Our primary corporate objective is to provide the necessary information for the basic building blocks of upstream strategic analysis. Both the initial design of the Significant Oil and Gas Fields of the United States Database and the many improvements and innovations we have made in it during the past two decades have been directed toward facilitating upstream strategic analysis for North America.
The primary building blocks which the database supports and the main features of the database used in each building block are described below:
- Size Distributions
- Recovery Growth
- Reservoir Rock Properties
- Reservoir Fluid Properties
- Production Histories
- Discovery Histories
- Development Intensity and Economics
The database provides current estimates of field and reservoir size both by total size (BOE) and by individual product (crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids). All fields and reservoirs can be grouped by AAPG and geometric size classes. Size distributions can be created readily for a broad variety of groupings by geology (plays, formations, basins, etc.), geography (counties, states, etc.), or time (period of discovery).
The database not only provides current estimates of field and reservoir size; it also provides these estimates annually both by individual product and by total size back to 1982. Thus, it currently provides a twenty-four year history of how ultimate recovery estimates have changed. Sums and distributions of the growth information are available for a broad variety of geologic, geographic, and temporal groupings. The estimates of recovery growth can also be integrated readily with various reservoir rock and fluid properties and measures of development intensity.
The database provides basic reservoir rock property data, including geologic age, depth, area, thickness, porosity, initial saturation, permeability, pressure, temperature, lithology, and natural drive. Each of these can be displayed as individual distributions. They can also be correlated with other variables to show porosity-depth, porosity-initial saturation, porosity-permeability, thickness-reservoir size, and area-reservoir size relationships. Pressure and temperature can also be related to depth to indicate average gradients. These distributions and relationships are best shown using the various geologic groupings available in the database.
The database provides a variety of fluid property data, including API gravity, the sulfur content, pour point and viscosity of the oil, gas composition (both hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases), gas heating value and specific gravity, and formation water resistivity. A variety of reservoir fluid distributions can be created from the database, including individual variable distributions; distributions weighted by production, reserves, or ultimate recovery; distributions correlated with depth, temperature, or lithology; and spatial distributions.
The database provides annual field production histories by product (crude oil, marketable natural gas, and natural gas liquids) from 1970 to the present. Reservoir production histories by product are available from 1982 to the present. Both field and reservoir cumulative production are provided from the inception of production. Summations of the production histories by a variety of geologic, geographic, and temporal groupings can be created easily from the database. These production histories can be correlated readily with recent field and reservoir growth, reserves and sizes, year of first production, reservoir rock and fluid characteristics, and various measures of development intensity to provide a valid understanding of the factors underlying recent changes in production. Normalized production profiles for plays and by year of first production can also be developed from the production history data.
The database provides the basic discovery well data for all of its fields and major reservoirs. These can be used to create a basic order of discovery for a variety of field and reservoir groupings, to show discovery patterns as shaped by depth, area, or size, to develop cumulative discovery curves by both total size (BOE) and individual products, and to examine discoveries by operator.
Development Intensity and Economics
The database provides several measures of development intensity, including reservoir well spacing, post-primary oil recovery methods and crude oil recovery factors. Additional economic parameters beyond the size and growth data, the reservoir rock and fluid property data, and the production histories discussed above include water depth and calculated average recovery per well. The various measures of development intensity can be compared both with each other and with various rock and fluid characteristic distributions. They can also be related to recent recovery growth and production.
Learn how using these building blocks can improve your upstream strategic analysis.