TRACS International: Dashboard Development for Monte Carlo Simulation

The Challenge

At the end of 2017, TRACS International contacted Jumping Rivers. TRACS International estimates the volumes of oil and gas in subsurface reservoirs. Their work involves combining a set of inputs for each reservoir layer (such as area, thickness, and up to five other inputs) – and then multiplying these inputs together.

Each input has a range of uncertainty associated with it. The uncertainty can be estimated using a probability distribution. One method of combining these inputs is by using Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, there may be more than one reservoir layer in the discovery – these layers need to be added together to estimate the total volume in the discovery.

Before contacting Jumping Rivers, TRACS was using a solution costing around £800 per licence.

The Project

TRACS contacted Jumping Rivers to construct a web-based dashboard for use in training.

Our Results

We constructed a web-based dashboard, MCApp, which can be used to simulate different reservoir layers. Course participants can access the dashboard using a standard web-browser and, since the tool is web-based, the graphics on display are now interactive. The dashboard we developed used free and open-source technology, removing the cost of the company’s licence fees.

To overcome the potential challenge of poor internet access, we created an App on a stick. We stored the entire dashboard on a USB stick, which can be distributed around a classroom of participants, allowing them to perform Monte Carlo simulations simultaneously.