2009 Second International Symposium on Knowledge Acquisition and Modeling

Model-Driven Data Mining in the Oil & Gas Exploration and Production
Xiongyan Li1,2, Hongqi Li1,2, Zhuang Wu3
1. State Key Laboratory for Petroleum Resource and Prospecting, Beijing, 102249,China
2. Well Logging Research Center, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China
3. Information College, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China
e-mail: wangliaoziji@126.com
Abstract—Data mining is not an autonomous data-driven tools. To this end, some automatic methods, algorithms
trial-and-error process, but a human-machine-cooperated and tools are produced without human involvement and
interactive knowledge discovery process. As a result, the the capability to adapt to external environment constraints.
domain-driven data mining is proposed. Additionally, there Meanwhile, mining patterns are often unpractical to
are lots of models existing in oil and gas exploration and business even though they are interesting. There are huge
production, such as geological models, logging constrained gaps between the academia interest and business reality.
seismic inversion models and well logging interpretation During the second phase, with the development and
models, which contain the multifarious domain knowledge. success of methods, algorithms, and tools of data mining,
This paper proposes model-driven data mining in the oil and many researchers became interested in discovering the
gas exploration and production, with the purpose of mining actionable knowledge to fill the gap between academia
actionable knowledge benefiting the exploration and and business. Actionable knowledge discovery is
production of oil and gas. Main ideas of the model-driven significant and also very challenging. It is nominated as
data mining methodology are introduced. Guided by this one of Grand Challenges of KDD in the next ten years[4-5].
methodology, we demonstrate some of our work in mining Simultaneously, what is the perfect data mining tool,
four types of data, including petrophysical data, logging interactive or automated? Researchers began to discuss
data, seismic data and geological data. Real work of the role of human involvement in the data mining
model-driven data mining has shown that our methodology process[6]. Subsequently, the domain-driven data mining
is practical and potential for deeply analyzing data in the was proposed. In another word, the data mining is not
exploration and production of oil and gas. only a data-driven trial-and-error process, but highly
Keywords—data mining; model-driven; domain-driven; domain-dependent[7-8]. More specifically, the data mining
petrophysical data; logging data; seismic data; geological refers to domain expertise and constraints in a
data; human-machine cooperation context. In addition,
researchers start to figure out the conceptual framework
of the foundations of data mining for the understanding of
1. INTRODUCTION
the nature of data mining and the scope of data mining
Along with the growth like the explosion of capacity methods[9-11].
of generating and collecting data, in order to gain useful In the 21st century, the ideal international and
information from the mass of data, the Knowledge domestic environments bring rapid and constant
Discovery from Data (KDD) was generated. KDD is the economic growth, as well as putting forward a new aim
nontrivial process of identifying valid, novel, potentially for the exploration and production of oil and gas. On one
useful, and ultimately understandable patterns in data[1]. hand, oil and gas resources are relatively rich in China,
Data mining emerged during the late 1980s, and was but the conditions of remaining oil and gas resources are
treated as a synonym for KDD by many people. deteriorating and the proportion of low-grade resources is
Alternatively, others view data mining as simply an increasing, with the enhanced hidden performance of
essential step in the KDD process[2-3]. The development of remaining resources. So it is difficult to explore and
data mining in the last two decades can be divided into product remaining oil and gas resources[12-13]. At the same
two phases. In the first phase, researchers were more time, it comes up with a higher demand for the methods
concerned about the data mining methods, algorithms and

978-0-7695-3888-4/09 $26.00
$25.00 © 2009 IEEE 20
DOI 10.1109/KAM.2009.173
and ideas of the exploration and production of oil and gas.
More specifically, there is an urgent need for new
technologies to guide the exploration and production of
oil and gas resources. On the other hand, it shows a
rampant growth in various types of data due to the oil and
gas exploration and production in decades. However,
these data are not fully utilized. That is to say, the
important information has not been mined. Consequently,
the data mining should be applied to mining the data from
the oil and gas exploration and production mainly
including the petrophysical data, logging data, seismic
data and geological data etc. As a result, data mining is
applied to reservoir management and description, to
improve recovery ratio, fine exploration, and geoscience
data processing etc[14]. Due to a variety of models existing
in the oil and gas exploration and production, including
the geological models, logging constrained seismic
inversion models, well logging interpretation models,
which contain the abundant knowledge of oil and gas
exploration and production. With the purpose of making
better use of data mining to contribute to the oil and gas
exploration and production, domain knowledge and
existent model, should be absorbed into the mining
process, namely Model-Driven Data Mining (MDDM).
