Abstract

Technology takes more of the center stage in the exploration for petroleum every day. As a result, many companies are moving further away from the basics of exploration, such as cutting whole core as well as sidewall core. The data from these cores and chips are still invaluable as a tool, especially when paired with the high quality logs available in today’s business. However, when presented with digital data, these same companies are balking at making the digital leap. This can leave a company in a dangerous no-man’s land of insufficient information in order to move backwards or forwards. The days of studying just a neutron density log are gone as the wireline companies raise the ceiling, introducing logs that will calculate potential pay, percentage shale, and even percentages of kerogen present in a rock. With this jump from paper to digital, many companies are not taking full advantage of information available with service packages or taking the time to take samples. Today’s high tech oil and gas business should not only rethink the storage methods used for digital data and the information available from this data, but also get back to the basics of looking at rocks.