Book Volumes You Can Defend in a Play Where the Wells Never Stabilise
Unconventional Resource and Reserve Evaluation
Resource assessment, well performance analysis, type curve construction, EUR determination, spacing and interference, reserves classification and the evaluation of unconventional development programmes.
Unconventional Resource and Reserve Evaluation
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Unconventional Resource and Reserve Evaluation - RE-UCR-PEA27
| Code | Date | Time | Duration | Location | Currency | Early Bird Fee Per Person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RE-UCR-PEA27 | 21 - 25 Jun 2027 | 10 AM CST | 4 Hours Per Day |
Online |
USD |
4000 |
Boost your team's skills and your budget! Enjoy group discounts for collaborative learning. Send an inquiry to info@peassociations.com.
Unconventional Resource and Reserve Evaluation
A course on assessing resources and booking reserves in unconventional plays. It covers play and resource assessment, rock and fluid characterisation, completion and stimulation effects on performance, rate transient analysis in transient dominated wells, decline model selection and EUR determination, type curve construction, well spacing and parent-child interference, reserves classification for continuous accumulations, and the evaluation of a development programme rather than an individual well.
Description
Unconventional evaluation breaks most of the assumptions that conventional reserves work relies on. There is no trap, no contact and no drainage area in the conventional sense; the resource is continuous and the recoverable volume is determined by how much rock the completion contacts rather than by how much hydrocarbon is present. Wells produce in transient flow for years and may never reach boundary dominated conditions, so conventional decline analysis has no theoretical basis for the period over which it is applied. Performance varies by an order of magnitude between wells in the same play, and a large part of that variation comes from completion design rather than geology. Yet volumes must still be estimated, forecast and booked to a recognised standard.
This course covers how that is done in practice. It addresses play characterisation, organic richness, maturity and rock mechanical properties; the resource assessment methods used for continuous accumulations; completion and stimulation design and its effect on well performance; production data analysis including rate transient methods, linear flow analysis and contacted volume estimation; decline model selection, terminal decline constraints and the estimation of ultimate recovery for wells that remain transient; type curve construction, normalisation and statistical treatment of well populations; well spacing, parent-child interference and its effect on programme recovery; refracturing and its evaluation; reserves and resource classification for unconventional assets including the reliable technology and analogue provisions; and the evaluation of a multi-well development programme with its inventory, pace and economic limits.
The unconventional business is a manufacturing operation applied to a geological resource. Success depends on drilling a large number of wells at controlled cost with a completion design that has been optimised through iteration, and on knowing well enough what each well will produce that capital can be committed years ahead. Every one of those requirements depends on forecasting, and forecasting unconventional wells is genuinely difficult.
The difficulty is structural. A conventional well eventually reaches boundary dominated flow, at which point decline analysis rests on solid ground and ultimate recovery is bounded by a drainage volume. An unconventional well produces from a stimulated volume with extremely low matrix permeability, and linear flow into the fracture network can dominate for years. Extrapolating a hyperbolic decline through that period, with a decline exponent fitted to early data, produces recovery estimates that are unbounded and demonstrably too high, which is why terminal decline constraints and physically bounded models were introduced. Choosing between the available methods materially changes booked volumes.
Interference adds a second layer. Wells in a development do not drain independently. A child well drilled into a depleted region beside a parent performs differently from the parent, and the parent itself may be damaged by the operation. Spacing decisions therefore trade well count against per-well recovery, and the optimum is a programme-level question that cannot be answered from single well economics. Reserves evaluation has to reflect this: booking the full type curve for every location in an inventory ignores the degradation that closer spacing causes. This course covers the analytical methods and the classification judgement together, because in unconventional work they cannot be separated.
