Reserve Estimation-Methodologies
September 2006 By Robert Shoup
Reserves, however estimated, rely on the integrity, skill, and judgment of the evaluator and are affected by the geological complexity, stage of development, degree of depletion of the reservoirs, and amount of available data. This article presents a discussion of the various reserve estimation methodologies as contained in SPE's website (www.spe.org). The examples provided for each of the methodologies are from my own work. The field that was used is an incised valley sequence with minimal fault complications. There are a total of 18 penetrations in the field and several additional wells outside of the incised valley to constrain the valley limits. The pay area is amplitude-supported, and the observed water level matches the RFT-predicted water-level, so there is minimal uncertainty.