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Software firm automates complex business tasks Resource Data uses software and the Internet to organize and automate oil business, from data and maps to the trans-Alaska pipeline quality bank Steve Sutherlin PNA Managing Editor
Alaska-grown software application development company Resource Data Inc. isn’t the expert in adjusting for differences in the quality of North Slope crude that shares the trans-Alaska pipeline, but it developed the software that makes the job easier.
By using Internet technology to automate complex business tasks, the company has expanded to 50 employees in Anchorage and Juneau, Kimball Forrest, Resource Data co-owner, told PNA in a recent interview.
The trans-Alaska pipeline quality bank software includes a database application for tracking samples, calculating crude oil assays, evaluating assays, determining crude oil pricing and computing financial adjustments resulting from mixing various grades of oil for four quality banks in two major oil pipeline systems, company officials said.
It also developed quality control procedures and worked with auditors and bank personnel for accurate quality bank adjustments.
GIS a company specialty Resource Data also designed a geographic information system for the trans-Alaska pipeline that delivers vector data and raster images of the pipeline and surrounding areas through a standard web browser. GIS is a specialty for Resource Data around which a number of its resource company projects are based.
A GIS system displays a map or other diagram on the screen. The user clicks on features on the map, and the system pulls up information based on that map point such as drilling data, lease ownership or geological information.
One-third of Resource Data’s business is GIS design.
Another key component of the company’s services is the use of the Internet, and of private Intranet networks for access to needed data on-site and off-site in a familiar format for users on standard Internet browsers. The universal familiarity with web browsers insures ease of use and a short learning curve. For instance, the trans-Alaska pipeline GIS system is accessible from the Internet and an Intranet.
Resource Data uses itself as a test lab for many of its product ideas. In fact, the efficiencies it has gained by using its own systems have helped it to compete, particularly against two major out-of-state based firms with offices in Anchorage.
And features it has developed make it easier to do business with the company.
“We’re believers because we’ve saved a lot of money internally,” Kimball Forrest, Resource Data co-owner said. “Using a secure log-on, our clients can look at their bill at any time and see what’s going on.”
Serving the oil industry The company started in 1986 linking mineral data to maps for mineral companies. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, Resource Data approached VECO Alaska Inc., the prime contractor for the cleanup effort, and offered its services to manage and incorporate environmental data.
That was a foot in the door to the oil business, and a forerunner to the current Oil Spill Response GIS the firm developed and continues to maintain. For the project, Resource Data converted U.S. Geological Survey files, generated contours from the U.S.G.S. data, translated environmental data into the required format, and developed a land-ownership atlas.
The company now claims oil field clients such as BP, Phillips Alaska Inc., ExxonMobil, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., Yukon Pacific Corp., Unocal, VECO and Alaska Tanker Corp.
The firm is busy, and expects to stay that way even if energy prices enter a low cycle.
“There’s lots of things to do if oil prices drop,” Forrest said, “People are looking for efficiencies.”
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