A Decade of Increased Oil Recovery in Virtual Reality

In the early '90s, VR was still in its infancy, but the Norwegian oil company Norsk Hydro saw the technology's potential. Still, there was no framework for developing VR for exploration and production. Working with the Norwegian research institute Christian Michelsen Research (CMR), Hydro began work on a proof-of-concept demonstration. The goal was to show that, by using VR technology, a company could perform critical E&P operations "more efficiently, with better quality, and at lower costs." In 1997, Hydro invested in a CAVE laboratory and CMR began developing the HydroVR application. The HydroVR project both changed work processes and increased revenue for petroleum E&P in general. Here, we describe the project's major application milestones and summarize how and why the project has sustained its extensive activity over the past 10 years.