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ShaleTech Report: Tuning unconventional reservoir performance with geoscience-guided completion strategies
As operating efficiencies near a plateau in North American shale basins, a renewed focus on geoscience offers new strategies to further lower total cost/bbl. Selective application of measurements to provide visibility on reservoir variability encountered in laterals improves decision-making to maximize ROI on completion spend. Robert Laronga, Edgar Velez, Elia Haddad, Casey R. Chadwick, Schlumberger
In the appraisal phase, unconventional operators diligently acquire core samples and comprehensive log suites in vertical wellbores. Their goal is to select optimal target zones for landing lateral development wells. Very quickly, it is time to drill the first lateral, test the planned completion design, and prove the acreage. Few operators pause at this point to take measurements in the lateral, other than the obligatory measurement-while-drilli