Let’s not bury the lede.
The ability to analyze and evaluate oil and gas exploration just got easier.
A Web-based search-and-retrieval tool can now give subscribers the ability to find hundreds of thousands of geological maps, cross-sections, tables and other “exploration objects” faster and more easily and quicker than ever before.
It’s called Database Exploration Objects (DEO), it was designed by AAPG Datapages, and it’s up and ready.
It’s a system, moreover, that was designed by geologists, for geologists.
But the interesting thing is, much of the technology that makes it work has been around awhile – it was just been waiting for the consumers to catch up.
“The geographical information system (GIS) technology has been around 30 years,” said AAPG member Ron Hart, who also is AAPG Datapages manager, “but it took time for technology and data collection costs to come down. Client companies had to adapt their workflow to use the technology, so developers or data base products had no market initially.”
Additionally, in the past, only some could access the information. The developers’ web browser tools are only a few years old, so client companies had to use special software to take advantage of this new technology.
But now, as Hart says, anyone with a basic web browser can use DEO to find the information desired.
Best of all, it is all ready for quick, easy conversion for use in any explorationists GIS.
Knowing Where to Look
How much information are we talking about?
This is where it gets exciting.
“We have more than half a million exploration objects in our planned conversation,” he said of the year 2018.
Specifically, at the moment, there are approximately 35,000 maps in the system.
By mid-2015, he predicts more than 100,000 maps and objects to be available.
But it’s not just the amount of data stored – it’s also the ease in which it all can be accessed.
Hart used the example of North America’s Williston Basin: Presently, a user has to search published articles and other exploration objects, extract that material and then convert it to their current system. With DEO, the process is shortened from days to minutes – and sometimes, to seconds.
This is possible because all the objects in the index can be found one of two ways:
♦ Matching search terms keyed in by the use.
♦ The user “drawing” on the interactive DEO maps.
Developing the software, according to Hart, was just one of the challenges in making it all possible.
“We had to work with such a huge accumulation of documents in our conversion,” he said, “adding time and cost to the project.”
And there were other hurdles, as well.
“Getting the huge database to react at an acceptable level of performance speed was critical,” Hart said.
Only because today’s servers are faster can they handle the search-and-retrieval of this mass of data in a timely matter. This was not the case even as little as five years ago.
Assets and Advantages
Now there’s a new challenge for Hart, AAPG and AAPG Datapages: How to get the word out that this tool is now available.
Hart plans on tackling the marketing of this in a number of ways. Aside from hosting media evenings and attending conferences, as AAPG did just recently in Amsterdam at the EAGE, he and his team have been using email blasts and emerging technologies to build interest and generate leads.
“We make extensive use of Webex (Webinar) technology to demonstrate real-time speed to prospective clients,” he said.
This is paramount, because visitors can – and are encouraged – to request customized presentations and receive free DEO “test drives.”
“It must be seen before a purchase decision will be made,” Hart said, confidently.
Here are just some of the features that DEO offers:
- Faster than present-day systems.
- Features new levels of comprehensiveness and granularity.
- It’s intuitive.
- It provides contextual information.
- Live Overlays
- Objects delivered GIS-ready.
- It’s accessible from any computer, with no new software required.
“By harnessing the power and speed of the latest information technology, DEO puts a whole new world of exploration objects literally at the geologist’s fingertips,” Hart said.
And, clearly, if less time is spent on search and retrieval that save money, increases productivity and faster identification of opportunities.
“It can make an organization more competitive,” said Hart.