This course covers the assessment methods required for the technical and economic evaluation of unconventional resources. The premise for this course is that sound estimation of key engineering, geotechnical, and economic parameters is essential for maximizing profitability. Unlike traditional deterministic methods which call for the ongoing study of key parameters to get ever closer to “the answer,” probabilistic methods recognize that most parameters are fraught with uncertainty.

Topics Include:

• Introduction to probability and statistics—the language of uncertainty
• Estimating under uncertainty
• Tight reservoir characteristics and assessment
• Shale characteristics and assessment
• Resource and reserve estimation
• Production forecasting
• Decision trees and the value of information
• Unconventional resource assessment—sampling issues

The course provides an assessment process for selecting the unconventional resource plays that best meet your company’s goals. You will learn characterization and valuation of the plays, and the importance of assessing reserves at a project and type well level. You will also learn how to make predictions based on limited data sets and which reservoir engineering fundamentals shape assessment of well spacing.

The course is designed for engineers, commercial team members, business analysts, and managers that are charged with creating value.

None

2.4 CEUs (Continuing Education Units) will be awarded for this 3-day course.

To receive a full refund, all cancellations must be received in writing no later than 14 days prior to the course start date. Cancellations made after the 14-day window will not be refunded. Send cancellation requests by email to trainingcourses@spe.org; by fax to +1.866.460.3032 (US) or +1.972.852.9292 (outside US); or mail to SPE Registration, PO Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083.

For more details, please contact us at trainingcourses@spe.org.

James (Jim) Gouveia, PEng has a diverse technical, business, and operations background in the petroleum industry. He joined Rose & Associates in 2002 after 21 years with Amoco and BP Energy. Gouveia worked in a variety of technical and managerial assignments in exploration, production and reservoir engineering, strategic and business process planning, portfolio, and risk management. Prior to BP's acquisition of Amoco in 1999, he was director of risk management for North America. In this role he was accountable for assurance of consistent project evaluation of all major capital projects. He was the recipient of the President’s Award for his work in developing Amoco Canada’s first major fractured tight gas play and the Chairman's Award for his work in implementing project, risk, and portfolio management processes within Amoco Canada.  Following the merger, he functioned as the risk and assurance coordinator for Canada. In his last roles with BP, Gouveia led and managed their strategic initiative into unconventional gas resources in Western Canada. He was a member of a world-wide task force focused on growth initiatives in mature basins and developing a portfolio management process for BP's North American unconventional gas assets.

Gouveia has co-authored and presented papers, most recently as a contributing author to the SPEE’s 2011 Monograph 3, Guidelines for the Practical Evaluation of Undeveloped Reserves in Resource Plays”, and SPE 121525, “A Statistical Approach to the Effective Economic Modeling and Portfolio Selection of Unconventional Resource Opportunities”, at EUROPEC. He is a member of APEGGA, SPE, SPEE, and AAPG and a partner in Rose & Associates, LLP.

Gouveia earned a BSc degree in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto.