Expert: Tim Ferriday
Product Owner for Assisted Well Interpretation
The volume of legacy data within the oil and gas industry is vast, with new data being generated daily. This data needs to be integrated and interpreted consistently to better understand the subsurface and reduce uncertainty.
A critical challenge for contemporary explorers and producers is not just finding data, but finding tools and techniques to meaningfully analyze, interpret, and understand the subsurface. In addition, manual petrophysical interpretation of lithology from wireline data is a time-consuming process. Given the volume of data and limited in house resources, traditional approaches simply can’t incorporate all the data that is potentially available. How can you close the gaps in your understanding and high levels of subsurface uncertainty?
A Dynamic Understanding of Subsurface Stratigraphy
You can address these challenges with Assisted Lithology Interpretation, a DecisionSpace® 365 cloud application, that enables you to interpret and extract value from your new and legacy well data, and create consistent, high-quality subsurface models.
Assisted Lithology Interpretation delivers contextual and integrated interpretation using a supervised machine learning technique that predicts lithology from wireline log responses according to a trained model to support rapid and consistent lithology interpretation, and
faster decision-making cycles.
Trained Lithological Models Make the Most of Your Well Data
Trained lithological models built by data scientists, provided by default within the Assisted Lithology Interpretation, deliver rapid and consistent lithology interpretations. The models have been trained using supervised machine learning (ML) techniques incorporating wireline and logging-while-drilling (LWD) data. Algorithms are encoded with intelligence to recognize combined features in well log curves and quantitatively assess the likelihood that these represent a particular lithology, based on previous examples seen by the system. The F1-score, a statistical measurement, was used to assess the accuracy of the predictive models generated.
This level of consistency helps to better constrain reservoir and seal lithofacies, and overburden, and helps you to identify potential bypassed pay. All of this can be achieved in just minutes—across hundreds, if not thousands, of wells – and can enable you to extract more value from your data in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost.
Consistent, Connected, Quality Data Interpretation
Trained algorithms enable standardized processes to be implemented and help reduce interpreter bias, thus delivering consistent data interpretation across your enterprise. The system seamlessly connects with and saves lithological data as computed lithology against the well. This allows workflows to continue without the need to import or export. It also allows you to track and access previous runs, which you can use to monitor historical work and retrieve stored output.
You can instantly connect with and collaborate with your peers, wherever they are, with immediate shared access to consistent lithology characteristics for thousands of wells and the most current subsurface understanding.
Seamlessly Integrate Interpretation Data in Just Minutes
Open architecture enables you to seamlessly connect and integrate with Data Foundation, the DecisionSpace® 365 data platform, plus OpenWorks® and other industry-standard databases, as well as your own data lakes, giving you choice and flexibility.
As more data becomes available, interpretations are automatically updated to reflect the ongoing evolution of the interpretation process so you can process thousands of wells simultaneously in a matter of minutes, resulting in more effective evaluation operations, improved efficiency, and reduced costs.
The use of algorithm interpretation also means you can rapidly conduct multi-scenario analysis on the same datasets to aid lithology prediction and reduce subsurface uncertainty. The ultimate outcome is an accelerated decision-making cycle.
Smart Investment Decisions Based on Confidence in Your Data
A built-in confidence measure applies quantifiable confidence limits to your data.
The uncertainty of lithology predictions is captured and tracked throughout the interpretation workflow on a well-by-well basis by calculating a percentage of confidence at any point. These calculations include Prior and Posterior Probability measures, and pre-trained models that are used to make a full-depth prediction. You can analyze the confidence outputs and make more informed recommendations. That makes for smart investments.
Make the Most of Your Assets
Unlike conventional approaches, leveraging a supervised machine learning pipeline to predict lithology from wireline or LWD data based on trained lithological models enables consistent interpretation from surface to total depth (TD). You can gain a high-resolution understanding of reservoir and seal lithofacies, overburden characterizations, and potential bypassed pay in just minutes—across hundreds, if not thousands, of wells.
Assisted Lithology Interpretation’s consistent, rapid, and high-fidelity lithological predictions, plus quantitative uncertainty, means your organization’s human expertise can be applied where it’s most critical: making decisions.
Want to learn how Assisted Lithology Interpretation can sharpen your subsurface understanding? now.