Petroleum Enterprise Intelligence in the Digital Oil Field

Abstract

Abstract The petroleum industry is facing volatile energy prices, increasing government regulation and taxation, difficult operating environments, strict environmental, health, and safety demands and escalating competition. But the Digital Oilfield — a composite of people, processes and technologies — is enhancing the productivity and reducing the costs for exploration and production (E&P) workers and oilfield managers across the globe in leading companies. The essence of the Digital Oilfield is managing the entire process from exploration to production to facilities operations in an optimized, real-time way with the integration of all business partners – the operators, service companies, logistics providers, software & technology providers, and various governmental regulatory agencies. A key driver of the Digital Oilfield is the explosion of digital information that is created by real-time data gathering systems, new modeling and simulation tools, and information created by collaborating employees. Most E&P companies struggle with the management of this increasing volume of enterprise information. This information base includes data, information, and knowledge from the domains of finance, exploration, drilling, reservoir management, operations and maintenance. The management of this information is critical as it represents a huge investment in expensive oilfield equipment and skilled human resources. Effective operational decisionmaking requires information about current and past operations along with data stored in E&P and ERP systems. This paper describes the evolution of a new tool to access and integrate these diverse sources of information in the context of the work that field managers and engineers do every day. This paper is copyrighted by the Society of Petroleum Engineers.