Gazprom Neft Launches Into Commercial Operation The Digital Twin Of Seismic Exploration

Gazprom Neft, together with Lanit-Tercom (part of the Lanit group), has developed a digital platform to improve the efficiency of seismic exploration in oil fields. The program includes a unique database of research results from all Gazprom Neft oil fields in different regions. The project is being implemented by Gazprom Neft together with Gazpromneft-GEO and the company's own scientific and technical center, which provide expert support and testing the system's performance.

Based on the accumulated data, the algorithms help select the optimal solutions in order to study promising areas for oil production. They are based on the most successful technological operations practice in areas similar in geological structure.

The new digital system covers all business processes and tools that are used by geophysicists at different stages of work. Analytics and automatic recommendations modules take into account reference values and historical accumulated data for Gazprom Neft fields. This allows them to qualitatively allocate resources and plan the timing of topogeodetic, drilling and blasting operations as well as registration works.

The digital twin was commissioned ahead of the winter field research season. Thanks to the system, Gazprom Neft’s partner companies will be able to view information about each project, enter data on the progress of work, quickly receive planned work contours on a map and download maps of worked out areas on a single platform. Seismic specialists will be able to track critical moments and use colleagues’ and analytical system’s recommendations in order to adopt a corrective action plan in time. The system’s functionality will expand through new optimization algorithms. In the future, the platform will monitor compliance with the Green Seismic principles to ensure the safety of forest and protected areas. Also, the program will have the ability to form flight tasks for unmanned aircraft.

Marat Nemeshev, Digital Solutions Department Director, Lanit-Tercom: “The key element in the digital transformation process will always be a human. All systems that we create in partnership with Gazprom Neft are designed to ensure that the company's employees rely on accurate information presented in a clear way when making decisions, as well as that they are able to effectively communicate together. In product development, we use modern technologies. For example, a geoserver underlying the cartographic module using vector tiles, which expands the list of existing possibilities when working with maps. We are also constantly improving the interface, making it user-friendly. The project roadmap includes integration with many systems, making The Digital Twin of Seismic Exploration one of the key exploration platforms of tomorrow.”

Yuri Masalkin, Director for Geological Prospecting and Resource Base Development, Gazprom Neft: “Based on the results of the winter field season 2020-2021, Gazprom Neft will assess the effect of using the digital twin in real conditions. We expect that the system will radically restructure business processes in geological exploration. The single online space is actually a digital seismic control center. It improves operational control over field work, while providing high quality geological information. In the future, it will be possible to perform predictive analytics based on machine learning algorithms through the digital twin, thus increasing the efficiency in decision-making. It is also planned to integrate the ability to control non-seismic methods into the software product.”