Oil and gas fields are maturing, and new plays in complex terrain are being discovered. To help unlock the potential of these new and changing opportunities, a new class of geoscientists and seismic interpretation software is needed.
Integrating geological data, multi-dimensional seismic, modeling, and advanced analytics is a complex task of the modern geoscientist, but one that IHS and the University of Texas at Arlington are teaming up to simplify.
In what is the largest in-kind gift ever to the university's College of Science, global information and analytics provider IHS has granted a software license worth an estimated $4.4 million over three years to UT Arlington's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, giving students and professors access to the latest in petroleum industry technology.
The IHS KINGDOM software is widely used in the petroleum and natural gas industry for seismic interpretation related to exploration and production.
William Moulton, a geophysicist with 30 years of experience in petroleum exploration and development, teaches seismic interpretation at UT Arlington. He said familiarity with the software is essential. "Today's work environment requires managing, interpreting and analyzing these exploration data sets."
Pamela Jansma, dean of the UT Arlington College of Science agreed that The UT Arlington Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences will benefit greatly from the company's gift.
"UT Arlington geoscience students, especially those in our petroleum-focused Master of Science program, are the real winners here," Jansma said. "This is a great tool, and IHS's generosity will ensure they'll be experienced in using this critical software when they graduate."
According to The American Geological Institute (AGI), employment in geoscience-related occupations will grow about 23% from 2008 to 2018. Between 2001 and 2010, employment in such occupations increased by 29% with the largest growth occurring in petroleum engineering occupations (+147%). Over the past year, aggregate employment in geoscience-related occupations has remained relatively steady. Employment increased between 2009 and 2010 for geoscience natural science managers (+15%), geographers (+11%), and petroleum engineers (+10%).
UT Arlington is a comprehensive research institution of roughly 33,500 students with nearly 300 students (undergraduate and graduate students) in the Earth and Environmental Sciences program. Seismic Interpretation, the course that instructs students on becoming proficient with KINGDOM, has about 20 students at one time.
The in-kind agreement for three-year licensing will provide software packages for 25 UT Arlington computers. The University also uses IHS PETRATM, another IHS software product, to interpret well log information.
Colorado-based IHS acquired Seismic Micro-Technology, which developed IHS KINGDOM, in 2011. Arshad Matin, then president and CEO of SMT who joined IHS through the August 2011 acquisition and now serves as executive vice president at IHS, commented on the benefit of combining the products and the growth in geoscience-related occupations in the US and globally.
"The convergence of information and analytics is the wave of the future in the marketplace, and the combination of KINGDOM and IHS PETRA seizes upon this significant growth opportunity. Thousands and thousands of geoscientists are graduating annually, particularly in high-growth markets like Russia, India and China, and we believe this combined offering from IHS has the opportunity to become the workflow of choice for the profession."
"The goal of the IHS Educational Gifts program is to put leading-edge geoscience software in the hands of students and faculty for educational and research purposes," said Bill Stephenson, IHS vice president of sales, Americas. "It also gives them software experience with the tools used in the global energy marketplace."
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Mikaila Adams | Managing Editor - News
Mikaila Adams has 20 years of experience as an editor, most of which has been centered on the oil and gas industry. She enjoyed 12 years focused on the business/finance side of the industry as an editor for Oil & Gas Journal's sister publication, Oil & Gas Financial Journal (OGFJ). After OGFJ ceased publication in 2017, she joined Oil & Gas Journal and was named Managing Editor - News in 2019. She holds a degree from Texas Tech University.
