Integrating subsurface data with Cognite - Bluware
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Cognite’s “Ignite Talks” conference
Integrating subsurface data with Cognite
For the subsurface and drilling domain, Cognite is developing tools to help find, integrate and work with data,
together with Aker BP
The original business model for Cognite was to a company has related to their area of interest creativity from very skilled engineers and G+G
integrate real time data from oil and gas oper- using “polygon search”. They search by draw- people comes to play, in a much better way,”
ations. Its data integration business model is ing a box on a digital map to define this area, he said.
also useful with subsurface and drilling data, rather than from looking through folders and Engineering teams from Cognite are working
which is not real time but still has big search databases. together with domain experts from Aker BP to
and integration challenges. It would also be useful for geoscientists to be try to get there. At the time of the discussion
Here, the company’s main aim is to help do- immediately informed if there is new informa- in October 2020, the tool had been released in
main experts find data, something they often tion on the company’s archives relating to this “early stage” to 100 users.
have to spend a lot of time doing, before they search area. They would like to know where Improvements had already been seen in the
get to their main work. the data they are working with has come from. understanding of data quality. It also leads to
Data is often only accessible through the soft- Integrating in the other direction with Cognite’s an increase in the level of interest people are
ware used to create it, such as with subsurface platform, it is possible to connect the subsur- taking in data, including data from domains
models. face data directly to data science or low code other than the one they usually work in.
And sometimes people have challenges know- tools, for example running a Python script on “I think that’s all about having ease of access
ing where to find it. “In order to even start your it. You can develop new workflows. “There’s and availability,” he said. “It is so interesting
workflows you need to understand what data no friction or barriers between one step and the when you ‘surface’ the data - the understand-
is stored, which applications [created it], who other,” he says. ing of what quality of data you have and don’t
is responsible for the project,” says Dr Carlo have.”
Aker BP
Caso, Senior Director of Product Management, For future technology purchasing decisions, the
Cognite, a former oil and gas exploration geo- Kjartan Nesse, Vice President of Digitaliza- company will have a preference for open plat-
scientist. tion, Aker BP, and head of the subsurface hub forms and open standards, such as data formats
He was speaking at an online conference ses- (including drilling and wells), said that when in the Open Subsurface Data Universe(OSDU),
sion during Cognite’s “Ignite Talks” industrial the company had internal discussions about he said.
digitalisation event. what they would most like to see improved,
Aker BP will preferentially buy software with
the biggest area of interest was data and data
“We are using the capabilities of Cognite to lib- APIs which work well, he said. “We see a
quality.
erate this data and information from legacy ap- lot of applications have APIs but they are not
plications and make them available in the cloud The biggest challenge is “figuring out what really used because they are not made for hav-
to a modern application program.” data we have, without spending tons of time on ing this kind of ecosystem working.”
it,” he said. So much time is spent looking for
This includes both seismic and other explora- “I’m envisioning an ecosystem where we [con-
data, and some work gets done more than once.
tion survey data, and subsurface models. nect] different major components,” he said. For
The company had originally planned to focus example it could bring software components
With data ‘liberated’ and integrated, it is pos-
on blockchain and machine learning. “Sud- from Schlumberger’s Delphi cloud environ-
sible to offer very useful functionality for geo-
denly we had to shift,” he said. ment together with components from a small
scientists, he said.
“We see that when data is available, a lot of technology company.
For example, they can find what documents
Bluware VDS – a data environment making seismic AI easier
Bluware VDS is a cloud-native data format for storing seismic data, which makes it easier to run AI on it
Bluware, a seismic technology company expectations than other oil and gas software
headquartered in Houston, developed a data companies about how fast software should
storage environment for storing seismic data, run.
which makes it much easier to run AI algo-
Bluware’s founders worked hard on develop-
rithms when streaming data from the cloud,
ing a technology which could provide rapid
says Dan Piette, CEO of Bluware.
access to all seismic data regardless of the
The format, called VDS (Volume Data size.
Store), is a modern alternative to the SEG-Y
Other companies at the time were all using
seismic data format.
SEG-Y format, a standard originally de-
VDS has been developed and improvised signed for storing data on tape.
since 2003, when Bluware developed a soft-
Software using SEG-Y data had to ensure
ware platform for a major international oil
that the file sizes were not so large that they
company to use in desktop geoscience appli-
crashed or slowed down the platform. The
cations.
SEG-Y data resolution was reduced or set
Bluware’s founders previously worked in the to a maximum project size. This was a time
computer game industry, who had different when 3D visualization was becoming the Dan Piette, CEO of Bluware
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Subsurface
The trained network can then stream a live
inference on top of the VDS seismic volume
instantaneously allowing the geoscientist to
work interactively with the network.
