--> Abstract: Data Needs for Hydrocarbon Resources and Reserves Estimates, by Roy E. Roadifer; #90968 (1977).

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Abstract: Data Needs for Hydrocarbon Resources and Reserves Estimates

Roy E. Roadifer

The data needs for estimating hydrocarbon resources and reserves may be divided into three phases: (1) future potential or undiscovered resources on an exploration play, basin, or province scale; (2) undiscovered resources on a prospect scale; and (3) discovered reserves. The basic parameters to be assessed are much the same in all three phases--expected productive area, pay thickness, and recovery factors or hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir volume and fluid saturations. The availability and accuracy of data required for parameter assessment tend to increase from the first through the third phase. In the first phase and in many cases in the second, the input data may be estimated within ranges as on a probability scale because they cannot be measured. After discovery, in the development phase, the parameters generally are known more accurately and input may be actual remote or direct measurements used as single values to develop more accurate estimates of hydrocarbon volumes than in the undiscovered resource phases.

Nearly all of the data derive from operating companies directly, from their associations, or through local, state, or broader government agencies to which the companies report on control or revenue bases. The petroleum industry requires a complex array of data to explore for and develop hydrocarbon accumulations ranging from simple compilations of directly measured values to complex sets of seismic, remote sensing, electronic, radioactive, acoustic, and other indirect measurements of physical properties.

The great quantities of data required for detection, location, and appraisal of resources together with the sophisticated, detailed processing required to render useable interpretations have promoted the extensive and intensive use of computer processing in all phases of resource and reserve estimates.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90968©1977 AAPG-SEPM Annual Convention and Exhibition, Washington, DC