|
UTIG RESEARCH PROJECTS ARCHIVE TECHNICAL ALLIANCE FOR COMPUTATIONAL STRATIGRAPHYAPPLIED RESEARCH AND BETA TESTING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, INSTITUTE FOR GEOPHYSICS Principal Investigators: Dr. Anthony Gary and Dr. Robert Ehrlich, University of
Utah's Center for Industrial Imaging Funding: British Gas, Chevron, Exxon, Norsk Hydro, Pennzoil, Phillips, Shell and
Unocal/Spirit Energy In many depositional basins, biostratigraphy is a key element in developing play concepts and planning for production wells. Such paleontological information is most valuable when integrated with seismic data and sequence stratigraphic interpretations. This integration is imperfect in that the sequence stratigrapher has difficulty translating biostratigraphic information (commonly involving range charts of large numbers of species) into a form that can be used by a non-paleontologist, in a work-station context. The Technical Alliance for Computation Stratigraphy (TACS) is addressing this deficiency by developing and supporting biostratigraphic and quantitative stratigraphic workstation applications targeted at a sequence stratigraphic solution. The primary emphasis is on technology development that contributes to multidisciplinary geologic studies, but is not available to the industry user from existing commercial software applicaitons. These technologies include numeric techniques for extracting patterns from paleontologic data that are useful in the recognition of genetic sequences, and techniques for the creation of optimal, multi-well, composite stratigraphic sequences. The TACs development strategy builds on existing applications, and, where appropriate, utilizes new technologies. The prototype for the TACS software is the Integrated Paleontological System (IPS) package, developed over the past several years at Unocal Corporation. IPS is a user-friendly, interactive application (DOS and Unix) for the display and analysis of digitally captured biostratigraphic data. Advantages and features include: 1) a modular design, 2) data analysis functionality analogous to existing wireline log and seismic analysis applications, and 3) extensive field testing. An informal technical alliance of industry biostratigraphers from more than ten companies advised and helped Unocal on conceptual development of IPS into a commercial package for general industry use. Unocal decided that the appropriate place for such development was an industry-oriented university environment. As such, Unocal assigned ownership of IPS to the University of Utah in 1996. The IPS prototype is operational, but considerable effort must be expended to realize the TACS objective of a commercial software system compatible with industry packages such as Landmark, Geoquest, GeoScene, CogniSeis, etc. Developmet of IPS will be through a three year research and development program sponsored by a consortium of petroleum companies, geologic software vendors and academic researchers. TACS is directed by Dr. Anthony Gary and Dr. Robert Ehrlich at the University of Utah's Center for Industrial Imaging. Dr. Hilary Olson at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics is involved with TACS in applied research and beta testing. Cost per supporting company is $25,000/year for the three-year duration of the alliance. Supporting members will have input on research and development efforts, and receive a multi-site license for use of TACS developed software, free. Currently the following companies are supporting TACS: British Gas, Chevron, Exxon, Norsk Hydro, Pennzoil, Phillips, Shell and Unocal/Spirit Energy. For more information on the Technical Alliance for Computational Stratigraphy at the Institute for Geophysics please contact Dr. Hilary Olson. |