The Future of Computing in Exploration, Development, and Production
by Earl M. Whitney
Advances in computational hardware and software offer geophysicists, geologists, and engineers the possibility of solving problems that were impossible a decade ago. Still, we are uncomfortable making decisions with limited information. This lecture provides new information and offers an optimistic view of the future of esoteric computing in the petroleum industry.
Biography
Over the last decade, Dr. Earl M. Whitney has developed and championed
the development of computer codes that mimic complex coupled physical processes in the
upstream petroleum industry. For example, his models of dynamic multicomponent gas
adsorption yielded the first clear understanding of the coupled physical and chemical
mechanisms in coalbed gas production. His strong focus on the needs of domestic (usually
independent) producers led to some of the first WWW commerce models for the oil industry.
Integration of geological, geophysical, and engineering data and technical expertise is a
consistent theme in his reservoir development projects.
As Project Leader for Oil and Gas Programs at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he currently
directs a research program that extends from the very most basic science to applied
engineering research. He also co-chairs the Natural Gas and Oil Technology Partnership, a
collaborative effort among research scientists in industry and in the Department of Energy
National Laboratories.
Dr. Earl M. Whitney belongs to the first generation of reservoir engineers who have never
punched a deck of input cards, who live in a world of too rapid change in computational
simulation, where complexity and time constraints often lead to confusion. Today, shiny
software may prevent a flawed reservoir analysis or it may hide such a flawed analysis.
Dr. Whitney’s enthusiasm for computational simulation of coupled complex phenomena is
tempered by a realization that models are not reality, and that nobody yet knows how to
simulate markets or people. He earned a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering, and a Ph.D.
in Chemical and Fuels Engineering, both from the University of Utah.
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