Our guest contributor for this blog is Kapil Raval. In his current role as Director, Ecosystem Enablement, Energy, Kapil identifies, builds, and nurtures an ecosystem of high-impact partnerships, investments, and acquisitions to realize product vision. He has been with Microsoft for nearly four years and brings 25+ years of experience in multiple industries. Before joining the Energy team, Kapil worked for the Microsoft Corp Business Development team, driving AI solutions in Energy and Manufacturing verticals.

Energy companies use data to locate, quantify and model onshore and offshore reservoirs. This data is held by energy companies in massive quantities dating back decades. Even today, data may be held in various vendor-specific formats, necessitating the costly storage of multiple copies of very large data volumes. This industry challenge is an opportunity for Microsoft partners as energy companies seek to digitize, more efficiently manage their data, and migrate to the cloud.

Geoscientists can spend significant amounts of time moving data between systems and converting it between formats. These delays hamper energy organizations’ ability to define their resources and optimize their field development plans.  Moreover, a lack of common formats for reservoir data slows innovations like carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) that also rely on accurate subsurface models.

With Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Energy, energy companies gain actionable insights, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate time-to-market on an enterprise-grade OSDU™ Data Platform. For energy-related businesses and the partner companies that service them, Azure Data Manager for Energy is a fully managed and integrated cloud-based OSDU Data Platform that reduces the time, risk, and total costs of ownership associated with energy exploration and production. One of the most important aspects of Azure Data Manager for Energy is that it is developer-ready and enables a large and diverse global energy partner ecosystem—an open, extensible platform which partners and developers can use for their innovations.

AspenTech leads the way

Energy companies are large and complex, with data bottlenecks within them slowing down operations and innovation. That’s why Microsoft is collaborating with AspenTech, a Microsoft partner for almost 20 years, to help energy customers move their critical data to a hyperscale platform to liberate their siloed data and improve productivity.

AspenTech is regarded as a global leader in visualization and analysis of data, including seismic, well, and reservoir data, for the energy industry. We are proud they are an important partner of the recently announced Azure Data Manager for Energy, an open, developer-ready platform that connects once disparate energy data sets to applications built by Microsoft and our partners. A robust set of SDKs and APIs enable integration, innovation, and accelerated time-to-market to help developers from around the world build solutions on top of our extensible platform.

With Azure Data Manager for Energy, we welcome the global partner community to engage with Microsoft, our partners, and customers to explore innovation opportunities that advance data, AI, and cloud solutions for the energy industry.

Trusted energy data solutions, now built on Azure Data Manager for Energy

AspenTech has been building its suite of products on top of Azure Data Manager for Energy, so customers can enjoy the speed, scalability, and security of the Microsoft Cloud while also continuing to work with software solutions they already know and trust.

The Aspen Geolog™ Formation Evaluation product suite provides petrophysical and geological analysis tools, well data management, superior graphics, and robust data integration. Geolog helps team members access well data in a shared repository to improve collaboration.

Aspen SeisEarth™ is a comprehensive and flexible seismic interpretation and visualization system. This innovative multi-survey solution allows interpreters to perform structural and stratigraphic interpretation across many different vintages of 2D and 3D seismic data, while also integrating well data into their interpretation. SeisEarth is designed to handle projects scaling from basin to prospect and reservoir, from exploration field to development field, and from a single user on a laptop to multi-disciplinary teams of geoscientists, petrophysicists, and drilling engineers. All of the day-to-day tasks of the seismic interpreter can be performed quickly and easily through the use of efficient volume roaming.

AspenTech has contributed open source code for the Reservoir Data Management Service (DMS) to the OSDU Forum. Reservoir DMS allows the ingestion, storage, and consumption of reservoir data generated in the RESQML open data standard for Earth Modeling. The AspenTech code enables the OSDU Forum community of users and developers to freely and transparently collaborate around reservoir data management.

Reservoir DMS will be integrated into future Energy Data Services releases, with seamless access from Aspen modeling technologies SKUA and RMS.

Innovating for a net zero future: How else can the energy industry continue to innovate and expand partnerships?

With liberated data, a powerful technology foundation, and closer collaboration, the opportunities are endless. By moving their data to the cloud, energy companies can access AspenTech’s leading-edge capabilities to better define resources, optimize existing fields and plan more efficiently. Further, the AspenTech SSE technology will help producers and operators meet the world’s changing energy needs more reliably and cost-effectively.

For AspenTech and the entire energy partner ecosystem, the possibilities of innovating on top of Azure Data Manager for Energy go even further. The International Energy Agency’s Sustainable Development Scenario projects that CCUS will account for 15% of cumulative emissions reductions. Achieving a better understanding of reservoir dynamics will help companies identify optimal locations for the underground storage of captured carbon dioxide, and monitor and manage it throughout the projects’ life cycle.

One customer using Azure Data Manager for Energy to increase operational efficiency is Equinor, Norway’s state-owned energy provider. Equinor is transforming their company toward a net zero future and needs to remain competitive while diversifying their energy mix to include more renewables, hydrogen, and carbon capture. Cleaner, connected data makes it easier for business units to collaborate, reduce costs, and save time on projects. Equinor’s adoption of an open, enterprise-grade data platform service on the Microsoft Cloud will be an important part of their energy transition because it has enabled faster access to actionable data, efficient workflows, and innovations in renewables and lower carbon solutions.

Start liberating customer data on the Microsoft Cloud

AspenTech has joined the Azure Data Manager for Energy partner ecosystem as one of many partners working with energy companies move their data to the cloud. We are thrilled to enable more partners to take an active role in building solutions to accelerate digital transformation for energy companies. Learn more about Azure Data Manager for Energy so we can co-innovate and enable data to do more on the cloud.

“OSDU Data Platform installation has been greatly improved and simplified with Azure Data Manager for Energy, facilitating our platform deployment”, says Alice Chanvin, Director of Product Management (Data Management) at AspenTech. “Keeping current with the latest releases allows our teams to focus on delivering high-value workflows.”

Learn more

• Read about how Equinor targets data efficiency and a low-carbon future with Azure Data Manager for Energy.
• Learn more about themes and actions critical for energy transition. 
• Read more about how Microsoft partners with energy companies to accelerate digital transformation. 
• To learn more about Microsoft for Energy and Resources, visit our future of energy industry solutions website.