石油行业长期以来一直在关注虚拟现实（VR）和可视化技术，但价格下跌和技术进步意味着这个曾经未来的概念正在变得更加实用。

这项技术之所以具有吸引力，是因为石油公司一直在努力将复杂的地下数据可视化，并有效地培训员工。VR 的沉浸式特性正在帮助公司克服这些挑战。

核心空间

在位于布宜诺斯艾利斯贝里索的 YPF 技术 (Y-TEC) 研究机构分析岩心样本时，物理空间一直是一个制约因素。

YPF Technology 地下服务部门实验室和数据经理Ariel Guzzetti告诉JPT，实验室可以随时显示长达 500 米的物理岩心。岩心项目通常需要 4 到 8 个月才能完成，因为在这些项目期间，专家需要频繁接触岩心。有时，该设施会在岩心附近的笔记本电脑、显示器或打印件上显示光学电子显微镜图像、CT 扫描、对数图、图表和其他与岩心相关的数据，例如用于研讨会或培训课程。

“这就是我们耗尽空间的原因，”他说。

该设施可以同时处理五到八个项目。“我们通常会搁置三、五、七个项目，这并不是因为我们实验室的容量。也许我们可以做更多的测试，但我们没有足够的空间来布置核心，”他说。

最后，古泽蒂说，人们频繁前往布宜诺斯艾利斯的工厂处理岩心，这可能会带来不便或成本高昂。

但虚拟空间则是另一回事：进入“微型宇宙”，一个小型的虚拟宇宙，在这种情况下专用于地球科学。

他说，借助虚拟现实，可以“瞬间将人们带到岩石上”，显示相关数据也容易得多。“借助这项技术，你可以将岩石和数据结合在一起，而不受笔记本电脑或电视屏幕的限制。你可以在同一个区域显示任意多的信息。”

通过 VR，专家可以访问和检查岩心、查阅现有岩心数据并与其他专家互动来研究样本。

核心图像、扫描和其他信息可用于以数字方式重新创建核心，以便在虚拟环境中进行研究和交互。

目前，地质学家可以看到岩心的结构、裂缝和岩相。Guzzetti 强调，虚拟岩心与岩心的数字孪生并不相同。

“就岩心描述而言，它并不能取代实际岩心。它更多的是用于分析数据和查看更大的结构，”他说。但他相信数字孪生的未来很快就会到来，虚拟岩心将提供更高分辨率的细节。

不过，目前 Y-TEC 正在测试 VR 技术，并计划在 +VacaMuerta 联盟内部署其应用。

“我们将为每个财团成员提供一副 VR 耳机，”他说，“我们甚至可以在虚拟现实中协调会议，这样他们就不需要来到我们的实验室去看岩石了。”

在迷你宇宙中工作需要使用 VR 耳机，Guzzetti 一直在测试 Meta Quest 3 和 Quest 2 版本。

他说道：“为了让这项技术真正发展起来，我们需要在市场上推出更多的耳机。”

他补充说，对于每个需要使用虚拟现实头盔的人来说，使用虚拟现实头盔并不是一件自然而然的事情，但他们可以相当快地学会如何操作该设备。

“大多数尝试的人只需要 5 到 10 分钟就能意识到如何在虚拟现实中操作。事实上，我们现在正在做的是，如果有人需要使用它，我们会给他一个周末的 VR 耳机，并鼓励他们使用娱乐软件尝试它，”Guzzetti 说。“在几天内，无论是独自一人还是在我们的助手的帮助下，在 5 到 10 分钟内，他们就已经在使用这个系统了。”

他喜欢观察新接触虚拟现实的人的反应。“当那些没有使用过虚拟现实、从未尝试过这种技术的人看到他们第一印象时，这并不奇怪。我们介绍了如何使用它，他们总是说，‘太好了！我能看到虚拟现实的核心。’第一印象总是‘太好了！’”

虽然学习使用头戴式设备操作 VR 可能不会花太长时间，但有些人无法忍受长时间处于 VR 环境中。“有些人会感到头晕，长时间使用头盔不舒服，”Guzzetti 说。他说，将使用时间限制在较短的时间内可能会有所帮助，或者这些人可以在混合现实而不是完整 VR 中工作。

地质实地考察

德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校经济地质局 (BEG) 高级 3D 地质建模顾问Robin Dommisse表示，沉浸式技术是从世纪之交各公司斥巨资建造的“地位象征”可视化房间演变而来的。这些房间原本用于协作和决策，后来变成了更大的礼堂，配有昂贵的投影仪，可在静态屏幕上显示 3D 图像，供用户通过 3D 眼镜观看。

