White Paper
Best Practices for Implementing E&P
Technologies for Unconventional-Resource
Development
Erik Mulder, NetApp and Indy Chakrabarti, IHS May 2012 | WP-7114
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ... 3
2 CHALLENGES ... 3
2.1 DATA STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT ... 3
2.2 INTERPRETATION ... 4
3 TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES FOR HIGH-END DESKTOP INTERPRETATION ... 4
3.1 IMPROVED DATA PROCESSING AND MICROSOFT WINDOWS... 4
3.2 SMB 2 PROTOCOL ... 5
3.3 CONNECTIVITY... 5
4 IHS ADDRESSES INTERPRETATION NEEDS FOR UNCONVENTIONAL RESOURCES ... 5
5 NETAPP DATA STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE ... 7
5.1 DATA CONSOLIDATION ... 7
5.2 COLLABORATION ... 7
5.3 STORAGE EFFICIENCY ... 8
5.4 BACK UP EFFICIENTLY AND RECOVER DATA ANYWHERE ... 9
5.5 PERFORMANCE ... 9
6 CONCLUSION ... 10
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Unstable oil prices and a global economic downturn place exploration and production (E&P) asset teams under pressure to more precisely characterize prospects and existing dormant assets. At the same time, data managers look to stretch shrinking information technology budgets. These challenges are
particularly acute for development of unconventional resources, which entail large risks and require specialized engineering and seismic interpretation techniques. By optimizing information resources, E&P managers can improve decision-making, and companies can begin extracting more efficiently.
IHS offers a fully integrated E&P software solution. The integrated workflow operates in a Windows® environment, enhancing interpreter productivity and enabling analysis by a wide range of project participants—anytime and anywhere. In this way, IHS offers advanced science that is easy to use while pioneering advanced techniques for unconventional-resource interpretation, such as prestack/AVO and microseismic analyses.
NetApp® data management and storage solutions complement IHS’s solutions by providing an
infrastructure that consolidates data across the enterprise and facilitates collaboration. At the same time, NetApp’s solutions improve storage efficiency, enable efficient data backup and recovery anywhere, and enhance performance in a scalable platform.
This paper summarizes the data storage, management, and interpretation challenges that E&P managers face and describes a comprehensive solution from IHS and NetApp.
2 CHALLENGES
Due to the long-term nature of the energy exploration industry, multiple disparate seismic datasets typically characterize any single property. Hence, data managers and asset teams may need to combine seismic information from an original survey conducted years ago with prestack/AVO data from more recent analyses.
Datasets vary in quality, are generated from various applications, and represent data from different periods in the evolution of the property. At the same time, interpretations and analyses must be shared, enabling geophysicists, geologists, petrophysicists, and engineers to work simultaneously, and to form an accurate picture of the subsurface.
2.1
DATA STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT
Data storage and management become significantly larger challenges when data from disparate systems must be consolidated to fuel volume interpretation. Larger amounts of higher-fidelity seismic data and the application of new processing techniques contribute to significant and growing data management
challenges.
The cost and complexity of architecting, implementing, and managing traditional enterprise storage infrastructures can be substantial. And when the needs of the dynamic enterprise inevitably change— often quickly and even dramatically—traditional static systems require reprovisioning. This can cause disruption and increase management overhead and risk.
To address this, IT organizations typically overprovision systems and preallocate resources. However, this approach is costly and offers only temporary relief from inevitable expense and disruption. One reason is that the I/O capabilities of individual storage devices inherently bind traditional static system performance.
The need to overprovision is compounded for operations such as oil and gas exploration, which require distributed data processing environments and large datasets. The exploration interpretation process may create multiple large-scale versions of data, often in a consolidated storage environment shared among several asset teams. This means that data managers incur additional overhead, management costs, and data risk to support these processes. Even the most robust and highly resourced static systems can be
cumbersome and inflexible when handling multiple scenarios with extremely large datasets. As a result, many organizations have settled for decimating their seismic data to a small percentage of the original size, and these limitations hamper success.
2.2
INTERPRETATION
Increasingly complex reservoirs (including unconventional resources), growing amounts of data, and a shortage of experienced petrotechnical professionals have driven the need for extremely efficient workflows. Reservoir complexity also drives the need to reduce risk and uncertainty, particularly in field development stages of the E&P lifecycle.
