landmark, explained (from his experience

working as a geologist) how difficult it is to

finish projects off properly when you are un-

der pressure to get started on the next one.

“When I was working as a geologist – there’s

always the rush at the end [of a project],” he

said. “You get your manager’s requirements

for your part of the project.

“When your boss is on your back to start

the next project, the easiest thing is to forget

about the close down work.

There are soft approaches and hard ap-

proaches to encouraging people to look after

their data better.

Soft approachesOne obstacle to data management the lack of

trust – particularly between oil industry tech-

nical people and their data managers. “The

geologist is reluctant to hand his data to the

data management group because they poten-

tially don’t fully understand the data,” said Dr

Sandy Smith, project manager with Land-

mark.

David Holmes, information manage-

ment practise manager at Halliburton Land-

mark, said that of the many knowledge man-

agement initiatives the company has imple-

mented over the years, the one which has

stuck the most is the “knowledge broker,”

where someone is appointed the role of shar-

ing knowledge around the organisation, en-

couraging people to use the system, and con-

necting the right people together.

“Trying to get people to help [with data

management] is hard,” said Martin Turner,

GIS co-ordinator with Hess Ltd. “We spent

years and years trying to get people to do it.

At the end of the day, you have to change peo-

ple’s minds. So ultimately you have to do

something that affects them personally and di-

rectly. We use every stick known to mankind

to get people to fill in the forms. It is part of

their performance related pay to do this.

However the best way to encourage peo-

ple to use the system is to ‘promote’ it, he said

– gently explain the benefits and get the word

out, but not force people. “Make it easy, ex-

plain why people have to do it, avoid techno

speak,” he said. “The worst thing is to wait

for someone to ask you where the data is.”

The company recently held an internal

GIS conference, which was attended by 150

geophysics and geology professionals.

Mr Rolle agreed that the past traditions

of finishing off all the documentation on a

project are not as strong now. “In the early

days, you didn’t complete a project without

having a written full report and ensured all

seismic lines were explained,” he said.

“Today we make decisions on the basis

of a 45 minute PowerPoint which is useless 6

months later, no-one can remember why a

particular slide was important.

But that’s not to say that the problem

can’t be solved. “In future we will have data

audits at stage gates – a peer review of a proj-

ect before it goes to the next stage,” he said.

“Data cleanup should be done along the proj-

ect as a natural part of the project.”

Hard approachesOne way to get people to improve data man-

agement is to force them - by regulation, such

as Sarbanes-Oxley, or by making their jobs or

bonuses depend on how well they do it.

“In the nuclear industry you have to

keep absolute records of what you’re done –

when you changed a valve – or you get closed

down,” said Bjarte Ravndal, associate profes-

sor in information management at the Univer-

sity of Stavanger. “In pharmaceuticals – you

keep records of every test. The regulator is

putting very strict requirements on you.”

“In the real world people have their own

agenda,” said one delegate. “The best way to

make people comply is make asset managers’

bonus depend on capturing all the data.

You probably can’t get someone sacked

if they are not very good at data management,

because they are probably fairly good at

something else said Martin Turner from

HESS. “So the head of exploration decided to

make it part of someone’s pay packet” –

where people get additional bonuses depend-

ing on their contribution to data management.

One delegate in the audience pointed out

that executive support – ie force from top

management, is what is necessary to get proj-

ects completed.

Achim Kamelger, global manager – da-

ta and information with E&P Information

Systems, OMV Exploration, said that the

company has introduced data audits for

branch offices, to check that data is being kept

in suitable condition.

However in order to make sure that peo-

ple do what they are supposed to do, any sys-

tem needs to have some kind of punishment

if the work isn’t done. “At a certain point

there must be pain if they do not do their job,”

he said.

Alan Smith, managing consultant with

RPS Paras Consulting, made comparisons

with health and safety initiatives over the past

few decades – where companies really had to

make health and safety part of everyone’s job

in order to improve things. “People only real-

ly took HSE seriously when it is part of their

objectives,” he said.

Don’t feel that you have to give the data

users everything they ask for either. Some-

times the data manager needs to ask some

tricky questions of the users, said one dele-

gate from StatoilHydro.

“We had an internal project – I found we

had 38 ways of reporting gas. Some of these

were similar, some were different. We had to

challenge the end user - do you need all 38

volumes? They didn’t. The solution is not the

technology, it’s how we are implementing it.”

