There’s Gold in Them Thar Data!: A Data Mining Solution for Oil and Gas Exploration and Production

Paul Genovese¹ and Tawsak Urwongse^2
1 Grizzly Energy Resources, Llc, Columbia Falls, MT
² ChevronTexaco, Information Technology, Houston, TX

Computer technology has been successfully deployed in almost all phases of the E&P cycle, but we note its relative absence applied to enhance the creative process, commonly the foundation of successful E&P ventures. To this end, we present a data mining solution.

Data mining is the computerized process of extracting previously unknown and important actionable information and knowledge from large databases. This knowledge can then be used to make crucial business decisions by leveraging the individual's intuition and experience to objectively generate opportunities that might otherwise go undiscovered.

Asset teams look for exploration, development or acquisition opportunities; they also look for non-strategic assets to sell off. Production/field engineers look for workover and shut-in candidates to optimize field economics. Reservoir engineers look for infill drilling opportunities to better exploit reserves.

To help facilitate the above tasks under ever-tightening time constraints, E&P professionals need access to up-to-date, accurate and insightful information (not just data) on the producing assets. Equally important, they must have a process they can use to screen for or identify potential opportunities for actions (acquisitions, divestment, workover, drilling) from thousands of opportunities in a timely, consistent, and objective manner.

The data mining solution integrates a range of proprietary and commercial databases, software, and algorithms through a seamless software interface and automatically captures discovered knowledge to a corporate database. We present examples of data mining applied to exploration, exploitation, and asset management; including CBM dewatering forecasts, horizontal drilling, competitor analysis, and decline-curve and exploration-play fingerprinting.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005