DGI Blog

Dealing with the fundamental uncertainty of subsurface environments and their hydrocarbon resources is one of the major industry challenges. Seismic and borehole technologies improve our ability to acquire greater volumes of geologic information. Ever-increasing processor power crunches these data more efficiently to create models to help geoscientists and reservoir engineers understand the interaction between geology and hydrocarbon resources.

Among the many challenges of managing a mature oil field is the need to obtain an accurate understanding of its remaining recovery potential. Greater accuracy in assessing characteristics that influence recovery—geologic variability changes in fluid saturation, water cut, microseismic events, location and viability of aging infrastructure—enables asset teams to make better decisions regarding mature field production optimization.

While there are traditional approaches to the structural interpretation of seismic data for oil exploration and velocity modeling in the industry, these approaches can be enhanced through advancements in technology. Without the ability to integrate and visualize all relevant data in a comprehensive environment, professionals may overlook valuable pays.

During hydrocarbon exploration and development operations, vast amounts of subsurface data are collected and generated. The amount of disparate data collected makes it difficult to obtain subsurface data management for precise decision-making. The accuracy and timeliness of the decision process can be greatly enhanced using software capable of viewing all data in a single platform.

One of the essential aspects of visualization is the ability to view and analyze the data and information in many different platforms at varying scales. 2D, 3D, or 4D seismic data analysis involves the interpretation of a large volume of subsurface attributes. While a more complete analysis and visualization requiring collaboration may use visualization centers for better results, smaller platforms such as laptops can be sufficient when scaling 3D seismic data for visualization and analysis. The ability to integrate non-seismic data into the interpretation in its correct geospatial position, process, and scale them for any size visualization platform provides interpreters the unique opportunity to view the data in 3D or 4D while collaborating with multi-discipline asset teams.