CoViz 4D: A Guide to Oil and Gas Risk Management
The many economical, geological, and operational aspects make the oil and gas industry a volatile and risk-prone sector. From planning and decision-making to actual implementation, there are many variables that increase the opens in a new windowlevel of uncertainty for the asset team to manage.
Visualizing drilling target uncertainty in the geologic context can assist in understanding drilling risk.
Enhancing the Reliability of Risk Assessment
In the oil and gas industry, risk is inherent during the exploration, planning, development, and recovery phases of a project. . The dynamic nature of the reservoir and varying subsurface geology make the decision-making process difficult due to incompletely defined geologic and engineering complexities. The uncertainties can be related to:
- Geologic variability within the producing reservoir
- Estimation of the hydrocarbon volume in place using depth-converted horizons
- Complex subsurface geology comprising the reservoir’s trap.
- Wellbore positioning and depth assessment
- Inter-well spacing
- Well trajectory design and optimization
The qualitative and quantitative analysis of these uncertainties is required to gain a better insight into the subsurface environment. For geologists, geophysicists, reservoir and drilling engineers, and project managers, CoViz 4D can prove to be an ideal oil and gas risk management tool.
Using Data to Visualize Uncertainty
As shown above, viewing subsurface data in two domains, time and depth, at the same time can greatly assist in understanding risk factors related to depth conversion. Data used by permission of owner.
A key element of oil and gas risk management is access to as much related technical data as possible—which can be available from seismic surveys, geological studies, well logs, and production performance. These data from a wide range of disciplines allow engineers and geoscientists the ability to analyze the interrelationship between different spatial and temporal subsurface conditions, features and attributes in a wide range of scenarios. The ability to visualize these uncertainties in a 3D/4D environment further supports the team in making a well-informed risk weighted decision at every phase of asset development.
CoViz 4D provides an interactive platform where a wide range of data can be imported from various sources and analyzed collaboratively. This data can be used to enhance the development of a 3D reservoir simulation model which can closely reflect the actual behavior and characteristics of the reservoir. The visual analysis can provide a more comprehensive insight into the subsurface engineering conditions and their related geological complexities. The data can be cross-correlated and maps overlapped to validate the result from the individual analysis helping to reduce uncertainty and increase reliability of economic predictions for the asset.
For uncertainty and risk analysis, CoViz 4D enables:
- Visual analysis of geological, geophysical, petrophysical and engineering subsurface characteristics
- Enhanced identification of geologic complexities (faults, fractures, lithology and stratigraphy) that may hinder drilling and recovery
- Spatial definition of producing and depleted zones for ideal well path planning
- Design of the trajectory of a well to avoid collision and improve target accuracy
Resources: Oil and Gas Risk Management
Mitigating Common Risks in Oil and Gas Production
Reducing Subsurface Uncertainty with Data Integration and Visualization
Minimizing the Uncertainty of Well Trajectory Calculations
Well-Collision Avoidance: Mitigating Risk in Mature Field Development
CoViz 4D: Ensuring Reliable Decision-Making with Uncertainty and Risk Mitigation
Visualizing uncertainty in velocity modeling helps to understand possible errors in the velocity modeling workflow. Data used by permission of owner.
CoViz 4D provides oil and gas professionals an ideal geospatial platform to collaborate and analyze multi-dimensional data for the identification of potential uncertainties which can prove to be economically damaging to the project. The various features of CoViz 4D can help the asset team to assess the risk early in the project with existing data as well as throughout the project as new data are gathered. With advanced co-visualization capability, it is possible for asset teams to make informed decisions which are crucial in reducing the risk associated with hydrocarbon development projects.
FURTHER READING
