FAQ

A: C&C Reservoirs provides a unique knowledge base and analog solution service to the upstream petroleum industry through its web-deliverable Digital Analogs Knowledge System (DAKS). DAKS, compiled and developed since the mid-1990s, extends the experience of geoscientists and reservoir engineering professionals by documenting the best practices and lessons learned from more than a thousand of the world's most important fields and reservoirs.

DAKS provides users with a systematic, cost-effective and time efficient way to validate their play concepts, benchmark their prospects, ground truth their field development plans, and compare their field performance. By studying the factors behind the success or failure in other fields and reservoirs, our clients can avoid the mistakes that others have made and optimize their exploration and field development strategies.

A: Analogs equal experience - the more experienced you are, the more meaningful and creative ideas you can generate and the better decisions you can make. Analogs can be acquired directly or indirectly: 1) directly gained analogs are knowledge achieved through firsthand experiences; 2) indirectly gained analogs are knowledge learned from books and periodicals or by communicating with others in your field of interest. Nearly all E&P decision-makers use field and reservoir analogs extensively. However, many E&P teams follow an informal and inefficient process that spans only the knowledge gained from the team's own experience.

A: DAKS stands for Digital Analogs Knowledge System which provides E&P knowledge over the internet. It is an integrated knowledge system that delivers E&P lessons learned through the compilations of an enormous amount of information covering every step of the E&P workflow. DAKS, compiled and developed since the mid-1990s, extends the experience of geoscientists and reservoir engineering professionals by providing detailed field evaluation and reservoir performance analysis reports and comprehensive geologic and reservoir engineering database on more than a thousand of the world's most important fields and reservoirs. It presents a synthesis and distillation of critical data using a rigorous scientific standardization and analysis process which is integrated and analyzed systematically.

DAKS also provides a platform for users to organize and accumulate knowledge on their own prospect, field and reservoirs. DAKS contains a set of powerful tools for searching, retrieving, characterizing and benchmarking a group of analogous fields and reservoirs based on defined multiple criteria relevant to the solution of problems in exploration, development and production. It's a great tool to aid in making decisions - from beginning a new venture, through exploration, development, and production, to ongoing asset management.

A: In the oil and gas exploration and production business, one of the biggest challenges is to identify an exceptional opportunity from the rest. To be successful, geoscientists and engineers need to pool their collective experiences and talents to recognize the inherent risks, uncertainties and upside potential in the numerous opportunities which are offered by industry and governments. The evaluation team needs to examine the opportunity in all aspects so that technical surprises are reduced to a minimum and the true value of the opportunity ascertained. During the process of opportunity evaluation, the E&P teams have to make numerous assumptions and hypotheses based on their own knowledge and experience, but in reality many of the assumptions and hypotheses are groundless.

DAKS provides users with facts from proven fields and reservoirs, vital for verifying exploration and production hypotheses and boosting E&P decision-making confidence. DAKS facilitates instant access to knowledge and lessons learned from nearly every basin, play, and reservoir type around the world. More specifically, DAKS provides users with a systematic, cost-effective and time efficient way to validate their play concepts, benchmark their prospects, ground truth their field development plans, and compare their field performance through well-established examples and proven experiences. By studying the factors behind the success or failure in other fields and reservoirs, our clients can avoid the mistakes that others have made and optimize their exploration and field development strategies. DAKS offers a unique global field/reservoir knowledge base and solution platform where information and data on users' own assets can be standardized, documented and benchmarked against global analogs.

A: DAKS is widely used by geoscientists, reservoir engineers and decision-makers working in new ventures, prospect generation, risk assessment, reserve booking, field development, production operations, and reservoir life cycle management. Anyone looking to generate lower risk prospects and quickly identify optimal field development options can find an unparalleled amount of critical information and knowledge using DAKS, all at the click of a mouse.

A: Today, more than 60 oil and gas companies use DAKS globally, including national oil companies, super-majors, international oil companies, independents, consultants, and universities.