随着公司寻求更有利于协作的解决方案，这种房间已经不再流行了。

一种越来越流行的解决方案是将沉浸式软件与 VR 头戴设备相结合。配备 VR 头戴设备的多名用户可以聚集在一个虚拟房间中检查岩心，在这些房间中，他们可以访问露头数据以及测井曲线、3D 地震和模型等地下数据。

Dommisse 告诉JPT：“可以将其视为从标准 2D PowerPoint 演示文稿向交互式 3D 可视化协作空间的过渡，该空间集成了所有地质、地球物理和工程数据，并可作为决策支持环境。”

他补充说，能够看到岩石内部可以进行地质分析，有助于从露头到地下数据的理解。BEG 使用的 BaselineZ 等集成 3D 可视化软件将数字化岩心数据放入虚拟桌面上的虚拟空间中，以便用户可以在同一 VR 空间中滚动、调查和解释多个井的数千英尺岩心数据。用户可以看到重要的岩石属性，如孔隙度和渗透率，该软件允许可视化油藏模拟结果，例如反映注水项目的各个阶段，他说。

“您可以看到油藏模拟流体前端通过油藏，每个时间步骤都在注入井和生产井之间进行。当然，您可以将其扩展到其他形式的提高采收率，”Dommisse 说道。“这是一种非常有趣的方式，不仅可以结合多种地下数据，还可以将工程解释与地质解释结合起来。”

虽然可视化和模拟至关重要，但他说，主要价值来自于这种环境能够支持决策。决策支持工具越容易获得和使用，它所能提供的价值就越大，他说。

“我认为虚拟现实将来会在这方面发挥更重要的作用，”他说，“你不会仅仅把数据放在一起进行研究或分析，而是在勘探和开发场景中实时使用它进行决策。如果你能做到这一点，那么无论工具的价格是多少，它都会很快收回成本。”

Dommisse 认为，这些工具的用途不仅限于石油和天然气公司的决策。借助 VR 技术，地质学学生或忙碌的工程师（无论身处世界的哪个角落）都可以在同一时间前往同一地点进行虚拟地质实地考察，以了解更多有关露头和地下的信息。

来自世界各地的人们可以登录特定的虚拟房间，他们的化身就会出席会议、讲座或旅游。

Dommisse 表示：“如果你想在多个地点教授大量学生，或者想将来自世界各地的专业知识汇集在一起​​，查看相同类型的图像、模型、三维显示等，那么这确实是一个很大的优势。我们看到了培训、教育和互动的不可思议的价值。”

即使那些对某个主题没有基础知识的人也可以从 VR 课程中受益。

“我们也对那些对实际主题毫无兴趣的人这样做过。比如说，如果你带了一个不是地质学家的人，比如我。你邀请他们到一个房间，他们会看到所有这些不熟悉的东西。出于某种原因，人们参与得更多，”他说。

他说，以 3D 形式查看事物使一切变得更容易理解，因为人类的大脑已经适应了快速分析复杂的 3D 场景。“如果你观察一些深奥的东西，比如井眼、测井曲线、三维地震图、表面、断层，所有这些典型的地质事物，当你以真正的 3D 形式看到它们时，即使是外行，一个不是专家的人，也能理解这些物体是什么。他们看到平面、横截面、表面和地图。”

他说，多年来他见证了虚拟现实 (VR) 技术发展的多次失败，而现在一切似乎都在向好的方向发展，帮助虚拟现实 (VR) 技术成为主流。

“所有技术都汇聚在一起，创造了一场完美的风暴，一切都变得更加实惠。我经常告诉人们，如果你想进入石油和天然气行业的虚拟现实，你所需要做的就是购买一个 3 年前的 Meta Quest 2 版本，现在价格降到了 200 美元，然后你可以免费下载 BaselineZ viewer 等工具，”Dommisse 说，但他指出 BaselineZ 协作室也可以通过智能手机、平板电脑或笔记本电脑上运行的查看器软件访问。“创建房间的人支付房间费用。我可以邀请很多人到我的房间来教育他们，与他们互动，等等。这确实是历史上进入虚拟现实的最实惠的时代。”

沉浸式房间

沉浸式技术可帮助人们更好地可视化复杂信息，例如地下细节。BaselineZ 于 2017 年启动，旨在让地质学家能够在 VR 环境中协作处理地下数据。

BaselineZ 的业务发展顾问 Jim Thom 告诉 JPT：“我们最大的想法是地质学家 A 可以与世界任何地方的地质学家 B 合作。”

