Well done team!

A bit more about ePLOD:

The ePlod is the start of a new generation of products for the mining exploration driller yielding unprecedented benefits to drilling contractors and their customers (mining companies). It promotes smarter drilling and improves the efficiencies of exploration programs.

The ePlod handheld is a tool that allows the drillers to accurately record the progressive log of drilling as it happens including consumables, chargeables, activities, tasks and comments on rod by rod basis. It performs all the necessary calculations with driller prompts to avoid entry of erroneous data and reminds the driller to enter certain data as events occur whilst keeping the driller informed of the hole status on run by run basis down to drilled, rods, depth & rod string. The ePlod retains the hole history for following shifts.

The ePlod is a process & menu driven and it learns and simplifies its own operation with use. A driller can be fully trained in 2 hours and can become competent operator within few shifts.

At the end of the shift the shift data is transferred into PC where ePlod Shift files are loaded into Plodware® (Includes Plodview™) which instantly generates the Plod reports & Run Sheet reports.

The supervisor can then edit the data to complete the Plod or fix any errors and then the Plod report can be printed or converted to a PDF file for emailing. The file can also be emailed as an ePlod file (editable version) to the Geo or Admin office where it can be further viewed/edited or processed using Plodview. Plodview generates the Plod report in the user’s own format, layout & logo. It also can allocate user’s codes to activities and consumables thus minimizing subjective interpretations.

Plodware® is a database and a wide array management & operational reports can be generated from data logged from all shifts and all rigs as per the user requirements. Standard reports include operators hours, bit & reamer reports, hole surveys, meters per rig, machine hours, consumables, driller performance, meters per hole size per depth, costs, budget monitoring, statistics and more.

The ePod shift data can also be produced in multiple formats to meet the driller & miner requirements and can be exported into the user’s 3rd party accounting or database systems.

The ePlod handheld has many fail-proof features. It is robust and designed to be operated in the harsh drilling environment. Its shift files cannot be deleted unless they have been transferred to an external memory.

The ePlod brings an end to an era of ambiguity and manual triple and in some cases quadruple entry of data minimizing errors and increasing the efficiencies of management particularly in growing drilling operations whilst reporting to both the drilling companies and their clients in their own individual preferred formats from a single version of truth that was acquired checked & verified when events first occurred.

Benefits of ePLOD^® to the Driller

• Improved PLOD information collecting efficiency.
• Reduced errors (for example, rod strings are calculated automatically by ePLOD®)
• Multi-rig, multi-site management reports generated in seconds
• Improved invoicing turnaround times means better cashflow.
• Less time spent on disputes with clients

Benefits of ePLOD^® to the Miner

• Multi-contract drilling performance monitoring
• Less time spent creating cost reports and estimations
• Improved drilling efficiency

ePLOD^® Handheld Features

• Water Resistant Housing
• Back Lit Display
• Shock Resistant
• Shortcuts to enter Task, Hole, Run Sheet and Comments
• Help function
• Predictive text with Mining Vocabulary
• USB port to transfer data
• Automatic calculation of meters drilled and rod string.
• Hole history stored on the device for easy onsite recall

ePLOD^® Software (Plodware^® and Plodview^™)

• Generate PLOD and Run sheet tailored to your specifications
• Users can modify and correct errors easily
• All PLOD shift data stored on an electronic database
• All shift data can be filtered and sorted
• Export to Excel feature to allow accounts to generate invoices

Management and Operational reports:

• Total Meters Drilled
• Bit, Hammer and Reamer Condition
• Driller Performance
• Per Meter Per Hole Size (Per Depth) Cost Reports
• Consumable, Operator, Materials Left In Hole costs
• Task Breakdown Analysis
• Maintenance Reports
• Core Recovery reports
• Costs Summary

Plodview™ Plod Reports

Printed PLOD sheet using Plodview™

Printed Run sheet using Plodview™

Plodware^® Reports

Total Drilled	Driller Performance
Per Meter Per Hole Size (Per Depth) Cost	Task Breakdown Analysis
Core Recovery	Operator Report

Key points from the video:

• 50% Power Reduction at Constant Performance
• 37% Performance Increase at Low Voltage
• This is not a new technology (first invented in 2002) but has taken a decade to get into production.

Here is a better representation of the tri-gate transistor together with a close up of a tri-gate SRAM cells (See this link for a more detailed explanation) :

My thoughts on this industrial wonder:

• The level of automation in the Utah plant is astonishing – not many employees on the factory floor. Many bemoan that the number of manufacturing workers has been declining as a % of the economy. However, consider all the jobs created from the factory structures,  machines, robotics, software and maintenance that was required to build and operate such a plant.
• Notice the use of low-priced labour in Asia is used for relatively low-value assembly, testing and packaging. The Utah plant did the technically complex work of turning Silicon into memory chip wafers. I would also bet that the retail packaging would say “Made in China” – which doesn’t really capture that the true value (and Intellectual Property) of the product resides in the US.
• There is no one central bureau directing the supply chain and manufacture of this product. The free market, by providing Lexar with the incentive of making a profit, drives this process.
• I did my Master’s in Microelectronics and it still amazes me that you can turn what is essentially sand into a device that can store my entire music collection, all my family videos and photos for under $20.