“When we spend $20m on a well or seis-

mic survey, and can’t spend $500 to enter the

data properly afterwards, then we have prob-

lems,” said Achim Kamelger, global manager

– data and information with E&P Information

Systems, OMV Exploration.

Search vs indexingThere was interesting discussion about the

comparative advantages of looking for the

documents you want by search (eg for a doc-

ument containing certain words) or trying to

find the document you want because it is filed

in the right place.

The difference is perhaps well illustrat-

ed to people who have made the switch from

Outlook 2003 (where you searched for your

e-mails mainly by looking for a message from

a certain person, sent on a certain date) to Out-

look 2007 (where you mainly search for mes-

sages based on words in it).

Probably the right answer is that you

“The knowledge management initiative atHalliburton Landmark which stuck the mostwas to appoint "knowledge brokers" - DavidHolmes, information management practisemanager at Halliburton Landmark

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Oil and gas production

April - May 2009 - digital energy journal 25

will need both – text based search is good

when finding a document in a large pile, but

you can't be sure if getting the exact document

you are looking for quickly – whereas a clas-

sification system can quickly take you to the

right document, such as a well report for a

certain well in a certain year.

“If a geologist wants the well comple-

tion report from well 1/3-11, that has to be

available immediately,” said Flemming Rolle,

from Dong. “If you want to know, what does

the company know about the West Greenland

Basin, you need a different search.”

The challenge, as Al Kok, group lead for

the well data management group in the explo-

ration data management division of Saudi

Aramco, said, is “getting the right documents

to users in the right number of searches and

the right number of hits.”

One delegate said that it was important

to have both classification and search tools.

“We are creating so many documents – we’ll

never get to a stage where everything can be

categorised properly,” he said.

There was a suggestion that oil compa-

nies could separate very important informa-

tion (eg official reports) from everything else.

“There’s some information we can’t lose,” he

said.

Google for oil and gasHowever many of us have had satisfactory ex-

periences searching for documents using

Google, and wonder why the same kind of

search based tools (which a few added meth-

ods of getting a good guess at the right docu-

ment) can’t work in oil and gas.

Alan Smith, managing director of RPS

Paras Consulting, said he did not believe that

the oil and gas industry had any special re-

quirements for the type of data search it

needs, which are not shared with other indus-

tries. “It is just different search terms,” he

said.

The more a search engine knows about

the user, the better it is at bringing up useful

results, said Eric Abecassis, Houston Tech-

nology Center Manager for Schlumberger In-

formation Solutions. Google was successful

because it was so good at bringing people in-

formation which they wanted. “We need in-

formation about you to make your search

more relevant,” he said.

For example, if the search engine knows

the geographical location of the person

searching, what their job role is, and what as-

set they are working on, it might be better

placed to serve up the right information. . The

search engine can also know much more

about whose opinion and work the person

searching values the most.

Although we are all very familiar with

Google, there are other search engine tech-

nologies which can be purchased – for exam-

ple the Autonomy software, which is used by

the search engine on the BBC website, he

said. “IT can find videos. You can find things

in Arabic from an English search phrase,” said

Alan Smith, managing director of RPS Paras

Consulting.

Granularity of classificationEric Abecassis, Houston Technology Center

Manager for Schlumberger Information Solu-

tions, tackled the difficult question of how

granular your classification should be. “My

suggestion is just to classify at a high level –

where you classify the big world in big

chunks,” he said.

The problem with a classification sys-

tem which is too granular (or detailed) is that

the classification system itself has to be kept

updated as things change, and this requires a

lot of work. “If you get a more fine grain clas-

sification, you have to maintain it. With broad

classification you don’t have to maintain it. I

suggest moving away from high level classi-

fication.”

An alternative method of classification

is to ‘tag’ the data, and then you can search

for data based on its tags, he suggested (eg

well number, region). The tag architecture can

then evolve. Google has a similar system for

e-mail archives on Gmail – where e-mails are

tagged rather than sorted into folders.

Not all the audience agreed with this.

Alan Smith from RPS Paras Consulting point-

ed out that tags are not useful if people mis-

spell them because you still don’t find what

you’re looking for. “They can be a burden as

well as a help. Someone has to keep track of

them,” he said.

There is also the risk that if data is too

organised, its context can get lost – for exam-

ple, you just see the well log in a bucket to-

gether with other well logs, rather than seeing

it together with all of the other data about the

well.