A: DAKS can help build local knowledge and experience very quickly, generating new ideas and solutions. In planning an exploration or field redevelopment program, DAKS provides a set of realistic parameters, attributes, and ideas that have been tested on a mature, well-established commercial petroleum system. It also provides insights into technologies and experience gained by engineers working on oil and gas fields around the world and leverages the experiences of thousands of reservoir engineers, geologists, and production engineers.

A: Why can one company excel more quickly than another company even with the same data? The company with the experience, the knowledge, the vision, and the creative ideas recognizes the potential that lies within the data. Another company which lacks experience will not recognize that potential due to a lack of knowledge. If you look at today's competition in the E&P industry, all companies have the same attributes - similar technology and similar data to interact with. What makes the difference? It's often their ideas and their experience. So where do the ideas and experiences come from? Everyone, no matter how experienced in the E&P field, will always be limited to a few basins or a few reservoirs that they have worked on before. When you're moving to a new venture you are always faced with the task of expanding your knowledge and experience. With the aid of DAKS, this task can be accomplished more efficiently and effectively.

A: The main job for a new ventures manager is to gain entry into new projects that will make a profit for the company. This can be achieved using the examples in DAKS, whereby potential new venture projects can be compared against commercially successful projects to identify critical risks and success factors. In planning a new venture, DAKS can provide a set of realistic parameters, attributes, and ideas that have been tested on mature, well-established commercially viable petroleum systems to instantly build your knowledge of the new area and location. This information gives a competitive advantage and will increase the probability of the investment returning positive results.

A: DAKS can provide a benchmark for your prospect portfolio to ensure that they have been properly risked for drilling. By understanding the critical elements of the exploration play and through statistical analysis of the relevant analogs, the exploration manager can plan a more efficient work program.

A: During the process of field development planning, there are many uncertainties regarding the potential performance of a field, particularly in the early stages where few wells have been drilled due to high drilling costs (for example in the deepwater environment). Various scenarios produced by reservoir simulation provide concepts on which these uncertainties can be reduced. An alternative and supporting approach is to use DAKS to compare analog fields having similar reservoir and fluid types, pressure, water depth, drive mechanism and other technological challenges. Critical field/reservoir analogs provide not only ideas but also quantitative analysis to help in development planning and production optimization. This can help E&P companies reduce the risks of over- or under-estimating production rates and recoverable reserves. Many potential production problems can also be recognized early in the development phase through use of analogs, thus allowing for appropriate data gathering and mitigation scenarios to be planned for and initiated.

A: With the abundance of instant E&P knowledge, the performance of production enhancement cases can be readily retrieved and reviewed using DAKS. With this information, production engineers can quickly discover the most effective production enhancement methods and estimated performance for their fields, giving them an unprecedented advantage.

A: C&C Reservoirs' job is to capture the lessons learned from exploration, development and production of the world's most important fields and reservoirs. This is compiled using public domain information, corporate websites, operator data, and reputable technical journals and magazines in multiple languages. Information is gathered in Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian and many others. This information is standardized, distilled, and efficiently distributed back to our customers in the E&P industry so they can gain from the professional experiences of others to efficiently guide their own exploration, development, and production efforts. The data in DAKS are updated in real time. We add new and re-evaluate field and reservoir analogs constantly through a successful annual program.

A: In each of the field evaluation reports compiled by reservoir geologists and engineers, topics covered include exploration history, basin evolution, petroleum systems, trapping mechanisms, reservoir architecture, reservoir properties, reservoir fluids, field development strategies, production history and improved recovery methods. For each of the field reports, more than 200 attributes for each of the producing reservoirs are captured. Each report is put together in a standardized format with standardized features, figures and illustrations, and standardized sets of discussions. All writers and scientists who compile the field reports have more than 15 years of oil industry experiences.

