DALLAS�Landmark Graphics Corp. officials Tuesday announced five deals and a new generation of software infrastructure at the annual meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers here.
Included were:
� A multiyear agreement with 4th Wave Imaging Corp. of Laguna Beach, Calif., to jointly develop 4D seismic solutions for reservoir management.
� A strategic alliance with GeoMechanics International Inc. that will integrate GMI's core technologies with Landmark's product lines, as well as market and distribute GMI software.
� An agreement with Reservoir Characterization Research and Consulting Inc., also known as (RC)�, to develop a geostatistical module software.
� An agreement to rationalize data management, along with information sharing and transfer, for Petroleos Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) in Colombia.
� Expansion of its current sales agreement with Network Appliance Inc.
� A new web-enabled, risk-based decision support software infrastructure designated as DecisionSpace.
Officials of Landmark, a unit of Halliburton Co., could not say how much the company is investing in these operations or what sort of return it expects.
"We've spent a lot to get a lot," said John Gibson, Landmark's president and CEO.
Landmark and 4th Wave will work under their agreement to develop and commercialize proprietary 4D cross-equalization technology recently licensed from Chevron Petroleum Technology Co. Officials said 4th Wave is developing breakthrough technologies in 4D seismic, using advanced imaging and inversion techniques to resolve reservoir management decisions.
Landmark also will work with GMI to expand and develop new products, building on GMI's existing partnership with Halliburton Energy Services.
GMI provides software dealing with wellbore stability, image analysis and rock mechanics. Wellbore stability problems during drilling operations are estimated to cost the industry $6 billion/year.
The (RC)� software will be designed to perform geostatistical simulations of geological and reservoir properties in a 3D geocellular model developed by Landmark. That module addresses the majority of geostatistical algorithms needed by geoscientists, officials said.
The deal with Network Appliance involves joint technology development and joint marketing of products to create powerful, scalable computing solutions for the two companies' common customers in the upstream oil and gas industry. The two firms have had a working relationship for a number of years.
The deal with Petrobras was signed in the second quarter. It is designed for increased integration of drilling, production, exploration, and development systems through implementation of Landmark technologies and business processes.
DecisionSpace, Landmark's new generation software infrastructure, is designed for rapid utilization of the emerging e-business environment, officials said.
Landmark, in conjunction with a team of oil company representatives, began in 1997 a process to "envision, design and deliver a new generation software infrastructure that would enable true business and financial process integration, not just data integration," officials said.
The first release of that new infrastructure is installed and running in several "key customer environments" on a development basis, they reported.
