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Your data already knows
what you don’t
The marriage of two “natural resources” – hydrocarbons and data – will
transform unconventional oil development.
How do we gain ground
on the vexing “unknowns”
to tilt the inherent risks
involved in shale oil
development in our favor?
By Atanu Basu (above),
Daniel Mohan and
Marc Marshall
Known-knowns, known-unknowns and unknownunknowns. Donald Rumsfeld’s notable turn of phrase
is an apt characterization of where we are with unconventional oil development today. Shale operators in Eagle Ford (South Texas), Permian (West
Texas), Bakken (Upper Midwest) and other places
have transformed the United States into an energy
superpower by profitably extracting oil and gas from
tight rocks that weren’t commercially viable even a
few years ago. With that backdrop, unconventional
oil development today is punctuated by significant
performance variations among operators with contiguous acreage positions and meager estimated
ultimate recovery (EUR) rates. Unless performance
keeps improving, any fluctuation in commodity prices can send shockwaves through the oil patches
around the country, as we have seen happen with
natural gas. How do we gain ground on the vexing
“unknowns” to tilt the inherent risks involved in shale
oil development in our favor?
Standing on the shoulder of giants
Geoscience (geoscientists are the giants of the energy industry) is finally getting a shot in the arm from
data science, especially from Google-like technologies
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