Deep Shelf Gulf of Mexico Production Performance Analogs
The 2005 Update
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Offshore, deep reservoirs draw the interest of operators with exceptional sand quality and high well performance. The Deep Shelf Gulf of Mexico is no exception. In fact, new benchmarks show nine of the Shelf's newest fields are among the top 20 producers across 120 Deep Shelf fields.
Our newly updated Production Performance Analogs for the GOM Deep Shelf document this type of benchmark and help asset teams characterize why some fields and wells outperform others. Our analogs, based on IHS well, production, log and pressure databases as well as seismic data provided by Fairfield Industries, represent a unique combination of: |
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- An expert region-wide, multidisplinary technical analysis focused on tying Shelf performance, field by field, to the region's specific facies and depositional settings using seismic and logs. For example, our 2005 Update includes facies logs to help you identify the best sands to target, and find them more easily on seismic.
The ability to categorize any project, well, field or reservoir in the analog database by depositional setting -- and in some cases, even facies -- supports a wide range of analog workflows. View key findings.
Our facies logs can help you tie seismic to the most productive sands in your prospect area.
- Advanced Production Analysis of 466 completions and 120 fields, using traditional reservoir analytical techniques (decline curve, NODAL and material balance analysis) as well as production rate-pressure transient interpretations. Resulting metrics include:
- Estimated ultimate recoverable volumes (EUR) and, where possible, original hydrocarbons in place (OOIP and OGIP)
- Drainage radius
- Plateau periods
- Elapsed time for water breakthrough
- Drive mechanisms
- Porosity and permeability
- Reservoir skin and skin damage
- Bubble points
- Hydrocarbon phase
- An easy-to-query database of production performance statistics by field, reservoir and well, enabling a wide variety of benchmarking and analog studies. View details.
The result is a powerful set of resources for constructing an extremely thorough analog at the right scale for the decision at hand.
- Making a decision to enter or exit the play? Use the well analogs to determine if your prospect has equivalent geologic facies providing another data point for your economic sensitivities.
- Developing prospects prior to a lease sale? Narrow the risk in your play concept uncertainty analysis by correlating seismic to the Shelf's facies types and studying known analogs for EUR and production rate.
- Working on field development plans? Determine optimal well spacing by benchmarking your estimates for EUR, acres drained, and first-year production against the actual history of reservoirs with similar pressure regimes, drive mechanisms and facies.
For deepwater asset teams, this means unique, detailed insights for improved play targeting, more confident seismic interpretation, and more accurate benchmarking of reservoir potential, recovery efficiency and performance.
Our Production Performance Analogs, recently updated for 2005 by PetroSolutions Inc. in conjunction with IHS, now cover 120 fields and 466 completions and include:
- a written analysis, complete with seismic and facies profiles.
- a complete Web-accessible MS Access database of well, field and project performance benchmarks.
- the option to purchase the 80 well logs used in the study, including 65 with petrophysical analysis and 45 used for generation of synthetics, at a discount
- software files in IHS and other software formats with production profiles, EUR, pressure calculations and selected 3D models by reservoir. Software used in the Advanced Production Analysis (APA) includes several modules from IHS:
- PERFORM (nodal analysis)
- OilWat/GasWat (material balance)
- PVTLIB (black oil/compositional properties)
- PowerTools (decline curve analysis)
Key Findings of 2005 Update —
Tying depositional settings, facies & seismic to predict high performers
The newest Deep Shelf GOM fields are outperforming their older peers. Are operators drilling smarter, finding better fields, or both?
Our August 2005 update provides some insights, relating the new high performers to “target sands of choice” in the Shelf as defined by facies. By combining production performance analysis, well logs and new seismic stratigraphy techniques developed by Fairfield Industries, our study team of experts from PetroSolutions, Ltd., was able to correlate facies with production behavior across 29 new fields. The findings: certain combinations of depositional settings and facies posted higher performance by an order of magnitude.
As part of this analysis, our study team has classified most of the Deep Shelf (>15,000 ft) fields, reservoirs and wells covered in our analysis by depositional setting (slope vs. shelf), facies (sheet sands, channel sands, levee sands and amalgamated sands), or both. This gives your asset teams a foundation for using your seismic interpretation and stratigraphy techniques to select analog wells by facies logs, and then study production profiles and EUR representative of your prospects. The inclusion of seismic analysis as part of this multi-disciplinary study further enables your team to match seismic response at various depths to age trends, temperatures, pressures, and fluid types.
Other key findings include:
- Of the 120 fields studied, 29 have come online since April 2001. Of the current top 20 producing fields, nine are from the 29 new fields.
- The average Deep Shelf reservoir has two wells, indicating that seismic interpretation is a key to exploration success.
- The best producing wells have the greatest sand thickness. In terms of depositional settings, slope wells generally have greater sand thickness and significantly outperform shelf deposits.
- Based on all performance indicators – recovery percentage, EUR, drainage area, plateau length and permeability – none of the four depositional styles dominates. For gas completions, the aggradational style has the highest median values for acres drained.
- Plateau periods are brief, with a median value of between three and five months. Operators seem focused on aggressive production rates.
- Request a detailed and comprehensive Executive Overview.
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Comprehensive reservoir case studies give you detailed analogs for benchmarking original oil/gas in place, EUR, production rate, and more.
Comprehensive production benchmarks
Our Production Performance Analogs include an exhaustive database of analyzed production parameters and both pre-defined and freeform queries to support comparative studies by field, reservoir, operator, and project.
Three categories of data tables are included:
- Full EUR estimates based on decline curve and material balance analyses
- Reservoir characteristics, including porosity, permeability, reservoir skin and skin damage, bubble points, drainage radius, drive mechanism, and hydrocarbon phase
- Production metrics, including material balance, nodal analysis, volumetrics, drainage areas and more, created through advanced production analysis techniques and compared to PowerTools decline curve analysis results
In addition, more than 175 pre-defined queries give you instant charts and graphs to help you optimize development options, analyze alternative recovery techniques and benchmark performance against analogous mature and declining fields. Sample queries include:
- Reservoir Specific Productivity Index by Completion
- Cumulative Production by Reservoir Completion, Fluid Type and Depositional Style
- Gas Drawdown Summary by Well Completion
- Project Production Year One Maximum Rate and Best Year of Production by Completion
- EUR by Reservoir Completion
Thorough Analogs for Reduced Risk
Production Performance Analogs enable your asset teams – whether Gulf of Mexico Deep Shelf specialists, or new ventures geologists in other deepwater provinces – to construct extremely detailed comparative studies to narrow uncertainty and reduce risks across a number of E&P activities:
- Play targeting
- Drilling plans
- Reservoir engineering
- M&A opportunity identification