Software Developers Seek to Improve Decision Making For Shale Drillers
On Thursday at last week’s EnerCom conference, Dr. Heidi Kuzma, CTO of BetaZi LLC, Alan Lindsey of PetroDE, and Peter Flanagan of Ubiterra discussed software solutions their companies have developed to help improve production and decision making for oil and gas companies. Working on the adage that “data is not information, which is not intelligence,” the companies’ offerings seek to provide the benefits of big data at your fingertips by visualizing large amounts of data and complex technical processes.
BetaZi: Building Better Type Curves and Production Forecasts
BetaZi’s software seeks to overcome the complicated workflows caused by the ad hoc math required to forecast production from existing wells and build and test type curves. Hang ups in this process include noisy data, multiple stages and flow regimes, and cumbersome adjustments.
The software package uses physics-based prediction methods to automatically build probabilistic forecasts for individual well production, eliminating the complicated and error-prone nature of such work.
The presentation highlighted the importance of accurate production forecasts to E&P investment decision making. Is your well a gusher that will provide a high NPV and short payback time before tapping out, or a long-producer with a low NPV and long payback time that will provide steady cash flow over the years?
PetroDE: Technical and Geological Data at Your Fingertips
PetroDE’s products aim to help companies wrangle the large amount of data currently available from the shale revolution to make effective business decisions. Cloud-computing is central to their product line, facilitating high-memory databases, optimized computing and displays, and automated data loading.
Compiling data from numerous sources, the product maps key engineering and geological metrics such as EURs, GORs, wells per land unit, and proppant per lateral foot through space. The presentation showed how customers can analyze proppant use by operators in a particular basin, get info on the top performing wells in a basin, or compare well performance in different geological formations with the product.
Ubiterra: 3D Visualizations for Horizontal Drilling Teams
One of the key technologies that helped spark the unconventional revolution was Gamma ray and 3D seismic geosteering technologies for drilling operations. This allowed engineers to better plan, target, and alter drilling paths into geological formations. Ubiterra’s ZoneVu™ integrated 3-D seismic app hopes to bring all team members involved in this process under one software suite.
The app allows geoscientists, engineers, geosteerers, and other drilling team members to share one software tool, allowing more efficient drilling and reducing mistakes that harm recoveries and returns on investment. Faster decisions from real-time, 3-D data allow better landing of wells and easier tracking of geologic faults.
Great Western Oil & Gas, which also presented at the conference, is currently using ZoneVu™ in its drilling operations.
