Oil Exploration
Everyone has their own price
That is, the gasoline price point that prompts them to change their behavior...whether it is to drive less, carpool, take mass transit, or resolve to buy a more fuel-efficient car.
In the United States, gas prices hit a high this summer—$5.00 in some locations—driving the global energy crisis and the need for smarter oil exploration and production front and center in our collective conscience.
Projected demand for energy is expected to increase by 50% from 2005 to 2030, mainly from developing economies such as China and India. While there is a renewed focus on nuclear, solar and other alternative energies, experts agree that fossil fuels such as oil and gas will remain a significant source of energy for the foreseeable future.
The "easy oil" has been found
Even today, there is a lot that we do not know about the world's petroleum and natural gas reserves. It is estimated that only 33% of oil is pulled from existing reservoirs. How can we improve recovery rates? Where can we find new reservoirs?
These challenges are complicated by the fact that the "easy oil" has been found. Any recently discovered oil and gas fields are in remote, deep locations, such as the large Tupi field 180 miles off the coast of Brazil, 4.5 miles below salt, rock, sand and seawater.
Getting every drop
When you consider that even a modest improvement in oil recovery of 1.5% can yield enough oil on average for a half year of global consumption...it's clear why innovative energy companies are focused on enhancing the oil recovery of existing reservoirs.
Adding intelligence to oilfields
The time is right because the technology is here: the systems that underlie our oilfields are getting much smarter. Advances in deep computing are pushing 3-D seismic modeling into the next generation, enabling scientists to discern fields that previously were invisible. Autonomic sensing technologies and data analytics are being used to improve oil exploration: identify viable reserves, increase the amount of oil being extracted, improve productivity and anticipate problems, minimizing risk to people and the environment. Through virtualization, fields can be monitored remotely, reducing the strain on the workforce.
How do you find oil buried in the deepest reservoirs of the earth?
Deep computing. Analytics. Seismic imaging.
Intelligent oilfields around the planet
Since 1955, IBM has been in the oil business. Today, we have five research facilities developing intelligent oilfields: in Calgary, Canada; Stavanger, Norway; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Beijing, China; and Moscow, Russia.
Smarter oil exploration
Madrid-based Repsol partnered with IBM and scientists around the world to improve the accuracy of deep sea oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico by harnessing the most powerful multicore processing technology on the planet for seismic data analysis.
Pumping up production
Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil is using sensors and telemetry to monitor conditions in real time. By pooling all of the sensory data from fields and rigs, and combining it with 3-D visualization, they can make smarter decisions.
Integrating geologies
IBM helped Landmark, a product service line of Halliburton Energy Services, to integrate silos of basin modeling data, seismic data and, for the first time, rock physics to determine the size and quality of potential oil and gas fields.