At the PETEX 2014 conference held in London in November, Petrosys decided to try a completely different style of presentation. Rather than solely showing visitors what our mapping software can do, we created a challenge and asked audience members to participate.

The challenge was to hand-contour a point dataset representing net sand thickness in a basin. We set this challenge after hearing from an increasing number of senior managers at client sites that they are regularly seeing poorly-produced subsurface maps. Petrosys is well known as being the best in class mapping package, and so we have started working with a number of customers on improving mapping standards within their subsurface teams. As such we thought PETEX was the perfect opportunity to see how geoscientists get on when you take the computer away.

KW_data

The data points given to each participant. These points represent the net sand thickness values at well locations. The AOI is split into different license blocks.

Creating a quality map is about a lot more than just pushing buttons; having the right skills and tools is vital to the success of our business. – Chief Geophysicist, Large Independent

Using the same data set, we varied the description of the depositional environment on some print-outs. This reinforced the idea that there is no one correct way of contouring a data set making mapping a skilled, subjective task, rather than a simple button-pushing exercise.

PG_turbidite_plot

Net sand thickness map representing a deep water clastic environment. In Petrosys the spatial editor was used to control the depositional limits.

The challenge was repeated three times each day. There was consistently a lot of interest from participants and many good discussions about what distinguishes a good subsurface map from a poor one. It was also interesting to note that this was the first time many of the participants had contoured a data set manually. This seemed to suggest a lack of mapping standards in the industry being reported by senior geoscientists.

The prevalence of 3D seismic has left many geoscientists unable to conceptualize and portray geological structures in areas without 3D. An unskilled geoscientist simply makes grids and contours that portray the available data, and will regularly fail to recognize prospectivity. – Vice President, Large Independent

After the manual mapping fun was complete, the Petrosys Gurus showed the participants how Petrosys would have contoured the same dataset. By this stage it was clear the dataset could represent several different geological environments of deposition. This gave us a chance to show off some of the tools that are available in Petrosys to generate the most realistic net sand map for each scenario.

Some of the tools we used were:

  • The new spatial editor to draw a controlling contour.
  • The sampled data editor to remove unwanted data points and to add controlling points to the areas with no data.
  • Several more advanced algorithms. In the example below, the ‘bias-polyline’ gridding operation worked well to map a fluvial channel scenario.
PG_fluvial_plot

Net sand thickness map representing a fluvial environment. In Petrosys the Bias Polyline gridding operation was used to make the linear channel geometry.

While acknowledging the simplicity of the data set – a deliberate decision as it allowed the participants to complete the manual contouring task in 5 minutes – we emphasized that the same thought process and software tools are needed to map more complex, real world datasets. We also calculated the net sand volumes between the various scenarios to show that there was a substantial, quantifiable difference.

Petrosys would like to thank all those who took part in this challenge. In addition to having some fun and encouraging a bit of friendly competition, the challenge has hopefully driven home the importance of making high quality subsurface maps. Petrosys plans to re-run similar challenges at other events globally, but in the meantime we will continue to work with our customers to improve mapping standards across the industry. We hope this will serve to reduce uncertainty and, ultimately, improve decision making.

Maps are one of the most important tools used to help describe the subsurface. [They are] the fundamental work product that geoscientists across the breadth of the business use to present and communicate information and understanding. – Chief Geologist and Chief Geophysicist, Mid-sized Independent

If you would like to discuss mapping standards at your company please get in touch with us at support@petrosys.com.au.