The Scout team is currently focusing on improving the general architecture and code quality but they’re also working on creating good API’s that will make ERT easier to use. This increased flexibility will both help our future reservoir modelling, and make it easier to adapt ERT into other domains, Sondre tells us.

Since ERT has this large amount of users, they’re naturally eager to see new features being implemented and added. 

“We get almost instant feedback to the updates we deploy and changes we make. It’s really motivating to keep on working,” Øystein smiles.

Praise isn’t the only thing the large user base can provide however. Their feedback and knowledge of both the tool and domains is a key component to making sure the developers get the job done. After all, they’re the ones who are using ERT and need it to function properly.

When we talk about the ERT software, we also have to mention the Fast Model Update (FMU) concept. It’s the basis for what’s letting us create the reservoir models like we do now.  

And if we’re to believe geologist Per Olav Eide Svendsen, this combination of concept and tools have propelled their workflow forward.

But being a developer and pushing the envelope entails much more than just writing code, Markus explains. 

“We have to understand what it’s all about, what ERT is trying to achieve and then describe this procedure for a computer to process. It’s an incredibly interesting problem to face because of what we might be able to learn from these reservoir models when we process new information,” Markus says.

Scout is a big team with a big task ahead of them, but they’re not set in their ways of who does what. They’ve made a conscious decision to have everyone working on all the different areas and that as many of them as possible know about all the parts.

“This helps provide better quality to the code. If you know about the code from before it’s easier to provide feedback to it and we always have code reviews before anything goes out to production,” Øystein says.

All of ERT is an open source project, freely available on Github. This means they can make use of existing tools to make their job easier.

“The work we do now is creating something that’s less of a monolith. By dividing the code into modules and isolating pieces with clear tasks, we can sometimes substitute our own implementations with existing open-source tools,” Sondre says. 

“This also means we’ll be contributing back to these open source projects with new features or bug fixes,” he adds.

Sondre explains that one of the largest challenges they face is improving code quality and making sure that everything works as intended - while at the same time doing large structural changes to the code.  

“There can be hundreds of simulations running across weeks, and it would be terrible if someone’s simulations crashed because of the work we did,” he says.

The move into the clouds should be much easier once they’ve finished restructuring the code. ERT might keep on giving us an advantage in the world of reservoir modelling and even in the world of renewables. 

“The way I see it ERT can help us understand our reservoirs better, help with improving production and even help cut emissions,” Markus says.

“I also think we have an upper hand if we’re able to use our knowledge and technology within renewables,” he adds.

Only time will tell what the future holds. But if you want to stay up to date on anything software-related from Equinor, then remember to subscribe to our newsletter below. Until next time!