Abstract This paper shares Saudi ARAMCO's Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Computer Center (ECC) experience in providing the latest in computer technology to service and enhance Saudi ARAMCO's Exploration and Petroleum Engineering efforts. Saudi ARAMCO's data processing requirements have increased dramatically over the past decade. The increase can be mainly attributed to the shift in exploration from 2D to 3D seismic data processing and the growth in the number of cells and complexity of reservoir models. To fulfill these requirements, Saudi ARAMCO has established state-of-the-art computing facilities with supercomputers and highend workstations along with their sophisticated graphical plotting devices all connected through a powerful network. The high-end workstations are utilized for interactive processing and visualization of data both in seismic processing and reservoir simulation. ECC has also expanded the throughput of the network to handle the explosion of data transfer and promote the integration and effective utilization between the user friendly interface of the workstation and the intensive number crunching capability of the supercomputers.
Introduction In 1981 the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering (EXPEC) Computer Center, known as the ECC, started data processing activities to meet Saudi ARAMCO's goals of establishing the kingdom's hydrocarbon potential and fully automating its oil production. Consistent with Saudi ARAMCO's pivotal role in the oil industry, ECC has maintained a world-class leadership in the E and P computing oil industry by placing effective, integrated, easy to use tools in the hands of E and P geoscientists to meet all their computing needs. ECC has grown from a small shop with a single IBM 370/168 computer to a leading world class petroleum industry computing center. It strives to employ the latest technology supercomputers, data communication networks, workstations, and applications software available to provide state-of-the-art computing technology capabilities and services to Saudi ARAMCO's Exploration, Petroleum Engineering, and Producing organizations.
This paper will address the ever increasing computing requirements of the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering organizations, and ECC's position in satisfying these needs. ECC's current challenges and future outlook will also be discussed.
Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Requirements Exploration Saudi ARAMCO's exploration activity has increased kingdom wide.
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