Reservoir Characterization: A Multi-Disciplinary Team Approach - RC

The modern team approach to reservoir characterization describes productive zones more reliably through the integration of disciplines, technology and data. Increase your proven reserves, discover by-passed pay, reduce development time and costs, improve production rates, and rejuvenate old fields through the skills learned in this course. The models developed during the course are based on the application of state-of-the-art technical applications within the framework of a multi-disciplinary team approach. The course is process-based and focuses upon: - Understanding the applicability of the measurements and interpretations from the participant's discipline to other adjacent disciplines - Understanding information from other disciplines and the uncertainties and risks involved in its gathering/interpretation - Awareness of the latest technologies and working principles evolving on the "cutting edge" of the industry - Managing a large complex project to solve business problems in the most efficient manner - particularly when working in a difficult environment (multi-disciplinary teams, bosses outside your expertise, cross purposes from disciplines, etc) - Working with multiple working hypotheses throughout the project until conclusively proven otherwise Reservoir characterization is the process between the discovery phase of a property and the reservoir management phase. The process integrates the technical disciplines of geology, geophysics, reservoir engineering, production engineering, petrophysics, economics, and data management. Key objectives of reservoir characterization focus on modeling each reservoir unit, predicting well behavior, understanding past reservoir performance, and forecasting future reservoir performance. Such factors, in addition to staffing needs and expenditures, assert a strong impact on plans for the development and performance of a field. This course illustrates the reservoir characterization process so that each member of the RC team and each of its customers (other departments and management) can appreciate the resulting interpretations and may even contribute to building the RC model. The value of modern team practices related to corporate efficiency is demonstrated. Case studies of multi-disciplinary reservoir characterization applications allow participants to benefit from "best practices" that have been gathered from the industry. Numerous team exercises provide hands-on practice to understand the needs of other professionals to collect data, integrate data across disciplines, and appreciate the needs of other disciplines and to develop new reservoir characterization skills. Innovative data sheets are provided to the students to categorize their interpretations within the context of the RC problem. The course is built around a preliminary map of the RC process built within MS Project; the process starts with defining the organizational objectives followed by setting up the team, confirming the assignment, reviewing the data, reconfirming/refining the assignment, building a static model, confirming the static model through multi-disciplinary data, building the dynamic model and presenting solutions. The generic process-based, procedural outline of reservoir characterization enables and enhances learning throughout an organization. The templates are easily adaptable to each company's circumstances and can be used as checklists and planning tools. Use of this approach will minimize time for the characterization and assure quality within the corporate guidelines. EXAMPLES The instructor of this course is willing to accept examples from your company for analysis in the class as one of the demonstration exercises. Please contact PetroSkills Training for a list of the information and support data required, as well as the necessary lead-time.

Geologists, geophysicists, reservoir engineers, production engineers, petrophysicists, exploration and production managers, team leaders, and research scientists.

You will Learn:

Participants will learn how to:

• Develop an integrated multi-disciplinary reservoir model that determines the internal and external geometry of the reservoir, distribution of reservoir properties (static model) and flow within the reservoir (dynamic model)
• Predict local variations within the reservoir
• Explain past reservoir performance
• Predict future reservoir performance of field
• Analyze economic optimization of each property
• Formulate a plan for the development of the field throughout its life
• Convert data from one discipline to another
• Extrapolate data from a few discrete points to the entire reservoir
• Calibrate seismic data to the reservoir model
• Minimize development expenditures
• Facilitate management decisions concerning the property, financial requirements, staffing needs and expenditures
• Develop appropriate and accurate financial models useful to company management
• Help the reservoir characterization team work together more efficiently