The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen 31 research projects that will use advanced computational technology available at eight DOE national laboratories to focus on oil industry exploration and production problems.
Nineteen of the Advanced Computational Technology Initiative projects are designed to improve acquisition and interpretation of 3D seismic data.
DOE said using the supercomputers at its national laboratories will provide oil and gas companies, particularly independents, "cutting edge technologies that have not been readily available to them in the past."
Working on the projects with the eight national labs will be 66 oil and gas companies, 38 service companies, 25 universities, six trade associations, four state organizations, and two other federal agencies.
DOE is spending $40 million on the projects in the current fiscal year, which industry will supplement with $38 million in cash, personnel, data, and facilities (OGJ, June 13, 1994, p. 145).
DOE said the labs can apply their computing resources to the problem of understanding seismic wave propagation underground, such as under salt domes in the Gulf of Mexico.
Other areas of research include reservoir modeling, perforation damage, hydraulic fracturing, and drill cuttings analysis.
Two of the projects specifically target independents.
One will use the Internet computer system to allow independents on line access to complex 3D simulations and other digitized information. Another will transfer advanced reservoir management techniques and technologies to independents.
National labs participating in the projects are Sandia and Los Alamos in New Mexico, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore in California, Argonne in Illinois, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Brookhaven in New York, and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
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