This paper tries to introduce the MDDM path and display
the mining processes and results of mining simple data
type and various data types, according to the
Figure1. Theories and ideas of MDDM
In the oil and gas exploration and production domain,
the data volume could be divided into two categories. The
first category is the same type of data, such as
petrophysical data, logging data, seismic data and
geological data etc.; the other category is various sorts of
data. For example, the same geological body, different
types of data should be transformed and integrated in
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characteristics of petrophysical data, logging data,
seismic data and geological data.
2. MODEL-DRIVEN DATA MINING IN THE OIL & GAS
EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION
2.1 Fundamental Concepts and Mining Ideas
Generally speaking, data mining tasks can be
classified into two categories: descriptive and predictive.
Descriptive mining tasks characterize the general
properties of the data in database, and predictive mining
tasks aim to predict characteristics and types of unknown
data on the basis of features and types of current data.
Wang et al asserts that data mining is a process of
knowledge transformation[8]. In addition, the existent
studies of data mining can be classified broadly under
three views: the function-oriented view, the
theory-oriented view and the procedure/process-oriented
view[9]. At the same time, a three-layered conceptual
framework is proposed by Yao, consisting of the
philosophy layer, the technique layer and the application
layer[10]. MDDM is based on the data mining theories and
techniques, and takes advantages of the model deriving
from the domain knowledge, as derived parameters and
boundary conditions. The aim is to more effectively
obtain actionable knowledge, and the specific mining
theories and ideas have been shown in Fig. 1.
order to yield the uniform data platform, such as the
transformation and integration of petrophysical data,
logging data and well test data, or logging data, well test
data and seismic data. The aim of integration and
transformation is to get derived or model parameters.
Selected parameters are defined as that with the purpose
of mining, we use the cluster analysis, association rule
and feature selection methods to obtain the typical
characteristics and intrinsic links from data. The aim is to
get more sensitive and crucial feature parameters as the
core parameters to build the model. The construction of
model utilizes the classification and induction methods
consisting of Decision Tree(DT), Bayesian Network(BN),
Support Vector Machines(SVM), Artificial Neural
Networks(ANN), Genetic Algorithms(GA), Rough
Set(RS) and Fuzzy Set(FS) etc. For the initial model, we
can use three indexes including domain knowledge,
intelligibility and accuracy to evaluate its efficiency.
Domain knowledge would be applied to determining the
extent of contribution of model built to the mining task.
After the test, we can clearly be aware whether the model
built can effectively obtain interesting and actionable
knowledge in the oil and gas exploration and production.
Intelligibility refers to whether parameters used in the
model built have a solid physical meaning, and if the
parameters combination only is an ordinary numeric
combination. Accuracy of model built means the degree
of optimization, and the capacity of describing and
predicting the characteristics and types of current and
future data. Model updating based on the conclusion of
model evaluation relies on the practical reservoir
characterization and parameter significance to improve
the model. In accordance with the results of practical
application, the model application could be aimed at
obtaining the verification and predictive analysis of
model. At the same time, the well test data would be
combined to optimize the model in the practical
application process.
2.2 Mining Simple Data Type
In the oil and gas exploration and production, the data
mainly is composed of petrophysical data, logging data,
seismic data and geological data. In addition, well log
data, drilling data and well test data are also included.
From the perspective of data, their resolution is from high
to low and accuracy is from accurate to rough; from the
point view of described geological body, the information
of geological body is from small to large.
1) Petrophysical Data
The research methods of physics, namely, observation,
experiment, induction and conclusion are used to acquire
the petrophysical data, for instance, the physical
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properties data of core including porosity, permeability,
fluid nature and fluid saturation etc. As conventional
reservoirs which are easy to be exploited have became
depleted, and subtle reservoirs gradually become the
primary target, the study about the core physical
properties has developed from single measurement and
statistical analysis to communication and conversion
among the parameters of physical properties of core. With
the exception of studying the changing law of physical
properties under static conditions, the dynamic variation
rule controlled by artificial factors is becoming the main
focus. Therefore, the goals and tasks of mining
petrophysical data can be concluded as the following
three categories: (1) transformation or prediction among
the different parameters of physical properties; (2)
predicting the fluid nature; (3) changing rules under static
and dynamic conditions.
2) Logging Data
Although the logging data are less precise and direct
than the petrophysical data, they can accurately reflect the
formation and fluid information from different angles and
have a more general meaning to the formation evaluation
and recognition. Consequently, the most prominent aim of
mining logging data is to obtain the optimal model
predicting fluid nature and recognize the oil and gas
reservoir in the exploration and production. For a long
time, the lower limit of reservoir is determined by the
traditional cross plot, and its effect depends on human
beings’ carefulness and comprehensive consideration.
