The new role of the olifield service company is to support the transfomation of the traditional oil and gas company into a digital enterprise.

Satish Pai recently was promoted from president of Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS) to vice president of Schlumberger Oilfield Technologies. Placing such an IT-savvy executive over oilfield research and development efforts shows the direction the company wishes to go in providing services to the upstream oil and gas industry.
"Our clients needed complete information solutions and workflows," Pai said. "So we took our software, our data and consulting services, IndigoPool, our knowledge management, information management and data management services and combined them all into SIS. Then when Schlumberger bought Sema, we reached critical mass with IT and incorporated Sema's systems management and integration services into the mix. SIS is our evolution to information solutions for E&P."
A digital oil company needs access to data and tools anytime, anywhere to produce reserves more effectively, Pai said. Many of the required technologies are the same as they were a few years ago, but the service company now delivers them as an integrated workflow.
The inner loop of this workflow centers on real-time reservoir data management and modeling. "This loop is really happening in every oil company today, from India to Norway," he said.
The outer loop encompasses partners, e-commerce, regulatory agencies and stockholders. This loop is taking a little longer because cooperation among participants and standards are needed to integrate disparate systems, but Pai envisions both loops being functional by 2005.
The experience gained with IndigoPool, one of the few dot-coms still flourishing, helped SIS figure out how to make the outer loop a reality. "We learned from IndigoPool that a multitier architecture, federated databases, XML standards and the user-friendliness of the Web really help make things work."
IT transformation
Pai described what he calls the iTransformation of the traditional oil company to the digital oil company. Not only will the work processes be transformed, but also the work will be more fun. "It's important to have fun while working. In fact, users describe the virtual reality capabilities of Inside Reality, which was developed with Norsk Hydro, as 'cool fun.' Manipulating a 3-D cube of seismic data with a GPS (global positioning system) mouse is easy and intuitive." Pai said this technology reduces planning time for horizontal wells by 90%.
"Our iCenters are much more than just a big screen with a big computer. They are business collaboration enablers. With the underlying data management capabilities, it can only take 2 days instead of 2 weeks to get the data up. Data from offshore rigs can be sent in real time to the iCenter in Stavanger, and Schlumberger's cased-hole logging expert in Phuket, Thailand, can access it remotely. Our DecisionPoint digital workplace and knowledge capture tools are not just neat technology, but a big part of the overall process."
SIS has two iCenters up and running, one in Houston and one in Stavanger, and four more will open in Abu Dhabi, Rio de Janeiro, Aberdeen and Nigeria during the first half of 2002.
Knowledge management
Key initiatives within the Schlumberger knowledge management system are estimated to have saved or generated US $200 million in additional revenue for the company in 2001, with a 95% reduction in time needed to answer client questions. With the company's InTouch system, every field request goes to a network of gurus for solutions. The knowledge then is captured as they deal with the problems. With advances in neural networks and artificial intelligence, future IT services will be able to mine Schlumberger corporate knowledge stores for the gems that lie therein. This has worked so effectively in-house that the company's corporate directory software, best practices database, content management and collaboration tools have been packaged for sale as its Knowledge@Work product.
Working together
"We have a very comprehensive service offering, from traditional oilfield products and services to IT," Pai said, "but we can't do it all ourselves. We have to rely on third parties and work closely with our clients. Every client is slightly different, with their own way of doing things and their own legacy products. We have to work with every one of them to make the workflow efficient and effective.
"But there is a value proposition: by leveraging common components, systems can easily evolve to accommodate changes to business processes as companies learn better ways of doing things. Componentization, using XML and federation technology, creates the building blocks for the new information age. And having all the data in one place is not the only solution to data management anymore.
"Data access should be handled through consistent business objects so you can have one view of multiple, distributed databases. For example, SIS has a GIS (geographic information system) called Data@Work that can view data over the Web. And we are building a data federator with Statoil."
Attracting Generation X
Schlumberger, with its acquisition of 30,000 IT professionals from Sema, is actively trying to bridge the gap between oilfield domain knowledge and IT. "E-business is really mainstream, not fringe, not dot-com, not virtual. The younger generation will find our business attractive because of the innovation supported by the strong IT component," Pai said. "IT is going to change the image of the oil industry."

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