POSC SEM Project Status
The POSC Shared Earth Model Project is currently in Phase 2a (Q1 of 2001), which is intended to complete and publish the specifications resulting from the work of Phase 1. The following article briefly describes the project's business focus, accomplishments, and future direction.
EpiSEM Information Services : Capturing More Than Your Imagination !
The Problem
Earth models are the central focus of decision making in today's fast changing E&P business environment. They influence where to acquire leases, what prospects to drill, how to enhance production, and, eventually, when to divest the asset. As crucial as they are, many decisions are being taken based on models that take too long to develop, are mutually inconsistent, of unspecified reliability and of dubious provenance. At a minimum, the business impact of this is increased operating or capital costs, but it could also result in significant lost opportunities.
The US Food and Drug Administration ensures that food in supermarkets is labeled so that shoppers can take decisions based on its ingredients and nutritional content. What if E&P decision makers could examine their earth models in a similar fashion?
Models are built from individual interpretations of faults, horizons, and rock properties that are created over time like a jigsaw puzzle. They are typically created after the basic interpretation work is done and without the assistance of the interpreters. During model construction, it is customary to cycle back to the interpretations to make adjustments. Adding new data, like obtaining a new seismic survey or drilling a new well, can also cause interpretations to be reworked and models to be revised. Because Earth Models embody complex concepts with intricate interdependencies, a simple label is not sufficient to communicate the necessary information. |
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In practice, asset teams rely on several interdependent models developed in various different pieces of software by different discipline experts. Knowing who created the interpretations, how much confidence the interpreter had in them, which software packages were involved, what models they are used in, and so forth, is critical information for the E&P decision maker. But the fact is there is no common, easy to use way to capture this information today. The POSC SEM project is designing a set of open services, epiSEM Information Services, to provide knowledge capture facilities that address this very problem.
A Proposed Solution
epiSEM Information Services will enable cross-vendor, shared facilities that allow the dependencies between components of different models from one or more vendors to be registered, maintained, and queried in an open and shared catalog. In an epiSEM-enabled environment, interpreters, earth modelers, and decision-makers will be able to:
- find pre-existing interpretations and supporting data sets within the organization, asset or project scope
- see who authored previous work, when and with what software
- review assumptions, quality and uncertainty of pre-existing analyses
- prevent deletion of models which have dependencies upon, or are depended upon by other models.
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Project History
The first phase of the Shared Earth Modeling (SEM) project, sponsored by a mix of oil and vendor companies and facilitated by the Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC), began in November 1998. Initially the project focused on defining a common platform for shared earth modeling services. During the last year the project has reviewed its sponsors' understanding of Shared Earth Modeling and has identified a variety of distinct problem areas with current approaches. During the course of the project's first phase, it became clear that a vendor neutral approach to sharing information about the contents and semantics of current models would be a very valuable and achievable objective. In a unanimous decision, the sponsors redirected the project's focus to developing the specifications for epiSEM Information Services. |
POSC SEM Phase 2a Sponsors/Participants
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NI Agip Division
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IFP
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Schlumberger/GeoQuest
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Shell
POSC SEM Phase 1 Sponsors/Participants
- Chevron
- ENI Agip Division
- IFP
- Landmark Graphics
- Mobil
- Petrotechnical Data Systems
- Schlumberger/GeoQuest
- Shell
- Statoil
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What's Next?
Today, the project design team has established an architecture for epiSEM Information Services that is open, layered, scaleable and distributed. The team's proposals have cross-industry support, meet actual needs, and could appear in vendor products to provide real benefits within the next two years.
Phase 1 of the SEM project has reached completion, and POSC is now seeking sponsorship for a second phase, beginning in 2000, to develop a proof-of-concept epiSEM implementation. Through the development of this proof-of-concept we expect to refine the specifications sufficiently such that vendors can see the future value in implementing them in their products in a secure, robust and interoperable manner and users can appreciate the value of having such services available to them.
Oil Company support of this initiative is essential. Without it, neutral, cross-vendor, open specifications cannot be developed and necessary design work and collaboration activities will not take place. With oil company support, we believe that cross-vendor products can emerge and E&P users will gain the essential tools to fully leverage the information in their models.
To participate in the POSC SEM project or for more information about epiSEM, please contact:
Paul Maton
Ph: +44 1372 466 157
Fax: +44 1372 817 248
Email: maton@posc.org
SEM Web Resources
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