CSIRO has teamed up with one of the world's largest offshore drilling contractors, Noble Engineering and Development Ltd to commercialise software that can slash costs and boost the success of drilling for oil.

Noble will commercialise the Genesis 2000 software package in an alliance which will lead to a new spin-off company and continuing business to Australia worth millions.

CSIRO, in conjunction with six major international oil companies, consultants and an international collaboration of scientists, developed Genesis 2000, a software package that allows easy analysis of existing oil well data — data that can then be used as a planning tool for improving new wells.

Under the alliance, CSIRO will retain ownership of its intellectual property used in the original $12 million Genesis project to continuously develop the technology through its internal and external scientific network. Noble will have the exclusive right to commercialise the product.

The alliance will benefit Australia through an upfront payment to CSIRO followed by royalty payments that could total $3 million over 5 years. It will create two new groups: a Perth-based spin-off company, Spektl, that will maintain the product (and have a guaranteed income stream of over half a million dollars per year from Noble), and a Perth-based agency that could yield over $1 million per year of business in South East Asia.

"The alliance will reinforce CSIRO and Australia as the South East Asian hub for developing new knowledge management tools for the petroleum industry," says Dr Eric Maidla, CSIRO's original project manager for Geneis 2000.

CSIRO partnerships with oil companies for the Genesis technology have already yielded over half a million dollars per year over the past 2 years.

Researchers from CSIRO Divisions of Petroleum Resources and Mathematical and Information Sciences were involved in developing the Genesis tool.

Dr Maidla says Genesis gives drilling engineers and managers the ability to capture and apply the corporate knowledge necessary to drill today's increasingly complex wells, leading to fewer failures and more productive wells.

"Genesis can reduce the cost of drilling oil wells by taking advantage of the knowledge and experience gained through the drilling of other wells in the same or similar areas. It allows the user to capture this experience," he says.

The Genesis 2000 software package is one of the largest developed by CSIRO.

"Genesis totals nearly half a million lines of code and processes of data management that are unique to the industry," says Simon Kravis of CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences.

"But it is still in its infancy and the idea is to provide an environment in which many groups can participate in building the next generation through an organised framework, including the global scientific community, company and government research centres, universities and many parts of the service sector," he says.

CSIRO set up offices in the Middle East and Europe when Genesis was being developed to promote the Australian technology in these areas.

Dr Edson Nakagawa, a scientist who worked for 20 years with Petrobras in Brazil before joining CSIRO 18 months ago, will head the initiative for CSIRO in Australia. Dr Maidla, who recently joined Noble as Vice President - marketing (National Oil Companies), will head the efforts of commercialising the technology through Noble's commercial network.

Noble will integrate Genesis 2000 with their knowledge management initiatives within the company, in particular the real time data streams from oil rigs.

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