Technology Focus: Knowledge Management and Training (October 2010)
Authors: Ellul Ivor 
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus
The Apollo-12 launch on 14 November 1969 saw one of the best deliveries of knowledge-based decision making. In response to power loss to the electronic systems after the Saturn-V rocket was struck by lightning, controller John Aaron calmly instructed “Flight, try SCE to ‘Aux’.”* He harnessed knowledge that he had gained a year earlier and used it to make a split-second decision within a NASA-mandated 20-second window. He saved the mission. On a different scale, recent events in the Gulf of Mexico will compel the industry to review decision making and the relative speed thereof.
A common path to analyzing such events is to dissect any relevant decision-making approach along with associated processes, available tools, and people. These four elements conveniently appear to bracket well the key paper topics offered up for this year’s feature.
Approach. The ability to make rapid and effective decisions is directly proportional to the degree of available knowledge leading up to and at the time of making the decision. An increasingly popular trend deriving from the defense and process industries is front-end loading (FEL), in which time and effort are dedicated at the “front end” of a project to test possible outcomes without full deployment. This process has proved to save significant amounts of project costs while playing out project-evolution scenarios. In FEL-speak, these are “visualized” by decision makers, and project routes selected on the basis of safety, economics, and expediency. FEL is gaining popularity in the execution of field-development-planning projects.
Processes. A new trend is emerging that is related to integrated operations in which one is encouraged to transcend regimented disciplines, locations, and boundaries within a company to disseminate knowledge evenly and effectively. Although seemingly antiprocess, this approach actually encourages and, indeed, challenges the knowledge-sharing processes within an environment of collective learning.
Tools. In the realm of hydrocarbon exploration and production, knowledge is very much a spatial phenomenon. This is apparent at all phases of the development cycle with maps, 3D geological models, reservoir-sweep patterns, and circuitous pipeline networks prevailing to complicate our analysis. Geographical information systems have established a dominant position in the depiction of data in an easy-to-use format with overlaying of information at various levels that enables the capture, tracking, and display of inherent knowledge in a spatially efficient and comprehensive manner.
People. Any approach to enhancing processes and tools without addressing the “people” element is doomed to failure. It is, therefore, refreshing to see initiatives aimed at developing the next generation of leaders.
Without doubt, the learning process will continue.
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWQIryll8y8 accessed 7 September 2010.
Knowledge Management and Training additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org
SPE 128670 • “Creating an Intelligent-Energy Organization Through Collective Learning,” by Torbjørn Korsvold, SINTEF, et al.
SPE 125230 • “Training the Next Generation of Project Leaders,” by Robert D. Massingill Jr., ExxonMobil, et al.
IPTC 13921 • “A Web-Based GIS Solution for Drilling-Data Workflows in Kuwait,” by Muhammad A. Hufni, Kuwait Oil Company, et al.