LMKR | Unconventional

Products | Unconventional | Shale Gas
The first, and overwhelmingly successful, of the economic unconventional trilogy, is shale gas. In the rush to develop the new workflows required to capture and extract this resource, innovators focused largely on engineering skills and the extraction they enabled. In this environment, the maturity of the LMKR Geographix database allowed engineers to access all the many well parameters they required (eg. well casing points and depth and extend of perforation zones). The flexibility available in GeoAtlas augmented this depth of data by allowing multiple parameters to be compared and trends identified using formats that the engineers found familiar (eg. bubble map production displays). As engineering analysis moved to execution, WellPlannerExpress provided fit for need capacity to plan complex deviated well paths in comparatively simple environments. Feedback from this community indicates that the complexity available in programs designed for the challenges of the offshore environment were too expensive to purchase and too complex for the targeted objectives required by the unconventional environment.

However, as the first rush for acreage competition has subsided, recovery rates are shown to be too low, and as gas prices have decreased in response to increased supply, companies are now looking to improve the efficiency of shale gas production. The geologist has become increasingly important, and their first role is identifying the most prolific production areas. Using PRIZM to evaluate core and well logs allows facies trends to be quickly identified and the most productive areas and zones highlighted using GeoAtlas. Once operators had identified sweet spots, the challenge of targeting these with more accurately placed wells increases, and LMKR Geographix clients increased their use of WellPlanerExpress to achieve this objective. As targeting improved, the use of LMKR GeoGraphix geosteering also increased as profitability required wells to be placed exactly within the most productive zones. Our customers using these innovations are experiencing total hydrocarbon recovery; well productivity; and production longevity all increasing in wells drilled using LMKR GeoGraphix unconventional solutions.

To date, seismic has had a minor impact on unconventional production of shale gas. However, as the demand of precisely targeting reservoir zones increases, the use of seismic cross-sections to improve accuracy is increasing. Clients are seeing the benefit of SeisVisions' ability to better define the reservoir away from well data. Many are now benefiting from the integrated ability to post seismic as a backdrop to a well. As the shale gas workflow extends in complexity and the number of disciplines used, LMKR GeoGraphix clients are valuing their decision to invest in LMKR projects as the complete portfolio of software complements their increasingly challenging requirements.