LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10, 1998 (PRIMEZONE) -- Occidental Petroleum Corporation has established a state-of-the-art visualization center in its Houston, Texas, exploration office featuring the supercomputer technology of Silicon Graphics. Teams of Occidental engineers and geoscientists at the Center are using a high-speed fiber-channel disk array and fiber-optic network, including large projection screens, to create an evolving three-dimensional subsurface earth model.
The Houston location will be integrated with a second visualization center planned for the company's Bakersfield headquarters office, providing a common platform to visualize the earth's subsurface based on the results of high-speed analysis of spatially associated geological, petrophysical and engineering data.
Jack Miller, senior vice president worldwide exploration said, "This is a breakthrough for Occidental that will lead to fundamental changes in our work processes through collaboration among geologists, geophysicists and engineers to enhance the quality and speed of decision-making. The application of this technology involves more than fast interpretations of isolated 3-D surveys, but rather the integration of cross-disciplinary knowledge to develop a shared understanding of those areas of the subsurface of the earth that are likely to contain commercial deposits of hydrocarbons."
The new center will reduce the time required to reach competitive investment decisions.
"We recently used the new system to reach a decision on a typical investment proposal in an hour that previously would have taken weeks," states Gulf of Mexico deep water exploration manager Steve Western. "More importantly, we reached our decision in a collaborative setting where our diversity of technical experience and business insights came together in a consensus decision to act quickly."
With its innovative application of the Silicon Graphics technology, Occidental expects to enhance its position as one of the world's leading independent exploration and production companies with discoveries totaling more than 11 billion gross equivalent barrels over the last three decades.