Knowledge Management for Shared Earth Modeling
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 107152, "Knowledge Management for Shared Earth Modeling," by Laura Mastella, ecole des Mines de Paris and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; Michel Perrin, ecole des Mines de Paris; Mara Abel, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; and Jean-Francois Rainaud and Walid Touar, Institut Francais du Petrole, prepared for the 2007 SPE Europec Annual Conference and Exhibition, London, 11–14 June.

Shared Earth modeling is a process of integrating static (geological structures) and dynamic (hydrocarbon production) data collected from several disciplines to construct a model of a subsurface resource. A shared Earth model (SEM) should allow sharing and integrating data and knowledge related to data interpretation. People from different disciplines, with different technical skills, should be able to provide an SEM with specific technical knowledge concerning how to evolve a hydrocarbon prospect at the various stages of its life cycle.

Introduction

For knowledge-intensive organizations, the knowledge-management process involves complex interaction of many types of information and expertise that are processed and integrated progressively to produce value results. This work examined the possibility of developing an information-system environment for supporting the generation, codification, and dissemination of geological knowledge related to reservoir modeling for oil/gas exploration.

Preliminary Concepts

Knowledge management refers to planned and integrated strategies of an organization to allocate and apply assets for knowledge value. These strategies include actions in seven areas: high-level management strategy; company culture and values; organizational structure; human-resources strategy; information system; results monitoring; and learning from companies, clients, government, universities, and others. Knowledge management is also necessary when a community of practice envisages distributing and sharing its knowledge in a homogeneous and organized manner. A community of practice is a group with a shared history and goals, which has, over time, negotiated meanings and shared norms, concepts, and ways of interacting about a particular domain of knowledge.

Knowledge Generation. Knowledge is a result of applying cognitive abilities of a person, team, scientific community, or company to solve a problem. Knowledge may be produced internally with the efforts of an organization, in which case knowledge needs only to be recorded and stored. Otherwise, knowledge must be purchased or selected from an external source. Knowledge generation is the result of actions such as internal development, external acquisition, technology transfer, and multidisciplinary codevelopment.

Knowledge Codification. Acquired knowledge must be codified so that it can be shared. Knowledge codification includes organizing, classifying, indexing, and storing knowledge. These actions are especially important in collecting new knowledge or retrieving dispersed existing knowledge, such as the corporate knowledge spread throughout the company or knowledge related to a complex process. The success of the codification stage depends on the efficiency of the chosen information systems and knowledge-engineering strategies.