Grid computing for energy exploration

3-D seismic imaging is the most computationally intensive task in the oil and gas industry. It is a key technology that has allowed the success ratio of exploratory wells to increase from 20% to 80%. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of a Grid-enabled environment for seismic imaging developed by 3DGeo and comment on its use in a production setting. This system addresses the demand for advanced seismic imaging applications in the oil and gas industry, and the ensuing need of computational and data resources to run these applications flexibly and efficiently.