Knowledge Reservoir and Cimarron Software Services Announce Technical Alliance for Real-Time Surveillance to the Oil & Gas Industry.

HOUSTON, September 20, 2010 --- Knowledge Reservoir, a leading geosciences and engineering consulting company, and Cimarron Software Services, Inc., a software engineering and systems integration company, today announced a technical alliance to provide integrated systems, and services for Real-Time Command and Control and events-based surveillance solutions to the global upstream and downstream oil and gas industry.

Recent events in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico have cast a bright spotlight on the need for better understanding and monitoring of reservoir conditions, drilling, and production activity.  Partly in response to these events, Knowledge Reservoir is forming a unique integrated alliance team of vendors and proven applications for events-based surveillance, command and control, and complex events processing in real-time drilling and production environments.  

Key to the alliance is Cimarron, a recognized leader in Real-Time Command & Control System Integration. With a twenty nine year history of system engineering and integration of real-time solutions used in high technology industries, Cimarron engineers played a vital part in the design and implementation of NASA’s Mission Control facilities for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.  Since 1988, Cimarron has assisted NASA in the development, maintenance and operations of these worldwide facilities.  Additionally, Cimarron personnel have engineered command and control facilities for Satellite, Defense and Space Observatories around the world.

Leveraging its extensive command and control and NASA experience, Cimarron has been focused on integration of Commercial ‘Off the Shelf’ (COTS) systems for real-time applications.  Cimarron’s engineers have demonstrated a path for many of its customers to move away from proprietary system building and custom programming to improve operational efficiency, cost effectiveness, and safety, with redundant platforms.  This approach has made it easy to replicate remote operations and sustainable control centers anywhere.  Since these are COTS systems, maintenance, sustainability, and upgrading is inexpensive - their systems can integrate virtually every application, computer, instrument, and sensor into the solution.  Working with existing infrastructures, with a ‘vendor independent’ layered approach that can be integrated with virtually every type of software or IT system, Cimarron can build reliable mission control/command centers from the ground up, quickly and at less cost than other suppliers.

Early in 2010, major oil and gas operators began evaluating the NASA connection through the consulting firm, Knowledge Reservoir LLC, for Production Hubs and Real-Time Operations Centers for Exploration.  Additionally, these operators have expressed the desire to develop a long-term relationship with Cimarron.

In the alliance, Knowledge Reservoir will focus its expertise on integration and implementation management, providing oil and gas subject matter experts, optimizing workflows, data quality control and knowledge management.

Speaking at the 2010 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Florence, Italy, Dr. Ivor R. Ellul, CEO of Knowledge Reservoir, commented, “In all aspects of the E&P business stream, engineers are busy unraveling complexity, looking for,  collecting and quality controlling data, which is not their job.  We need systems to do this.  Leveraging data across projects, maintenance, and production, and tracking alerts and actions is crucial to our future success.  We also need to connect information efficiently to our subject matter and domain experts.  We want to tackle the information gaps in our current operations, but also need to look to the future and implement applications that cost-effectively address all of our well surveillance and process issues.  The challenge is that real-time data must be effectively exploited at all levels of the business.  We are highly encouraged to see the immediate take up of this approach by one of the leading majors.”

Marv LeBlanc, Vice President at Cimarron, added, “The oil and gas industry has reached the point where technology requirements have reached a critical level and cannot be propagated and supported successfully or cost-effectively by proprietary internal systems.  We have delivered a new paradigm to the Space and Oil and Gas industries - Commercial “Off the Shelf” Technology and Systems with no custom programming or coding required, greatly reducing cost, improving efficiency and sustainability.  Cimarron’s solution is not about special hardware or equipment, but system integration engineering and real-time telemetry implementation, defined as the ability to ‘agnostically’ architect an efficient system in virtual and command center environments, at greatly reduced cost.” 

Knowledge Reservoir is a leading global energy consulting firm headquartered in Houston, Texas, and provides Geoscience and Engineering Consulting and Resourcing solutions to clients worldwide from offices in Texas, California, the United Kingdom, Norway, Oman, and Malaysia.

Cimarron Software Services Inc. provides systems engineering and integration services for real-time command and control center design and implementation and delivers products and services to multiple government agencies at the federal, state and local levels.  Cimarron’s has additional expertise in software engineering and information technology management services.  Currently, Cimarron is a major teammate for development, maintenance, and operations of the famed NASA, Houston Mission Control Center, operating the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.

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