Back to SAG Winners 2002

Petrotrin, Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited

To introduce GIS technology to Petrotrin with the aim of improving business processes throughout the company. Business processes include asset management – monitoring and maintenance, emergency response systems, interfacing with existing corporate RDBMs including SAP R/3.

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Business Problem

There are many areas within the company where GIS technology can be applied to solve business problems or improve business processes. Business problems include:

· Provide a common approach to data capture and automation, and a central repository for all geographic data. Some 30 different feature classes have so far been identified.

· Exploration and Production involves the acquisition of leases from either the state or private owners wherever Petrotrin does not own the mineral rights. Royalties must be paid to lessors as determined by a highly mathematical and iterative formula stipulated by the Ministry of Energy. The GIS application has reduced the computational time for each well from 1 week to 2-3 minutes. The application uses routes generated for each well track to determine where along the well track oil is being produced, the leases (represented by regions) affected by each drainage zone of the well track in order to compute the percentage royalty applicable to each lease.

· Petrotrin has an Oracle-based Well Information System (WIS). Whenever users want information on well production/status, requests are sent to the IT department who then writes SQLs to produce the desired results. The Well Production GIS allows users to construct their own queries against the WIS. The results are a map as well as drill down reports on each well satisfying the query. Graphs can also be generated along with the reports.

· To new production field personnel, finding location of wells, production headers etc. can be a daunting task. Using network connectivity the GIS provides a route finder which allows users to trace paths (along roads or pipelines) between various facilities.

Technology Implemented

A mix of hardware and software were used in developing the applications. Hardware included Intel PCs and NT servers. Software included ArcView 3.1 with Avenue, Network Analyst, ArcInfo 7 with AML. Newer applications use ArcGIS 8, ArcObjects, MapObjects, Crystal Reports, Map canvas, ArcSDE for Oracle/. Connection to corporate databases utilizes ODBC, DBI, Net8 and OLE DB.

Where digitization is required AutoCAD is used and the data subsequently imported to ESRI format. Survey techniques utilizing Trimble GPS equipment are also employed. Coverages are built and cleaned in Workstation ArcInfo then imported to feature classes in ArcSDE.

ArcIMS and SAP R/3 connectivity are now being investigated.

Development Team Biography

Team Leader – Cheryl Cleghorn B. Sc. Math / Computer Science, M.Sc. Computer Science, Certificate – General Management
Nicholle Frontin – B.Sc. Land Surveying, M. Sc. GIS
Darron Pustam – B. Sc. Information Technology, Certificate GIS
Cintra Rampial – B. Sc. Computer Studies, M. Sc. GIS (thesis)
Edsel Thompson – B.Sc. Surveying & Land Information, M. Sc. GIS (thesis)
Rudranath Maharaj - B.Sc. Surveying & Land Information
Gerald Lewis – B. Sc. Land Surveying
Christopher Weekes – Cartographer
Joseph Roberts – Chief Cartographer
Keith Charles – Cartographer
Khadine Sanderson – Data support
Desiree Villaruel – Data Support
Jennifer Hodge – Data Support

Extended support

Cartographic Department
Survey Department

Management Support

Wayne Bertrand – Executive Manager
Narayan Ramtahal – Manager
Gemma Warner - Administrator

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