Type of Talk: Corporate Connection

Date/Time: Friday

, October 9, 2009/ 12:00

Location: ACES 2.402

Host: FOCS

Talk Title: "Technology Behind the Oilfield"

Ta

lk Abstract: The exploration and efficient recovery of oil and gas has been
one of the most technically challenging activities for the last couple of

decades. As energy demands increase, and easier energy sources are deplete

d, the industry responds by maintaining a healthy commitment to R&D a

nd innovation. In this talk we will cover a set of these challenges starti

ng from acquiring data with enormous mobile sensor networks in environmenta

lly hostile environments, processing this data with massively parallel alg

orithms, creating and visualizing detailed 3D and 4D models of the subsurf

ace; simulating oil production based these models and optimizing oil field
development and production based upon combining these simulations with rea

l-time events. For each, we will look at the computer science implicatio

ns, how they are currently being addressed, and explore a few opportuniti

es for the future.

Speaker Bio: Stephen Whitley is the Chief Softwa

re Architect for Schlumberger, the leading oilfield services provider with
over 80,000 employees of 140 nationalities operating in 80 countries. He

has worked as a computer scientist in the oil industry for over 20 years an

d is currently responsible for developing the software architecture discipl

ine and technical strategy across the entire company. His system developme

nt experience covers the breadth of Schlumberger technology footprint and i

ncludes real-time systems for data acquisition, collaborating with NASA on
the transmission of high volume data, algorithms for supercomputers and m

assively parallel systems, and 3D subsurface modeling.