Drilling an oil well costs tens of millions of dollars, yet there is no guarantee that the well is going to be gushing with oil or gas. Anything that can reduce that uncertainty will potentially bring about savings in the millions of dollars. And Shaoqing Sun has found a nice niche in this field.

Sun, founder and managing director of C&C Reservoirs, is proud of the technology his company has developed in tackling one of the biggest headaches in the oil and gas industry.

Called the Digital Analogs Knowledge System, the technology sounds like an amalgam of two broadcasting technologies, but is actually much closer to an "online search engine".

The exploration of a potential oil and gas field yields lots of data, which is subject to analysis and evaluation. Geological "analogs" refer to the clues accumulated in field development; and scientists and engineers constantly use that for comparison with the information they already have. The more relevant clues they have, the better their judgment will be, explains Sun in an interview with China Daily.

However, this kind of knowledge is not neatly compiled in a database or easily accessible to those who need it. It is scattered in various places and in the minds of exploration experts.

Cataloging the information and knowledge that they possess is a vital activity which can "provide a real benefit for future generations", says Sun.

Before the widespread use of computers, one had go to the library and pore through all of the materials available to find the information one needed; the alternative was to travel the globe and consult specialists. But the web has made "knowledge management" as easy as a click of the mouse, thus the use of the word "digital" in the product's name.

The technology not only "captures and analyzes data and information on nearly a thousand of the world's most important fields and reservoirs" as delivered through the web, but also "presents a re-interpretation, verification, standardization and synthesis of available data, using modern concepts and techniques, to provide field-by-field geological and reservoir-engineering analyses and comparisons", Sun says.

In layman's terms, the search engine not only puts the right information at the user's fingertips, but also assists the user in making decisions.

The new technology is a huge step forward from the previous era where exploration was very much a trial and error process, or "crossing the river by feeling the stones" as one Chinese idiom goes.

Such is the success of the system that big oil companies like ChevronTexaco have taken to this approach.

According to Sun, one of C&C's clients "found a 3-billion-barrel field in Africa" using the analogs. Another one used analogs from the Gulf of Mexico and determined that a major investment project in another part of the world - requiring a very expensive deepwater drill - should be avoided because it was found to be too risky.

"It is very exciting and rewarding when customers benefit from our service," enthuses Sun.

Furthermore, some of his clients use information obtained through the Digital Analogs service to "uncover subtle opportunities that may not be apparent", while others use it to "convince investors or partners of the viability or merits of a specific field development programme", says Sun.

In 1981, when the 18-year-old Sun boarded a train for Daqing, he never expected that someday his work might be a pivotal link in a decision-making process that may make or break investment projects of such mammoth scale. At the time, he was actually disappointed that he had been accepted into the petroleum geological department at Daqing Petroleum Institute.

"My heart sank when I first got the admission notice," he says.

"In those days, a girl would not think of marrying a guy in oil exploration because that means the husband would be absent all year round."

Sun, a farm boy from Liaoning Province in Northeast China, balanced a gruelling curriculum with his hobby of music.

In 1985, he filled one of the slots available for an overseas study programme sponsored by no less than the mainland's Ministry of Petroleum.

Most of his 50-plus classmates hailed from more prestigious schools like Peking University or Tsinghua University, but again his determination to succeed kept him in good stead.

"Coming from a poor and traditional family, I had developed my personal set of values, such as hard work, generosity, honesty and responsibility. I always wanted to be the best in whatever I pursued," recalls the overachiever from the mainland's oil belt.

After four years of study in the UK, first at Bristol University and then at Reading University,

Sun, armed with a doctorate in reservoir geology, became a senior research geoscientist for Petroleum Information and MASERA, companies that specialized in providing information for the oil and gas industry. Later he moved to Houston, where much of the US oil and gas industry is based.

In early 1995, sensing that a revolution in the information industry was about to happen, Sun decided to go out on his own and set up his own business.

The name C&C Reservoirs, which stands for carbonate and clastic, refers to two types of oil and gas reservoirs.

"In the early days we went through a lot of hardship," he recalls, but Sun believes it was his innovative thinking, his solid technical background as well some dexterity in management, that pulled him through.

It also helped that upstream operations in the petroleum industry, such as Chevron's information department, reached out to him. Company records show that in 1995, there were only seven clients, whereas now, the total number of clients has exceeded 60, including industrial heavyweights ChevronTexaco, ConcoPhilips, ExxonMobile and Shell.

"Our best ideas invariably come from our customers," Sun says, having worked with some 30 international companies.

"Our technology is being applied in the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, China and Southeast Asia - just about anywhere oil and gas are produced."

With offices in Houston, London and Beijing, C&C Reservoirs stays in constant touch with its clients by providing online demonstrations and hosting training programmes and annual user conferences. Customized solutions are offered to tailor its system to the specific technical needs of each client.

There is a lot of hand-holding for clients who are just starting to use the technology or are not yet sold on its effectiveness.

For the sceptical, there is a free trial period, during which the C&C product is tested and used to let client engineers get a feel for it and let its value be demonstrated.

"We don't just sell our technology, Sun says, "we actually spend a lot of time on customer support."

Sun identifies "data" and "talent" as two primary challenges that C&C is faced with. It is of paramount importance to secure more field and reservoir data, he stresses, especially from strategically relevant regions.

On top of that, "a talent for oil hunting is also crucial in this combination of art and science; of applying geologic analogs in areas of prospecting and field development".

That also includes supervising data aggregators in London and software developers in Beijing, which he does during the course of the interview.

Sun adds that C&C maintains a very diverse and globally oriented team. It's a "flat organization with little overheads and great motivation for success," he says.

Sun, a globe-trotting entrepreneur, finds himself in one of the economy's hottest industries, as erratically escalating oil prices keep many industries, actually many nations, on the edge.

By mining and sharing exploration knowledge through sophisticated tools, he hopes to bring some peace of mind to those in exploration and processing of natural resources.

(HK Edition 09/14/2004 page17)