Integrated oil and reservoir database system for geological and petroleum engineering. Annual report

As the data available to explorers and operators increase and when timeliness and accuracy of record keeping are of concern, the need for a more efficient data handling technique has prompted research in the applications of database technology in the oil industry. In this thesis, a database is developed to cover areas in exploration, drilling, production, scout tickets and well logs. Salient characteristics of wells and reservoirs are investigated and a global structure is obtained. The relationship between well and reservoir is found to be a many-to-many type. Out of the three widely accepted data models (hierarchical, network, and relational), the relational model was chosen in our approach because of its easiness to use and ability to implement the many-to-many relationship. A set of criteria for evaluation of logical database design methodologies is presented and a modified entity-relationship approach is used. The global structure of the database is implemented in VAX/VMS INGRES, a commercial relational database management system. The database model and the data dictionary are tested through an application to the data of two reservoirs provided by Conoco Oil Inc. and Shell Oil Co. 88 references, 27 figures, 9 tables.