Feb. 26, 2015 — Software company IHS Inc. has donated 40 of its IHS Kingdom geoscience software licenses, training and supporting services to the University of Utah. The donation allows the university’s undergraduate and graduate students, as well as its geoscience and engineering faculty, to have access to the latest software technology for oil and gas geoscience interpretation and industry research.

IHS Kingdom is a Microsoft Windows-based geoscience software interpretation tool used by thousands of geoscientists in more than 100 countries to evaluate potential oil and gas reservoirs and plan field development.  IHS Kingdom enables geologists and geophysicists to conduct dynamic depth conversion of time-based data — transforming a common geosciences workflow and increasing the efficiency and accuracy of a process that used to take hours to complete, but can now take place faster.

“We are pleased and grateful that IHS has donated this valuable software for the last 10 years and counting,” said Cari Johnson, an associate professor at the University of Utah’s Geology and Geophysics Department.

“The software is mainly used for viewing and interpreting seismic reflection data, which give us images of the subsurface. In our program, this kind of software is critical for student training as well as research, as it allows us to use high quality, industry datasets for real-world teaching examples. IHS-Kingdom products are integrated in the Geology Department’s Petroleum Industry Career Path (PICP), which is an internationally recognized program in energy geoscience.”

She noted that in 2013, a student from the PICP won the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ Imperial Barrel Award competition, using the product and related software to interpret industry-standard data in a real-world petroleum exploration exercise.

“The software donation provides University of Utah faculty, researchers and students another valuable tool to advance research,” added Raymond Levey, director of the Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI) at the University of Utah, which is also working with software donated by IHS. EGI is the largest cost-shared upstream E&P research consortia at any university with membership from more than 65 companies in more than 20 nations. EGI research spans over 6 continents in more than 70 countries.

“We greatly appreciate having this resource for global research and to advance knowledge,” said Levey.