As the interpreter adds more examples, the
network becomes more accurate in deliv-
ering live inferences. Once the accuracy
is sufficient to meet the interpreters needs,
the trained network can be used to create an
entire feature volume identifying all occur-
rences of the feature in 3D. The workflow
is the same for any number of geologic fea-
tures, be it faults, salt, channels, incised val-
leys, or even igneous intrusions.
By blending the expertise of a seasoned in-
terpreter with the rapid pattern recognition
of a neural network, you can deliver ‘hu-
Fault surfaces from deep learning
man-like’ interpretations across entire data-
sets in hours, instead of weeks.
norm and applications required access to deep learning solution. Geoscientists will begin to see the inferences
data in all directions instantly. from deep learning appear on the screen in
Using deep learning to identify geo-bodies
Rather than reduce quality or the size of the in seismic data requires the seismic vol- real-time as they work, “something that no-
volume being viewed, Bluware instead, de- ume to be output as millions of small image one has been able to do until now,” says Mr.
veloped its own VDS format to overcome blocks, that are then randomly sequenced Piette.
these limitations. before being organized into a 1D ‘stack’ file The geoscientist can then decide whether or
for import into a machine learning platform not the computer’s assessment is correct or
Later, when geoscience software started
like TensorFlow. This is time consuming and if more training is required. This is all done
moving to the cloud around 2018, VDS
costly. interactively in minutes.
turned out to be a much better format, as
being “object orientated”, given that SEG-Y The data needs to be brought into the deep “It is like an empirical [experience based]
data was much more difficult to use directly learning algorithms randomly, not sequen- analytics of what’s going on in the subsur-
with cloud software, Mr. Piette said. tially, because a sequential data flow will face,” Mr. Piette says.
mean that the training will only work on the
Bluware today section of data it is receiving at that time, not “You end up with a processing of seismic
the whole of it. data that is orders of magnitude faster,” he
To develop the software further, venture cap- said. “One client told us - their interpretation
ital has been raised from EV Private Equity, The randomisation of seismic data in a went from a three-month cycle to a three-day
a company that invests in innovative tech- SEG-Y file is a challenge, Mr. Piette says. cycle.”
nology companies within the oil and gas in- “You can do it, people are doing it, but about
dustry. 80 per cent of your time is consumed with Geoscientists can also work proficiently.
preparing the data.” Ultimately it means that geoscientists are
Shell, as Bluware’s main client, also wanted
involvement, so provided investment through As a separate step, you manually extract spending more time on core concepts of try-
Shell Ventures. lines and crosslines from the SEG-Y, which ing to make geological sense of what they
are saved as images and exported into the see, rather than “picking wiggles”. It is al-
According to Bluware’s website, clients in- machine learning platform. lowing them to work more efficiently, rather
clude Equinor, Shell, BP, Polarcus, Lundin than replacing them, he says.
Petroleum, and Aker BP. But once data is in VDS format, it can be
streamed directly and completely randomly Open Source
According to a Bluware press release in June into the machine learning platform. There is
2020, they announced an agreement with BP no need to copy, crop, or decimate any data In June 2020, Bluware contributed Open-
to provide its technology to help BP improve thereby eliminating preparation time. VDS Version 1.0 to The Open Group Open
‘quality and speed when delivering seismic Subsurface Data Universe (OSDU) Forum.
interpretation products.’ The computer system can be running deep
learning algorithms as soon as a geoscientist The Open Group OSDU Forum aims to de-
BP said it would implement Bluware’s Inter- begins training the network and can immedi- velop a standard structure for storing subsur-
activAI deep learning technology, to support ately infer similar patterns within the seismic face data, including seismic data and well
geoscientists’ ability to interpret subsurface data. data. The OSDU consists of more than 195
data. companies including oil companies, infra-
The data storage and software are on Micro- Working with AI structure providers, and independent soft-
soft Azure cloud hosting platform. Bluware ware vendors.
The result is the geoscientist is much more
has a partnership with both Microsoft and Bluware now also provides OpenVDS+, a
productive when using deep learning work-
AWS. free-to-use library that adds Bluware’s in-
flows on seismic data in VDS.
dustry-leading wavelet compression tech-
How it works The geoscientist starts by labelling a geo- nology to OpenVDS.
logic feature on the seismic data. Since the
Here is an explanation of how the VDS file data is stored in VDS format, InteractivAI
format enables Bluware to deliver an inter- Integration
can pass the native data and labels directly
active experience with their InteractivAI into a deep neural network to begin training. The Bluware platform has APIs, enabling
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Subsurface
seismic data in VDS format to be accessible obsolete. Or they want to get more return As an IT services company, Bluware would
to other geoscience tools and machine learn- from the investment in the software they al- deliver IT that clients asked for, such as a
ing algorithms. ready have. wavelet extraction routine, and the client
would own the intellectual property of it.
