Technology Focus: Reserves and Asset Management (December 2010)

Abstract

Technology Focus Reserves and resource estimation and asset management continue to be oil- and gas-industry topics with a high degree of interest. Asset management has evolved from simply making a decision about when to abandon an operation into a complex integrated evaluation of well, reservoir, and facility performance that includes continual real-time data collection and analysis. Complex fields, sophisticated completion techniques, and challenging economics combine to require detailed, ongoing asset management to achieve maximum asset value. Reserves- and resource-estimation research has been dominated in recent years by the introduction of the SPE Petroleum Resources Management System and the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s modernized rules. Efforts within the last year have broadened to topics not affected by reporting regimes: to issues such as estimation of reserves and resources in unconventional plays and the application and use of probabilistic assessments. Explanations of the underlying concepts and properties improve, clarifying the reserves- and resource-estimation process and the ultimate use of the volumes for both external reporting and internal planning. With both topics, the themes of flexibility and continuous improvement are repeated in numerous contexts. The papers summarized in this section represent only a small subset of the many informative papers presented recently and available from OnePetro. Reserves and Asset Management additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org SPE 133768 • “Development and Application of an Improved Workflow for Developed-Reserves Forecasting” by P.A. Lyford, SPE, Santos Ltd., et al. SPE 134602 • “A Process To Evaluate Unconventional Resources” by Phillip Chan, SPE, AJM Petroleum Consultants, et al. SPE 128834 • “Well- and Reservoir-Management Project at Salym Petroleum Development” by Andrew Mabian, SPE, Salym Petroleum Development, et al. SPE 128542 • “Greater Plutonio—Real-Time Reservoir Management in a High-Cost Deepwater Environment” by Dave Booth, SPE, BP plc, et al. (See JPT, September 2010, page 43)