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Top 10 Uses of GIS in Oil and Gas

Date: 4/5/2012

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Keyword Cloud
"Why Petroleum" analysis
analytics benefit carry

companies cost data

decision delivered digital drilling
eBook efficient emergency
emerging environment essential
feel field free help increasingly
information interest least
made manage management
maps mobile monitor
monitoring often operations
order organisation overriding
path patterns petroleum
planning provides regularly
require requirement route royalty
shale technology through
time tracking unique useful uses

vehicles

Why should we use GIS? This is probably the question we hear most often in our
discussions with our petroleum clients. And its not just from those oil and gas
companies who have yet to embrace GIS - we sometimes hear this from
companies that have already invested considerably in supporting technology and
projects, but feel they dont still properly understand the reasons for doing so.
I thought it would be useful to list a few of my favourite examples of where GIS has
delivered a clear business benefit to the organisation where it has been
deployed. Most of these are taken from our new free eBook "Why Use GIS in
Petroleum?" which we have made available for download.
So, in no particular order, here are my top 10 uses of GIS in oil and gas.
1. Data index maps - One of the most common uses of GIS in the petroleum
sector is in delivering easy-to-use digital maps that enable oil company staff to see what data is available to
them, so that they can drastically reduce the amount of time they spend looking for the information they need to
do their work. Often such maps are delivered using web-based GIS applications that require little or no training to
use, and show all data of interest side-by-side in a single interface.
2. Block ranking - Ranking opportunities via quantitative analysis using all available information require data
integration on a massive scale, and so it is usually seen as too time consuming to carry out on a regular basis.
However, GIS provides the perfect environment in which to rapidly evaluate and grade oil and gas licenses or
lease blocks. It provides a unique way of mining large quantities of different types of data in order to help make a
decision, and many companies employing GIS for this analysis believe that it gives them a competitive edge in
license acquisition.
3. Land management - The way GIS stores information as attributes allows a land man to map key lease data
such as lessor names, lease expiry dates, working interests (WI), overriding royalty (OR), overriding royalty
interest (ORRI), net revenue interest (NRI) and gross/net acreages. Meanwhile centralising all land management
data in an enterprise GIS environment helps enormously when generating the reports that are requirement by
regulators.
4. Well planning - GIS is being used increasingly for well planning, particularly with the rise of unconventional
resources such as shale gas, shale oil and coal bed methane. Not only can GIS be used to plan well pad
patterns around multiple surface drilling constraints, but its unique spatial analytics can be used to optimise
drilling patterns to calculate the most efficient drilling configuration.
5. Field operations - An emerging use of GIS is in using flying sensor technology to gather on-demand high
resolution imagery across a field location in order to survey a site. This allows companies to regularly monitor
sites and to identify and manage change, without having to commission expensive satellite data capture.
6. Environmental monitoring Given the current focus on shale play development, it is essential that companies
are able to accurately monitor environmental changes associated with operations. GIS is invaluable in this
regard, able to integrate and visualise time stamped data against a base lined case, e.g. using regularly updated
DEMs to help detect subsidence caused by extraction of the resources.
7. Pipeline routing Building pipelines to carry petroleum products is capital-intensive, so determining the
optimum route is critical. This is a non-trivial task that can be significantly simplified through the use of least-cost
path analysis a process that identifies the route of least resistance between a source point and destination,
based on the effort required to pass through cells in one or more cost raster datasets, such as slope (based on
a DEM) and land-cover. Studies have shown that GIS-based least cost path analysis can produce more
environmentally friendly routes, as well as reducing costs by up to 15%.
8. Vessel tracking - GIS can be useful for tracking valuable assets, especially those that are mobile, such as
vehicles and boats. Knowing the precise location of vehicles and vessels is essential for the timely delivery of
goods and services, as well as for efficient emergency response.

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Top 10 Uses of GIS in Oil and Gas - Blogs 9. Emergency response - GIS is becoming increasingly important in response to emergencies such as oil spills
and gas explosions, both in mitigation planning and response management. Data loaded into a GIS can be
made available to all stakeholders regardless of their physical location (e.g. to workers in the field on mobile
devices), and even to the public. This leads to better decision making during emergency response situations,
and improved public relations.
10. Pipeline monitoring - Pipelines need to be continually monitored to check for leaks and geo-hazards, and to
manage and track inspections, the frequency of which is often a regulatory requirement. An emerging use of GIS
is in integrating the map with digital video, often acquired using remote vehicles on the seabed, enabling
engineers to see sections of pipeline and monitor hazards affecting the installation.
I'm sure I've missed out a few so if feel free to post a comment suggesting your own favourites. And if you'd like to
find out more about how your organisation can benefit from applying intelligent mapping and location analytics
technology provided by GIS, then why not download our free eBook "Why Use GIS in Petroleum?" for further detail.

Posted by Chris Jepps, Technical Director, Exprodat.

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GIS coordinator
Using GIS I can make one system projection from many different system projection, of course using
transformation.
Posted By: Tri Buwono - 16/05/2012 02:29:09

Seismic Acquisition
I am using GIS for designing seismic line direction especially for 2D Seismic Acquisition, integrated with
depth structure map and satellite image can optimize seismic length and decide type receiver
(geo/hydrophone) also avoid residence area to optimize total shotpoints
Posted By: Eka Ristandi - 09/05/2012 14:03:45

Oil Shale
Thank you for the information. I am currently using GIS to spatially analyze well data in oil shale. It is
interesting an challenging.
Posted By: Obinna Nzekwe - 09/05/2012 08:19:23

11. 3D Modeling
My favourite. 3D Modeling in GIS is great. Luiz Coutinho
Posted By: Luiz Amadeu Coutinho - 04/05/2012 19:53:33

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