... II. The Framework ...

values paradoxes
Measurement Space, Mathematical Space, and Conceptual Space
Geologists, geophysicists, and engineers have always looked for new opportunities to find hydrocarbons. One of the developments accompanying new technological developments is how visualization tools now offer explicit ways to illuminate the blind spots and add new reserves. Dr. Sam LeRoy asked the question, where do profitable new reserves live?2.77 His answer is we need to look:
  1. in places we haven’t looked (physical space);
  2. in places we can’t see clearly or at all (measurement space);
  3. in places where theories and models can be represented as dimensions in a statistical or mathematical space;
  4. in places where we don’t know what to look for, or don’t think we need to look (concept space); or
  5. in places where we lack the engineering tools to produce reserves at a profit.
 It is key to understand where your blind spots are. The reason is because it is hard to find what we can not see. We find reserves based on our concepts of how and why accumulations form. These theories, models, and hypotheses can all be represented as dimensions in statistical or mathematical space. Exploratory visualization looks for correspondence between successful performance and all known factors, including spatial, measurement, statistical or mathematical, conceptual, and simply looking for mission regions of knowledge. Figures 31 and 32 illustrate how Dr. LeRoy has demonstrated the power of visualization tools in helping identify areas of incomplete knowledge. These data are from Nehring Associates, and were for a demonstration exploration project, which I initiated to study Colorado County, Texas. This type of data mining to identify trends and gaps is the future of oil exploration.

We are all affected by the rising price of gasoline. We measure the costs, we figure out how the additional costs affect our budget, and we strive to find ways to cope. I’ve spent my career developing and using tools to find more hydrocarbons. Some of the technologies, like 3-D seismic, have had a significant impact. Other’s, like data mining the rich database describing existing discoveries and dry holes, have not been accepted yet. Even when new approaches are adopted, it will not generate enough new hydrocarbons to replace existing reserves. My conclusion is prices need to rise. Prices need to rise until we start to build our cities around people instead of automobiles. Prices need to rise until we stop burning methane, which can be much better used as feedstock for creating medicines, fertilizers, plastics, etc. Prices need to rise until we find more economic ways to produce from tar sands, oil shales, and gas hydrates. Of course, rising prices do not attack issues like using the equivalent of a gallon of oil to generate a gallon of oil from tar sands. Prices need to rise until we find economic ways to capture the pollution from coal power plants, and can take advantage of extensive known coal deposits. In the meantime, we continue to develop new approaches.
timedex infinite grid

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