Any geoscientist who's been asked to study a prospective area for farm-in or acquisition opportunities knows about the mountain of data he or she must sift through to find relevant information - they don't call them "data rooms" for nothing, after all. In years past that search could take months and entail reams of paper maps and log sections. More recently, computer technology has sped up the process and eliminated much of the paper trail.
But digitizing the process can, in some cases, eliminate an explorationist's ability to get a sound feel for the big picture - the regional geology, the pipeline and gathering system infrastructure, etc. What if there was a single place where information could be mined all the way from the entire Gulf of Mexico, say, to a single well log?
That has been the goal of Exploration Data Services (EDS). Founded in 1990 by Roger Wilde, Dan Hayes and Joel Wilde, the original plan was to develop a regional grid of correlated formation tops in the state and federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Today the company has up to 12 tops, all faults and initial perforations for approximately 25,000 wells.
From those correlated formation tops EDS has created structure maps on two pertinent horizons in each producing trend in state and federal waters from the shoreline to the shelf edge.
Until recently, this information was in paper form on maps 42-in. wide by 100-in. long. But a few years ago the principals of EDS joined forces with Lee Buse and began to digitize the data. This was no small task. Working with data supplied by the US Minerals Management Service (MMS) and other government agencies each well had to be checked for location, geology, etc., to be sure the information was accurate.
More recently, EDS spun off a new company, GeoDigit, that offers additional core products such as raster logs, production data, paleo information, completions data, lease information and pipeline overlays. "Now our customers can access not only geological information - tops, faults, contours and so forth - but they can also download and print logs, production information, etc.," Buse said.
The system is disarmingly simple to use. Regional maps are overlain with contours and color-coded to indicate the mapped horizons, but those overlays can be turned off if more specific information about wells and operators is needed. If a specific field is queried, tabular data can be retrieved that shows all of the wells and displays what data is available for each of them. Logs can be printed or downloaded, decline curves are generated in seconds, and cumulative production data is available at the click of a mouse for a well or the whole block.
All of the wells are linked by their API number with the information from the governmental agencies. Searches can be conducted by API number or by block, and users can either search tabular data or view the well on the contour map. The site offers the ability to zoom in from the entire Gulf to a specific well location without any loss of resolution. The new well locations and production data are updated once a month on the base maps. Special reports go out when information about new wells is available.
Advantages to the clients are numerous. With production data, for instance, there's no need to import the data to a separate software package - decline curves are generated online. Completions data offers decline curves for every set of perforations in a well. "If you're going to do some infill drilling, you can see where the wells are watering out the fastest," Buse said. Test data is useful to the reservoir engineer who is curious about pressures and depletion rates. Available data includes the gas-oil ratio, gravity, pressure information, etc. Not all wells have all of this data, Buse said, but if the operator has supplied the MMS with the data, it's available on the EDS Web site.
Overall, the site combines the ease of viewing data online with the comprehensive nature of the old paper contour maps and logs. "We're seeing a decrease in the legwork it takes to get the information needed to make decisions," Buse said. "It's because of all of the software that's available. There's software overload for everyone in the business. Explorationists have learned how to use the software, but sometimes they lack the background in a particular area in correlating logs and understanding the geology.
"The structure maps and correlated well tops aid both the geologists and geophysicists."
He added that a majority of the operators in the Gulf of Mexico are using the system. Even though the same data is available from governmental agencies, it can be difficult for companies to get exactly what they need in a timely fashion. "We've formatted and put it on the web where it's all in one place and easy to get to," Buse said.
For more information, visit www.edsmaps.com.

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