Current best practices in North America’s shale basins deliver inconsistent production results because of a lack of reservoir understanding along the lateral. Reservoir data is difficult and expensive to obtain in horizontal sections; therefore, most completions are designed geometrically, with little or no concern for reservoir heterogeneity. In this study, the authors demonstrate a reliable, cost-effective methodology that empowers shale operators with reservoir data on every well.
Introduction
The industry needs a reliable, low-cost reservoir-evaluation methodology that can be leveraged to deliver an engineered completion on every lateral. Such a technique would make engineered completions part of the factory approach on every lateral completed.
The solution described in the complete paper starts with data that already exist on every lateral.
