Content area
Full Text
A network based on Sun's Ultra line of Risc/Unix workstations is an integral part of operations at Scott Pickford, a Londonbased reservoir management firm that is known for taking a multi-disciplinary approach to the full range of petroleum reservoir issues.
Over the years, Scott Pickford has successfully integrated geology, geophysics, petrophysics and reservoir engineering in a multidisciplinary team environment at its London headquarters. Parent company Core Laboratories combines Scott Pickford's expertise, together with recently acquired new technology, with the reservoir description and production enhancement capabilities provided by the other divisions in the company. Integration enables Scott Pickford to offer a range of services aimed at optimizing clients' reservoir performance.
The integrated approach to reservoir solutions is nowhere better tested than in the business of oilfield equity or unitization determinations. Scott Pickford is the top provider of equity support and expert services in Europe, specializing in the North Sea.
Information technology
Like much of the oil industry, Scott Pickford uses Sun hardware to analyze the vast data sets typical of modem exploration and production techniques.
All Scott Pickford computers are linked by an Ethernet LAN. The network links around 200 devices using the TCP/IP protocol over UTP, The devices include Sun Unix workstations, X terminals, PCs, servers, printers, plotters, terminal servers, WAN routers and Internet routers.
The main servers providing file, print, database and backup services are Sun Enterprise 250 servers, each of which are equipped with RAID arrays. The E250 servers have quad Ethernet cards to provide 50OMbps output when used in conjunction with 10/100Mbps Ethernet switches.
Dual-screened Sun Ultra 60 workstations provide the platform for seismic line-interpretation and other applications and also serve X Windows to desktop X terminals. Scott Pickford has been using the X terminal model, which makes the most of available CPU power, for a number of years. The X terminals are all Sun workstations and include the first Sun SPARC I that was purchased 10 years ago.
The growing number of PCs running Windows NT 4.0 are served by Solaris servers running the free Samba package rather than by PC servers where there are performance and reliability gains to be made.
Equity determinations
Scott Pickford depends on its Sun systems for many aspects of its multidisciplinary approach to reservoir...