该平台允许用户在沉浸式环境中远程大规模地与数据和 3D 模型进行交互，并已用于帮助地球科学家更好地了解地下数据，而 BaselineZ 已经扩展了其使用案例。

他说，除了核心分析之外，其他主要用途是教育和讲故事。

汤姆说，沉浸式环境可以帮助“新工程师、新地质学家、新地球物理学家以及管理非常复杂资产的新经理”比通过幻灯片学习更快地掌握知识，并且获得更深入的知识。

3D 讲故事可用于教育公众了解复杂的项目，例如碳捕获。“想象一下公众坐在那里想，‘好吧，我想把碳从环境中排出，但我不希望它在我的牧场下面。’那么你如何向他们解释这是可以的？”汤姆问道。

他说，使用沉浸式技术的 3D 叙事可以让人们更深入地了解该项目。

BaselineZ 最初是为 VR 环境设计的，用户戴上 VR 头盔即可进入沉浸式环境。但正如BaselineZ 战略总监Gerard de Jager告诉JPT 的那样，“事实证明，很多人还没有为此做好准备。”

但人们已经准备好迎接过去昂贵的可视化室的现代化版本。

过去的可视化会议室的缺点之一是成本。它们不仅价格昂贵，有时要花费数百万美元，而且需要几个月的时间才能建成，而且这些会议室只能显示事先准备好的内容，通常需要有人来操作。

汤姆回忆起与一位石油公司专业人士的谈话时说，过去的可视化室最大的问题之一可能就是不利于协作。

“一位经理问道，‘为什么我们称这些为协作室，其实它更像电影院？你怎么能指望我们在黑暗的房间里戴着这些愚蠢的（3D）眼镜进行协作呢？’”他说道。

简而言之，他解释说，过去的视听室设计和参数是自相矛盾的。从本质上讲，它们没有达到目标。

汤姆说：“我们称之为一次险些失败，因为整个行业都希望实现这一点。”

他说，这样的房间可以让公司从高薪专家那里获得更多价值，而且有助于提高安全性。“他们想解决所有这些问题。他们投入了大量资金。投入了大量的金钱、时间和精力，我称之为侥幸逃脱。”

随着时间的推移，技术不断进步，创建可视化房间所需的许多元素的价格也不断下降。

Igloo Vision Ltd. 的业务开发经理Holly Mindel告诉JPT，过去的虚拟房间之所以如此昂贵，部分原因是之前用于创建沉浸式体验的混合和变形软件是军用级的，价格昂贵，大多数企业无法使用。除此之外，许多沉浸式房间只能处理有限类型的内容，并且需要多个媒体服务器才能运行。最后，她说，这些房间通常需要有经验的人来管理。

Igloo Vision 是一家共享沉浸式空间公司，以其沉浸式测地线形穹顶以及立方体和圆柱体而闻名，该公司希望创建一个灵活的沉浸式系统，可用于多种用途。除了石油行业，Igloo 还为建筑、大型科技、教育和体育行业定制房间。她说，它可以容纳任何类型的内容。

随着时间的推移，技术不断进步，所需的大部分设备价格也下降了，经过一个有助于定义和建立内容开发工作流程的咨询流程，一个较小的定制 Igloo 沉浸式房间可以在不到一周的时间内以大约 25 万美元的价格建成，该房间可以将图像投射到房间的四面墙壁和地板上。

而且，明德尔说，这些房间不需要专门的操作员。

本月，Igloo 将在休斯顿开设一间沉浸式演示室。该演示室配备 4K 投影仪，向考虑在自家场所设立此类设施的石油和天然气客户展示现代沉浸式演示室的功能。

自 2014 年以来，该公司已为世界各地的石油和天然气客户安装了多个由 4 到 12 台投影仪供电的房间。这些房间由与硬件无关的 Igloo Core Engine 供电，该引擎支持使用 VR、3D 和 360 度内容，以及基于 Web 的内容、演示和办公工具以及来自 Unity 和 Unreal Engine 的基于游戏引擎的内容。名为“真实透视”的功能会自动将逼真的透视应用于 3D 模型。整个房间可以由技术人员或非技术人员使用手机、笔记本电脑、游戏控制器和/或平板电脑控制，并且只需要一台服务器即可运行。它与许多第三方应用程序集成，包括 BaselineZ 数字孪生和模型查看平台。

De Jager 表示 BaselineZ 已与 Igloo 团队合作将该应用程序标准化为即插即用的解决方案，供 viz 室使用。“对于核心团队或钻井团队，我们有一个标准化的解决方案。”

