Current slump in Oil industry and Importance of Information Management

After a few years of relative stability at around $100/bbl, oil prices fell sharply between the last quarter of 2014 and early 2015. This decline in oil prices compelled E&P companies NOT to start interpretation in new blocks and cut down exploration activities like seismic acquisition, seismic processing and ultimately the interpretation activity for ongoing projects. However, declining oil prices also present a significant window of opportunity to best exploit the capital invested in data management in past years through:

• Better utilization of existing appropriately managed data sets to avoid new seismic and other data acquisitions saving millions of dollars.
• Reinterpretation to identify closely missed targets by restoring the old archived interpretation projects/sets.
• Identifying potential candidates through the existing data sets. If the existing archives are managed properly, data can be used to identify the potential candidates for seismic reprocessing activity in order to provide new datasets for critical interpretation projects.
• Extensive usage of well managed seismic pre-stack data archives for reservoir characterization, AVO analysis for detailed field/ basin level studies/ interpretations.
• Well data sets (if properly managed) can be used to do the well log re-processing and petrophysical analysis for detailed field level studies/interpretations.

Cost cutting on large scale interpretation projects can enable allocation of a percentage of the budget for better management of E&P data sets which can be used for future valuation. Information management is not as costly as other E&P activities and yields a far greater outcome. The importance and criticality of data/information management stands vital irrespective of the changes in oil prices.

LMKR, as an Information Management service provider, offers expertise to add value to data sets through proper archiving and management based on international standards and practices. Our data management services include handling and managing physical, digital and corporate data. Project data management services help companies optimize their performance and our setup of data repositories maximizes efficiency by effectively cataloging and managing E&P information.

If you are interested to learn more about LMKR’s Information Management services then please visit our website or either leave a comment or contact me directly at (armalik@lmkr.com)