Oil and gas exploration is a risky and difficult industry at the best of times. Today's depressed oil prices only add to the burden so if there were any time to analyse big data to drive better decision making then now is the time.
Bernard Marr describes how companies like Shell are innovating partnering with HPE. As I have often argued though, it is less a matter of big data ( i.e. large volumes) as much as complete data. The data needed to make better decisions and to know what complete data is required one has to know what decisions have to be made.
It is not just data scientists involved here; business and operational users have the practical knowledge to make sense of insights and add intuition to facts. Today's agile BI and Analyticsplatforms combined with Complete Data and scalable database technologies like HPE's Vertica and IDOL are the key
Shell uses fibre optic cables, created in a special partnership with Hewlett-Packard, for these sensors, and data is transferred to its private servers, maintained by Amazon Web Services. This gives a far more accurate image of what lies beneath. Data from any prospective oil field can then be compared alongside that from thousands of others around the world, to enable geologists to make more accurate recommendations about where to drill. Production forecasting is one of the first jobs – determining the likely output of the reservoir is key to determining what resources should be spent on collecting it. When this decision is data-led, operators can have more confidence that this will be done efficiently.
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