ABSTRACT

Data and information are clearly crucial to the success of any petroleum exploration and development effort. People who have been around the oil business for any length of time recognize that most companies are virtually swimming in data that they have paid large sums of money to obtain. Yet, the industry has been plagued with the enigma of how to get at these data, and how to package and deliver them in the forms that are most easily and efficiently used by geoscientists. Over the past decade, geographic information systems (GIS) have come to the forefront of industry-wide attempts to transform the way that petroleum exploration and development information is obtained, processed, managed, and delivered. This is exciting and captivating technology of which everyone seems to want a part, and yet it has not experienced the rapid assimilation into day-to-day operations that might have been anticipated. This chapter explores the many reasons for the lag in implementation, and it details the unique management issues that are involved. Topics include the definition of what a GIS constitutes, product and project costs, staffing requirements, equipment needs, corporate/departmental philosophies about data, and many others. Also discussed are the rewards that can be achieved through a patient, but deliberate, pursuit of the GIS approach to upstream data issues.

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INTRODUCTION