Using GIS in the Petroleum Industryby William N. Wally, Senior
Research Associate,
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William N. Wally |
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Abstract : |
One definition of a Geographic Information System is "a computer system that stores, organizes and displays data describing places on the earth's surface". By this definition, the oil industry has been using GIS technology almost as soon as they first started using computers nearly 40 years ago.
Technical Drivers :
What has changed is that recently general-purpose GIS
software and low-cost computers have shown they can be
effectively used to address many oil-industry problems, and
that ordinary oil industry professionals (i.e. not GIS
specialists, or computer specialists) can quickly learn to
use this technology.
Business drivers:
It is now not unusual for asset teams to include disciplines
including geophysics, geology, petroleum engineering,
facilities engineering, land/legal, and sometimes safety and
environment , all working together on the same property. To
work efficiently together, such groups need access to shared
databases especially for map data showing locations of key
features like wells, pipelines, population centers,
environmentally sensitive regions, etc.
This paper discusses the technical and business drivers causing GIS technology to be increasingly relevant to the oil industry, gives some examples to its use, and discusses areas where improvement is expected and/or needed.
William N. Wally - Profile :
Mr.Wally began work as a Geophysicisit for a seismic contracting company, and spent the early years of his career overseas. He spent 2 years in Libya, followed by 10 years based in London, developing and deploying seismic processing and mapping systems in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In 1975, he joined Gulf Research and Development Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a Research Geophysicist. In 1985 when Chevron acquired Gulf, he transferred to the Advanced Systems Section at Chevron Oil Field Research, La Habra, California. In 1992 he transferred to Chevron Petroleum Technology Company, Houston, Texas where he is a Senior Research Associate, currently assigned to the Applied Computer Science Division.
Mr.Wally has a B.A. in Mathematics from Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Houston Geophysical Society. He is also a member of the ARC/Info Petroleum User group (PUG) Steering Committee.
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