Visualization of Oil, Gas, and Water in the Subsurface

Abstract Tracking the flow of oil, gas, and water in real-time while reservoirs are being drained is now possible through the emergence of rugged downhole sensors, the Internet, high bandwidth satellite and fiber communications and rapid middleware wrapping of software applications. The question is what information delivers economic return on the investment required. The good news is that all along the value chain, prices are coming down because of commercial pressures from outside the energy business. For example, Direct PC will likely drop the cost and increase the bandwidth of satellite communications to remote locations by an order of magnitude over the next few years. Application The manufacturing process by which we produce energy is being reinvented like we have never before experienced in this business. The oil and gas field of the future will be part of a much larger Information Technology (IT) network. Each field will be a wired, internet-connected, real-time monitored, remotely controlled, electronic venture. Each well, pipeline, rig, production platform, compression facility, and even the pumpers themselves, will have a IP (Internet Protocol) address. Any browser on any laptop in the company (with proper password protection) can log onto the myoilcompany.com URL at any time of the day or night -- from anywhere in the world -- and visualize production, well test, logging, and other real-time measurements coming from the 4D monitoring of field performance. Results and Observations However, there are fundamental reasons why such an integrated IT system for the oil and gas field is a difficult mission for the energy industry to pull off successfully. Principal among them is that the "last mile," as it is called in the communications industry, (the field connectivity to the manufacturing facility itself) is about as difficult an IT environment as could be imagined. Other IT savvy manufacturers around the globe also deal with multiple vendors, millions of customers, and millions of parts as we do, but our SITE of manufacture of energy products is NOT usually in a metropolitan area with communications infrastructure in place. Instead, it is found in whatever water depth or remote geography (usually rural) the oil and gas happens to be discovered beneath. And then, of course, the "very last mile" to the resource itself is under the ground and cannot be visited, or even imaged clearly. Not only must energy companies deal with a constantly changing set of IT vendors and bandwidth constraints from field to field, but each must be specified from the start to operate continuously for 30+ years, as part of an internetconnected portfolio. In the future, oil and gas fields will form an information grid with other fields, pipelines, land, and seaborne traffic, refineries and storage facilities, etc. that form the complete enterprise of the company (Figure 1).