Additionally, the restriction of mindset and too much
experience may cast huge influence on the lower limit of
reservoir. What’s more, geological conditions are so
complicated that the difficulty to determine the lower
limit of reservoir is growing geometrically. Needless to
say, it is difficult to obtain the lower limit of reservoir in
the cross plot, and two or many times cross plot is in need.
Therefore, the method has some shortcomings, such as
heavy workload, large errors and so on. Fortunately, the
data mining techniques are based on the strict
mathematical logic and pick out the most accurate rate of
parameters combinations as the lower limit of reservoir
through the exhaustive and different parameters’
combinations, at the same time, the combination of the
lower limits of different fluids nature is the predictive
model.
3) Seismic Data
Compared with petrophysical data and logging data,
the seismic data is poor in accuracy and resolution, but
can obtain large and rich formation information. With the
emergence of three-dimensional and four-dimensional
seismic data, seismic data can describe changes of
hydrocarbon reservoir under static and dynamic
conditions from the space angle, and have a strong ability
to describe the characteristics of hydrocarbon reservoir.
Due to mass and complicated structure of seismic data, its
mining methods and ideas are extraordinarily different
from petrophysical data and logging data. Furthermore,
the seismic data mining is not a purely mathematical
problem and more specifically, the simple mining
algorithms can not obtain actionable knowledge and
effective results to benefit the oil and gas exploration and
production. Therefore, it is essential to set up more
boundary conditions from the domain knowledge and
logging constrained seismic inversion model angel, and to
design the corresponding algorithms according to special
data structure in order to achieve the desired mining
objectives.
4) Geological Data
Geological data is in forms of symbols, words and
graphs to express sedimentary facies, structural feature,
distribution of source rocks thickness and hydrocarbon
generation ability and so on. For the different types of
geological data, it is essential to pick out corresponding
mining methods and ideas to acquire valid information
and achieve mining objectives. For the symbols and
words of geological data, descriptive mining and text
mining would be applied to reveal the deep meaning
behind them. For the graphs of geological data, graph
mining would be used, and image fusion techniques are
the main methods. Compared with petrophysical data,
logging data and seismic data, the mining results of
geological data mainly are descriptive consequences.
Through extraction, transformation and integration of
mining algorithms, geological information is expressed in
a more intuitive and easier to be accepted form with
symbols, words and graphs, which show sedimentary and
structural characteristics of formation.
With graph mining methods and image fusion
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techniques to fuse the isogram images of thickness and
gas generation ability of source rocks, its result is shown
in Fig. 2. We can get the relationship between thickness
and gas generation ability of shale source rocks from Fig.
2, which offers more accurate and reliable information for
selecting gas accumulation zone and evaluation as well as
interpretation analysis.
Figure 2. Fusing thickness and gas generation ability of source rocks
2.3 Mining Various Data Types
Petrophysical data, logging data and seismic data are
all metrical data, but geological data are mainly empirical,
descriptive and diagrammatic data. Therefore, mining the
combination of different types of data mainly is to mine
the data volume of fusing petrophysical data, logging data
and seismic data. Because of particularity of geological
data, it is regarded as the object of reference and
validation. The characteristics of different types of data
are combined, which are complementary in precision and
extent, horizontal and vertical aspects of formation. The
combination of different types of data benefits the
establishment of precise formation framework.
Additionally, the mining process in line with the changes
rule of geological body is carried out for the data volume
of fusing different types of data.
3. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The concept of MDDM in the oil and gas exploration
and production is proposed in this paper. From the
perspective of model-driven, the extent of model, which
is inclusive of the domain knowledge, taking part in the
mining process plays a vital role in determining the
reliability and practicability of mining outcome. If the
excessive domain knowledge is involved in the mining
process, the mining results will bring more inaccuracy,
which will affect the reliability. However, if the fewer
domain knowledge participated in the mining process, the
more useless information will be manufactured, which
will restrict the practicability of mining fruits. Therefore,
it is essential to rationally combine domain knowledge
with mining methods. Only in this way can we obtain
more outcomes with higher speed, better quality and less
cost.
Data mining techniques change the status of data from
indirect and auxiliary means to direct and major methods.
Furthermore, they can directly guide oil and gas
exploration and production, namely, “data exploration”
and “data production”. The contradictions of supplies and
demands of oil and gas are increasingly prominent, which
force us to find internal, unknown links and distribution
rules of remaining oil and gas reservoirs. At the same
time, this need will stimulate the booming development
of oil and gas data mining and promise a splendid future
for the oil and gas exploration and production, especially
providing news methods and ideas for the exploration and
production of subtle reservoir.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is partially supported by a grant from the
National Key Technologies R & D Program of China
during the 10th Five-Year Plan Period
(No.2001BA605A09). The authors would like to
appreciate Penny for her kind assistance and supports.
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