Let’s keep the FCC and the government out of the Internet.

10.12.2010– San Francisco, CA – A dozen Australian entrepreneurs will showcase their leading-edge innovations at the ANZA Technology Network Gateway to the US Executive Summit Australian Innovation Showcase at Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, from 6pm to 9:30pm on Tuesday, November 9.

Representative of the Australian tech scene, the Showcase provides a first-look at a broad-spectrum of smart technologies to Silicon Valley insiders who hold key connections to the US market and sales, partnering and funding opportunities.

ANZA’s 2010 Gateway to the US companies include a unique entertainment and media platform, software that interprets ‘brain signals’ to control electronic devices, enterprise solutions that turn management challenges into profits, specialist speech recognition technology, cutting-edge tools for web developers including a new database and a smart solution that trumps the universal remote market.

In addition to showcasing Australian companies new to the US market, ANZA will present two Australian-founded companies making waves in Silicon Valley; ThreatMetrix that has just closed a $12.1 million round and Whereoscope, a recent Y Combinator participant.

“Relative to its population of 21 million people, Australia consistently outperforms in innovative technologies it delivers to the global marketplace,” said Viki Forrest, CEO of ANZA Technology Network. “The Gateway to the US Australian Innovation Showcase underscores the remarkable talent that bubbles up Down Under and celebrates the success it has achieved locally in Silicon Valley.”

Andrew Lacy, Senior Vice President at Disney Mobile will deliver the evening’s keynote. Lacy, an Australian entrepreneur and co-founder of Tapulous, creator of Tap Tap Revenge, sold his company to Disney earlier this year. Nigel Warren, Consul-General & Senior Trade Commissioner at Austrade will emcee the Showcase.

More info here: http://www.pitchengine.com/pitch/94384/

I just wanted to announce the establishment of the long-awaited chips@NICTA program. (formerly known as Design@NICTA)

What is chips@NICTA?
Cadence and NICTA have signed an agreement for discounted access to EDA tools for early-stage Australian semiconductor companies by aggregating demand through usage of the Cadence EDA-card rather than have companies negotiate independently with Cadence.

Current Eligibility Criteria for SMEs in Australia include:
- Less than 5 years old
- Registered Australian Company
- Turnover less than $5Million
- Must be developing IP for ownership by SME, (i.e. EDA license not used for design services.)

So, if you are an early-stage Australian semiconductor company, have a need for EDA tools and are interested in the chips@NICTA program and would like further information could you please respond to me at gprobertson@ieee.org including the likely time you need access by.

I have been out of the microelectronic design arena for a while now, but I hope it does well!

1. Pathtracker® Pro

Globaltech’s state of the art Pathtracker® Pro software gives you a 3D view of the borehole survey. This benefits geologists by visualising the length, direction and shape of the bore hole.

Features include:

1. Plots graphical representation of the hole-path
2. Generates Plan, Elevation & 3-D Views with tools to turn the hole round
3. Can generate Global Positioning data (GPS) corresponding to each survey taken
4. Generate hole path in Global Earth View
5. Generates PDF report that includes graphical representation and essential data
6. Convert Magnetic Azimuth to Geometric Azimuth
7. Generates Elevation, Easting & Northing
8. Allows data to be sorted in ascending or descending depth
9. Toggles temperature column between deg Centigrade and Fahrenheit
10. Processes survey data to describe the best hole path
11. Generates nominal Magnetic Total and Magnetic Dip
12. Identifies bad shots (caused by magnetic anomaly or movement)
13. Easily de-selects identified bad shots

2. Pathtracker®

Pathtracker is a ‘Survey Data Quality Check’ software. Pathtracker accepts and process survey data captured by the Pathfinder® multi-shot survey probes without any reconfiguration or mapping. Raw survey data captured by Pathfinder can be processed to best describe the hole-path whilst anomalies are identified. There are many tools such as data mapping, anomaly identification, and individual survey shots’ coordinates. Surveys processed by Pathtracker can be loaded into Pathtracker Pro for hole-path graphic display & analyses.

Pathtracker single licence is issued free of charge with every Pathfinder Multi Shot probe. Additional licences can be purchased.

Pathtracker® has essential features and is designed to provide survey data quality checks and enables the operator to map the survey data captured by Pathfinder® multi-shot to be loaded into Pathtracker Pro, 3rd party ‘hole path analyses’ software or simply displayed in a familiar format.

What does it do?

