PlotIT Case Study: Petroleum Testing Service

Petroleum Testing Service (PTS) of Santa Fe Springs, California is a company that performs a wide range of scientific tests on crude oil, rocks, soil samples and other materials for oil companies and environmental firms.

Oil drilling and exploration companies need to know a lot about the oil they want to pump out of the ground. By gathering as much information as they can, these companies are better able to discern where to drill, and how to extract the oil at the lowest possible cost.

For example, it's important to know how porous the rock formations within an oil field are. The greater the porosity, the easier the oil will be to extract. Another vital set of factors is found in the oil itself - its viscosity, its chemical makeup, the way it changes with rises in temperature and pressure. All these things (and much more) must be taken into account before full-scale exploration can begin.

The same holds true for environmental companies, who work on soil reclamation and toxic waste disposal projects. Before they can treat a contaminated site, these companies must know what kinds of chemicals they're dealing with, and in what concentration. And once the work is done, tests must be done to ensure that the reclaimed land meets safety standards.

Petroleum Testing Service is a vital resource for this data. For more than 30 years it has used the most modern technologies to give its clients the information they need, in a form they can use and understand easily.

Much of the test data PTS produces takes the form of graphs and plots. But because the information is complex and demands a high level of accuracy, a powerful scientific plotting program must be used.

Petroleum Testing's Supervisor of Information Systems, A. Manjnath, was looking for just such a program two years ago. His search led him to PlotIT from Scientific Programming Enterprises of Haslett, Michigan.

"What sold me on PlotIT was its command-line interface option," Manjnath says. "All the other plotting programs were exclusively menu-driven, which limited the way our laboratory technicians could use them. PlotIT's command-line interface allows me to imbed its plotting functions into our FORTRAN or FoxPro applications, making it transparent to the user."

PlotIT enabled Manjnath to construct an environment in which his front-end programs could collect real-time test data directly from lab instruments, and use it to write command files on-the-fly. Those command files are in turn fed directly into PlotIT. Through the interface of the front-end program, the user inputs graph type information and plotting parameters.

Thus, users can go from raw data to a finished plot without ever leaving the front-end program or calling PlotIT manually.

PTS scientists use PlotIT to create a wide range of plots: Regression analysis, QA/QC plots, Histograms for statistical processes, Curve fits related to various types of polynomial equations, and more.

For example, reservoir engineers study two main parameters in trying to determine if an oil field is viable: the porosity of the underlying rock, and the permeability of that rock.
Oil can only be extracted from rock that is porous enough and permeable enough to allow the fluid to flow freely.

To find out, samples of rock are taken from various sites in the field, and PTS tests for porosity and permeability. What the engineers get back from PTS is a plot that shows the area where the rock most likely meets the proper criteria. PlotIT's wide range of graph and plot types enables PTS to put this data in a form that is easy to evaluate and understand.

"We're in the business of saving our clients money," Manjnath says. "Our test results can show the engineers the best places to drill, how to extract the oil at the lowest cost, and even the most profitable ways to refine the oil once it's extracted. PlotIT's command-line interface and unsurpassed flexibility make it an ideal product for the types of research and testing our clients demand."

Contact:

A. Manjnath
Petroleum Testing Service
(310) 698-0081

Scott Eisensmith
Scientific Programming Enterprises
(517) 339-9859

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