These challenges are particularly acute when developing unconventional resources, including oil shale, oil sands, tight natural gas, shale gas, and others. For these resources, the challenge is not identifying the location of the resource, but instead determining how to most economically extract it. Tapping into these enormous energy resources is extremely capital intensive and can involve long cycle times. The E&P asset team that can extract the resource most quickly and efficiently stands to benefit substantially. While economical extraction of many unconventional resources has historically been problematic, engineering advances such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling now make extraction of an increasing number of these resources economically and technically feasible.
Advances in data interpretation, such as AVO/prestack and microseismic analyses, work hand in hand with these engineering techniques to help make these resources more accessible. Until recently, AVO and efficient attribute analysis tools were traditionally cost-prohibitive due to the sophisticated computing infrastructure required to run them. AVO/prestack data is voluminous and places great demands on the storage infrastructure. Similarly, calculating and analyzing multiple curvature attributes on seismic data to better understand fracture patterns in shale also challenge computing infrastructures.
3 TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES FOR HIGH-END DESKTOP
INTERPRETATION
The primary components of E&P decision-making recently underwent rapid transformation due to the following four convergent information technology advances:
The development of enterprise-class, volumetric seismic interpretation and reservoir modeling applications based on the relatively inexpensive and widely available Microsoft® Windows platform
The increased accessibility of high-availability desktop computing platforms with the CPU power necessary to drive data-intensive interpretation and modeling applications
The creation of data storage and management systems and software that can handle petabytes of information while providing improved data sharing
The ready availability of GigaBit Ethernet via fiber-optic cable for connectivity between data storage systems and workstations
These advances present a unique opportunity for E&P managers: the ability to combine improved data interpretation and modeling capabilities with the data storage and management infrastructure to support it—all on a Windows-based desktop.
3.1
IMPROVED DATA PROCESSING AND MICROSOFT WINDOWS
Modern seismic interpretation applications require a 64-bit operating system to handle advanced
computations with massive volumes of data. In the past, highly specialized machines running proprietary operating systems were designed and engineered to handle large volumes of data rapidly. But these machines and their operating systems were expensive. In some exploration divisions, few geoscientists could gain access to this processing power, limiting opportunities for collaboration and insight that can lead to dramatically improved asset decisions.
For engineering software to operate on a Microsoft Windows platform, IHS took advantage of the commoditization of processing power, server protocol innovation, and improvements in connectivity. IHS developed the first geoscience interpretation tools for the Windows environment, and, today, IHS is a leader in Windows-based exploration and production software.
Compared to the Windows XP operating system, which supports only a limited amount of RAM, the combination of Windows 7 and high-power, low-cost computing platforms means reductions in cost, improved capability, and widespread computing availability within even small exploration units. For example, today, companies can readily access Windows 7 systems with 128GB of RAM and high-end OpenGL®-capable graphics cards that provide enough CPU power to produce a large number of attribute cubes from even the largest datasets. Windows 7 can address up to 8TB of RAM, which allows end users of volume interpretation software like the IHS application to analyze and interpret more data in greater detail, as well as analyze full-volume 3D data.
3.2
SMB 2 PROTOCOL
Microsoft has introduced a new version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol (SMB 2) in common Internet file services (CIFS). SMB 2 improves upon prior versions by adding the ability to compound multiple storage networking transactions into fewer requests. This reduces the amount of overhead traffic between a client and server, significantly improving performance. SMB 2 also supports larger buffer sizes, which improves performance with large file transfers such as those necessary for seismic volume
interpretation with IHS software.
3.3
CONNECTIVITY
Seismic data files are often terabytes in size, which means that data transfer rates can become a bottleneck when attempting to access files from storage devices. The most common performance issues concerning network data access are insufficient data transfer rates and improperly configured networks. Consider the improvement in transfer time for a 3TB file using fast Ethernet at 100Mbits/sec and Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) at 1000Mbits/sec. The transfer time for a 3TB file at 100Mbits/sec is approximately 3 days, while the transfer time for the same file using GbE is close to 7 hours. Because time to
interpretation is a significant business driver, GbE networks are the recommended minimum to support the IHS application, with some companies looking at 10GigE for even better network performance.
4 IHS ADDRESSES INTERPRETATION NEEDS FOR UNCONVENTIONAL
RESOURCES
IHS’s KINGDOM suite of software addresses the needs of distributed E&P teams to improve collaboration on the many data types interpreted as an asset is explored and developed. The ease of use of its tightly integrated software brings advanced science to every interpreter in E&P organizations, not just to specialists (see Figure 1).
IHS KINGDOM software today integrates prestack/AVO, curvature, and other analyses into desktop software and will soon release integrated microseismic analyses. These capabilities promote the widespread adoption of advanced interpretation of data from unconventional resources.
