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Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

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Re: Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

#31

Post by beerandt »

eru wrote: post #24
beerandt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you knew the effort and cost that goes into large scale near and offshore seismic and non-seismic surveys then you wouldn't think twice about putting the value of the data well above the value of the hardware. Offshore deepwater (~2500ft+) non-seismic surveys might cost 6-7 figures per day to operate, and might fill up a hard drive every 1-3 days. Depending on how many drives fit on a tape, the raw data could get…

I suspect the value of the seismic data keeps better over time than the value of the hardware, too.

Better than the hardware, certainly. But advances in surveying technology make new surveys worthwhile, occasionally, so the data does have a lifespan. Of course better analysis techniques or more powerful hardware for old data makes a big difference too.

Re: Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

#32

Post by dekhn »

EricE wrote: post #30
jgalt212 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, but interestingly enough the book, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power , only has 9 mentions of the word computer and zero for supercomputer . The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power https://www.amazon.com/Prize-Epic-Quest-Money-Power/dp/14391...

From the authors Bio: "Daniel Yergin is the author of the bestseller The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World which has been hailed as “a fascinating saga” about the “quest for sustainable resources of energy,” and “the book you must read to understand the future of our economy and our way of life,” ..." So it's more a book to persuade (feelings) than inform (facts) - no wonder they aren't me…

The book is loaded with facts. It just doesn't focus on the computational aspect (more focus on the geopolitical details). I strongly recommend this book- I understood a lot more about modern power after reading The Quest and The Prize.

Re: Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

#33

Post by linksnapzz »

eru wrote: post #25
riskneutral wrote: post #2

Nun new. Supercomputing has been used in Oil & Gas exploration for decades.

Actually, the news for me is that Oil & Gas exploration still has needs for computing that's considered significant today. Basically, I can see that they needed super computers in the 80s. But I might have assumed that their computing needs wouldn't keep scaling with supply. So that by now, just renting some GPUs from Amazon might be enough.

A former employer of mine had lots of oil companies as clients for their CFD software...for most of the problem sets, the memory use was in the TBs, and it's tough to get a GPU with more than 16-24GB of onboard RAM.

Re: Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

#34

Post by jgalt212 »

EricE wrote: post #30
jgalt212 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, but interestingly enough the book, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power , only has 9 mentions of the word computer and zero for supercomputer . The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power https://www.amazon.com/Prize-Epic-Quest-Money-Power/dp/14391...

From the authors Bio: "Daniel Yergin is the author of the bestseller The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World which has been hailed as “a fascinating saga” about the “quest for sustainable resources of energy,” and “the book you must read to understand the future of our economy and our way of life,” ..." So it's more a book to persuade (feelings) than inform (facts) - no wonder they aren't me…

I know I read a book that won the Pulitzer.

https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/daniel-yergin

and I know you the passage you cite from his bio is not in related to the book I cited.

Re: Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

#35

Post by MR4D »

technofiend wrote: post #20
beerandt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you knew the effort and cost that goes into large scale near and offshore seismic and non-seismic surveys then you wouldn't think twice about putting the value of the data well above the value of the hardware. Offshore deepwater (~2500ft+) non-seismic surveys might cost 6-7 figures per day to operate, and might fill up a hard drive every 1-3 days. Depending on how many drives fit on a tape, the raw data could get…

Absolutely and of course the opportunity cost from missing out on a lucrative oil field could buy a room full of compute.

It's even worse than that.

I used to work with a guy who told me that the reason BP bought Amoco, and not the other way around, is that years before, the Amoco team misread the seismic map (not the chart), and bid on the wrong piece of land. BP got the other piece, and the difference was big enough that within a decade, one bought the other.

THAT is how much the data is worth.

Re: Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

#36

Post by eru »

beerandt wrote: post #31
eru wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the value of the seismic data keeps better over time than the value of the hardware, too.

Better than the hardware, certainly. But advances in surveying technology make new surveys worthwhile, occasionally, so the data does have a lifespan. Of course better analysis techniques or more powerful hardware for old data makes a big difference too.

Sure, adding more data is also good. Often new data can make the old data more valuable, too, I'd guess?

Re: Big Oil’s Favorite Toy: Supercomputers (2018)

#37

Post by beerandt »

eru wrote: post #36
beerandt wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better than the hardware, certainly. But advances in surveying technology make new surveys worthwhile, occasionally, so the data does have a lifespan. Of course better analysis techniques or more powerful hardware for old data makes a big difference too.

Sure, adding more data is also good. Often new data can make the old data more valuable, too, I'd guess?

Yes, although it's not usually a case of doing the same thing with new tech and getting better results. You'd have to have some hint that oil might be there from the first survey.

But my experience is mostly not-seismic, so I'm not sure how the survey parameters would be adjusted for a revisit.

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