Case Study: Flare Solutions E&P Catalog Software
Shell has been exploring for and producing oil and gas for more than a century. Exploration & Production (EP) carries out these upstream activities through some of the world’s largest and most complex energy projects. Many of these are joint venture partnerships, often with national oil companies. Shell has interests in exploration and production in nearly 40 countries and territories, employing around 35,000 people.
Flare Solutions has supplied web based information management software to Shell since 2004. Shell has a global license of the E&P Catalog software, used by thousands of staff in its subsurface and wells line of business. The E&P Catalog metadata system enables high precision searching and publishing of key documents & knowledge, captured in context to business processes. This reduces the time spent looking for definitive information by project teams, facilitates secure sharing across projects for analogues and supports internal Records Management compliance obligations.
The E&P Catalog integrates with other software in Shell, such as the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), Full Text Search Engine and Map Search based systems.
It is used globally on over 150 of Shell’s key oil and gas development projects – e.g. Perdido (Gulf of Mexico), BC-10 (Brazil), Gumust-Kakap (Malaysia). It is also used by the Global Exploration function in Shell for New Ventures, Prospect Maturation and Appraisal processes.
Clockwise from top left: (1) Global Resources chart, (2) Rig portfoliio picture, (3) Exploration Funnel (all copyright Shell 2007/8 Global Exploration Portfolio (courtesy www.shell.com)). (4) a screenshot of the E&P Catalog used to publish and retrieve documents.