US Shale Working Smarter and Harder

[thackney]

US Shale Working Smarter and Harder
https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/04/20/us-shale-working-smarter-and-harder/

The popular adage contends that you can either work smarter or harder, but the American shale industry is busy doing both to stay competitive in today’s market. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal well drilling may have set of the shale boom, but a host of different technological advances and innovations—from big data analysis to microbial identification—are keeping this renaissance going. Bloomberg reports:

[Energy companies are] using DNA sequencing to track crude molecules and mapping buried streams with imaging software. Robots are fitting pipes together. Roughnecks consult mobile apps for drilling-direction advice. Oilfield services providers find themselves in a new arms race, led by giant Schlumberger Ltd., which recently opened an office on Sand Hill Road in the heart of Silicon Valley. […]

[Several] companies, including Norway’s Statoil ASA and Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp., have hired Biota Technology to help them identify the most bankable parcels [of oil fields]. By comparing microbes in rock samples to those from oil produced in the area, Biota can map out choice draining spots and, according to founder Ajay Kshatriya, boost a well’s output by millions of dollars. […]

EOG Resources Inc., an Enron Corp. castoff that is now the second largest independent U.S. oil explorer, has embraced big data analysis to such a degree that Wolfe Research analyst Paul Sankey called it “the best oil company we have ever covered.” The Houston-based company has, among other things, invented proprietary iPhone apps that field crews use to calculate how hard to frack particular stretches of crude-soaked rocks.

...

[thackney]

Big Oil’s Rejection of Silicon Valley Is Finally Coming to End
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-18/big-oil-s-rejection-of-silicon-valley-is-finally-coming-to-end
April 18, 2017

...Now they’re using DNA sequencing to track crude molecules and mapping buried streams with imaging software. Robots are fitting pipes together. Roughnecks consult mobile apps for drilling-direction advice. Oilfield services providers find themselves in a new arms race, led by giant Schlumberger Ltd., which recently opened an office on Sand Hill Road in the heart of Silicon Valley....

...There’s room for improvement in the business of exploration and extraction, particularly in the shale fields that are the most abundant sources left onshore. Recovery rates run about 8 percent. Getting to the targets requires fracturing oil-soaked rock with injections of water, sand and chemicals. That works about half the time....

...EOG Resources Inc., an Enron Corp. castoff that is now the second largest independent U.S. oil explorer, has embraced big data analysis to such a degree that Wolfe Research analyst Paul Sankey called it “the best oil company we have ever covered.” The Houston-based company has, among other things, invented proprietary iPhone apps that field crews use to calculate how hard to frack particular stretches of crude-soaked rocks....

[thackney]

http://www.biota.com/tech/

DNA sequencing combines the benefits of many diagnostics into one economical approach to track the flow of oil within a well and across a field. It is a high resolution data source that provides 4D analysis across the production lifecycle which does not introduce environmental risk or require downhole tools.

HIGH RESOLUTION
DNA sequencing the subsurface generates over 10K data points per sample that provide highly specific information to identify the subtle subsurface changes that matter to your business.

4D MEASUREMENT
DNA sequencing the subsurface requires no special downhole tools or workover so reservoir characteristics can be assessed across time to provide a dynamic view of the changes to your asset.

ECONOMICAL
DNA data can be acquired for significantly less cost compared to conventional wireline logs.

SUSTAINABLE
DNA data is captured from the natural subsurface samples, our non-invasive method does not require pumping any chemicals into the reservoir.

NO DISRUPTIONS TO OPERATIONS
We work with your mudloggers and pumpers to safely acquire samples during normal drilling and production processes.

http://www.biota.com/wp-content/uploads/Biota-FAQ-1.pdf

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Fascinating stuff.  My nephew working for IBM years ago alerted me to the need for the oil and gas industry upstream and downstream to embrace significantly more data utilization in operations to stay current in the 21st century.

Reading this, am thinking similar to a doctor exploring a body armed with probes finding data to ascertain the problems.