Figure 1) IHS KINGDOM facilitates collaboration between engineering, geology, and geophysics experts. (Graphic provided by IHS)
IHS’s integrated workflows increase the productivity of E&P personnel. The system integrates geologic data, multidimensional seismic, modeling, and economic analysis in a single interpretation (see Figure 2). This powerful integration seamlessly brings together, for example, seismic data and well log data—crucial for understanding unconventional resources.
Figure 2) IHS KINGDOM’s integrated workflow increases the productivity of E&P personnel. (Graphic provided by IHS)
As geoscientists deliver this greater productivity, an increased demand is made on systems because of widespread volume interpretation and combined storage requests from many geoscientists, potentially saturating networks and legacy file servers. Increases in the growth and creation of attribute cubes and combinations of attribute cubes mean more write-intensive I/O, which drives even greater capacity growth. The fact that larger datasets are interactively usable because of disk roaming also places greater demand on storage networking by each user. While the business benefits of volume interpretation are clear, the challenge for IT is that widespread use of volume interpretation of seismic and attribute cubes generates orders-of-magnitude-more demand for data storage and management.
5 NETAPP DATA STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE
To address the data management challenges, NetApp developed a data storage and management infrastructure that consolidates data across the enterprise, facilitates collaboration, improves storage efficiency, enables efficient data backup and recovery anywhere, and enhances performance in a scalable platform. NetApp FAS storage systems are designed specifically to address the challenges of high-performance, high-volume data access applications such as seismic interpretation for upstream oil and gas exploration and operations. The underlying NetApp FAS technology was created to work specifically with high-capacity networks to rapidly deliver and store large volumes of data to and from workstations connected via Ethernet or FC SAN. NetApp systems can scale from 2TB to over 1PB, allowing the same infrastructure to expand simply and efficiently with increases in IHS data.
5.1
DATA CONSOLIDATION
To support the integrated workflow that IHS KINGDOM facilitates, NetApp’s data management and storage solutions consolidate data across the E&P organization. Data managers in E&P organizations can consolidate and standardize disparate CIFS NAS, NFS NAS, iSCSI SAN, Fibre Channel SAN, and FCoE SAN environments into a unified infrastructure that leverages the same data storage management tools. NetApp offers native support for multiple storage protocols that can aid the consolidation process, whether it is disparate third-party SANs on the NetApp V-Series product line or multiple Windows file servers and different workloads on a single NAS platform. This boosts utilization and increases data center efficiency. The simplified infrastructure becomes easier to manage and scale. At the same time, this consolidation reduces space, power, and cooling needs.
5.2
COLLABORATION
In an effort to improve “time to production” and reduce risk of damage to a property, geophysicists, geologists, petrophysicists, and engineers need to work simultaneously on the same massive datasets. To make the best possible “drill-positioning” and “work-over” decisions, all these professionals need to share their interpretation of results and collaborate to form an accurate picture.
One of the major benefits of using IHS software on NetApp FAS systems is enabling the IHS application to gain fast, simple access to interpretation data across various file retrieval protocols, including CIFS and NFS. From one desktop, users can access the same underlying datastores without data migrations, reboots, or reinstalls, while leveraging native security access controls. Unified storage eliminates data bottlenecks that prevent engineers from working together and eliminates the capital and management costs of multiple separate storage environments (see Figure 3).
NetApp FlexClone®technology allows each user to ―clone‖ a copy of a dataset, manipulate it, and save it without placing huge overhead demands on storage infrastructure. As scientists create and change attribute cubes, FlexClone dynamically expands and shrinks volumes on demand. The approach allows users to collaborate and create as many copies as they need without concern for storage space (see Figure 4).
Figure 3) Multiprotocol support unifies underlying data.
Figure 4) Using NetApp FlexClone, a broad array of users can generate instant replicas of datasets and storage volumes that require no additional storage overhead.
5.3
STORAGE EFFICIENCY
The average Windows disk volume can contain thousands or even millions of duplicate data blocks. As users create, distribute, back up, and archive data, duplicate data objects are inadvertently stored across multiple storage devices. The result is inefficient data storage resource use.
