ABSTRACT: Integrated Data Access for Geoscience Interpretation Systems

K. Waagbo, S. B. Guthery, K. M. Landgren

Geoscience interpretation deals with many types of data: geographic data, seismic data, well log data, geological data, core analysis data, well test data, and production data. One of the most difficult and most important tasks in any geoscientific interpretation project is finding and assembling all the relevant data into forms suitable for interpretation. The increasing use of computers and software systems to assist in the interpretation task has led to storage of data in digital form, and to the introduction of database techniques to manage the digitally stored data. As the trend toward integrated interpretation of data has increased, the problem of access, by different interpretation programs, to data stored in different formats, in different databases, and in differ nt systems, has intensified. If a variety of interpretation programs are to have access to the entire spectrum of oil-field data, the data should be stored in standard exchange formats. These standard formats should be organized according to a uniform data model, with a well-defined programming interface for data access. This data model must support different views of the data. One such view is the geographic (or geometric) view. This view gives the user a description of all the data available for a geographic region. Another view is the project view, which provides a local three-dimensional coordinate system in which to work. In the project, a structural model for the physical attributes of the subsurface is described by surfaces, layers, and volumes.

To be of most use in petroleum geoscience, the data model should include both measured and interpreted data, and should allow iterative refinement of both kinds of data from exploration through production. In the iterative refinement process, several applications and users will often work in parallel, resulting in the need for typical features provided by database management systems. We show how integrated application programs can use a data access system based on a uniform data model.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91003©1990 AAPG Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, June 3-6, 1990