Apache Energy: A case study in real-time database integration

Abstract

All Exploration and Production (E&P) companies have a vested interest in controlling and maintaining subsurface data. The need for managing an information strategy has obvious benefits to the wider goals of interpretation, 3D reservoir modelling and business decisions based on the technical model. To the E&P companies, many solutions are available to help them manage and leverage the increasing volume and complexity of their data. It is our intention to show how leading edge technology combined with sound data management practices can deliver a cost effective data management strategy. Principally, data managers need to be able to find, condition and deliver data to their customers ? the interpreters. Our case study from Apache Energy Ltd, (Perth) will highlight the migration from a `past' state toa `future' state and how Integrated Solutions Australasia (ISA) deployed GeoBrowse as the integration tool to meet the principal Apache objective of 'Easier Data Access'. We will show evidence of how GeoBrowse allows visual display of spatial data with the unique ability to then query 'non spatial' data. This environment allows geoscientists, data administrators and managers rapid access to their data. Building on the initial GeoBrowse implementation many queries have been developed by Apache staff and transformed into macros, that users can run ``real-time' against their databases. This results in ``live' reports of the latest data to be stored in those databases. From this work Apache now view their disparate databases as a single ``virtual' database. Enormous time savings are being made in a) locating data b) comparing data c) quality control and d) reporting of data.