Bringing up the best documentOne big challenge - unsolved, it seems - is en-

suring that a search tool can bring up the best

available data on a subject – or the final ver-

sion.

Dag Heggelund, data quality manager

with Schlumberger Information Solutions

(SIS), told a story of how, after working on a

data management project, a geologist was not

very happy to find he now had 500 LAS files

for a certain well, rather than just one. “He

had to spend Saturday looking through them

all to see which one was the best,” he said.

This is a tool which the internet search-

es are very good at – because we normally on-

ly upload the final version of a document to

the internet, even if we have several older ver-

sions of it on our computers.

Clay Harter, of OpenSpirit, suggested

that geoscientists should be encouraged to

provide information about the quality of data.

“The only people who know data quality is

the people who use it – geologists – not data

managers,” he said. “We have to make it eas-

ier for them to provide input on the quality of

data.”

Fleming Rolle, DongFleming Rolle, manager of Information and

Application Systems with Dong E&P Norge

(Norway), talked about the challenges his

company has faced managing its data and im-

plementing new systems.

Dong Energy is an integrated utility

company that has around 6,000 employees, of

which 450-500 work in Exploration and Pro-

duction Business Unit. It is active in oilfields

in Denmark, Norway, UK (West of Shetland),

Faeroes, Greenland, with main E&P offices

in Denmark, Norway and the UK. More than

half of production is gas, mainly sent to the

UK. The Corporate IT Group of Dong Ener-

gy looks after IT strategy, IT infrastructure

and desktops while each Business Unit has re-

sponsibility for its technical applications and

data.

“Everybody needs to understand their

rights and obligations with data,” he said.

“Data is the foundation for everything we are

doing.”

One particular challenge is managing

the different rights people have to the data,

when sending it to outside experts for analy-

sis and processing.

“We send well logs to consultants for

analysis, send seismic datasets to contrac-

tors,” he said.

“We have, for example, full user rights

to a seismic survey we paid for. But if we

lease it from a contractor and send it to a part-

ner, the partner has to pay a subscription fee

for the same data,” he said. “We can’t expect

individual users to keep track of these rights

– but we in data management can keep track

of it for them.”

“We have to be a lot more strict – to

make sure we and they understand what they

can do with the data. Can they share it with

others, for example.”

“Do we have a legal framework to say –

you will delete the data when you’ve finished

and confirm to us that it’s been done.”

“If they are not well informed about the

issues, people will happily copy information

onto a portable hard drive and send it to a

partner without checking – did we have an

agreement to do this?”

These rules tend to create obstacles to

people’s work, and this means people are

strongly tempted to try to find ways around

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26 digital energy journal - April - May 2009

them. “They are technically savvy and will

find ways around it – unless we provide them

with guidelines and the right tools,” he said.

“We have to find the right balance between

security and efficiency.”

For example, encryption is a good secu-

rity tool, but will lead to a reduction in flexi-

bility. “Encrypting certain data makes it hope-

lessly slow to use in any workstation environ-

ment.”

“Our IT security policy and rules is 45

pages long – and we expect our IT and data

management people to have read and under-

stood it. There are elements in IT security

about data security and access control,” he

said. “We must ensure ownership and IP

rights are well understood.”

“Individual users will not be allowed to

send and receive data; it will have to go

through the data management function.”

“You can never get 100 per cent securi-

ty of data – that is utopia – but technology can

get us a long way,” he said. “Good processes

can minimise the risk.”

It is always possible to monitor what

people are doing with data, but very time con-

suming for the data management team in

practise – and intrusive for employees. “We

log transactions, and if we have a suspicion

someone is doing something they shouldn’t –

we can go through the logs,” he said.

“But we don’t police everything – we re-

ly on employees being loyal to the company.

Our employees are responsible people, but

they have to know what their obligations are.”

The company is developing data man-

agement processes, including a Data Owner-

ship Model, and the main roles will have peo-

ple’s names on them, he said – which means

that the person is responsible for ensuring that

it is done.

Dag Heggelund, SISDag Heggelund, data quality manager with

Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS),

suggests that data quality is looked at its im-

pact on people’s productivity.

Using terminology developed for the

‘six sigma’ business strategy, he suggested

that if your data is 2-3 sigma (meaning it has

around 300,000 defects per million opportu-

nities), then people who work with it will

need to spend 35 per cent of their time just

sorting out the data – cleaning it up as they

go along, finding what they want.

You could say it has a 35 per cent tax,

he suggested.