他说，无论专家是使用 VR 耳机还是在沉浸式房间中从世界各地虚拟聚集，该软件都可以实现无需旅行即可汇集知识。

汤姆称之为集体天才的聚集。

“在能源行业钻井时，地质、地球物理、勘探部门和钻井工程部门之间有着明显的分工。这是为什么呢？因为他们无法将所有事情放在一起考虑，”他说。“钻井工程师会这样看待问题：‘如果我在深水中钻一口长距离井，我能把管道弯曲多远？’而地质学家会坐在那里思考：‘为什么你能打中这里 26,000 英尺以下的目标？’但（钻井工程师必须）以某种方式钻穿断层，这样井才不会卡住。”

他说，将不同学科的人员聚集在一个沉浸式的房间中（否则他们之间可能很难沟通），可以让他们更轻松地协作，因为他们可以同时看到所有的数据。

他说：“他们不仅可以看到地质模型，而且现在还可以想象工程师可以将钻井扭矩放在这里”，并可以看到如果变量发生变化会发生什么情况。”

这样的房间还可以用来更好地了解需要解决的挑战。

德贾格尔说，来自多个地方的人们正在努力解决印度的一个钻井问题，而这个非常大的冰屋让他们能够从规模上看到这个问题。“这不是一个平面屏幕，但它也是从钻井问题的规模上看到的，”他说，并补充说他发现“从规模上看待问题有助于找到正确的答案，这是一个非常有趣的发现。”

避险训练

在石油和天然气行业，人们接受培训以防止和避免出现问题。

DNV 能源系统高级负责人John Morgan告诉JPT，行业专业人士可以前往 DNV 位于英国的 Spadeadam 研究和测试中心“亲眼见证一场真实的、现场的、全面的火灾或爆炸，这是他们花大量时间试图避免和预防的事情。显然，这不是你在石油和天然气行业真正想看到的事情。但危险在于，如果你从未见过这些事情，你永远不会意识到 30 英尺高的火灾或爆炸有多严重。”

但旅行可能既昂贵又耗时，因此 VR 培训等替代方案可能很有吸引力。

“如果你去 Spadeadam 看到 20 英尺高的喷射火，它很响，很热，所有这些。你不会忘记它。如果你看到我站着做演讲，好吧，也许你可能会记得一点，但它可能不是你今年的亮点之一。VR 介于两者之间。它是人们日常不常用的东西，所以他们确实记得它，这意味着他们记得随之而来的重大危险安全信息，”摩根说。

VR培训场景可以反映石油和天然气现场可能出错的真实任务，DNV已经开发了一系列用于重大事故避免培训的沉浸式VR，并已授权给石油和天然气公司。

“VR 看起来不太像海上，但它绝对不像 CAD 模型，上面有闪亮的红色部分和绿色结构部分，或者其他什么。它看起来更像是海上环境，真的让你觉得自己身处海上，”摩根说。

不过，他说，重点是进行现实的危险规避培训。在 DNV 的一个场景中，一块脚手架掉落并撞击小孔连接处，小孔连接处发生故障并释放出高压气体，然后点燃并引起火灾。

“有些患有眩晕症的人根本不喜欢这种场景，因为它太逼真了。感觉就像你站在一个大型加工厂的边缘，从边缘往下看 20 到 30 英尺，”摩根说。“它让人们真的以为自己就在那个地方，这就是为什么它如此令人难忘，这就是为什么它真的能让他们深刻理解这个信息。”

这些场景还包括一个运行计时器，因此用户必须按照与现实生活中相同的时间尺度对情况做出反应。“如果你可以停下来并给出最好的答案，那么做虚拟现实就没有意义了，”他说。“你有 10 秒钟的时间来做出选择。”

他说，海上安全代表对这些场景给出了“非常好的反馈”，特别是关于学员的参与度。

摩根说：“我可能在整个职业生涯中从未见过任何与重大危险类似的事情”，这意味着“自满情绪会蔓延”。

在培训期间让员工参与进来至关重要。

DNV 的 VR 培训客户之一是 Harbour Energy，双方在 2023 年欧洲海上展览会上发表了关于SPE 215563中该主题的案例历史论文。

在论文中，合著者得出结论，使用 VR 进行事故避免意识培训可以提高组织各个层面员工的参与度。他们写道：“很明显，在使用 VR 技术促进过程安全方面仍有尚未开发的潜力，应该进一步评估。”

根据 DNV 的沉浸式培训商业模式，他们将三分之一的许可费用重新投资到 VR 培训项目中，以开发新的、更复杂的场景。

理解支撑剂输送

阿尔伯塔大学石油工程学教授泰丰·巴巴达格利 (Tayfun Babadagli)表示，他的研究小组正在使用 VR 头戴设备研究支撑剂在裂缝中的输送情况等。他说，这个想法是将模型和过程以三维方式可视化，随着可视化模型的移动，从不同角度研究这些过程。

