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Structural modeling in

Geology & Geophysics unconventional reservoirs

Build accurate reservoir models in the presence of complex faults.

Images from Paradigm.

cost of any software tools. As a result, in times like these, managers tend to go up the hill, technologically speaking.”

Production and enhanced recovery trends

The critical need for organizations to understand sweep effciencies and bypassed compartments. “What did I miss?” That question is critical when margins are thinner, Chakrabarti says. “It’s essential for you to have all the information that can tell you what your subsurface actually looks like,” he says.

The placement of an injector must be evaluated against how much oil it can actually make contact with, mobilize and the analysis of production over time, and push toward the recovery well.

Efciency, cost-efectiveness optimized decisions about future devel- Because the subsurface is heav- and optimized analyses are opment (i.e., where to drill next). ily fractured, compartmentalized and crucial in upstream asset “At Paradigm, we have brought all of fault-riddled, geoscientists historically that together in a single, unifying soft- would remove complexities and simplify development. OE spoke with ware platform suite we call Epos,” says their image of the subsurface, treating

Paradigm’s Indy Chakrabarti to

Indy Chakrabarti, senior vice president it more like a big tank than a reservoir, chart the pathway to success. of product management and strategy Chakrabarti says. for Paradigm. “This technology allows “Then they would run production for

Jeannie Stell reports.

individual applications for each specifc whatever they could get. The fact that domain to be are cross-integrated they might have placed an iven today’s low oil and gas with each other through Epos.” injector on the wrong side of prices, exploration and produc- Typically, managers and geo- a fault meant that some of the

G tion companies must strive to scientists seeking new software CO2 never reached the reservoir be ever more effcient and cost-effective tools for analyzing their asset of hydrocarbons,” he says.

in the creation, execution and analysis of environments focus on cost Now, managers are very their asset development plans. Companies savings, infll drilling, and high- focused on how well their that manage these activities successfully grading prospects. In today’s technical software allows them

Indy Chakrabarti will outlast the bust. Those that don’t will economic environment, getting to “see” the subsurface effects likely not survive as viable entities — as these management planning decisions of their development operations. “That the industry has already seen. right is crucial, as each has signifcant clearer image of the subsurface makes a

At the start of any successful asset cost implications. big difference when you are attempting to development plan, managers must Conversely, overall fnancial concerns optimize production,” Chakrabarti says.

consider the fve aspects, or domains, have very little infuence over software

Optimized planning and production of exploration and production. These purchase decisions. “The cost of a man-

Targeted at solving these issues, both the include: processing and imaging; inter- ager’s decision about where to drill, how

Paradigm 14 and 15 software releases are pretation and data management; model- to get rigs, and when to contract seismic pointed in the same direction — the indus- ing and reservoir engineering; forma- boast, is 100-fold greater than the choice try’s frst high-defnition (HD) platform. tion evaluation; and drilling and well of a particular software tool to help make “One of the most acute problems occurs planning. those decisions,” Chakrabarti says. “Even when companies acquire rich seismic data,

This end-to-end workfow identifes: a 1% gain in a major asset management but don’t have software tools that can meet where to drill, where to land the well, decision will easily compensate for the

May 2015 | OE oedigital.com 48 048_OE0515_G&G2_Paradigm.indd 48 4/19/15 11:59 PM