“Over the last few years – the data qual-

ity has increased but the amount of useful da-

ta has decreased,” he said. “There is missing

data, incorrect data and incompatible data,

and multiple versions of the truth.”

Rather than just try to organise every-

thing, companies might be better off trying to

identify where people’s pain points are (where

they often run into problems with the data)

and fixing, or alleviating those.

One challenge is that the same data can

be of adequate quality for one person’s pur-

poses, but riddled with errors when you try to

use it for another purpose, where more preci-

sion is required.

Data needs to be viewed in a workflow

centric manner. Data in master databases

should be "workflow neutral", he said - ie, it

can be used for anybody's purposes - but this

requires that the accuracy, precision and the

dimensionality is large enough to support all

workflows.

“Data suited to a particular workflow

might be 5-6 Sigma”, he said. “The same da-

ta seen workflow neutral can be 2-3 Sigma.”

When trying to improve data, first you

can fix the obvious problems, but after that

you are better off trying to fix the problems

which cause people pain, not embark on a

project to make all of the data perfect, which

is very hard to achieve.

“You have to find out, what are the top

10 things that stop geologists doing their

jobs? Then translate the friction points to the

assessment rules,” he said.

“Don’t focus on quality – saying just ‘ I

want the best data’ – but focus on removing

friction points, so end users have the highest

productivity,” he said.

Dr Heggelund advocated the use of au-

tomated data correction tools, which are avail-

able from Schlumberger (since it acquired a

company Dr Heggelund founded, called In-

nerlogix), as well as from Petris (which re-

cently acquired a company called Intervera).

“We have some examples where [these

systems] did such as good job of data cleanup

that end users are demanding (our service),”

Dr Heggelund said.

Automated data correction might be the

only way forward when you consider the

scale of the task. “If you have 10,000 well

bores, you could have 3m pieces of data,” he

said. “If the quality is 1-2 sigma, that could

mean you have 1m items that need correct-

ing.”

If you make 10 corrections per hour, it

will take 100,000 hours, (or 2,500 40-hour

weeks, or 52 48-week man years). “Manual

corrections are not practical,” he said.

“If you say ‘I will correct all the data I

have, “it will fail. You’re trying to boil the

ocean. It will take a lot of effort to reduce the

entropy.”

Achim Kamelger Achim Kamelger, global manager – data and

information with E&P Information Systems,

OMV Exploration, said that a lot of the drive

for better data comes from the top. “Our CEO

says he wants cleaned data, trusted and reli-

able,” he said.

“We had too many databases around the

world. We have too many versions of the

same (or, worse) almost the same data. Ma-

nipulation of the data can be very time con-

suming,” he said.

The company has two datastores in Bu-

dapest and Vienna, which it is synchronising

together.

The biggest headaches continue to come

from people, rather than the technology. “We

underestimate the resistance from people,” he

said. “It’s much worse dealing with people

than you thought in your worst nightmare.”

OMV has identified one unexpected

source of problems – people’s secretaries –

who often do the work of filing data for their

boss. “If a secretary is not supporting you, the

boss with never use it,” he said.

Martin Turner, HessAs software gets easier to use, the number of

people who use it rises exponentially, pointed

out Martin Turner, GIS co-ordinator with

Hess.

Hess makes large amounts of its GIS da-

ta available within the company on a read on-

ly basis; people can access the data through

their internet browsers. Only three staff run

the GIS system, which has about 2,000 users.

The data is stored on ESRI ArcGIS

servers.

“We decided to open up everything to

everybody on a read only basis,” he said. “Do

you need so much security for your oil and

gas data within the organisation?”

Raw data is first cleaned and quality

controlled, and organised to fit business area

requirements. In a second stage, it is incorpo-

rated into the Hess geodatabase model, and

maintained on a corporate basis and made

available to everyone.

The GIS data is organised into ‘nodes’,

which are “loose bucket folders” of GIS data,

he said. Each node has an appointed ‘node

keeper’, who is the only person with data

writing access.

The data has metadata (data describing

the data) – this has quality controls on it – for

example, when saying which part of the world

the data is about, you can only choose places

which actually exist.

The company currently spends $20m a

year on discovering data. “We think we can

reduce it to $2m year,” he said.

Employees often raise the question of

why can’t we do it on Google Earth, he said.

“People always want things that look nice.

But we say – what’s the advantage of having

it on a 3D globe instead of a 2D map?” he

said.

