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Increases exploration efficiency - on average MaxEx found
approximately 80% of potential reserves with drilling only
20% to 30% of prospects.
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Discovers more oil and gas – MaxEx increased discoveries on
average 40% in the lower risk exploration scenario to over
100% in high risk exploration scenarios.
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Provides greater confidence in outcomes – MaxEx outcomes
were more concentrated with better chances of success.
MaxEx Virtual Drilling is a remote sensing electromagnetic
exploration risk management technology
that generates the equivalent of a downhole wireline electric
log from the surface of potential drilling locations. See Figure
1. The capability of MaxEx to “log a location without drilling a
well” provides a high degree of “drilling intensity”, a term
coined by Schlumberger in their new series on oil and gas
exploration technology entitled “To Find Oil, You Have to
Drill”. They note to find the energy needed to meet the ever
increasing demand for oil and gas requires drilling intensity –
technological sophistication - to “lower technical risk and
increase performance in the exploration and development of
conventional hydrocarbons.” Drilling intensity is important
because Tullow Oil notes that only 0.5% of the surface of the
earth has readily movable oil or gas beneath it with the highest
value quartile limited to less than 0.125% of the earth’s
surface.
How does MaxEx Virtual Drilling provide “drilling intensity”?
Imagine going to your pantry for a can of peaches. You have 50
cans in the pantry but none of them have labels on them. You
believe one or more cans have peaches inside - but you do not
know which ones until you open a can or cans.
That is equivalent to the conventional exploration process that
relies primarily on seismic – many very well defined structures
- “cans” - that may, but likely do not, hold hydrocarbons. And
it costs millions to open each can.
Continuing the analogy, MaxEx Virtual Drilling logs label oil
and gas prospects, helping to avoid drilling prospects with no
or poor prospectivity and drilling the ones with the best risked
potential.
How much drilling intensity does MaxEx offer? Monte Carlo
simulations of four different prospectivity scenarios – Low,
Base, Better and Best - found Virtual Drilling offers
significant drilling intensity!
For example, MaxEx finds roughly 80% of available reserves
drilling only 20% to 30% of the prospects (see Figure 2) and
increases mean discoveries between 40% to as much as 120% (see
Figure 3). In addition, in high risk exploration MaxEx provided
a higher degree of confidence of discovering significant
reserves and simply found more oil when exploration risk was
reduced (see Figure 4).
The drilling intensity of Virtual Drilling translates into
significant value. For example, testing 80 prospects with
Virtual Drilling but actually drilling only the top 20 to 30
MaxEx risked ranked prospects, mean discoveries increased by
almost 120 million barrels in the highest risk scenario (Low
Prospectivity) to 270 million barrels in the reduced risk
scenario (Best Prospectivity).
Those increases in discoveries are worth USD 600 million to USD
1.3 billion when valued at only USD 5.00 per barrel and are the
ultimate testament to the drilling intensity of MaxEx – finding
in the ballpark of USD 1.0 billion additional reserves drilling
only 20 to 30 prospects.
Click the following links to learn more about Virtual
Drilling
and the Monte Carlo simulations:
MaxEx Virtual Drilling Overview Presentation
(7.92 MB PowerPoint
Show - to see fluid animations view as Slide Show)
MaxEx Virtual Drilling Monte Carlo simulations (3.7 MB PDF)
