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Our industry is currently focusing on unconventional plays that have proven critical in arresting the decline of Delaware and Midland Basin hydrocarbon production.  The Avalon, Bone Spring, and Wolfcamp horizontal plays in particular have materially impacted both rig count and the rate of acceleration of reserve recovery.  All three of these plays are combinations of low thermal maturity resource reservoirs and conventional volumetric decline Darcy-parameter reservoirs, with unique defining characteristics that point toward the need to perform up-front science prior to positioning development wells and designing a completion schema.

 

Stimulation practice cannot generally be “cook-booked” across these plays, as quite a bit of variation exists with respect to geological, geophysical, geochemical and reservoir parameters.  However, localized practice may be standardized to the point that the acceleration of reserve recovery is optimum under some pre-defined net present value (NPV) condition.  In a given localized segment of a particular liquid hydrocarbon play, natural parameters may be statistically similar, enough so that consistent D&C practices define what many industry participants define as a “field development plan”, “standardized practices” or “manufacturing mode”.

 

Manufacturing process as it relates to standardized D&C practice involves numerous inter-related exercises. However, as in other industrial segments, application of the Pareto Principle suggests that focusing on a relatively few core principles and practices results in “dovetailing” toward an optimum process. This presentation will focus on completion practices and liquids-rich reservoir realities that appear to have influenced the acceleration of reserve recovery to the greatest degree in these plays.

This is a Permian Study Group Luncheon