It is interesting to observe the industry trends over the past five years of Eagle Ford and other shale development trends. Burning questions have evolved from being almost exclusively focused on "how to frac" and logistics, to "how to integrate" reservoir characterization with well engineering, drilling, completions design and production performance. Then of course, updating the reservoir model incorporating real results to improve ultimate recovery and production. With an industry "best-in-class" recovery rate for shales of only 8-10%, there is tremendous room for improvement – to increase EUR and reduce costs.

Understanding the reservoir and the rock properties are as critical as the frac design taking into account the location of natural fractures, completion systems deployed, and performance monitoring with microseismic. Today, more emphasis is also being placed on well integrity management onshore, a domain previously reserved for offshore, high risk wells.

This presentation will discuss the processes linking the earlier emphasis on drilling and fracking, integrated completion management for cost saving operational efficiencies, the current need for reservoir data and the value of well integrity management for improved economics. A couple of examples will be outlined illustrating these concepts.