If you want to get the benefits from VDS “You have applications going to the data,
“We had a big group of people very experi-
without changing your existing interpretation rather than data going to the applications,”
enced in oil and gas,” Mr. Piette says.
applications, you can use its data streaming he says. “That’s a fundamental shift.
and transcoding tool namely Bluware FAST. Dan Piette, CEO, has been involved in sub-
Data in VDS format is streamed from the Background surface digital technologies since 1988, when
cloud, transcoded, and presented as a virtual he joined Landmark. Since then, he has seen
file in any seismic format including SEG-Y, Bluware was formed from the merging with oil prices drop 50 per cent at least five times.
SEP, or ZGY file to your seismic interpreta- two other companies in 2017, Hue AS and
Headwave Inc. Every time it happens, “it seems like innov-
tion system without duplicating data.
ation comes,” he says. “Every time we go
“Companies can often read seismic data Before that, Bluware had been an IT servi- through these cycles, someone has another
faster from a remote cloud server in VDS ces company. Bluware started working with brilliant idea.”
format, than they can if the data is stored on Shell providing IT services and built up a
broader client base in the years up to the oil Mr. Piette has a strong background in subsur-
their local hard drive in SEG-Y format,” Mr.
price collapse in 2014. Headwave and Hue face data integration projects. He is the for-
Piette says.
provided geoscience services and software. mer CEO of OpenSpirit, a company which
Customers like this because they may have aimed to help companies integrate subsur-
concerns about “stranded applications”, end- Hue had been in business since 2001. face data from multiple sources.
ing up with software and formats which are Bluware and Headwave had been in business
since 1996.
Where geoscience goes next – opening session at
EAGE Dec 2020
Senior exploration leaders from Shell, CGG, Rystad Energy and University of Texas shared their perspectives on where
geoscience, and work for geoscientists, is going next, in the opening session of the EAGE 2020 annual event (online) in
December
Marc Gerrits, executive vice president for ex- Meanwhile, “we will need geoscientists to
ploration with Shell, sees geoscience as “the continue to work with the oil and gas industry,
custodian of technical excellence in the sub- which has multiple decades to go.”
surface.”
The oil and gas exploration market dynamics
“That has served the oil and gas industry very are changing to an orientation around “value”
well,” he said. rather than “volume”, Mr Gerrits said. In other
words, it is no longer mainly about the number
He was speaking at an online opening session
of barrels.
of EAGE (European Association of Geoscien-
tists and Engineers) annual event, held in De- When considering a project, companies are
cember 2020 (see link to video below). comparing the financial breakeven of produ-
cing the newly found barrels, with the break- Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO of geoscience services giant
The value of geoscience will continue beyond
even for producing barrels Shell already has in CGG (photo from online event)
oil and gas. “Any aspect of the energy transi-
its reserves, he said.
tion that involves subsurface and subsurface “I believe the delays in investment that we’re
technology will include expertise that comes Companies are also considering the “carbon re- seeing now will result in shortages down the
from geoscientists,” he said. silience” of the barrels, such as the CO2 emit- road - 2023, 2024.”
ted when producing them, such as in pumping,
“CCUS, hydrogen storage, geothermal energy, Asked whether we are likely to see further
transport or construction.
all require an understanding of the subsurface. consolidation in the geoscience services busi-
And an understanding of how to use the subsur- For any exploration projects, shooting new ness, she replied, “there’s a text book [answer]
face for the benefit of those future technologies seismic, and more advanced seismic will be which says, ‘when times are tough everybody
as and when needed.” needed. “The seismic industry is an absolute is shrinking, the only solution is consolidation.’
partner in creating that value for oil and gas I’m not convinced, I think it depends on [the]
companies,” he said. individual situation. I see forks in the road.
Depending on where your starting point is, the
Sophie Zurquiyah, CGG course forward might be different.”
At the moment, “clients are stopping and de- When companies are not seeing the growth
laying significant investments that are required they expected, or no growth at all, there are two
to maintain [oil and gas] production,” said So- pathways. One is to try to do more for exist-
phie Zurquiyah, CEO of geoscience services ing clients, for example helping them do more
giant CGG. with the “energy transition”. The other direc-
tion is to look at new industry sectors where the
“I look at the number of studies that point to company’s competences would have value, she
the need for oil and gas for the foreseeable fu- said. For example CGG is developing structural
Marc Gerrits, executive vice president for exploration ture. In any scenario it is required as part of the health monitoring sensors for buildings under
with Shell (photo from online event) energy transition.”
12 digital energy journal - January - February 2021
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