Data associated with hydrocarbon assets are vital to efficient recovery. At every step of the reservoir lifecycle, data provide reservoir teams with insight to help understand subsurface structures and conditions, evaluate alternative development strategies, and closely monitor operations. Innovations in seismic, drilling, and wellbore technology are generating ever-greater volumes of reservoir and operational data. Sophisticated, discipline-specific software products allow members of a reservoir management team to transform data into actionable insight.
Policies for data protection in the oil and gas industry vary based on organization size and IT strategy. With rare exceptions, data are subject to corporate data security policies that determine where data is stored and how it is accessed. However, for all the benefits that corporate data security policies provide, these policies often prevent management teams from realizing the maximum value of reservoir data.
The Problem of Data Access and Data Protection in the Oil and Gas Industry
Each of the many datasets—seismic, geologic, simulation, well plan, well log, completion, and production—provides a critical, yet, on their own, incomplete picture of reservoir characteristics and operations. For reservoir teams to realize the greatest benefit from the wealth of subsurface and operational data, they need a method that facilitates easy access to valuable data resources while respecting established policies for data protection in the oil and gas industry.
The problem of accessing and analyzing a wide range of relevant subsurface and operational data is solved with the aid of a data registry and visualization software. A data registry is a master catalog of the diverse discipline-specific datasets associated with a reservoir. It maintains a link to the actual location of the dataset (desktop, server, cloud storage, etc.), allowing these data to be easily shared with all members of a reservoir management team. Visualization software then uses the data registry to access the datasets and render them in 3D and 4D (time series) for collaborative exploration and analysis by the entire reservoir team.
Access While Protecting Data Integrity
A data registry allows individual team members to determine which of their data will be made available to others. Once the discipline-specific datasets are selected and linked, the data registry allows the analysis and interpretation of data without compromising original data sources in the following ways:
- Discipline-specific datasets are maintained and managed in their original location, respecting corporate data protection policies.
- Data access is “read-only” preventing anyone, other than the data owners, from deleting the data or making modifications to the actual data sources.
- Only datasets vetted or approved by individual team members are shared. This ensures that other team members are accessing only relevant data.
- As team members update or add new datasets, the data becomes immediately available to other members of the team for analysis.
A data registry provides immediate access to relevant reservoir data without compromising the original source data. It also allows team members to focus their time and expertise to improve reservoir management. No time is wasted hunting for data or mistakenly accessing the wrong data that would lead to inaccurate analysis of reservoir conditions.
Data Registry and Visualization for Collaborative Analyses
The combination of a data registry and powerful visualization software greatly enhances every member’s ability to gain a more detailed understanding of reservoir conditions.
With the ability to visualize an individual dataset in context of other datasets, asset teams can conduct comprehensive analyses that provide a clearer understanding of reservoir conditions—clearer than any single dataset can offer. With these capabilities asset teams can:
- Focus on a specific geologic area of interest by visually filtering out surrounding data.
- Explore digital representations of fault gaps, reverse faults, and fault-wedge contours.
- More closely estimate the distribution and amount of hydrocarbon volumes using geologic models.
- Use seismic data to evaluate geologic structures and evaluate the pros and cons of various wellpath alternatives.
- Model complexly faulted structures to better understand factors affecting reservoir performance.
As additional data—new seismic surveys, well events, daily production rates, infill drilling, simulations—are generated throughout the course of a reservoir’s lifecycle, a data registry incorporates these data without jeopardizing the integrity of the data sources.
A data registry and powerful visualization software give management teams unprecedented ability to effortlessly and securely access a wide range of datasets to gain a detailed understanding of current reservoir conditions.
CoViz 4D is the ideal answer for maintaining data protection in the oil and gas industry while maximizing the value of the data.
Access Relevant Data While Maintaining Data Protection With CoViz 4D
Reservoir management teams can easily access a wide range of subsurface datasets and maintain the security of the original data sources by using CoViz 4D. With its data registry, and visualization and analysis capabilities, CoViz 4D allows reservoir teams to realize the greatest value of their data to optimize production and development decisions. CoViz 4D is the ideal answer for maintaining data protection in the oil and gas industry while maximizing the value of the data.
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