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Case study

The challenge

TGS, one of the world’s largest providers of 2-D, 3-D and other forms of sub-surface data to oil and gas companies, was facing a challenge: Its customers had no direct visibility into sub-surface, geological or meta data, and it took too long to deliver insights. The process was cumbersome. Raw data needed to be segmented and cut onto physical tapes that were shipped to customers—an expensive manual process.

TGS needed a better way for customers to access the 2-D and 3-D seismic data from which to make accurate decisions on where to drill, both onshore and offshore.

Our approach

To power a new data-as-a-service (DaaS) offering, TGS selected the Cognizant BigDecisions® data analytics platform running on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud. 

The team began by migrating 200TB of tape-based data to the cloud. TGS implemented an AWS-based data lake solution to process petabyte-scale sub-surface data and enable searching of specific data points. BigDecisions ingests seismic data directly to the cloud, speeding meta data extraction by 75%. It also enables an end-to-end searchable repository of metadata for easy search and cataloging. 

As a result, customers can now access personalized geospatial mapping data to pinpoint the insights they need, reducing data delivery time from five days down to five hours. This helps customers greatly reduce time spent deciding where to drill and eliminates the chance of coming up empty. Customers can preview data online, drill down and examine data from various perspectives before making a purchase decision.

A centralized, searchable, real-time catalog

TGS now speeds access to insights via an online information ecosystem powered by a cloud-based big data analytics solution. This data modernization project has helped elevate TGS from being a data provider to a source of real sub-surface insights that oil and gas customers are using to inform their own innovations and make more informed drilling decisions.

95%

less time spent pinpointing optimal locations to drill

5 hours

to deliver information to customers, down from 5 days

4.5B records

migrated to the public cloud via AWS