Print this pagePeter K. Pleitner
The petroleum industry is not recovering all the 
information
potential from
their exploration data. Although the industry is reaping great benefit from
technological advancements in the collection and processing of individual types
of data, very little effort is directed toward the integration of data and
professionals on the exploration team. Institutionally sanctioned professional
bigotry is a large part of the problem. Geologists, geophysicists, and a variety
of narrowly focused professionals too often work on a prospect independently for
too long without the benefit of sharing and testing many different concepts and
hypotheses with others who may not know that they have corroborating data which
can support a fragile hunch. Consequently, prospects go undetected, a sign
ficant fraction of the exploration budget may be systematically misallocated,
and time is lost on the wrong data. More information could be recovered from the
exploration data, and time and money saved, by creating a sophisticated image of
each data base, merging all images into a common map projection, and convening a
multidisciplinary team of professionals for an integrated study.
The technical solution is already at hand, namely computer processing
technology, geographic information systems, and digital image processing. That
is the easy part of enhancing the information potential of the exploration
department's resource--its data. Images of data are simply picture maps of
information. Pictures of data are optimal information vehicles for three
reasons: (1) they can be rich conveyors of information; (2) they are the lowest
common denominator for the transfer of information to a diverse audience; and
(3) they are much more fluid and inert when transmitted from one professional
turf to another.
Three case studies are presented to illustrate the techniques and benefits of data imaging and integration, one each from the Michigan basin, the Illinois basin, and the Mid-Continent rift zone. Landsat, gravity, magnetic, and topographic data processing, imaging, and integration techniques are illustrated as individual techniques and are compared to well log or seismic data for the three case studies.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91038©1987 AAPG Annual Convention, Los Angeles, California, June 7-10, 1987.
