Energy

Visualization technology has been used for years in oil and gas exploration and development. This technology has already had a significant impact on efficiency, accuracy, completeness and integration in exploration and development. The last three years have seen the growing acceptance of large collaborative and visualization systems in the upstream portion of the oil and gas industry. As this technology matures, and as it is applied broadly to both the upstream and downstream business, it will produce tremendous value through the reduction of cycle times and risk.

Unlike technology to date, Infinite Z can produce significantly greater value by allowing display and interaction to occur in a truly three-dimensional fashion. The Infinite Z platform will enhance existing software that provide well positioning, reservoir simulation and characterization, seismic interpretation and environmental analysis. Using virtual-holographic images, users will be able to manipulate, rotate and uncover embedded layers of information in geoscience earth models, providing effective representation of reverse faults, major fault gaps, and erosional and fault-wedge contours. For example, immersive drilling planning, integrating all of the geophysical and geological information in the 3-D tracked visual display, can generate engineered drill-able well paths. Oil industry production managers can also use the three-dimensional imaging to plan their drilling and other field operations, helping to maximize the recoverable resources from a particular oil or gas reservoir. For the analysis of the potential of oil or gas reservoirs, researchers can view a three-dimensional spatially integrated view of the reservoir by displaying well, geological, seismic, reservoir, and production data. This integrated view speeds interpretation of the data and can also limit errors before investment decisions are made.