The requirement for such a knowledge system has been apparent for some time, but the level of interest within the oil industry has recently gained momentum due to the increasing use of external networks and increased co-operative activity within the industry.

Information/data is located at many distributed sites on numerous database and software platforms. At present, the knowledge of the existence of data is impossible to monitor let alone retrieve and utilise. The technology developed in this project will expedite the process of searching for relevant information in a geographically distributed and constantly growing network of information (knowledge) sources.

Participants in this JIP will be able to evaluate at first hand the effectiveness of improving business processes via emerging information technology and will benefit from the following deliverables:

• a set of E&P knowledge maps i.e. pointers to internal corporate memory and external knowledge sources;
• demonstration of viability of new software to search both internal and external maps i.e. in-company and shared-world knowledge mining;
• an agent-based query/retrieval platform;
• a client world wide web interface providing integrated natural language and graphical interface software and knowledge based natural language software.
• the project will develop a set of one or more software prototypes that will demonstrate the viability of the technology in actual real-world applications.

This multi-sponsor joint industry project requires six E&P participants to proceed. The participation fee will be �48,000 per company per annum, requiring a total commitment of �144k per sponsor. A workshop on the proposal was held on 16 November in Edinburgh and was attended by six of PSTI's member companies.

Further details can be obtained from Irene Hepburn, [Tel: 01224 706600. Fax: 01224 706601].

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