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:59 Page 26

Oil and gas production

Monitoring your VSATUplogix, a company based in Austin, Texas,

reports growing interest in the oil and gas

industry for its services to monitor all the

equipment involved in VSAT operations, so

more faults can be fixed remotely.

A large amount of equipment is in-

volved in VSAT communications—these

hybrid networks contain both satellite de-

vices like antennas, amplifiers, and

modems, as well as traditional terrestrial IP

network devices like servers, routers, and

switches. A problem with any individual

piece of equipment can cause the communi-

cations link to go down.

The problem is compounded by the ex-

tra complexity many people are adding to

their systems as they try to send more and

more data between their platforms and ves-

sels to shore—such as tools which give one

data packet priority over another one, or

tools which send data over the cheapest

communications link, when there are a num-

ber of links available.

“It makes it infinitely more complicat-

ed, and more likely that it won’t work the

way you want,” says Andy Harris from Up-

logix.

The Uplogix solution is to provide an

appliance (costing around $2,500, plus $200

a year license fee) which can monitor and

control all of the VSAT and IP networking

equipment, and also communicate with

shore engineers via an out-of-band link, or

a communications method independent of

the main VSAT, such as Iridium.

Rules can also determine at which

stage a human being gets involved. “We can

be fully automatic, or fully manual or some-

thing in between,” says Tom Goldman,

CEO. “We can react in 30 seconds of an is-

sue.”

Nearly all equipment can be communi-

cated with via a ‘command line interface’ –

sending short text message code commands

and getting one line codes back.

If there is any problem, the appliance

can firstly follow a programmed series of

steps, asking questions of the equipment and

getting responses – in exactly the same way

as a (human) IT manager would.

If necessary, the appliance can then

send data to and from home over the out-of-

band link, enabling a remote engineer to di-

agnose any problems with the equipment.

If the solution is to reboot all of the

equipment (a very common solution), Up-

logix can ensure all of the equipment is

switched on in the correct order.

If input is required by personnel on the

rig, for example re-pointing the antenna at a

different satellite, then a warning can be giv-

en well in advance (the Uplogix appliance

also connects to a GPS unit, so it knows the

current location).

In some situations, a vessel might have

more than one option for communications

available (for example, a GPRS service

when it is near a port or the option of Ku or

C band satellite services). In this case, the

Uplogix appliance can be programmed to

automatically choose the least expensive

communications option available.

Mr. Goldman observes that satellite

communications users are getting more de-

manding of their suppliers in the breadth of

service they provide to fix problems.

In the past, a satellite company might

have typically said that the service only goes

as a far as the satellite modem, for any oth-

er problems with shipboard equipment you

need to phone someone else.

“But customers say no, I want my

phone to work. So operators are forced to

go deeper into the stack,” he says.

The company provides similar servic-

es managing SCADA systems linked by

VSAT and microwave radio links for back-

haul on pipelines running from Houston to

Canada with thousands of data cap-

ture points.

Uplogix creates an appliance which canmonitor and diagnose problesm with all ofthe amplifiers and modems typically involvedin a VSAT communication system (pictured)

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:59 Page 27

Oil and gas production

28 digital energy journal - April - May 2009

Imagine – what if people could use view 3D

images of equipment onboard rigs, on their

i-Phones, instead of using paper or pdf man-

uals?

Instead of having to find out about

equipment using a paper or pdf manual – you

can open your portable computer and imme-

diately access a 3D model of the item, with

all relevant information immediately avail-

able by clicking on the parts? You can look

at it from any angle, from any position, and

at any scale?

It should be much easier for people to

find what they are looking for, and under-

stand their equipment and access mainte-

nance instructions. It would also be much

easier to keep updated, with the 3D image

on your computer exactly matching the piece

of equipment you are currently working on.

It would also be easier to provide a manual

which people who speak different languages

could use.

This is the vision of Right Hempishere,

a Silicon Valley (USA) company founded in

1997, currently growing at 200 per cent a

year. The company is is backed by Sequoia

Capital, which also provided critical venture

capital to Apple, Google, YouTube, Yahoo,

Cisco and Oracle.

Right Hemisphere makes software

called Deep Server, which can read CAD da-

ta and translate it into a lightweight 3D ver-

sion which can be viewed in Adobe reader.

This also makes the data much lighter – so it

can be comfortably delivered to platforms

over low speed satellite data connections.