A: A significant section of an E&P Treatise is devoted to unconventional reservoirs. Additionally over 130 field evaluation reports cover unconventional reservoirs, such as coal bed methane, shale gas, shale oil, heavy oil, tight gas, basin center gas and methane hydrates. C&C Reservoirs is adding additional field evaluation reports on shale gas and shale oil fields.

A: Reservoir Performance Analogs Knowledge System - REPAX is a new analog tool for development and production. It is an extension to the Field Analog module. REPAX delivers static data and analysis related to reservoir and production engineering issues. It provides reservoir performance data for each stage of field development and production, dynamic data for each documented reservoir, detailed documentation of reservoir performance as well as EOR technologies applied and their results for each stage of a field's life. It contains a powerful yet effective set of tools to search, retrieve and analyze both static and dynamic data.

REPAX can benefit you in development and production workflow as follows:

1. Reservoir Performance Benchmarking
   • Compare field's performance with historical data from analogous fields
   • Identify opportunities, ideas and solutions for maximum oil and gas recovery
   • Establish a reservoirs technical limits
   • Generate realistic parameters and re-calibrate assumptions in reserves booking
2. Field Development Planning and Optimization
   • Help predict key performance outcomes in various development phases
   • More suitable depletion strategies
   • More accurate estimate of production rates and URR
3. Production Enhancement
   • Help understand and improve recovery factors through the correct implementation of EOR techniques
4. Production Forecast
   • Using historical performance data in analog fields to forecast potential production characteristics of a target field

A: This is an exciting new module within DAKS, which will allow users to enter their own technical data, both for prospects and/or fields. Data input is simple and is standardised and will be exactly the same format as the technical data for reservoirs and fields currently stored in DAKS. This will allow the user to store multiple internally-generated prospects and or/fields within the DAKS system for instant retrieval and for comparison not only against all the fields within DAKS but also against each other. Additionally, it will allow users to input data from farm-in opportunities, which are being reviewed, and thus such opportunities can be compared against the internal opportunities and the external analogs provided by C&C Reservoirs. Should users decide to use the secured online server to store their own data, users can enter the technical data from locations other than their regular office, allowing for quicker decisions to be made.

A: Basin Analogs Module (BAM) is designed to provide explorers with ideas and models for exploration plays in new areas as well as established areas. Emphasis is placed on understanding the geologic factors that combine to make a basin productive, and therefore assist in evaluating the geologic risks of a new venture. We currently provide two basin analog studies, namely Exploration in Fold and Thrust Belts and Exploration in Foreland Basins.

A: Structural Analogs Module (SAM) provides web access to 340 digital structural analog models originally generated by IFP. These models simulate structural evolution in various tectonic regimes, including compression, extension, strike-slip, inversion, gravity, transpression, transtension, and reactivation of pre-existing structures.

A: The E&P Treatise represents cutting edge knowledge in petroleum exploration, development, and production, and serves as a guide for the professional explorers, production geoscientists, and reservoir engineers. E&P Treatise categorizes and analyzes the world's most important fields and reservoirs according to play type, reservoir and fluid characteristics, recovery mechanism and key engineering attributes. Special emphasis is placed on identifying and understanding the key geologic and engineering factors that contribute to exploration success and control reservoir performance and recovery efficiency. Trends and comparisons, based on statistical analysis, show how production behaviour is driven. We currently provide E&P treatise on Carbonate Reservoirs; Clastic Reservoirs; Fractured Reservoirs; Deep-water Reservoirs; Exploration for Stratigraphic Traps; Fractured, Tight and Unconventional Reservoirs; and Understanding Seals

A: The Online DAKS Knowledge Platform allows you to quickly and accurately find the right analogs whenever and wherever you need them over the internet. The robust search engine allows users to find the knowledge, information, and data of analogous reservoirs and fields by defining a wide range of criteria. It also provides analytical tools to characterize the analogous fields and reservoirs and to benchmark user's own fields and reservoirs against global analogs.