This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Petrel E&P software platform. Since its first commercialization in 1998, the platform has been continuously developed to bring all upstream disciplines together with applied science to create a constantly improving productivity environment. This approach enables the optimization of workflows—from exploration to production—and enhances the user’s decision-making capabilities by providing a clear understanding of opportunities and risks.

Delivery in the cloud

The Petrel platform is now available in the DELFI cognitive E&P environment as part of the Petrotechnical Suite, enriching subsurface characterization workflows with benefits from digital technologies. The DELFI environment is a secure data-centric cloud-based environment built on key premises that make it unique in the Schlumberger software portfolio by harnessing data, scientific knowledge and domain expertise to fundamentally change the way of working in every part of the E&P value chain.

Since the DELFI environment makes applications and workflows accessible to all users, the multidisciplinary E&P team can now build common workspaces for data, models and interpretations while respecting proprietary information boundaries.

While R&D continues in the desktop version, users can experience the new benefits by accessing the Petrel platform in the DELFI environment, including:

  • personalized workspace with access to domain-specific user profile, which always provides the needed technology, projects, data, computing power and collaboration space to accomplish projects with maximum efficiency;
  • advanced performances from cloud-enabled high-performance computing to optimize workflow execution and capitalize on accuracy at each decision stage gate;
  • enhanced collaboration where sharing data and projects by different teams in different locations is instant and seamless; and
  • improved science with the integration of the DELFI environment native solutions that leverage the power of analytics, cognitive science and automation.

The Petrel platform provides a fully integrated environment for all stages of field development planning, from mapping and interpreting the main geological events to planning the well trajectories and completions to modeling the rock and fluid properties. (Image courtesy of Schlumberger)

Continuous development

The Petrel platform is continuously developed to deliver improvements in scalability and integration, enhancing exploration, interpretation, and static and dynamic modeling workflows.

On the exploration side the platform has a strong integration with PetroMod petroleum systems modeling software and GeoX exploration risk, resource and value assessment software, offering users better petroleum systems characterization and play-to-prospect and value assessments for a more comprehensive validation of exploration opportunities.

Focus has been given to improved performances in regional seismic interpretation and mapping, multiseismic reference datum capabilities, faster domain conversion, and live collaboration between users to deliver an enhanced experience when either generating or delineating prospects.

Another area of development has been structural modeling and framework enhancements, including the new depogrid structural grid, which fully honors faults and horizons from seismic interpretation and can be used for simulation without the use of upscaling. The new grid further integrates with geological and geophysical property distribution, geological process modeling, and history match results, bringing reservoir modeling life cycle to a new level of fidelity..