“Deepserver” can pump from and pump to

any CAD format,” says David Chisholm,

Right Hemisphere’s energy group manager.

The software is used by 5 of the world's

top 6 automobile manufacturers, and 9 of the

top 10 US aerospace and defence companies,

and it hopes to do the same for the oil and

gas industry.

Oil and gas industry companies already

using the software include Halliburton,

Schlumberger, Cooper Cameron,

Transocean, Smith International.

The technology to view the graphics is

also used in videogames, to provide large 3D

imagery using computing power available on

a low cost computer.

To get an idea of how it works, imag-

ine that instead of having a paper manual of

your car, you would have a 3D model of your

car (with the exact same parts as you have

in your car, not a generic manual).

If you needed to understand anything

in detail, you could zoom in, look at it in dif-

ferent angles, and click to bring up instruc-

tions of how to maintain that particular part.

If part of the car was replaced at any time,

the manual could be automatically updated.

Better than paperMany complex pieces of oil and gas equip-

ment, such as as a Christmas tree, typically

go though several stages of revision before

reaching the final design. It is very hard for

the paper manual to keep up with the

changes (if it is updated at all). Engineering

change orders can happen even as the prod-

uct is being sent to the rig.

But most oil and gas documentation is

still kept on paper, with 2D drawings, cov-

ered with notes and is not updated to keep

up with frequent changes, says George Earl,

head of global services with Right Hemi-

sphere.

An electronic manual can be created di-

rectly from the final CAD drawings, will be

completely up to date and can be produced

very quickly.

It is much easier to add notes to a 3D

model makes it much easier to add notes –

because they can be tagged in the computer

next to the specific items they concern. The

notes stay in the database together with the

information about the part.

Mr Chisholm believes that this technol-

ogy can make a big contribution to reducing

equipment breakdowns – one of the biggest

areas of focus for the industry, and a factor

which can have a big influence in whether

or not a drilling company wins a contract.

Having fast access to the right informa-

tion is getting more important, as equipment

becomes more complex, and the average ex-

perience of industry staff is reducing,” he

says.

Working with live dataThe 3D visualisation could also be used to-

gether with live data, so you can understand

what is happening to pieces of equipment

you can’t actually see.

For example, live data from a drill bit

could be used with a 3D visualisation of the

drillbit, to create an image of what is actual-

ly happening underground.

The visualisation could be used to run

simulation models before doing a complex

job – to get an idea of what is going to hap-

pen, and also to spot any mistakes which

have been made with the data – such as us-

ing different units of measure (inches and

metres) in the programming codes (mistakes

made all too often which can lead to cata-

strophic results).

The visualisation could be used togeth-

er with a variety of different services equip-

ment manufacturers could offer their clients,

to help them look after equipment they have

already bought (the ‘aftermarket’) – and this

is where equipment manufacturers often earn

the bulk of their revenues.

SecurityMany companies have been reluctant to use

the technology, due to concerns that the in-

formation could be used to reverse engineer

the equipment.

To allay these concerns, Right Hemi-

sphere adds a 'wobble' to the data – too small

to be seen on a screen, but too big to make it

possible to build another part using just the

data provided on the system.

“We can randomly jiggle the geometry

– it would look a little wavy – but it means

you are unable to measure it – the tolerance

backup would be ridiculous. You can’t build

it because the lines aren’t straight,” says Mr

Earl.

Using live 3D drawings instead of technicaldocumentationSilicon Valley company Right Hemisphere has a new vision for technical manuals of the future – replacingthem with live 3D images of the equipment.

Imagine - replacing typical paper manualswith an online view of all equipment, whichyou can view at any angle, and click to viewthe associated documentation? RightHemisphere makes softare which canproduce a view like this one from the CADdata of the equipment

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:59 Page 28

Freely Available

The Energistics collaborative technologies, WITSML and PRODML, are universally applicable, plug-and-play and proven. Adoption of these open standards will assist your organization or customers with:

Production OptimizationOperational EfficiencySafety and Regulatory ComplianceReserves Replacement

And they are free.

To download Energistics standards or for more details about participating with the upstream industry in

the collaborative development and deployment efforts, please visit www.energistics.org.

© 2007, Energistics. All rights reserved.

FREEof use

restrictions

FREEof proprietary

code or anti-competitive

constraints

FREEof political or geographical

constraints

FREEof prohibitive pricing model

constraints

DEJ18:Layout 1 09/04/2009 12:59 Page 29

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