ERC Tigress, Shell International to develop petroleum production management software.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 1995--ERC Tigress, a member of the PGS group (NASDAQ: PGSAY) and Shell International Exploration and Production B.V. (S.I.E.P.) of The Hague, The Netherlands, have announced they will build an open architecture oil and gas production management tool for multiple platforms and multiple databases that rapidly identifies problem wells and minimizes deferred production for real business benefits.

"PUMA(TM) (Production Management and Analysis) quickly recognizes problem wells by comparing actual production rates and pressures against those that might be expected theoretically," explained R. Wayne Carpenter, president of ERC Tigress Inc. "When a well is not performing as expected, the engineer knows that the revenue forecast from the well won't happen, unless production changes are made," he said.

"The prototype allows users to optimize production by integrating well and reservoir data on a common database that may be accessed by all members of a multi-disciplinary asset team," said Iain Blair, production technology manager for Shell. "All team members, whether they work on Windows(TM)-based personal computers or on large UNIX(TM)-based workstations, will be able to tap the data for more efficient well surveillance at lower costs," he said.

PUMA is accessible from either the Tigress(TM) database, developed by ERC Tigress, or an Epicentre datastore using the data model specifications developed by the Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC), reducing costs for data management and visualization. "Because every user accesses the same data, disk storage requirements are less, and data can be accessed and reported faster," Carpenter explained.

"We are excited that PUMA, a jointly developed commercial product, will use the Epicentre data model," said David Archer, chief operating officer of POSC, an industry-backed effort to produce standards that make the software and data used by engineers and geoscientists compatible, leading to improved asset management over the life cycle of a field.

"We foresee this announcement as the first of many as POSC specifications begin to be used in earnest by the E&P (exploration and production) industry," Archer said. "Joint development efforts such as this one between ERC Tigress and Shell and the use of the POSC standards will bring tremendous business benefits to the industry."

Shell and ERC Tigress expect to provide the first commercial version of PUMA by fall 1996 with a full commercial release the following year. The product will be owned, marketed and supported by ERC Tigress with Shell owning the first commercial license in the joint development project. A pricing strategy for the software is being developed.

Among the product features will be daily production calculations on well conduit, well completion and reservoir production from sporadic well test data, sales volume measurements and descriptions of the overall production system configuration and well completion and reservoir element physical configurations, along with additional information from well logs, core data or production/injection data.

PUMA will calculate grouped data allocated production for as many as five wellbore levels and up to eight above-wellbore levels of production system hierarchy.

Other features use nodal analysis technology to calculate up to six well performance indicators. It uses material balance technology to calculate original oil and gas in place and acquifer size and strength. PUMA uses decline curve analysis to calculate ultimate and remaining recoverable oil and gas reserves. It predicts future production and allows visualization of historical production, wellbore and reservoir-related data through graphs, maps, cross-sections and wellbore schematics.

ERC Tigress provides petroleum software and consulting services for worldwide exploration and production. United with Petroleum Geo-Services A/S in July 1994, the firm's worldwide operations include offices in nine countries. Its Tigress is a client-server database featuring an open system architecture, with 2-D and 3-D seismic interpretation, mapping, modeling, petrophysics, geostatistics, petroleum and reservoir engineering and reservoir simulation applications. It also provides basin modeling and petroleum economics software.

For additional product information, please contact:

ERC Tigress Inc.

11200 Westheimer, Suite 200

Houston, TX 77042

713/953-0054

ERC Tigress Limited (U.K.)

Anglers Court

Spittal St.

Marlow

Bucks

England

SL7 1DB

011-441628474911

TRADEMARKS:

Tigress and PUMA are registered trademarks of ERC Tigress Inc.

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