I am a Petroleum Engineer by education and a Reservoir Engineer in practice. However, I have been delivering integrated sub-surface studies for the last 15+ years for various clients initially as a reservoir engineer and later as a project manager. During this period, I have realized that expertise in individual domains is not sufficient to complete these integrated studies with best possible quality within the available timeframe and data limits. Multi-disciplinary integration is required in several key steps listed below
1. Reservoir Compartmentalization and Fluid Contacts involves Geophysicist, Geologist, Petrophysicist & Reservoir Engineer
2. Rock Typing & Saturation Modelling usually involves Petrophysicist, Geologist & Reservoir Engineer. It may also involve the Geophysicist if QI studies are included in the scope.
3. History matching often needs inputs from the Geologist, Geophysicist, Production Engineer and sometimes Petrophysicist
4. Well Location Identification involves Geophysicist, Geologist, Reservoir Engineer and Drilling Engineer
5. Surface Development Concept needs inputs from Reservoir Engineer, Drilling/Completion Engineer, Production/Petroleum Engineer, Surface Facilities Engineer, Commercial Director
6. Optimization of the Development Plan involves the Reservoir Engineer, Drilling/Completion Engineer, Production/Facilities Engineer, Economist
Each member of the team must understand the limitations/uncertainties in his interpretation and how they impact the other disciplines in their interpretations. Two key integrator roles in these studies are the Geologist and the Reservoir Engineer. The Geologist integrates interpretations from Geophysicist and Petrophysicist into the Static Model. Similarly the Reservoir Engineer, integrates interpretations from the Production/Petroleum engineer and other disciplines into the Dynamic Model.
In my next posts, I will be covering some common issues encountered in these key steps without proper multi-disciplinary integration.