Petroleum exploration and development planning is a challenging area that involves complex nonlinear reservoir models as well as long term economic evaluations and is very infrastructure driven. Although the existence of oil or gas in a petroleum field is determined by seismic surveys and preliminary exploration tests, the actual amount of oil or gas in reserves remains uncertain until the investment decisions are made. Therefore, in this industry a major challenge is how to make optimal investment decisions in the presence of uncertainty. Access to organised spatial data facilitates decision making in such critical areas (ranging from taking complex geological decisions to planning for new infrastructure), both easier and quicker.

Geography based decision making isn't new in the oil business. Location based questions like where to drill a well, plan a production pad or route a pipeline, rely heavily on the understanding of geography to make the right business decisions. Virtually all upstream petroleum activities, from new venture analysis to regional geologic exploration and from discovery of a field to field appraisal and development involves thorough understanding and correct use of spatial datasets at various stages and could be better managed through GIS (figure 1).

As part of Cairn India’s strategic focus of concentrating on the geographic region of South Asia, Cairn has assets (both mature and yet to mature) spread across India with Rajasthan being the most focussed asset for the future production while both Ravva and Cambay assets continue to surpass targets. Most of Cairn India’s recent licenses being onshore blocks, there is an added requirement of having relevant cultural information of the area alongwith the geological information, if any, for planning future operations. GIS based mapping, extremely data intensive, becomes all the more relevant in case of the onshore blocks for the wealth of spatial\cultural information either available or that could potentially be generated for future use.