Energistics Teams Up with ONGC, SEG to Initiate a New Geophysical Standards Project

Pat Davis Szymczak

   I’m writing from Houston, Texas where I have visited with Energistics and concluded an agreement under which Oil&Gas Eurasia will support the organization as official media partner in Russia.

   You might have met Energistics at the SPE Russian Oil&Gas Technical conference in October in Moscow. If you didn’t, visit their website at www.energistics.org. There you can read more about this global consortium that facilitates an inclusive user community for the development, deployment and maintenance of collaborative technologies using open data exchange standards for the upstream oil and natural gas industry.  

   Much of their work forcuses on Geophysics. SEG, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, is among the organizations involved with Energistics. I make this point because our February issue is focused on the International Geoscience Conference in Tyumen jointly organized by SEG; the EAGE (the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) and EAGO (Eurasian Geophysical Society) at Tyumen city’s new Technopark and West Siberian Innovation Center for Oil&Gas. If you don’t know what that is, please visit www.oilandgaseurasia.com and check out the September issue in our archive.
Russian geophysics specialists may find of interest, Energistic’s new initiative with India’s national oil company ONGC. Energistics and ONGC are working together to improve geophysical standards and best practices through their joint Geophysical Standards Assessment Work Group which is assessing and recommending standards to be developed and deployed throughout ONGC, and made available to other Energistics members. The SEG is also participating in the project.

   ONGC is active in Russia. India’s NOC is a shareholder in the Sakhalin I offshore project together with ExxonMobil and Russian NOC Rosneft. ONGC has also sought to acquire Siberian reserves, most recently through a bid to acquire Russian independent operator Imperial Energy.

   Randy W. Clark, President and CEO of Energistics, outlined the goals of the initiative in an article that appeared in the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Talent &Technology publication last year. Talent &Technology (www.spe.org) reported that since 2000, the Indian government has implemented a new exploration licensing policy which has opened the Indian upstream to international participation and to new domestic Indian operators. As a result, a number of significant discoveries have been made and developed both onshore and offshore.

   Consequently, the amount of upstream data that is being created and exchanged between companies, their partners and the government has mushroomed. This has created a need for information standards and best practices to enhance the speed and effectiveness of decision making within ONGC, the Indian government and foreign and domestic partners and vendors.
What is the Energistics–ONGC partnership trying to accomplish? According to Talent&Technology, the main talking points are the following:

• Delivery of consistent geophysical data from various service company field crews and acquisition systems in a consistent form that, among other things, enable data from a variety of sources to be stored in a manner that is easily accessible;

• Rapid availability of geophysical data for analysis and operational decision making;

• The elimination of the need for vendor-specific processing software products before analysis;

• Preservation and easy re-use of value-added information and knowledge from previous work steps across acquisition, processing and interpretation.

   If the improvements in geophysical standards identified by ONGC are not addressed, or more importantly not adopted, then companies, especially those in emerging markets or those with less seasoned geophysical staffs could face delays, higher costs and lower confidence in their geophysical results.
Talent&Technology came up with the perfect metaphor: if two people speak the same language, they have the same standard and little is lost when they communicate with each other. But if one person speaks English, another speaks Russian through an interpreter, and yet another speaks Hindi through an interpreter, there is a good chance that something small but vital will be lost in translation.

   By embracing standards, the industry focuses on a common shared language across the industry. This is what’s called “best practices.” This is also vital in regions where veteran geoscientists are retiring and new hires are taking their place. In such situations important institutional knowledge can be lost. By improving the ability to encapsulate best practices gained by generations past by establishing standards, the industry is better able to preserve its institutional and historical knowledge base. This is what ONGC, Energistics, SEG and other partners are hoping to accomplish.

   I hope this information has gotten some of you thinking. I believe it will be of special interest to specialists who will be gathering in Tyumen in early March 2-5. This will be the second time that West Siberia’s capital city has hosted the SEG, EAGE, EAGO event. This year’s event is organized with the support of Tyumen Governor Vladimir Yakushev and Russia’s federal subsurface resources ministry Rosnedra.

   Oil&Gas Eurasia will be there as a Media Supporter of the event. I must admit that I am a fan of Tyumen. This 422-year-old Russian city has a rich history that is rooted in the 16th Century opening of Siberia by the legendary explorer and Cossack leader Yermak Timofeyevich who died in battle near Tobolsk. And if you like pre-revolutionary Russian wooden architecture, you’ll be delighted by what you will find in Tyumen.

   Today’s Tyumen though also speaks to the future, especially of Russian oil and gas. Not only is the city’s new innovation center a magnet for leading technology firms to office there, it also doubles as a small business incubator where science can engage with business to create new Russian companies and jobs. So hope to see you there!

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