Business news for the week of 17 May 2010 News section front
Past news briefs
Seismic crew survey reports Petris releases PetrisWINDS analytics (PWA) 18 May 2010—Petris Technology released PetrisWINDS analytics (PWA), a business intelligence tool that allows energy companies to manage and measure performance across the entire organization through interactive reports and online dashboards derived from realtime access to critical technical and financial data. Developed specifically for exploration and production departments and oil and gas executives, PetrisWINDS analytics transforms massive amounts of enterprise-wide data into manageable reports that aid in pinpointing trends and patterns. PWA takes advantage of the data integration provided by PetrisWINDS Enterprise (PWE), a rich set of application adapters and Information Builders' WebFOCUS business intelligence platform to deliver real-time access to critical information derived from both technical and financial data. Schlumberger releases Petrel 2010
18 May 2010—Schlumberger releases Petrel 2010 software, which provides comprehensive risk analysis for exploration workflows.
Petrel 2010 adds the modeling-while-interpreting functionality to automatically create a structural framework while interpreting. This capability allows geoscientists to rapidly test structural uncertainty and pass a high integrity structural framework directly into the modeling realm. With Petrel 2010 the knowledge of the interpreter is preserved in modeling workflows, and interpreters and modelers can easily iterate to refine velocity and property models.
Additional capabilities enabling improved reservoir characterization include enhanced geobody capabilities facilitating better definition of reservoir bodies, and enhanced seismic attribute analysis to better understand lithologies and fracture characterization.
In addition to handling regional datasets supporting multibasin to prospect analysis, the Petrel 2010 release features comprehensive fault seal analysis capabilities powered by science from Rock Deformation Research. The Petrel Petroleum Systems Quick Look module lets geoscientists perform charge modeling for scouting evaluation and ranking of plays and prospects. This creates a connected workflow for generalists and specialists. Petroleum systems experts can perform full analysis of charge risk with the advanced functionality in the PetroMod software.
In addition, the Ocean development platform allows geoscientists to further customize Petrel workflows to rapidly solve localized exploration challenges. NVIDIA Tesla GPUs power new IBM servers
18 May 2010—NVIDIA announced that the latest IBM iDataPlex servers are the first mainstream high-performance-computing (HPC) systems to be built around NVIDIA Tesla 20-series GPUs.
NVIDIA Tesla M2050 is a GPU computing module integrated into servers that delivers performance benefits, while enabling maximum reliability and tight integration with system monitoring and management tools. A single 1U server[1] <#_ftn1> , for example, equipped with two Tesla M2050 GPU modules has eight times the LINPACK benchmark performance of a typical 1U[2] <#_ftn2> server.
More than 350 universities are teaching CUDA, which enables GPUs to be deployed for supercomputing and other visual computing applications. In the past two years, 10 books have been written on the subject by researchers and developers. The CUDA developer toolkit has been downloaded more than 200,000 times, enabling the development of applications across many fields of scientific and high performance computing. These include financial modeling, oil and gas, federal and defense as well as key research codes in bioscience, such as AMBER, GROMACS, and NAMD.
Spectraseis completes LF seismic survey over France's largest gas storage facility 19 May 2010—Spectraseis completed its most comprehensive LF seismic survey to date over France's largest underground gas storage facility near Chemery. The field is operated by Storengy, a fully owned subsidiary of GDF Suez, a member of the recently established Low Frequency Seismic Partnership (LFSP). The survey, conducted by Spectraseis in partnership with German geophysical company DMT, is a cornerstone project conducted under the LFSP with the results likely to provide significant insight into all applications of LF seismic, including brownfield, production monitoring and field development settings. The data allow analysis into how reservoir characterization can be improved by relating LF seismic attributes to reservoir parameters. In addition to reservoir characterization, the survey was designed to test expanded methods in LF seismic data acquisition and processing, such as interferometry. A second data acquisition phase is planned for later in 2010 to acquire 4D data under different gas-filled conditions in the reservoir where Spectraseis' soon to be launched new borehole multilevel receiver array for LF measurements may also be utilized. The survey involves the acquisition of 630 data points employing over 110 broadband sensors in 12 days with the design consisting of lines, interleaved grids, and tuned 3D arrays.
Located 200 kilometers southwest of Paris, the Chemery gas storage facility is the largest such underground facility in France with capacity of 7 Bcm (billion cubic meters). The site serves Paris, Nantes, Lyon and the South of France. The reservoir, with a depth of 1100 m, is in the Trias formation and has 93 existing wells. M-GS Consortium: Geostatistics Solutions for the Oil & Gas Industry opens for sponsorship Geovariances and Estimages, a French Geostatistics services company, has initiated M-GS Consortium, a Moving-Geostatistics—dedicated R&D project for the oil and gas Industry. Moving-GeoStatistics (M-GS) is a geostatistical technology which allows precise and realistic geological models and better assess uncertainties by using locally optimized geostatistical parameters. The development of this technology is based on new techniques. They include: - The development of automated parameter optimization process,
- The conception of new algorithms for the interpolation of anisotropy orientations,
- The implementation of mathematical morphology approaches.
Theoretical aspects will be developed in partnership with the Geostatistics Group and the Centre for Mathematical Morphology of Mines ParisTech. The consortium, scheduled for a period of two years, is aimed at any oil and gas companies who wish to reduce exploration risk. | 
