The data-on-demand feature allows users to interpret the 6,950-sq-mile (18,000-sq-km) Norwegian super grid (122 GB of seismic) on a workstation with less than 1.0 GB of RAM

Landmark has continued to invest in technology, and its release of R5000 is representative of this. By empowering all members of the asset team with the tools they need to work more efficiently and delivering a greater understanding of the project at hand, the geoscience applications in the R5000 release translate directly to faster, more reliable identification of high-grade prospects and reduced exploration risks.

Landmark’s synchronous software release includes more than 70 products spanning all E&P disciplines. Enabled by the DecisionSpace environment and upgrades to the OpenWorks project database, all products in the R5000 release feature new capabilities that allow operators to overcome the industry’s growing challenges.

Quickly identify high-value prospects

Landmark’s GeoProbe application has received key upgrades in the new release that allow interpreters to overcome the limitations of conventional software to quickly and accurately visualize and analyze mature basins on a regional level and identify high-value prospects in new frontier plays. The new workflows create a more efficient and effective exploration process that supports reserve replacement efforts by enabling operators to have a better understanding of risks.

For example, geoscientists working in frontier plays typically have little, if any, access to 3-D seismic data. Instead, they must conduct a time-consuming line-by-line interpretation of available 2-D data. With the new software, explorationists can merge all relevant 2-D lines and visualize the data in 3-D. This creates a broad perspective of the area of interest and allows the interpreter to quickly define the connections and continuity between multiple survey lines.

Further, the software allows interpreters to integrate all available 2-D and 3-D data as if it were part of a single survey. For operators investigating unexplored areas within a previously examined basin, this capability allows them to apply the lessons learned to frontier areas, providing better information for exploratory drilling and reducing risks.

For companies focused on acquiring acreage in new basins, these new workflows can quickly create a more efficient and effective exploration process.

The upgraded application also addresses the needs of subsurface teams working in mature basins, which typically face an excess of 2-D and 3-D surveys covering the area of interest that must be pieced together into a holistic regional view. While existing applications have been unable to interpret the survey volume required to create these mega-surveys, the new application takes a different approach by streaming data directly from the disk. With this technology, immense data volumes can be displayed automatically. For example, a survey of the entire southern North Sea, which includes 28,600 miles (47,000 km) of seismic data, can be displayed instantly on a standard laptop with four gigabytes of RAM.

Capture asset-specific knowledge

To address the need to get incoming E&P professionals trained quickly as experienced employees look to retire, Landmark has introduced new features in the R5000 version of PowerView geoscience interpretation software that allow operators to capture critical soft and hard data around seismic interpretation. This knowledge-capture capability allows operators to return to an interpreter’s exact decision-making process during a specific interpretation to address uncertainties that arise later in the field development
process or to verify the data that resulted in a specific course of action.

The new interpreter notes feature focuses on soft data, enabling an operator to input comments in the form of external hyperlinks, text documents, or Microsoft Excel files directly into the dataset. For example, interpreters can note their belief that a certain fault will extend out in a specific direction based on their experience in similar basins.

These notes are then stored in the project database in a searchable text field so that someone new to the project can quickly get up to speed on these unique asset insights.

The application’s interpretation sets feature captures the project-specific hard data associated with a unique decision point by grouping all of the data associated with an interpretation such as sequences of horizons, faults, wells, or seismic files. Each of these sets then functions as a hyperlink in the dataset, eliminating the need for additional storage capacity and allowing an operator to later restore the entire set to examine the data that drove a specific decision.

Interpretation sets have proven particularly useful in addressing the uncertainties inherent in exploration by enabling asset teams to carry multiple interpretations forward.

Where interpreters have traditionally had to choose one “best-guess” scenario, they can now move forward with several interpretations to more accurately quantify risks and uncertainties in net present value calculations. As field development progresses, interpretations can then be altered or eliminated based on more complete information about the reservoir.

Subsurface understanding

Both the environment and the database have been upgraded to create an open platform that enables better integration of data types and applications, including Landmark’s products as well as homegrown and third-party technologies. This benefits operators seeking to create customized workflows that leverage their existing technology investment.

Further, the expansion of the database is driving the adoption of high-science processes in mainstream subsurface work, enabling operators to better understand their resources, which in turn provides better information for more effective development, increased production, and reduced risk and non-productive time.

For example, prestack data can now be managed in the database, which integrates with Landmark’s Well Seismic Fusion prestack interpretation software to incorporate the more detailed data into conventional workflows. The new release of this software takes prestack data access one step further with a new capability that automates the interpretation of prestack horizons in seismic data. These horizons are then used to create a patented volume that allows the interpreter to see aspects of prestack data that are difficult to reveal in conventional applications.

Maximizing return

As just one example of the unique functionality and streamlined integration of the new geoscience applications, consider interpreters working in an area where they have no previous experience. Using GeoProbe to scan the seismic data for new prospects, the interpreters come across an area of interest that has been explored before. Opening up the interpretation notes feature in PowerView, they see a recommendation from their predecessors that the area is promising, but more information is necessary to determine the risks of producing the prospect. Leveraging Well Seismic Fusion to view the prestack seismic data for the area, the team can quickly determine if the area is worth further investigation — either high-grading the prospect or ruling it out efficiently and confidently.

These capabilities are just one example of how the technologies available in the release are empowering operators to overcome pressing industry challenges including replacing reserves while balancing the asset portfolio and growing returns with diminishing professional resources and working capital.