Jon (Jonathan) has worked directly in Oil & Gas company upstream operations since 1985, providing vital operational set-up and support for land and marine seismic 2D, 3D and 4D as well as rig positioning activities in relation to the positioning and mapping of associated surveys. These activities include evaluation of bids, contract specification, on site validation and field processing of data as well as post survey position processing reviews to solve mapped errors caused by human and software problems and ties to other physical objects. Highlights include setting up terrestrial networks for deep-water positioning of rigs and seismic 3D surveys in the GOM(1982-1984), and (1986 and 1992) early drafting of Survey & GPS specifications for 3D seismic surveys. Another highlight is his initiation and participation in the ‘GIGS’ (Geospatial Integrity of Geoscience Software(2007-2011) evaluation methodology for IOGP (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) with 13 oil and gas companies including and led by DevonEnergy, ExxonMobil and Shell.
Jon has a significant portfolio of spatial training material for other professionals and incoming less experienced talent, that covers the inter-relationships between the spatial components of seismic, wells and wellbores, boundaries. Jon’s understanding and use of GIS over 15 years has shown that a poor handling of current & historical spatial data averages misplacement of these objects 36% of the time in O&G databases by more than 100 ft, often more than 250 ft (~20%) and sometimes over 1,000 ft (~5-8%). The consequences can add up to several millions of dollars in misplaced wells and structures in the mapping domain. Such mistakes mislead and are often invisible to operators and management until it is too late or even after the final activities have taken place.
Even where there is commercial production, the expected ROI can be reduced by reservoir misinterpretation, waivers in favor of neighboring lease owners for boundary placement encroachment and higher depletion rates over the medium to long term.
Here there are four bits of advice from Jon on the most common positioning issues in oil and gas.
Jon started his career in the Royal Navy Hydrographic Department, and cemented his talents in Geodesy and Cartography at Chevon Geosciences under the leadership of James G Morgan.
Jonathan is a specialist in surveying for O&G upstream operations, but also an operations generalist (with Worldwide experience in over 25 countries) having managed implementation of close quarters navigation for O&G lightering vessels in Pascagoula, Mississippi, installation of pipelines (e.g. Exxon Lena Tower) and operations project manager for testing of daily transfer of seismic data transmission using data compression (1994-5 Chevron Research – Ergas, Donoho, Polzer). He also project managed the $10 mm 3D survey of Block 10 in Angola at Ocean Energy in 2002-3. Project came in on-time and under budget with great managerial support from the in-house Geologist and his Geoscience manager