1. Convert Magnetic Azimuth to Geometric Azimuth
2. Generates Elevation, Easting & Northing
3. Allows data to be sorted in ascending or descending depth
4. Allows selecting de-selecting of data Columns
5. Allows re-positioning of data columns
6. Toggles temperature column between deg Centigrade and Fahrenheit
7. Generates nominal Magnetic Total and Magnetic Dip
8. Identifies & highlights bad shots (caused by magnetic anomaly or movement)
9. Easily de-selects identified bad shots
10. Processes survey data to describe the best hole-path (by selecting Smooth Az)
11. Fixes bad shots where applicable & labels them as fixed (by selecting Smooth Az)
12. Generates survey report/file that can be loaded straight into Pathtracker Pro (by checking the Pathtracker Pro Compatible check box) for graphic representation and hole analyses
13. Facility to create template(s) to retain favorite configurations

Thank you to all our developers in getting these products released.

ExxonMobil has completed the world’s. longest extended-reach well drilled from an existing offshore fixed platform drilling rig, increasing the company’s ability to produce more domestic oil supplies from existing facilities at the Santa Ynez unit, offshore southern California. The well drilled from the Heritage platform using ExxonMobil’s Fast Drill technology extends more than six miles horizontally and more than 7,000 feet below sea level.

Through the use of this extended reach drill technology, the well will be able to produce an additional 5.8 million barrels of oil equivalent, an amount equal to the annual energy consumption of over 144,000 Californians.

Comparative production from a vertical and horizontal natural gas well (Chris McGill).

Production Volume

One thing that did strike me is that the horizontal peak production is well above the vertical well but has a shorter life span. Horizontal wells do have significant technical challenges (as seen in the article), but perhaps we can analyse the above chart to give us an idea of the benefits of horizontal drilling. Using the cumulative amounts in the above chart (thanks to reader Jeremy for pointing this out):

• Vertical Well (Yellow): 4.7 BCF
• Horizontal Well (Orange): 7.7 BFC
• Horizontal to Vertical Well total production gain: +64%

Judging from the chart the horizontal well extracts and extra 72% more oil in 10 months versus 100 months for vertical wells.

Production Value

Now to estimate the total value of the well let’s assume the price of natural gas is stable (at Henry Hub) at $8.00 per MCF:

• Total value of the horizontal well is 7.7*1,000,000*$8.00 = $61,600,000
• Total value of the vertical well is 4.7.*1,000,000*$8.00 = $37,600,000

Time Value of Money

This is where we get to use some basic financial models to determine the value of horizontal wells compared to vertical wells. The time value of money is the value of money figuring in a given amount of interest earned over a given amount of time. As an example, with an interest rate of 5% per annum, 100 dollars received today is equivalent of receiving 105 dollars in a year’s time.

Note that the horizontal well lifetime is 10 months compared to the vertical well lifetime of 100 months. Thus to be fair we need to compare the value of the horizontal well and the vertical well after 100 months. This is where the Time Value of Money comes in. Let’s pretend we bank the $61,600,000 that the horizontal well extracts, thus after 100 months (assuming 5% interest rates):

• Total value of horizontal well at 100 months: $93,360,000
• Total value of vertical well at 100 months: $37,600,000
• Horizontal to Vertical well gain: +248%

Extraction Costs

I do not know, in detail, the relative difference in extraction costs for these two methods. However, we now have the Horizontal to Vertical Well gain to use in our decision making. If the Horizontal to Vertical well cost is less than Horizontal to Vertical Well gain (+248% in our example), then it becomes economical to use the horizontal well method.

UPDATE: here is some commentary from The Oil Drum on this article regarding the discount rates (please note that the figures below use my old calculations but the overall points are valid):

With the resultant economic downturn around the world, companies should exploit their under-utilised human capital to prototype new products, services and business processes.Change challenges your company’s business practices, orthodoxies and the status quo. Executives should take a step back and re-assess their strategies and question how their organisation can better serve the market in the most cost effective way. If your company is suffering through a slow period, and have excess capacity, then this is a perfect opportunity to experiment and beta trial new products, services and business methods in your organisation.

Meet with your customers. Discuss their problems. Look for opportunities to remove their pain points. Can you save them time and money? Invite them to work with you on a solution. As an example, we are currently conducting a small scale trial of a prototype pedometer teaching aid at a local primary school that helps educators teach children about the importance of physical activity. This helps teachers who are time-poor to create new and inspirational classroom activities for their students.

Mobilise your team into groups of 3-4 and brainstorm new areas that the business to explore. It is not enough just to have ideas; you need to empower them with resources (ie. money and time) to conduct small scale beta trials. A scenario: your team has an idea for an intranet software package that integrates data from different departments and brings up an information dashboard to allow quick and timely decisions. Connect your engineers, business analysts and relevant stakeholders together to get a quick prototype done, evaluate the results and decide how to proceed. Having the ability to experiment and actually implement prototypes of ideas will give your company the competitive edge when the economy turns around.

Let the ideas flow from the bottom-up. Assuming you have adequate rewards and recognition based on personal and departmental Key Performance Indicators, the ideas and prototypes that flow from your team will have a better chance of success than ones forced down from above. Provide the leadership, parameters and boundaries of the solution and watch the magic happen!

While investing in new products and services may seem risky in the present climate, it is far better to start innovating now and be in a strong position when the economy (eventually) starts growing again.