DEVELOPMENT OF GEMINI (GEO-ENGINEERING THROUGH INTERNET INFORMATICS) AND INSIGHTS INTO ISSUES RELATED TO DISTRIBUTED DATABASES AND WEB APPLICATIONS

Tailored compilations from extensive and growing Internet-accessible public petroleum subsurface databases and their linkage to Web-application software are important objectives that will provide new insights and understanding of basin/earth history, fluid flow and storage, resource appraisal, and environmental characterization and mitigation. Data types and standards for these subsurface data are complex and attempts to standardize this information have been invoked to varying degrees of success. Moreover, variations in software and hardware that support these databases combined with limitations on financial and personnel resources of the public institutions that hold these data creates a dilemma for implementing distributed databases. Web applications needed to mine, compile, process, and model this data for specific applications also presents a formidable challenge.

GEMINI (Geo-Engineering Modeling through INternet Informatics) is a public–domain, interactive, integrated Internet web application in which development issues have included data access and processing and linking databases with web applications. These issues are addressed through a summary of GEMINI development. GEMINI currently provides 14 user-friendly software modules, calculators, and utility programs focused on construction of geologic/engineering petroleum reservoir models using common types of subsurface data including digital well logs, core analyses, drill stem tests, and production. Data obtained from a relational database or the user are assembled “on the fly” into projects built and accessed by collaborators wherever they are located. Reports and data files generated from the analyses can be downloaded for use in other applications. Projects and data uploaded into the project are password protected.