他说，与仅仅使用二维可视化或图形输出相比，计算模型有助于更好地理解支撑剂在孔隙空间或裂缝中移动的物理和力学原理。

他表示，VR 可以直观地看到裂缝壁和支撑剂之间发生的情况，以及支撑剂在储层环境中的运输方式。“即使两种支撑剂之间相互作用——它们也会相互撞击、发生碰撞，”Babadagli 告诉JPT。“这就是 VR 有用的原因。”

他说，他的研究小组使用的系统很简单，可以满足他们的目的。它包括一个具有 3D 可视化能力的大型电视屏幕、摄像头、耳机、一对带有视频卡和软件的工作站以及一个操纵杆控制系统。“3D 是最重要的，”他补充道。

进一步阅读

SPE 215563 使用 VR 技术进行 MAH 意识培训， 作者：C. Luoma、DNV 和 M. Wardrope、Harbour Energy。

The oil industry has long flirted with virtual reality (VR) and visualization tech but falling prices and technological advances mean this once-futuristic concept is becoming more practical.

The tech is appealing because oil companies have struggled to visualize complex subsurface data and effectively train their workforce. VR’s immersive nature is helping companies overcome such challenges.

Space for Cores

Physical space has long been a constraint when it comes to analyzing core samples at the YPF Technology (Y-TEC) research facility in Berisso, Buenos Aires.

Ariel Guzzetti, lab and data manager for the subsurface services department at YPF Technology, told JPT the lab can display up to 500 linear m of physical core at any given time. Core projects tend to take between 4 and 8 months to complete because during those projects specialists require frequent access to the cores. Sometimes the facility displays optical electronic microscope images, CT scans, log plots, charts, and other data related to the cores on laptops, monitors, or printouts near the cores, such as for workshops or training sessions.

“That’s how we run out of space,” he said.

The facility can handle somewhere between five and eight projects simultaneously. “We usually have three, five, seven projects on hold, and not due to the capacity of our lab. Maybe we can do more tests, but we run out of space to lay out the cores,” he said.

Finally, Guzzetti said, people frequently travel to the Buenos Aires facility to work with the cores, which can be inconvenient or costly.

But virtual space is a different story: Enter the “miniverse,” a small virtual universe, in this case dedicated to geoscience.

With VR, it’s possible to “bring people to the rock instantaneously,” he said, and displaying relevant data is much easier. “With this technology, you can mix up the rock and the data together without the restriction of laptops or TV screens. You can display as much information as you want, all in the same area.”

With VR, experts can access and examine the cores, consult existing core data, and interact with other experts to study the samples.

Core images, scans, and other information can be used to recreate the core digitally so it can be studied and interacted with in a virtual environment.

Currently a geologist can see the structure, fractures, and facies in the core. Guzzetti emphasized that the virtual core is not the same as a digital twin of the core.

“For core description, it does not replace the actual core. It’s more for analyzing data and seeing bigger structures,” he said. But he believes a digital twin future will be here soon, with virtual cores providing higher-resolution details.

For now, though, Y-TEC is testing VR technology and plans to deploy its use within the +VacaMuerta consortium.

“We are going to give a VR headset to every consortium member,” he said. “We can even coordinate to do meetings in the virtual reality so they will not need to come to our lab to see the rocks.”

Working in the miniverse requires the use of a VR headset, and Guzzetti has been testing the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 2 versions.

“In order for this technology to really grow up, we need more headsets in the market,” he said.

Working with VR headsets doesn’t come naturally to everyone who may need to use one, but they can learn how to work the equipment fairly quickly, he added.

“Most of the people who try it need only 5 to 10 minutes to realize how to operate inside the virtual reality. In fact, what we are doing right now is if someone needs to use it, we give him the VR headset for a weekend and encourage them to try it” using entertainment software, Guzzetti said. “Within a couple of days alone or with our assistant, in 5 to 10 minutes, they are already using the system.”

He enjoys witnessing the responses of people new to VR. “It’s amazing to see the first impression when people who don’t use virtual reality and haven’t before tried this kind of technology. We introduce how to use it, and they always say, ‘Wow! I can see the core’ in virtual reality. The first impression is always a ‘Wow!’”

While learning to operate in VR using a headset may not take too long, some people cannot tolerate being in a VR environment for extended periods of time. “Some people get dizzy and are not comfortable using the helmet for long periods of time,” Guzzetti said. Limiting use to shorter periods can be helpful, or those individuals can work in mixed reality rather than full VR, he said.

