The oil and gas industry relies heavily on data for quantitative and qualitative analysis and assessment of variable interrelationships. Big data analytics has been useful in exploring, planning, designing, and developing hydrocarbon assets in terms of making decisions for risk minimization and increasing economic returns. In doing so, asset teams have relied upon large geospatial and temporal datasets for use-based analytics within specific and multiple disciplines. Now, with 3D or 4D data visualization, engineers and geoscientists have found it easier to make an informed analysis for the improved understanding of the multi-variable relationships. Asset teams can get valuable insight into the production performance with the detailed analysis allowing them to optimize the process to minimize potential production risks.

Establishing Correlation Between Multiple Variables

The big data oil and gas use cases either in upstream or downstream operations mostly focus on the prospect of drawing productive and economic conclusions based on geospatial and temporal datasets. These data include seismic and micro-seismic attributes, reservoir characteristics, well logs, property models, drilling, production, and engineering data.

Recent technological improvements have helped in the generation of these data models, making data analysis an extremely challenging prospect. Throughout the different phases of a project, multi-disciplinary and multivariate analysis is used to derive a conclusion that can be used by geoscientists, petroleum engineers, economists, and management for improving decision-making. The conclusions drawn from these data analytics can be used to:

• Predict and Identify the potential target zones.
• Improve efficiency and yield, and reduce production cost by analyzing large data volumes of reservoir characteristics, well logs, and production data.
• Reduce production bottlenecks and analyze critical factors for production, efficiency, and quality with big data analytics.

Advanced software products have been able to interpret the interrelationship between these large spatial and temporal data volumes and enhance the understanding with effective visualization.

Big Data Analytics and Visualization

The analysis of big data can be a difficult task for interpreters, especially when it involves drawing conclusions through multi-disciplinary analysis. Effective visualization and analysis facilitate the development of the interrelationships between the numerous spatio-temporal variables to get a better understanding of the reservoir conditions, geological features, and production feasibility.

Software such as Dynamic Graphics Inc.’s (DGI) CoViz 4D helps interpreters to precisely visualize the data at its correct geospatial position. Asset teams can rely on the data visualization and analysis software to:

• Synthesize relevant data and information into a single file to compute the use cases.
• Increase collaboration with the ability to combine different data in a single 3D space to visualize and analyze areas of interest.
• Perform multivariate interpretation and interpolation to identify future or bypassed prospects.

Big Data Oil and Gas Use Case: Visualizing with CoViz 4D

DGI’s CoViz 4D provides an interactive visualization platform for integrating and analyzing all relevant data for large volume data interpretation. The datasets from multiple industry sources can be easily integrated. Reservoir, completion, and drilling engineers, and geophysicists and geoscientists can precisely analyze these integrated data to develop interrelationships between multiple variables and compute multiple use cases through detailed analysis. For example, it can utilize cross-plot seismic data to visualize amplitude changes over time, to allow users to indentify potential risks during the development of a project. Trend analysis and pattern recognition can be used to optimize the design and development processes. 

Through integration and visualization, industries can analyze big data oil and gas use cases for drawing meaningful interpretations for reducing risks and increasing profit.

CoViz 4D, a data visualization analytics software from Dynamic Graphics, Inc., gives oil and gas professionals the ability to easily access and analyze relevant data associated with HPHT reservoirs. Powerful visualization capabilities enable reservoir teams to explore data relationships, calculate gradients, and more accurately analyze how subsurface conditions influence drilling and completion methods. To learn more about CoViz 4D contact our team.