Reservoir complexity and an emphasis on asset integrity have encouraged developers to refine visualization technology for oil & gas applications. OE shares details of a handful of new products that have come across our desk in recent weeks.
The Industry Automation & Drive Technologies division of Siemens has added a series of products to its line of Simatic HMI operator panels (above) that the company said will improve performance and integrated functionality in harsh industrial environments. The Simatic HMI Comfort Panels come in touchscreen or keyboard-driven versions and are available in 4in, 7in, 9in and 12in diagonal screen sizes. Siemens is developing more versions in sizes ranging from 15in to 22in.
The new widescreen panels, with LED backlighting, offer a visualization area up to 40% larger than conventional displays, ‘thereby facilitating extended display options, even for complex operating diagrams,' Siemens said.
Energy consumption can also be reduced by means of the standardized PROFlenergy protocol.
Each panel features two SD cards to safeguard data in a power failure. Panels with 7in or larger screens are clad in cast aluminum enclosures and have been approved for use in hazardous areas and marine applications.
Quick thinking
A new version of Baker Hughes' WellLink 3D visualization service turns wellbore-related data in real-time imagery for enhanced well planning and optimization, directional drilling and reservoir navigation. Powered by the CoViz platform from Dynamic Graphics, the integrated 3D visualization and decision support solution leverages the industry-standard WITSML protocol, enabling operators to visualize both offline and real-time datasets through a vendor-neutral, shared display.
‘Data using many curves can be rendered as a single, clear and easy-to-understand symbol,' noted Scott Schmidt, Baker Hughes' president of drilling and evaluation. ‘Objects such as Earth models, well trajectory, logs and reservoir models can all be integrated and viewed in a collaborative environment.'
The WellLink 3D system updates well planning datasets during drilling so that operators can model and test scenarios before making change-of-trajectory decisions. At Dong's Norwegian North Sea Trym field in 66m of water – where the 98ft-thick Jurassic reservoir is composed of a series of five sands and several coal layers – the BH Reservoir Navigation Services team employed the service to provide a high level of control and continuous, real-time interpretation of drilling parameters during the creation of a new wellpath from the pilot well to the discovery.
A similar approach was adopted for a second well, using the structure of stepped fault blocks to enable penetration of all sands in each of the fault blocks. But when the wellpath hit a thick layer of coal, engineers determined that the seismic model was incorrect and that a sidetrack was necessary. With conflicting data indicating several possible structural interpretations, WellLink 3D visualization was brought into play and transferred the different scenarios into the client's datasets for analysis. Using real-time data, the sidetrack was guided within the sands with only short exposure to coal intervals, maintaining an acceptable rate of penetration and reaching total depth within the client's parameters.
‘The WellLink 3D service used data acquired through high-speed telemetry to present high-quality, 3D visualization displays that enabled the drilling team to make real-time decisions and successfully place a new wellpath within the reservoir sands,' Baker Hughes added.
X-ray specs
California-based Xradia has signed a joint partnership agreement with visualization software company VSG that allows Xradia to offer VSG's Avizo Fire software for high-end 3D visualization and analysis used in conjunction with the company's 3D X-ray imaging solutions. The combined technologies are said to provide fast analysis and modeling of Xradia's 3D imaging solutions for computed tomography at true submicron and nanometer levels of resolution.
In oil & gas applications, X-ray CT-derived 3D segmented pore structures of rocks are used as the base grid systems for applying digital rock physics modeling of static and dynamic rock properties including porosities, permeabilities, multi-phase relative permeabilities and capillary pressures.
VSG's Aviso Fire software allows the import and fusion of 2D and 3D computed tomography data to give insight into the details and properties on full 3D structures of any size.
Plug-in solution
Stavanger's Blueback Reservoir has released the Blueback Project tracker plug-in for Schlumberger's Petrel version 2.0. The plug-in for Petrel allows data managers to track and monitor Petrel projects from all their Petrel users, according to Blueback Reservoir.
‘The Blueback Project Tracker is accessible from outside Petrel and is a tool used by the data managers responsible for maintaining order and structure of the Petrel project files on the various network disks,' the company said.
Version 2 includes a number of upgrades and improvements, as well as a new module, Spatial Extension, that allows integration of the Blueback Project Tracker database with ESRI ArcGIS. OE
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