IFP and Earth Decision today announced the signing of a partnership agreement to develop and commercialize Kine3D, a new GOCAD-based application designed for 3D restoration. IFP, with a long history and deep expertise in geological restoration, will lead the development of this new module while Earth Decision will manage its commercialization.

The proposed application will be composed of three plug-in modules:

- The first includes numerous tools to build 3D coherent geologic interpretations, which are especially helpful in areas where 3D seismic data are scarce.

- The second includes 2D balanced cross-sections and surfacic restorations, enabling the user to test and improve the quality of the interpretation by restoring the horizons.

- The third, a volumetric restoration, uses a mixed geometry and geomechanic approach that allows a geoscientist to compute the stress tensor for any deformation step. This is beneficial when trying to predict migration paths and fracture networks.

"3D restoration will be an important tool to improve the understanding of the reservoir. As 3D restoration poses important technical challenges, we decided to combine our 3D modelling capabilities with IFP's structural restoration expertise to provide the most effective solution for our users," said Jean-Claude Dulac, President & CEO of Earth Decision. "We are pleased that IFP selected our development framework as the foundation of this new product. Their selection confirms the value our plug-in architecture provides clients or other software providers who wish to add proprietary modules within an integrated framework."

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