NetApp deduplication can reduce the initial storage acquisition costs, and permits longer intervals between storage capacity upgrades. The NetApp FAS deduplication feature deduplicates entire IHS volumes without user input and without interrupting user processes. Deduplication reduces the cost of keeping and managing IHS data online as it deduplicates data at the block level. NetApp deduplication
combines the benefits of granularity, performance, and resiliency to provide data managers with a significant advantage in the race to meet ever-increasing storage capacity demands. When a reference project is created, NetApp FAS deduplication enables only the changed blocks to be stored on disk; unchanged blocks are referenced back to the original file. All other ―copied‖ data is not duplicated on disk. NetApp FAS deduplication minimally impacts performance, and data managers can realize greater than 40% disk space savings in typical exploration environments.
5.4
BACK UP EFFICIENTLY AND RECOVER DATA ANYWHERE
NetApp SnapVault® increases backup efficiency by transferring only changed data blocks, enabling near-instantaneous, space-efficient backups. With SnapVault, backup and restore times are reduced from hours to a few minutes, enabling IT teams to meet tightening backup and recovery SLAs without deploying huge amounts of hardware. SnapVault leverages Snapshot® and replication technologies for faster, more affordable, easier-to-use backup and recovery.
Data managers can replicate data across a global network at high speeds in a simple, reliable, and cost-effective manner with NetApp SnapMirror®. Mirroring data to one or more NetApp storage systems minimizes downtime costs in case of primary site failure. Administrators can use SnapMirror to centralize backup of data to tape from multiple data centers, thereby reducing investment in tape infrastructure and eliminating reliance of production systems on tape backups.
5.5
PERFORMANCE
NetApp recently conducted performance testing of its suite of data storage and management solutions along with IHS KINGDOM at an actual E&P customer site using an Oracle® Database. This testing demonstrated significant performance gains when using the Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit operating system with SMB 2, compared to using the Microsoft Windows XP 32-bit operating system with SMB 1. The level of performance gain varied according to the function, from a 14% improvement for writing to an Oracle Database to a 37% increase for reading from an Oracle Database. Performance gains of 16–17% were realized for NetApp file I/O.
These tests consisted of a single user running a single dataset. Performance improvements are not expected to decrease when multiple users access multiple datasets; in fact, the 64-bit operating system with SMB 2 is likely to support this heavy usage.
Figure 5) Performance gains for common user operations in IHS KINGDOM 8.5.
This testing also showed significant reductions in the time needed to create a time slice from 3D seismic data. Previously, obtaining time slices on 3D data required submission of IT requests, a slow,
cumbersome process. Today, NetApp and IHS solutions enable geologists and geophysicists to create 27% faster
29% faster 58% faster
26% faster
Well Data – Production Data Import VuPAK – Display Multiple
3D Volumes (Bricked) 3D Seismic Data – Timeslice Creation Project Open – Session
File
Windows 7 with SMB 2 Windows XP with SMB 1
time slices on 3D data on the fly as needed. And the 64-bit SMB 2 architecture accelerates this process, from 4 minutes, 20 seconds to 1 minute 49 seconds for the sample testing conducted. This represents an improvement of 58% for this test case (see Figure 5).
Although actual performance is likely to vary from these test results due to differences in network bandwidth, I/O, configurations, dataset types, and many other factors, this testing indicates significant advantages to using the NetApp and IHS solutions in a Windows 7 environment.
6 CONCLUSION
According to IHS, approximately 75% of leading U.S. E&P companies developing unconventional resources use IHS KINGDOM geoscience interpretation tools. NetApp provides the data management and storage infrastructure to support these applications and workloads. This provides E&P organizations with a powerful combination that helps meet the challenges of developing unconventional resources.
About IHS
IHS Kingdom, the market leader for Windows-based geoscientific interpretation, helps organizations find oil and gas faster. IHS Kingdom allows geoscientists to focus on the analysis, not on managing the tools. Kingdom enables intuitive interpretation, modeling, analysis and data management, in one integrated executable. Customers can install and interpret data in the same day. With 3,000 customers in 100 nations, IHS Kingdom has demonstrated performance proven to scale. For more information, visit
www.seismicmicro.com.
About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.
© Copyright 2012 NetApp, Inc. and IHS. All rights reserved. No portions of this document may be reproduced without prior written consent of NetApp, Inc. Specifications are subject to change without notice. NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, FlexClone, SnapMirror, Snapshot, and
NetApp provides no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, reliability or serviceability of any information or recommendations provided in this publication, or with respect to any results that may be obtained by the use of the information or observance of any recommendations provided herein. The information in this document is distributed AS IS, and the use of this information or the implementation of any recommendations or techniques herein is a customer’s responsibility and depends on the customer’s ability to evaluate and integrate them into the customer’s operational environment. This document and the information contained herein may be used solely in connection with the NetApp products discussed in this document.
