ER-LTT Project Status Report

April 1, 1996


1. Principal Investigator

Wes Bethel - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

2. Project Title

Advanced Flux Visualization and Virtual Reality for Reservoir Engineering

3. Current Abstract

The goal of this project is commercially available and supported software which implements techniques for visualizing flux data as well as advanced user interfaces, commonly called Virtual Reality (VR), for use by engineers in the oil industry.

To date, the project has been successful overall, as the major highlight of the past few months has been a commercial release of software which implements some of the visualization techniques resulting from our effort.

Visualization of flux is important to the oil industry, as estimates of unswept oil in US reservoirs is approximately 90 billion barrels, the fiscal value of which is roughly the same as the current national debt. Reservoir engineers make extensive use of software simulators to evaluate production strategies. One type of data computed by such simulators is "flux" data which indicates the direction and quantity of fluid movement through the reservoir for oil, gas, water and other phases. At the time this project was proposed, there existed no commercially available software, from a U.S. company, which could be used to visualize flux data.

Current budget woes have resulted definitive negative impact on project progress. The original proposal called for a two-year funding profile. Only 80% of the requested FY 1995 funds were received, and presently it looks like there will be no FY 1996 funding. The scope of this impact will be more fully discussed below.

Despite the lack of FY 1996 funding, the PI on this project has been able to produce tangible results which broadly meet the goals of the project.

4. Progress Last Six Months

5. Plans for Next Six Months

With the completion of these tasks, our obligations in this project will be complete.

6. Project Percent Complete

The project is approximately two-thirds complete.

7. Project Schedule Completion Date

Given the above milestones and assuming that funding for this program will not materialize, we will conclude our actitivies by the end of FY 1996.

8. Major Highlights/Accomplishments

9. Current Industry Partner Contacts

Andy Austin, Mark Lederer - BP Exploration
(713) 560-8205, FAX: (713) 560-6318

Todd Little - Western Atlas Software
(713) 972-4666, FAX: (713) 972-4647

10. Funding needed for FY 97 (Multi-Year CRADAs)

This project is scheduled for completion at the end of FY 1996.
Contact: Wes Bethel, ewbethel@lbl.gov