Drilling Data Quality & Uncertainty Description

There is a dire need to communicate uncertainty in measurements / data between functions involved in drilling oil and gas (geothermal) wells.

Traditional systems can mislead data users since uncertainties are not transmitted with the data. Take Wellbore surveys for example. Tabulations shared from drilling to geoscientists are detailed to 2 decimal places where as the ellipsoid of uncertainty can be whole (meters or feet) on these data points. This creates an erroneous message that the well bore trajectory mapped from the surveys is highly accurate whereas in fact it is not. This leads to misinterpretations in the earth model potentially costing operators large sums of money.

The industry needs methods to convey uncertainty with data for improved use by end users.