Geology Field Trips

Robin Dommisse, senior 3D geomodeling advisor for the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at The University of Texas at Austin, said immersive technology has evolved from the “status symbol” visualization rooms that companies were spending big dollars on at the turn of the century. Those rooms—meant to enable collaboration and decision making—tended to be larger auditoriums with expensive projectors that showed 3D images on a static screen for users to view through 3D glasses.

Such rooms fell out of fashion as companies sought solutions more conducive to collaboration.

One solution that is rising in popularity is the combination of immersive software and a VR headset. Multiple users equipped with VR headsets can gather in a virtual room to examine cores, and in these rooms, they have access to outcrop data along with subsurface data like well logs, 3D seismic, and models.

“Think of it as a transition from a standard 2D PowerPoint presentation to an interactive, 3D visual collaboration space that integrates all your geological, geophysical, and engineering data and serves as a decision-support environment,” Dommisse told JPT.

Being able to see inside the rock enables geological analysis that helps bridge understanding from outcrops to the subsurface data, he added. Integrated 3D visualization software like BaselineZ, which BEG uses, puts the digitized core data into a virtual space on a virtual table so a user can scroll, investigate, and interpret thousands of feet of core data for multiple wells in the same VR space. Users can see important rock attributes like porosity and permeability, and the software allows for the visualization of reservoir simulation results, such as to reflect various stages of a waterflood project, he said.

“You see a reservoir simulation fluid front pass through a reservoir with each time step between injectors and producers. And of course, then you can expand that to other forms of enhanced oil recovery,” Dommisse said. “It’s a real interesting way to combine not just the multiple subsurface data, but also combine the engineering interpretation together with the geological interpretation.”

While visualization and simulation are critical, he said major value comes from such an environment being able to support decision making. The more accessible and easy to use the decision support tool is, the more value it can provide, he said.

“I think that virtual reality is going to play a much more important role in that in the future,” he said. “You don’t just bring the data together just to study it or to analyze it, but actually to use it for a real-time decision making in exploration and development scenarios. If you can do that, then, no matter how much a tool would cost, it would quickly pay for itself.”

Dommisse sees use for such tools beyond decision making at oil and gas companies. With VR technology, geology students or busy engineers—no matter where in the world they are—can take a virtual geological field trip to the same place at the same time to learn more about outcrops and the subsurface.

People from all around the world could sign into a particular virtual room and their avatars would be present for a meeting, lecture, or tour.

“It is a really big advantage if you want to either teach a number of students in multiple locations, or you want to bring expertise together from multiple locations in the world, looking at the same sort of images, models, three-dimensional displays, and so on,” Dommisse said. “We see an incredible value for training, education, and interaction.”

Even those without base-level knowledge in a topic can benefit from VR sessions.

“We’ve also done this with people who effectively have zero interest in the actual subject matter. Let’s say, if you bring somebody who’s not a geologist, like me. You invite them to a room, and they see all this type of unfamiliar stuff. For some reason, people engage more,” he said.

Seeing things in 3D makes everything easier to understand because human brains are adapted to quickly analyze complex 3D scenes, he said. “If you look at something as esoteric as a well with a well log with three-dimensional seismic with surfaces, with faults, all these typical types of geological things, when you see them in true 3D, even a layperson, a person who’s not an expert, can understand what these objects are. They see planes, they see cross sections, they see surfaces, they see maps.”

He’s seen VR efforts fail over the years, he said, and it finally seems like everything is coming together to help move VR technology into the mainstream.

“All of the technologies have kind of come together to create a perfect storm where everything becomes much, much more affordable. I tell people regularly that if you want to get into virtual reality for the oil and gas industry, all you need to do is buy a 3-year-old version of the Meta Quest 2, which now is down to $200, and then you can download tools like the BaselineZ viewer for free,” Dommisse said, although he noted BaselineZ collaboration rooms are also accessible via viewer software running on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. “The person who creates the room pays for the room. I can invite a large number of people to my room to educate them, to interact with them, and so on. It’s really the most affordable time in history to get into virtual reality.”

Immersion Rooms

Immersive technology helps people better visualize complex information, such as subsurface details. BaselineZ started in 2017 to enable geologists to collaborate on subsurface data in a VR environment.

“Our biggest concept was that geologist A could collaborate with geologist B anywhere in the world,” Jim Thom, business development advisor for BaselineZ, told JPT.

And while the platform, which allows users to interact with data and 3D models in an immersive environment, remotely and at scale, has been used to help geoscientists better understand subsurface data, BaselineZ has expanded its use cases.

Beyond core analysis, the other main uses are education and storytelling, he said.

An immersive environment can help “a new engineer, a new geologist, a new geophysicist, a new manager to a very complex asset” get up to speed much more quickly with a better depth of knowledge as compared to learning through slide decks, Thom said.

3D storytelling can be used to educate the public on complex projects, such as carbon capture. “Imagine the public is sitting there thinking, ‘Well, I want carbon out of the environment, but I don’t want it underneath my ranch.’ So how do you explain to them that it’s okay?” Thom asked.

3D storytelling using immersive technology can give people a much deeper understanding of the project, he said.

BaselineZ was originally designed for a VR environment, with users accessing the immersive environment by wearing VR headsets. But, as Gerard de Jager, director of strategy at BaselineZ, told JPT, “It turns out that a lot of people were not ready for that.”

But people are ready for a modernized version of the costly visualization rooms of the past.

One of the drawbacks of past viz rooms was the cost. Not only were they pricey, sometimes running to millions of dollars and taking months to build out, but the rooms could only display content prepared ahead of time and typically required someone to operate them.

Perhaps one of the biggest problems with viz rooms of the past is they were not conducive to collaboration, Thom said, recalling one conversation with an oil company professional.

“One of the managers said, ‘Why is it that we call these collaboration rooms when it’s more like a movie theater? How would you expect us to collaborate with these stupid (3D) glasses on in a dark room?’” he said.

In short, he explained, the design and parameters of viz rooms of the past were self-defeating. Essentially, they missed the mark.

“I called it a near miss because the industry wanted to have this,” Thom said.

Such rooms would allow companies to derive more value from high-salaried experts, and they would help promote safety, he said. “They wanted to solve all that. They invested a lot of money. There was a lot of money, time, and effort, and I call it a near miss.”

Over time, technology has evolved, and prices have dropped on many of the elements needed to create viz rooms.

Igloo Vision Ltd.’s Holly Mindel, business development manager, told JPT that viz rooms of the past were so costly partly because the previously available blending and warping software used in creating the immersive experience was military grade, expensive, and inaccessible to most businesses. Beyond that, many of the immersive rooms could only handle limited types of content and required multiple media servers to run. Finally, she said, the rooms typically required someone with experience to run them.

Igloo Vision, a shared immersive space company known for its immersive geodesic-shaped domes as well as cubes and cylinders, wanted to create a flexible immersive system that could be used for multiple use cases. Beyond the oil industry, Igloo customizes rooms for architecture, big tech, education, and sports. It is able to accommodate any type of content, she said.

Over time, technology has improved and much of the equipment needed has dropped in price, to the point where a smaller custom Igloo immersion room, which projects imagery onto the room’s four walls and its floor, can be built out for about $250,000 in less than a week following a consultative process that helps define and establish content development workflows.

And, Mindel said, the rooms don’t require a dedicated operator.

This month, Igloo is opening an immersive demo room in Houston. Kitted out with 4K projectors, the room shows off the capabilities of a modern immersive room to oil and gas clients considering setting up such a facility on their own premises.

Since 2014, the company has installed a number of rooms powered by between four and 12 projectors for oil and gas clients around the world. The rooms are powered by the hardware-agnostic Igloo Core Engine, which supports use of VR, 3D, and 360-degree content, as well as web-based content, presentation and office tools, and game-engine-based content from Unity and Unreal Engine. A feature called true perspective automatically applies true-to-life perspective to 3D models. The whole room can be controlled by technical or nontechnical people using phones, laptops, game controllers, and/or tablets, and it requires a single server to run. It integrates with a number of third-party apps, including the BaselineZ digital twin and model‑viewing platform.

De Jager said BaselineZ has worked with the Igloo team to standardize the application as a plug-and-play solution for use in viz rooms. “For a core team, or for a drilling team, we have a standardized solution.”

Whether experts are gathering virtually from around the world using VR headsets or in an immersive room, the software makes it possible to bring knowledge together without the need for travel, he said.

Thom called it gathering the collective genius.

“When we drill wells in the energy business, there is a clear separation between the geology, geophysics, exploration department, and the drilling engineering department. And why is that? Because they can’t see everything together,” he said. “The drilling engineers will look at the problem in a way that says, ‘How far can I bend a pipe if I’m doing a long-reach well in deepwater?’ And the geologists will be sitting there thinking, ‘Why can’t you hit this target that’s 26,000 ft below here?’ But (the drilling engineer has) to drill through the fault in a certain way so that the well doesn’t get stuck.”

