The Bottom Line

The critical issue for any business is the bottom line—profit. That’s where you can achieve a quantum leap in success:

More Production per Well + Fewer Overall Wells = Greater Profit

If you can produce more oil with fewer wells, you make greater profits.

• Profit: result of total revenue minus total costs.

• More Production (Revenue): accelerating cash flow from existing assets.

• Place wells in the “sweet spots” of the reservoir.
• Use highly deviated or horizontal wells for very high flow rates.
• Produce more hydrocarbons in the same time period for higher cash flows with the same overhead.


• Fewer Wells (costs): Eliminate redundant or marginal wells.



• Reduce wells by as much as 30% through accurate siting.
• Decrease drilling expenditures.
• Increase your development program effectiveness.

A proper seismic inversion (reservoir characterization) will tell you the best way to exploit the field to maximize profit.

Case in Point

One of our clients shared their well log and seismic data with us after their field was in production. The field was in the Gulf of Mexico, developed with 34 wells including a discovery well, six delineation wells and 27 production wells. All of this work was done without the benefit of using the Jason Geoscience Workbench® (JGW).

Although the client had thought they were done drilling the field, they decided to drill three horizontal wells following a JGW analysis. The analysis revealed several reservoirs not yet fully exploited, and the new horizontal wells became the biggest producers in the field.

Our analysis also showed that the client could have exploited the field with far fewer wells had they used the Fugro-Jason method earlier. The results would have been substantially different:

• Much higher production rates.
• Savings of more than 30% on drilling costs (see table below).
• Much less staff effort required to plan 12 wells, not 27.
• Reduced staff time spent analyzing well results and post mortems.
• Faster payback on investment.

¹Assumes $3 million for conventional wells
²Assumes $5 million for horizontal wells

In addition, it is possible that the six delineation wells would not have been needed.

Technical Details

The picture below shows a seismic amplitude map with exploration, delineation, and production wells drilled into it. This seismic map seems to indicate a compartmentalized reservoir requiring a large number of wells to exploit.

(click on picture for enlarged version)

However, an analysis using JGW revealed that the higher amplitude events occur where the reservoir thins to tuning thickness, and that the reservoir is not very compartmentalized after all. Because the client did not know this, some reservoirs are highly drilled while others have a single penetration or have not been drilled at all.

(click on picture for enlarged version)

Based on the JGW seismic inversion and analysis, the client drilled three horizontal wells into areas where additional potential production was indicated. Despite being the 35th, 36th, and 37th wells drilled, these wells were the highest producing wells in the field.