OIL FIRMS MOVING TO MODERNIZE DIGITIZED DATA

G. Alan Petzet
Exploration Editor

The oil and gas industry is working to significantly improve its capacity to store and quickly access vast volumes of digitized geosciences data, especially geophysical data.

The effort is expected to help data storage capacity and recall speed catch up with the processing speeds of the most modern supercomputers.

Mobil Exploration & Producing Services Inc. (Mepsi), Mobil Research & Development Corp., and E-Systems Inc., all of Dallas, have been investigating the potential of such a system since June 1988.

The equipment being developed meets Society of Exploration Geophysicists standards. It is to be submitted later this year to the American National Standards Institute and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for standards review.

The next goal is to place the system into wider use by oil operating companies and geophysical contractors. Mobil and E-Systems have begun presenting details of the system to 10-15 companies.

Tentatively about five, each under a separate contract with E-Systems, will evaluate the design, propose modifications, and participate in testing Mobil's system.

Ultimate market is 30-50 companies for the system and 100 companies for the related recorders.

BACKGROUND

Oil and gas companies and geophysical contractors have been recording and accumulating digital recording tape since the mid-1960s, notes Jack J. Rousso, associate planning advisor at Mepsi's Dallas technical computer center.

The tape libraries of many companies contain several hundred thousand to more than 1 million reels of this tape and collectively are probably the world's largest libraries of nonclassified, scientific data.

Computer processing speed has increased since that time by many orders of magnitude, but tape handling capacity is only slightly faster. Mepsi and E-Systems hope to eliminate the bottleneck, said Philip J. Rasch, E-Systems manager, business development, advanced systems.

The storage system's heart is a high speed, high capacity helical scan recorder being developed by E-Systems and Ampex Corp. The recorder uses a standard 19 mm digital type D-2 tape cassette.

The file server computer for the mass storage system is a Model C2 computer made by Convex Corp., Richardson, Tex. It uses programmed robotics control to access ultra high density cassettes such as those used in television and motion picture production.

Through high speed networks, archived data can be accessed in seconds rather than hours now required using current, manual methods.

E-Systems has been developing mass storage systems for a government agency for more than 10 years. The system being developed for Mepsi is an adaptation of the government customer's system.

MEPSI CONTRACT

Mepsi let a multimillion dollar contract to E-Systems earlier this year to deliver and evaluate an advanced technology mass storage system.

The first phase of the project calls for E-Systems to develop and Mepsi to evaluate a prototype mass storage system at the center in Dallas.

The prototype will have the capacity to manage rapid, automated access of 5.5 terabytes, or about 1 trillion bits, of data, the amount now contained on about 36,000 reels of tape. A terabyte is equal to 1 million megabytes of data.

Eventually, the system will be able to store all of Mepsi's exploration data, which is contained on more than 1 million reels of standard computer tapes.

Rousso said the savings accrue because dealing with, for example, data from a single three dimensional seismic survey requires individual loading of hundreds of reels. The system results in at least a five to one time savings on machines that cost thousands of dollars per hour to operate, he said.

The size of the prototype system is about 6 ft cubed.

The second phase of the project includes the option to refine the prototype to an on line, production class system that can be upgraded to increase system capacity to 100 terabytes. The expansion would provide automated access to Mepsi's entire tape library.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS

Mepsi hopes to be transcribing data from existing tapes in early 1992 and moving data for use later the same year, Rousso said.

The system comes none too soon. The National Data Archives rates conventional computer tape lives for 12 years, and oil companies and geophysical contractors own many tapes almost 20 years old.

One 3D survey requires about 1,200 standard reels of tape, and it takes 500 cu ft of space on a seismic vessel to store the 4 tons of tape for one survey.

Mergers of large and medium sized oil companies during the 1980s brought together sprawling libraries of these tapes.

The risk in not improving speedier, higher capacity handling systems is loss of data, some of which was acquired when oil and gas prices were as high as they have ever been.