LMKR | Unconventional Overview

Products | Unconventional Overview
While significant differences exist between unconventional energy types, all unconventional plays rely on a number of changes in attitude to deliver success. Of these differences, the change in risks stands out. Where conventional risk is exploration, unconventional risk is production. Uncertainty moves from, ‘will the reservoir exist, will it be capped and will it be charged,’ to, ’can we get enough hydrocarbons out, quickly, at a low enough cost to be economically viable?’

Changing risk requires changes in risk management. The science changes, with geophysics being supplanted by geology and engineering. Unconventional companies do not explore hundreds of miles off shore, miles beneath water, where complex, hard to find reservoirs hide beneath uncertain salt and where success requires wells that can cost $100 million to drill, take years to plan and, if successful, deliver 10,000s barrels of oil equivalent a day per well. Instead, they work in an onshore environment, where the hydrocarbon can be at the surface, in comparatively homogeneous ubiquitous reservoirs covered by meters of overburden and where success requires wells that cost less than a $5 million to drill, are planned and delivered in weeks and where success delivers 100s of barrels of oil equivalent a day. This dramatic change in business drivers and workflow needs a completely different tool-set which is differentiated from the conventional in a number of ways:

Cost: Unconventional margins are tight; analysis tools must cost less. The expense extends to product price, but it goes much further. The platform must be easy to maintain. UNIX systems are being replaced by PCs and users are also switching to lower maintenance database solutions, for example Sybase or flat files. Of all the geoscience solution providers, LMKR GeoGraphix has the longest commitment to the PC solution and uses the easy to maintain Sybase database.
Time: Unconventional means fast. If you cannot keep ahead of operations, interpretations are incomplete and opportunities missed. Teamwork is faster when integration automatically shares data between users. LMKR GeoGraphix commitment to an industry strength PC database allows users to share more information faster. LMKR GeoGraphix applications are designed for onshore, so geologists and engineers can achieve fast results with a system that is not over designed for their needs.
Wells first: Today, the unconventional environment is dominated by wells. One of the LMKR GeoGraphix greatest strength is in well analysis where it’s users appreciate both the breadth (e.g., petrophysics and 3D cross-section) and depth (fast, accurate handling of horizontal wells and the ability to contrast engineering parameters in a fully featured base map) of its application portfolio.Today, the unconventional environment is dominated by wells. One of the LMKR GeoGraphix greatest strength is in well analysis where it's users appreciate both the breadth (e.g., petrophysics and 3D cross-section) and depth (fast, accurate handling of horizontal wells and the ability to contrast engineering parameters in a fully featured base map) of its application portfolio.
Working onshore: Making the best, most complete and reliable land decisions demands that geology be quickly and simply combined with geography to produce data integration that is beyond conventional ‘Mapping Windows’ but easily achieved with the GIS Mapping system available in the LMKR GeoGraphix GeoAtlas.
Quick data: Finding and loading all land data is so time consuming that it is beyond the reach of all but a few super majors, or at least it used to be. Today's streaming services allow unconventional teams to not only download all the data they need at the push of a button, but also ensure it is the most up-to-date information available. Key to the LMKR GeoGraphix success in Unconventional plays is its ability to seamlessly connect to data streaming services giving you the information you need and fast.
Engineers: In unconventional, there are more engineers than geoscientists, who need access to different data. The LMKR GeoGraphix extensive database stores this information and GeoAtlas displays multi-attributes quickly and simply --allowing engineers to use appropriate display (e.g. bubble maps) to evaluate multiple attributes in multiple wells while integrating these with geoscientific interpretations (e.g., contours and cross-sections). What’s more, data is automatically updated, unlike conventional mapping windows where changed data usually requires the interpretation to be re-created from scratch.
Geologists: Many unconventional geologists prefer to work faster, with fewer limitations and achieve greater accuracy in a package designed for their needs, not as a geological extension of a geophysical offering. For example, LMKR GeoGraphix provides structural modeling of 3D wells and provides petrophysical interpretation for fast calculations of attributes which is much more efficient that requiring the geologist to create attributes from first principles).
Fast planning: Once a pad has been installed, wells are drilled quickly - planning must stay ahead. LMKR GeoGraphix makes the designing of complex, deviated well paths easier as its planning system is designed for the comparative simplicity of onshore. Ensuring that wells intersect the best part of the reservoir needs simultaneous access to engineering parameters, geology maps, petrophysical attributes and (increasingly) seismic data. This is only possible with first rate integration enabled by the LMKR GeoGraphix mature database and GIS mapping.
Taking it 3D: Eventually, a map will become overloaded, no matter how good it is. The ability to view multiple attributes and surfaces in 3D enables better well paths and allows users to check the relationship between wells in 3D space, particularly useful in the labyrinthine complexity that is multiple deviated wells from a single well pad. LMKR GeoGraphix visualisation is best in class with its ability to call on technology developed in the gaming industry. It offers the clearest views possible with least amount of effort.
Portability: Results always surprise. Success in unconventional production requires you to learn and adapt at the well site – well postmortems are too little, too late. LMKR GeoGraphix is not ported to, but designed for, portability -- to be taken to, and used at, the well site. Additionally, its well geosteering and planning applications allow dynamic correction of the well bit in real time to account for changes as they happen, getting the best out of every well drilled.