Catalog search capability helps oil and gas companies make sense of the mass of legacy and new information in their files.

Restricted data availability, difficult access and uncertain quality mean additional business costs, loss of value and inefficient working practices in the oil and gas industry. Initiatives to address these problems have only been partly successful.

Much of the problem stems from an incomplete view of the business, which has influenced software solutions. For many years the relationships between people, process and technology have influenced the way that new software has been developed and deployed. However, this relationship model does not address the key component of data in systems, information in documents and the knowledge in people.
Catalogs can provide a step change in industry knowledge-information-data (KID) integration, which provides business benefit through improved efficiencies, reduction in costly errors and value addition through collaborative working and knowledge sharing.

The question now facing the industry is how to maximize access to data, information and knowledge across disparate data sources, data stores and virtual organizations.

Today the maturity of internet technologies such as XML, Java, portals and Web-services, and Web-based products such as geographical information systems (GIS), when used in conjunction with data standards such P7/2000 and POSC cataloging initiatives, can provide the building blocks to deliver a step change in the way knowledge, information and data is accessed, used and distributed.

Catalogs

The exploration and production (E&P) industry has long stated that secure access to data of known quality, regardless of source, would be a catalyst for a major step change in the way the industry operates. The view is that once this has been achieved, access to KID by other means, e.g. role, business process and organizational workflow can be realized. This will allow companies to move towards becoming collaborative, learning organizations.

Catalogs are structured lists divided into ordered groups, also known as taxonomies. Although the concept of using catalogs to find information is not a new concept, their application within E&P has been largely based on work undertaken by Shell Expro in Aberdeen assisted by Flare Consultants, implemented by LogicaCMG and now being taken up by POSC.
The definition of a catalog should include:

* a common set of metadata attributes for all E&P information;
* a referencing system, not a filing system;
* a translator to provide a common E&P language; and
* a dynamic, evolving relationship model of KID + Role + Process.

The result of that definition is accessible, integrated KID, independent of organizational structure and technology.

Why catalogs?

Taking the People : Process : Technology : Data relationship model, step changes will not be delivered by technology on its own. Technology will remain important to deliver specialist applications for interpretation and business analysis but will be accessed through gadgets and add-ins making them "plug and play" items. The underlying data stores, if dynamically referenced and accessed using the catalog, become commodity items that can be replaced independent of the business process, role or KID.

Catalog power

Catalogs offer the potential of dynamic search, retrieval and publishing mechanisms independent of technology, location or system. They can also act as universal translators to allow a common E&P language to exist between roles, groups and organizations.

The power of the catalog is derived from the integrated relationships of: People (Role) : Business Process : KID.

When these relationships are treated as tree structures, the lists can be searched, data types derived using inheritance; and by searching across different catalogs in parallel, disparate data types can be found, merged and displayed.

For example, geologist A asks the system, "Find me all the well log data for Well X."
With a catalog structure of:

* Well

* Well Header
* Well Logs
* Well Formation Tops

the task of searching the catalog list and retrieving the well logs and associated data and documents relating to the requested well becomes a nominal task, even if the data and documents are held in different data stores and formats.

With a second catalog structure of:

* Systems
* Geological System A
* Geological System B
* Petrophysical System C

it is then possible to extract the formation tops.
The formation tops with the well logs from Well X, which intersect the specified tops can then be displayed, even though the data resides in different data stores.
As catalogs can be used to extract KID according to role, processes and independent of location and language, the following business benefits can be derived:

* organization and domain independence;
* improved information sharing;
* KID tailored to a user's role;
* process or workflow centric views;
* improved collaborative working;
* improved lateral learning;
* constant communication language;
* improved visibility of data quality; and
* merged data types from different disciplines.

Catalog driven portals

A catalog-driven portal needs to address:

Language. Catalogs can access the "common well" and return the data to each organization in its own language.

Evolution. Catalogs must allow organizations to evolve and reflect changes. If this is not addressed, the catalog itself becomes a legacy system.

Scope. The catalog should only hold data relationships and not data itself. It should be a referencing system. If only references are held then the catalog can be both platform and technology independent.
Management. Any system should allow the catalog to be updated or modified.

Usability. The catalog must be meaningful and displayed in a business context, limiting the amount of data presented, focused on the user's business area. Options to use the catalog according to business process, workflow or asset type should be provided.

Roles. These can be used to sub-set and display information from the catalog according to a user's role or discipline. These can be stored in the catalog or cross-referenced from a human resources or portal system. This provides a single point of administration, single sign on to applications, configuration of the user's portal environment and their security entitlement.

Dynamic system interfaces. Catalogs can be used to create and maintain dynamic interfaces between third party applications, databases and data stores as the catalog holds data references that can be interpreted by the underlying systems.

GIS systems. The catalog can be used for textual search and GIS interface search.
Automated publishing. Catalogs with inheritance can be used to automatically complete item registration forms removing the burden from the end-user, making publishing easy to achieve and helping to remove cultural sharing barriers.

Scalability. By combining the catalog principals with XML technologies and through vendor independent design, a truly scalable, future proofed environment can be achieved.

Implementation

Successful implementation of catalog driven systems requires a "3-fold" acceptance by users.
1. Business users need to find and retrieve information from systems that are pertinent to their roles and the task at hand.

2. Administration users need an easy way of managing the catalog lists of valid values and their relationships.

3. The IT support personnel require such a system to be self-correcting, transparent in user administration and security whilst prompting them if infrastructure problems arise.

Once accepted by the business, catalog driven portals can be implemented without the need for a "big bang" approach. The catalog structure and connections to the underlying data systems can be introduced in a series of stages each with its own business case, implementation plan and costs. This allows the business to implement to their program rather than being beholden to the vendor.

Once installed, maintenance of the catalog, dynamic data links, gadgets and plug-ins can be shared between the E&P company and the vendor delivering cost/value transparency to the business users.
The E&P industry has been awaiting the delivery of the "utopian vision" for a number of years. Any cataloging system should be viewed as just another step along the way.



Comments