Covisualization: Rapid Visual Access to Multidisciplinary Datasets

Paul White¹, Skip Pack², and Graham Brew^1
1 Dynamic Graphics Inc, Alameda, CA
² Dynamic Graphics Inc, Houston, TX

Multidisciplinary hydrocarbon development and production teams need multidisciplinary tools. To fully leverage team synergies, the geologist, geophysicist, reservoir and production engineers must all have access to the data from each other's disciplines. Moreover, all these data should be easily available from the desktop, and should be visualized and interrogated in a unified 4D georeferenced space. This is increasingly important as data volumes increase, and time-lapse monitoring becomes the norm.

We present a new solution for this operational requirement. The system requires only limited data migration and reformatting. The fully georeferenced 4D viewer is capable of simultaneously displaying time-lapse seismic data, geologic models, well data, production data, reservoir properties, 4D reservoir simulations, drilling hazards, and many others.

The simultaneous visualization of reservoir models with geophysical and production data is a key component - yielding significant new insights that might otherwise be missed. Time-lapse seismic response can be interactively compared to the reservoir simulation prediction. Well log data can be compared for consistency with reservoir property models. Time-lapse seismic data can be animated to reveal pressure changes which can be instantly compared to the measured pressure change from production well data.

Usage is also widespread within collaborative team meetings and reviews where the ability to view all data in one viewer, rather than several disparate software packages, makes meetings easier, smoother, and more productive. When all relevant data can be display graphically in an easily accessible manner, interrogation becomes simpler, and associations become more apparent, leading to better decisions.