The oil and gas industry has seen significant scientific and technological advances since the Drake oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania. In the 1800s, explorers drilled based on minimal surface geological information—i.e., observations of oil seepages. Since the 1920s, however, significant progress in geophysical methods has aided the industry in gaining greater insight into the geologic characteristics and structures that give rise to oil and gas discoveries.

From earthquakes and seafloor spreading to volcanic eruptions and mantle convection, geoscientists can now study the Earth's characteristics and processes with greater precision and depth than ever before. Advances in technologies such as seismic, satellite, magnetic imagery and modeling tools have led to a huge rise in the amount of data generated and available for analysis. At the same time, the industry itself has evolved, becoming far more competitive and budget-sensitive. New technologies that filter and present information more clearly can be the key to gaining an edge.

Traditionally, geological information was in the form of physical maps and piles of scientific papers and reports. Geoscientists would sift through maps and associated articles to find important pieces of data and information they needed to fill knowledge gaps in their own proprietary research or validate their analytical interpretations. This was clearly an inefficient and laborious process. With the digital age, many of the physical maps have been transformed into electronic files that can be easily stored and retrieved.

However, as geological information has become more readily available digitally, there is also much more of it to sift through. The issue then becomes one of access and interactivity; namely, how available, transferable and complementary is the information? The answers geoscientists are looking for are not typically found in one place. Putting all of the pieces together requires technological tools to ease the still impressive burden required to integrate this information.

Geoscientists need to be able to combine data from multiple respected sources, including leading journals from scientific publishers and geologic societies. Those journals and societies publish maps and research that deliver insights about the subsurface and provide analogs for comparable exploration along with well and seismic data, industry reports, and 2-D and 3-D models. Additionally, with the looming skills shortage in the oil and gas industry, solutions must be built with ease of use in mind so that even the most junior team member can obtain actionable information without a long and steep learning curve.

With diverse, fragmented exploration teams that need to keep up to date on the latest developments and discoveries, the ability to share information is also key. Finally, usable solutions must perform tasks seamlessly in a single integrated environment. This significantly reduces the burden of switching between multiple platforms and databases, both saving time and reducing the chance of missed opportunities.

Data discovery

Combined, these features would increase confidence in go or no-go decisions and thus lead to more successful outcomes. Elsevier has made agreements with many of the industry’s leading sources of geological data to make their information more discoverable through one tool. Those sources include bodies such as the Geological Society of London, the Geological Society of America, the Society for Sedimentary Geology, the Society of Economic Geologists, the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers and others.

To make maps usable, these must be georeferenced to allow geoscientists to “filter” search results to only cover a particular location. A user searching potential opportunities in, for example, Central America will be able to see the most relevant geological information and the precise area it depicts. The majority of Geofacets maps are georeferenced and accessed via a simple interface. This kind of automation eliminates painful manual searches, scanning and georeferencing from the geoscientist’s workflow. By automating this task, geoscientists can spend more of their time analyzing and making decisions.

In addition to research and maps analysis, the ability to compare those maps and the underlying metadata (and to analyze them alongside 2-D and 3-D models) allows geoscientists to validate and deepen their interpretations providing even greater confidence in their recommendations and decisions. Elsevier recently created the Geofacets Connector for Petrel and Studio, a modeling software. It allows geoscientist users to integrate multiple information streams into one workflow.

By adding geological maps and associated data from the scientific literature to Schlumberger’s Petrel E&P software platform, the interpretation environment is unified with regard to structured and unstructured data. It is further unified across geology, geophysics, reservoir modeling and engineering domains, providing the ability to collaborate and share insights and interpretations from early-stage exploration projects to development to production. This is important since it enables geoscientists and businesses to make complex exploration decisions quickly and effectively.

From exploration to development

Geoscientists need to be able to quickly increase their geologic knowledge of a basin or region, especially when little or no proprietary data such as seismic or well data are available. For geoscientists working in new ventures and frontier exploration teams, they must be able to easily find a variety of map types (e.g., geologic, structural, isopach, facies, etc.) and associated data such as cross sections and seismic profiles. These data sources combined with scientific articles allow geoscientists to conduct a quick petroleum system evaluation, helping them identify the potential for a reservoir within a single platform—in the case of the Geofacets Connector, within the Petrel E&P platform.

Take, for example, a new ventures team considering whether to bid for acreage or partner with a company in a new basin with only one to two weeks to make a go or no-go decision. When 2-D seismic lines can cost anywhere from $8,000 to $30,000 per kilometer, Geofacets can provide a solid starting point to gather enough information and gain a significant understanding of the subsurface geology. This supports a quick assessment of the potential existence of a hydrocarbon system, identifying potential high-risk vs. low-risk areas.

Working with Schlumberger to build a petroleum system model of the Orange Basin (off the coast of South Africa and Namibia), Elsevier was able to find several regional geologic and structural maps as well as more than a dozen seismic profiles located in scientific articles.

Those maps were imported and georeferenced into Petrel to identify the existence of a regionally extensive reservoir and potential seal in the target area. In addition, loading additional maps and associated data from the literature via the Geofacets Connector, the existence of source rock and trap was confirmed without spending any money on data acquisition. Of course, the other potential value of such a screening is to target high-potential/low-risk areas where acquiring seismic and/or well data will be well worth the investment.

In many ways, there has never been a more exciting time for the intellectually curious geoscientist. The ways in which geoscientists work and continue to work in the 21st century continue to evolve. With the wealth of content available and the increased availability of analysis tools that help them make sense of that data, today’s geoscientists have access to the best of both worlds.