Esri ArcUser, Oct.-Dec.2002, co-authored with Barbara Shields

1. LinkedIn didn’t allow posting the original: www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1002/umbrella1of2.html
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ArcUser Online
October - December 2002
Search ArcUser:
The Second Revolution
From initial exploration through acquisition and production to final divestiture,
spatial information is key to any petroleum venture. As the science, engineering,
and economic aspects ofextracting and distributing petroleum evolve, geospatial
tools and solutions are at the forefront of an ongoing revolution in the industry.
The results of this revolution are
staggering--information derived
from raw data has resulted in
greater production and
efficiency. Yet there is a second
revolution on the horizon: as
independent data stores grow
exponentially, market forces
drive businesses to build,
manage, distribute, and utilize
this information in new and
innovative ways. Concerns over
meeting rapidly growing
demands for energy and
accountability while strictly
adhering to ever proliferating
regulations requires supplying information to more users throughout organizations
and across global networks.
However, petroleum companies are in business to find, produce, and sell oil--not
process data.The future of the industry lies in interoperable data. Rich databases
linked togetherand accessed through intuitive interfaces based on a geographic
framework can make this a reality. Esri's industry-standard,scalable software and
open Internet architectures can link global systems in one network.
Data courtesy of Eagle
Information Mapping. The finger-
like salt dome, originally created
in ArcView 3.2 and rendered in
ArcScene, shows formation onlap
and deviated well bores.

2. Meeting the Needs ofthe Industry
Esri has completely rewritten its software to give managers simpler software to
maintain, users a consistent look and feel across a software family that provides
increasing functionality, and developers a new set of tools.
Esri software supports a variety of operational workflows. ArcSDE manages spatial
data in database management systems.ArcGIS supplies the right tools on the
desktop for data integration, analysis,and display. ArcIMS serves maps and data
across Intranets and the Internet and allows communication with handheld devices
in the field running ArcPad. Locating data inside or outside an organization became
more efficient with the introduction of ArcIMS Metadata Services. Now users can
easily publish and browse metadata.
These innovations localize data production and management and provide enterprise
architecture for ubiquitous data access.Geographic and temporal components of
data management can be fully integrated within this framework and data accuracy,
integrity, and data access are optimized.
Optional ArcGIS extensions supply three-dimensional modeling, spatial analysis,
and geostatisticalanalysis functionality. ArcMap, one of the ArcGIS Desktop
applications, supports the high-quality cartography needed for mapping geologic
and othertypes of data used by the petroleum industry. Maps produced in ArcMap
can be shared online without re-creating them using the ArcIMS ArcMap Server
extension. With ArcMap Server, data from geodatabases,coverages,CAD
drawings, and shapefiles can be displayed via an ArcIMS client.
Maps with customsymbolization and other ArcMap features can also be shared
with non-GIS users who have ArcReader. A free and easy-to-use product,
ArcReader lets users view, explore, and print map files that have been created from
ArcMap documents using the ArcPublisher extension for ArcGIS.
Each new release of Esri software brings significant enhancements.ArcGIS 8.2
provides powerful and easy-to-use dynamic segmentation tools. The release of
ArcGIS 8.3 will add full topology to the geodatabase.ArcGIS ArcSurvey, an
extension to the ArcGIS Desktop products,will represent survey measurements and
observations on a map and manage survey data in a geodatabase.
Framework for a Global Economy
The Internet provides a new style of information architecture for petroleum
organizations that promotes the exchange of information in a global economy. Esri's
g.net architecture allows users to share GIS information from distributed sources
through one comprehensive yet simple interface. Information maintained through a
virtual global network is distributed to the desktop to meet specific needs.

3. Implementing g.net in the
petroleum industry means
vendors can provide high-quality
data, integrators can provide
applications that use this data,
and users can create custom
portals for disseminating
information throughout
enterprises.
The Digital Energy Atlas and
Library (DEAL), designed and
operated by the British
Geological Survey, provides an
example of a g.net application
that makes petroleum data accessible.Using ArcIMS, the DEAL Web site
(http://www.ukdeal.co.uk) provides access to data on offshore exploration and
production of hydrocarbons on the United Kingdom continental shelf through
reference information and a multivendor data products catalog. This issue of
ArcUser describes anotherg.net implementation by the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) Central Energy Resources Team (CERT), which is providing National Oil
and Gas Assessment (NOGA) results online.
Continued on page 2
Data courtesy of IHS EnergyModel
of a region showing natural and
manmade features with boundary
and geologic information.

4. ArcUser Online
October - December 2002
Search ArcUser:
The Second Revolution
Continued...
With information supplied by this new global GIS network, a financier can better
understand the economic, social, political, or environmental reasons that justify
spending money re-routing a pipeline or a government official can show
constituents why an oil exploration should or should not be allowed. New
technologies and the global g.net architecture provide a new paradigm for linking
and distributing information.
The development of data models is the final component necessary for an integrated
GIS solution for the petroleum industry.Data models are practical templates for
implementing GIS projects for specific industries and applications. Esri is working
with users and partners in designing the essential, not the comprehensive, data
model for the industry, which will be based loosely on the Public Petroleum Data
Model (PPDM). This data model will be published and shared to help users and
partners to deploy, extend, and customize ArcGIS using standard geodatabase
capabilities whenever possible.
The petroleum industry is one of Esri's oldest markets. With 10 of the largest oil
companies as users,Esri enjoys a preeminent position in this market. The Esri
Petroleum User Group (PUG), started in 1991, is a self-administered, self-financed
special interest group that serves the common interests of Esri's petroleum industry
clients and has nearly 3,500 members worldwide.
GIS is used by 90 percent of upstreamexploration departments across asset teams
worldwide. The Enterprise Spatial Data Warehouse implemented by Royal
Dutch/Shell exemplifies how Exploration and Production (E&P) applications can be
integrated from the serverto the Web using metadata as a library card catalog
metaphor for locating data. Likewise Chevron-Texaco Corp. has coordinated
upstreamand downstreamapplications worldwide for almost a decade.
Indigopool.com, a Schlumberger company that provides secure online acquisitions
and divestiture services, shows how companies such as Schlumberger and
Landmark, a Halliburton company, can further incorporate the three-
dimensional/time aspect of E&P into Web delivery systems.
Esri neither builds nor sells specific petroleum database solutions but encourages
third party implementations of Esri technology based on Pipeline and Petroleum
and Land Parcel standards including both underlying physicaldatabase capability

5. and applications interface. This approach lets the commercial marketplace regulate
the pace of application development and the cost is shared through the user
community. Through a very active development program and a close working
partnership with the leading industry players, Esri is providing software tools and
architecture that closely fits the industry's business needs.