
A north-east engineering consultancy has developed an innovative reservoir modeling system to support companies participating in the UK’s 14th Landward Licensing Round.
Oilgen, which specialises in high-tech reservoir modeling, has re-invested a significant percentage of its profits to develop the service, which will allow companies applying for licenses to accurately predict the performance of UK shale gas and oil wells.
Oilgen, which has offices in Aberdeen and Houston, has spent two years researching and developing the numerical simulation and reservoir-flow models, which can evaluate the future production profiles and economics of unconventional UK shale plays, where little or no production data exists.
The integrated service provides a predictive solution for shale wells by using commercial software tools and proprietary techniques, enabling companies to more accurately forecast performance.
After successful testing on the Eagle Ford play, the models are now ready to be deployed on immature plays, including those in the most recent onshore licensing round.
Laurent Schirrer, Managing Director, Oilgen, said: “The future production of shale wells has been notoriously stated as ‘impossible to predict’. However, due to our expertise and findings, I do not believe this is true anymore.
“As it is the case for conventional reservoir engineering, our models rely on geological, fluid, and well completion description, encompassing all uncertainties of the evaluation chain.
“A direct application of Oilgen’s methods will establish numerical, deterministic, ‘type-curves’ of any shale play, without having to refer to analogues or empirical comparisons.