Computerised Storage and Retrieval of Well Data by Shell U. K. Exploration and Production
Authors: Hough R.B. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the Second Annual European Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in London, England, April 2–3, 1973. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Shell U.K. E and P have developed in the past two years a Fortran based computer filing past two years a Fortran based computer filing and retrieval system for use on all aspects of North Sea wells. The system, which is cheap to run, is usable by anyone with a summary knowledge of FORTRAN.

Examples of the application of the system are included in the paper.

Introduction

It was decided to implement a well data bank following the installation of computer facilities at the Lowestoft operating base in May 1971. After some research into available data management systems, one called BUFF (Basic Update Fortran File) was chosen as being the most suitable. The data are stored on files divided according to the main disciplines: drilling operations and mechanical well data, petrophysical and evaluation data, geological petrophysical and evaluation data, geological data and reservoir engineering data. All the files are stored centrally in London but are accessible to any other location provided w a data link, such as Lowestoft, Aberdeen or The Hague in the Netherlands. Figure 1 is an orientation map.

REASONS FOR INSTALLING A DATA BANK

From a financial point of view a technical data bank is difficult to justify: advantages tend to be realised in terms of efficiency in the use of manpower and in ability to conduct studies which would otherwise be too time consuming. The main reasons for installing the system were to provide security of information, ease of access to the data by users geographically separated, up to date information and prevention of duplication of data by storing prevention of duplication of data by storing any item once only.

Once the data base is complete, its use is mainly to enable one to scan for data across a large number of wells rather than listing information about a single well. The former is an operation ideally suited to a computer, whilst the latter can usually be done better by reference to the well-file. In any case information about the equipment in a specific well is usually needed only where the well-file originated.