Conversion & Uncertainties Workflow: an operational tool for managing uncertainties in depth conversion
3 years ago, we started the journey with Geovariance from scratch with just an idea in mind. Today, we have an operational tool that can eventually add value to our portfolio of prospects thanks to robust, reliable and easy-to-compare methodology. That is really a huge improvement.
Neptune-Energy was part of the companies that sponsored uncerTZ, a Geovariances 2-year R&D project on geostatistics-based time-depth conversion. A smart workflow came out from this project which is today integrated into Isatis.neo Petroleum Edition.
“In our company, we’ve noticed that over the last ten years, we generally tended to overestimate the In Place volumes in prospects and underestimate their associated probability of success. We were not the only company to observe this.
To better assess the economic viability of a structure, we needed to better qualify and quantify the level of uncertainty of the key elements being part of the estimated volumes calculation process. Moreover, we needed to do that in a fast way, because of the more and more limited time constraint of block licenses.
We spent time benchmark several software solutions enabling the implementation of uncertainties for depth conversion; but none of them were totally able to manage uncertainties in a quick, reliable and robust way.
That’s the reason why Neptune took part as an active consortium member of the uncerTZ R&D project together with Geovariances. This resulted in the “Conversions and Uncertainties” workflow, which is now available in Geovariances’ new software solution Isatis.neo Petroleum Edition.
To me, the main workflow strengths are:
─ Optimized uncertainty management at any level (seismic picking, velocities, depths, spill points recognition,…).
─ Flexibility. All options are now possible, any specific case can be tested and applied in the software on the fly, without being obliged to rebuilt or even rerun the whole workflow.
─ Speed and ease of use. We can save huge time if we know our job. The software is intuitive enough that any geophysicist can use it; no need to be an expert in geostatistics for that.
─ Fault management. To date, this software is the only application that enables to manage uncertainties on fault positioning. To me, it’s a tremendous added value that can allow proper volumetric estimations.”