Summary
The term "reliable technology" was added to the lexicon of oil and gas
reserves estimation with the updated regulations published by the US Securities
and Exchange Commission in late 2008 (US Securities and Exchange Commission
2008). A previous paper (Sidle and Lee 2010) described an approach to the
demonstration that a technology satisfied the criteria of a reliable
technology. This paper builds on the use of the scientific method, as described
in the previous paper, by examining a real-life example of seismic
interpretation to define water contacts downdip of hydrocarbon-column
penetrations.
Complex technologies, such as seismic, require careful and detailed
calibration and testing to demonstrate the consistency and repeatability needed
to qualify as a reliable technology. However, this complexity need not preclude
that technology from use as reliable. Proper analysis of the science behind the
technology and testing to demonstrate those circumstances that allow reliable
conclusions from the technology will permit even a complex technology to be
qualified as acceptable.
The example used is from the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) deep water. It gives the
results from several turbidite sand reservoirs in multiple fields to
demonstrate the conditions under which certain seismic can be shown as
reliable. The learnings from these applications allow the development of a
"reliability qualification checklist" that defines the conditions under which
the seismic data are definitive. Then, it describes the final testing of the
"reliable data" to determine when a seismically interpreted water contact is
sufficiently conclusive to be reasonably certain.
This paper will provide a useful description of how the qualification of a
technology can be planned, tested, and conclusions drawn. It will provide
examples of constraints that develop from the theoretical analysis and testing
results and show how these constraints can be incorporated into a set of
limitations on the application of the technology. While certain elements of the
technology are discussed in this paper, it is not the authors' intent to
provide an exhaustive description of the seismic theory and methods used for
this example. Rather, the paper will focus on the reliability demonstration
process.
© 2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
25 June 2010
- Meeting paper published:
21 September 2010
- Manuscript approved:
23 November 2010
- Version of record:
15 July 2011
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