Putting the different disciplines—who may otherwise have a difficult time communicating with one another—together in an immersive room enables them to collaborate more easily because they can see all their data at the same time, he said.

“Not only can they see the geomodel but imagine now also that the engineer can have their drilling torque sitting right here” and can see what might happen if a variable is changed, he said.

Such rooms can also be used to better understand challenges that need to be solved.

De Jager said people from multiple locations were working to solve a drilling problem in India, where the very large Igloo room allowed them to see the issue at scale. “It’s not a flat screen, but it’s also at the scale of the drilling problem,” he said, adding he found it “a fascinating learning that looking at the problems in scale is helping to find the right answers.”

Hazard Avoidance Training

In the oil and gas industry, people train to prevent and avoid problems.

John Morgan, senior principal for energy systems at DNV, told JPT industry professionals can come to DNV’s Spadeadam Research and Testing facility in the UK to “see a real, live, full-scale fire or explosion, the sort of thing that they spend a lot of their jobs trying to avoid and prevent. Clearly, not things that you actually want to see in an oil and gas situation. But the danger is, if you’ve never seen these things, you never realize how bad a 30-ft fire is, or an explosion.”

But travel can be expensive and time-consuming, so alternatives like VR training can be attractive.

“If you go to Spadeadam and see a 20-ft jet fire, it’s loud, it’s hot, all those things. You don’t forget it. If you see me standing up giving a presentation, well, maybe you might remember it for a little bit, but it’s probably not one of your highlights of the year. VR is sort of halfway between the two. It’s something that people are not using on a day-to-day basis, so they do remember it, and that means they remember the major hazard safety message that comes with it,” Morgan said.

VR training scenarios can reflect realistic tasks that might go wrong on an oil and gas site, and DNV has developed a series of immersive VR for major accident-avoidance training, which are licensed to oil and gas companies.

“The VR doesn’t quite look like offshore, but it definitely doesn’t look like a CAD model with shiny red bits and bits of green structure or whatever else that you’ve got. It looks more like an offshore environment, really making you think you are offshore,” Morgan said.

The point, though, is realistic training for hazard avoidance, he said. In one of DNV’s scenarios, a piece of scaffolding drops and impacts on a small-bore connection, which fails and releases high-pressure gas which then ignites and causes a fire.

“We have people with a bit of vertigo who don’t like that scenario at all because it’s realistic. It literally feels like you’re on the edge of a big process plant, looking 20, 30-ft over the edge,” Morgan said. “It allows people to really think they are on that site, which is why it’s so memorable, which is why it really drills home the message for them.”

The scenarios also include a running timer so users must react to situations on the same timescale as in real life. “There’s no point in doing VR if you can take a pause and give it your best answer,” he said. “You have 10 seconds to make a choice.”

He said offshore safety representatives have given “great feedback” on the scenarios, particularly regarding trainee engagement.

“You’ll go through a whole career and never see anything remotely like a major hazard,” Morgan said, which means “complacency can set in.”

Engaging the workforce during training is essential.

One of DNV’s VR training customers is Harbour Energy, and the pair delivered a case history paper on the topic in SPE 215563, presented at 2023 Offshore Europe.

In the paper, the coauthors concluded that the use of VR for accident-avoidance awareness training enhances workforce engagement at all levels of the organization. “It is clear that there remains untapped potential in the use of the VR technology for the purpose of promoting process safety, which should be further evaluated,” they wrote.

Under DNV’s commercial model for immersive training, they reinvest one-third of the licensing fees back into the VR training program to develop fresh and more-complex scenarios.

Understanding Proppant Transport

Tayfun Babadagli, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Alberta, said his research group is using VR headsets in its research into how proppant transports in fractures, among other things. He said the idea is to visualize the model and processes three-dimensionally, studying the processes from different angles as the visual model is moved around.

He said the computational models are helping to better understand the physics and mechanics of how proppants move in pore space or in fractures than when merely using 2D visualization or graphical output.

VR makes it possible to visualize what’s happening between the wall of the fracture and proppant and how the proppant transports in the reservoir environment, he said. “Even the interaction between the two proppants—they hit each other, they collide,” Babadagli told JPT. “This is why VR is helpful.”

The system his research group is using is a simple one that serves their purpose, he said. It includes a large TV screen with 3D visualization capacity, cameras, headsets, a pair of workstations with video cards and software, and a joystick control system. “3D is the main thing,” he added.

For Further Reading

SPE 215563 The Use of VR Technology for MAH Awareness Training by C. Luoma, DNV, and M. Wardrope, Harbour Energy.