Value of Big Data In the Oilfield

When most people hear “big data,” they think “big money.” And they’re right. There are big costs associated with switching to a distributed data analytics system, especially in the oilfield. It’s not unusual for operators to collect and mine data from new discoveries made by geoscientists with historical data collected during drilling of past wells. They process and scan logs and scout tickets to gather data before they hit the paper shredder. In one case, more than 2 million documents of drilling information were processed in a single week of data discovery.