Amid 'Graying' Work Force, Need for High-Performance Computing in Oil and Gas More...

Amid 'Graying' Work Force, Need for High-Performance Computing in Oil and Gas
More Critical, Reports Microsoft Survey
Compute power drives productivity, decision-making; reduces drilling delays
and project risk.

HOUSTON, March 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Faced with an aging work force
and a critical need to increase productivity, the oil and gas industry reports
that access to high-performance computing (HPC) capability is required now
more than ever, according to a new survey released today by Microsoft Corp. at
the Microsoft Global Energy Forum 2008.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)
The Microsoft High-Performance Computing Oil and Gas Industry Survey 2008,
conducted by Tulsa, Okla.-based Oil & Gas Journal Online Research Center,
shows that although most of the industry's geoscientists and engineers have
immediate access to the compute power they require, there is still significant
room for improvement as computing needs grow more complex. In addition, a
large number of respondents believe that more ready access to high-performance
computing capability could increase production, enhance decision-making,
reduce drilling delays and diminish project risk -- all critical aspects of
the oil and gas supply chain.
"Last year, this research revealed that oil and gas high-performance
computing experts realize the impact their work has on oil and gas production
and their companies' success," said Craig Hodges, U.S. energy and chemicals
industry solutions director at Microsoft. "This year, a greater percentage of
experts surveyed understand the powerful positive impact high-performance
computing can have on workers' productivity, their ability to make smart
decisions and the industry's overall ability to find, produce, refine, and
deliver oil and gas."
The online survey was conducted in February 2008 and includes responses
from 212 qualified oil and gas industry experts at major companies worldwide.
Significant findings include the following:
-- 89 percent believe the diminishing work force and necessity to increase
production makes the need for high-performance computing capabilities
more critical today than ever.
-- 89 percent report that more ready access to high-performance computing
capability could increase oil and gas production, up from 81 percent in
2007.
-- 47 percent lack the processing power on their desktop to complete
compute-intensive workloads in a timely manner.
-- 40 percent say that drilling is often delayed because of the time it
takes to perform the required computations.
-- 44 percent admit they sometimes make business decisions before
completing sufficient data analyses.
-- 61 percent report that having the capability to run additional tasks
and iterations would reduce project risk.
-- 41 percent of compute-intensive scientific applications running on a
cluster take from overnight to a week to run, respondents say, up from
25 percent last year.
-- 53 percent say their compute-intensive scientific applications require
four or more iterations to reduce uncertainty. At the same time,
26 percent say the optimal number of iterations to increase their
productivity is more than eight.

"We see these same trends and opportunities," said Robert Frost,
technology manager of simulation development for Roxar ASA, a company that
develops reservoir management and production optimization software. "Oil and
gas professionals must have the tools needed to manage increasing detail and
data complexity, quantify uncertainty, and improve physical modeling to keep
production decisions on track. Users of our Tempest simulator are increasingly
running compute-intensive parallel jobs on HPC clusters."
Continued hardware and software advances, such as more powerful,
lower-cost processors and the upcoming launch of Windows HPC Server 2008, the
successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, have made it easier for
geoscientists and engineers in both upstream and downstream to install and use
clusters and complete high-performance computing jobs. However, as noted in
the survey results, the increase in data and computing complexity still poses
a challenge for oil and gas companies. Those professionals require even
greater access and speed with their high-performance computing resources to
make up productivity losses driven by a rapidly retiring work force.
"This research shows a direct correlation between high-performance
computing availability and engineers' and geoscientists' abilities to
effectively complete their roles in finding, producing, processing and
delivering oil and gas and petroleum products," said Robert J. Beck, manager
of the Oil & Gas Journal Online Research Center, an organization that also
closely watches and reports on all aspects of the industry's activities,
including production, refining and construction. "With the level of risk that
these industry professionals -- and the industry as a whole -- manage, having
access to the right technology tools is critical today more than ever."
Geoscientists in oil and gas use high-performance computing to make better
decisions regarding prospect generation, lower the probability of dry holes
and speed up the time to first oil. In addition, engineers who rely on
computer-aided engineering within drill and platform manufacturers, down-hole
tool and drill bit manufacturers, refining and transportation, and the
petroleum industry use high-performance computing to improve computational
fluid dynamics, design and enhance their equipment, and process
troubleshooting capabilities.
"These professionals overwhelmingly agree there is a need for the oil and
gas industry to add compute power and continue developing high-performance
computing capabilities," said Ali Ferling, worldwide oil and gas industry
managing director at Microsoft. "Microsoft is committed to helping this and
other industries discover new ways to improve their technical computing
capabilities and time to insight with easier cluster management, enhanced
collaboration, and common client and cluster development tools."
About the Microsoft High-Performance Computing Oil and Gas Industry Survey
2008
Oil & Gas Journal Online Research Center conducted the Microsoft
High-Performance Computing Oil and Gas Industry Survey 2008 in February. More
than 200 qualified oil and gas industry experts worldwide, with evenly
weighted experience levels from one to 25-plus years, responded to the survey.
More than half of the respondents spend at least 25 percent of their time on
high-performance computing functions. The majority of survey respondents
(69 percent) work for oil and gas companies, with 85 percent of those in super
majors or international or national oil companies. The remainder work for
consulting or construction/engineering firms, oil field service or
equipment/supply companies, drilling contractors or academia. While most
respondents work in upstream, some represent downstream.
Seventy-five percent of respondents are direct users of high-performance
computing technology. The rest are people who evaluate, recommend and
authorize technical computing hardware and software purchases; technical
support staffers; application managers; and developers. Full survey results
are available at http://www.microsoft.com/oilandgas.
About Microsoft in Oil and Gas
Meeting the challenges of global energy supply and demand depends on
integrated business processes, breakthrough innovations and solid business
relationships. Together with its partners, Microsoft delivers technology
solutions that help people in the oil and gas industry make better decisions
faster. More information about Microsoft in the oil and gas industry can be
found at http://www.microsoft.com/oilandgas.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their
full potential.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

pr.mspx./ /CONTACT: Carol Barreyre of Brooks & Associates Public Relations,
+1-214-629-5157, carol@barreyre.com, for Microsoft Corp.; or Ted Ladd of
Microsoft, +1-646-225-4722, tedladd@microsoft.com