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
- Characterise an unconventional play in terms of organic richness, maturity, mineralogy and rock mechanical properties
- Apply resource assessment methods appropriate to continuous accumulations
- Assess the effect of completion and stimulation design on well performance
- Analyse production data using rate transient methods appropriate to transient dominated flow
- Perform linear flow analysis and estimate contacted pore volume and effective fracture half-length
- Select decline models and apply terminal decline constraints to produce bounded recovery estimates
- Construct, normalise and apply type curves across a well population
- Evaluate well spacing, parent-child interference and their effect on programme recovery
- Classify and report unconventional reserves and resources under recognised frameworks
- Evaluate a multi-well development programme including inventory quality, pace and economic limits
Organisations sending participants to this training will:
- Produce unconventional reserves estimates that withstand audit and external scrutiny
- Improve forecast reliability and reduce the gap between predicted and delivered performance
- Make spacing and pace decisions on programme-level rather than single-well evidence
- Evaluate acquisition and divestment opportunities in unconventional plays more reliably
- Improve completion optimisation through better performance attribution
- Reduce the risk of committing capital against inventory that will not perform as typed
Participants will:
- Analyse unconventional well performance with methods suited to transient flow
- Produce defensible estimates of ultimate recovery for wells that never stabilise
- Build and apply type curves correctly across a well population
- Assess interference and spacing effects quantitatively
- Apply reserves classification judgement in continuous accumulations
- Work confidently in unconventional evaluation, planning or audit roles
- Reservoir engineers working in unconventional plays
- Reserves evaluators, auditors and competent person report contributors
- Petroleum engineers involved in development planning and inventory assessment
- Completion engineers assessing design effect on performance
- Business development and acquisition professionals evaluating unconventional assets
- Planning and portfolio analysts working with unconventional inventory
- Technical managers and regulators reviewing unconventional submissions
Module 1 — Unconventional Plays and Resource Systems
- Continuous accumulations and how they differ from conventional traps
- Shale gas, shale oil, tight gas and tight oil systems
- Source rock richness, kerogen type and thermal maturity
- Mineralogy, brittleness and completion quality
- Porosity systems: organic, inter-particle and micro-fracture
- Storage mechanisms: free gas, adsorbed gas and dissolved gas
- Fluid type variation across a play and its effect on performance
- Play maturity stages and the evolution of evaluation confidence
Module 2 — Resource Assessment Methods
- In-place volume estimation for continuous accumulations
- Adsorbed gas and Langmuir isotherm treatment
- Recovery factor expectation and its basis
- Statistical and analogue-based resource assessment
- Play, sub-play and area-based assessment approaches
- Technically recoverable versus economically recoverable resource
- Uncertainty in resource assessment and its representation
- Reconciling resource assessment with observed well performance
Module 3 — Reservoir and Completion Quality
- Reservoir quality indicators from log and core data
- Geomechanical properties and their measurement
- Stress state, anisotropy and fracture containment
- Landing zone selection and its effect on performance
- Lateral length, stage count and cluster spacing effects
- Proppant type, loading and fluid system selection
- Diagnostic data: microseismic, tracers and fibre measurements
- Attributing performance variation to geology versus completion
Module 4 — Production Data Analysis in Transient Flow
- Flow regimes in stimulated ultra-low permeability rock
- Linear flow, bilinear flow and boundary dominated onset
- Square root of time analysis and its interpretation
- Contacted pore volume and effective fracture half-length estimation
- Rate normalised pressure and material balance time methods
- Flowing material balance in unconventional wells
- Effect of flowback, choke management and drawdown strategy
- Data quality requirements and common data problems
Module 5 — Decline Analysis and EUR Determination
- Why conventional hyperbolic decline fails in unconventional wells
- Decline exponent behaviour and unbounded recovery
- Terminal decline constraints and modified hyperbolic models
- Power law exponential and stretched exponential models
- Duong model and its application
- Physics-based and hybrid forecasting approaches
- Model selection and the effect on booked volumes
- Forecast uncertainty and confidence in early-life wells
- Reconciling decline-derived and rate transient derived recovery
Module 6 — Type Curves and Well Population Analysis
- Purpose and correct construction of a type curve
- Well selection, vintage effects and completion normalisation
- Normalisation by lateral length, proppant intensity and fluid volume
- Averaging methods and the difference between mean and median wells
- Statistical treatment of a well population and distribution shape
- Well quality distribution and inventory ranking
- Applying type curves to undrilled locations and their limits
- Updating type curves as new wells and designs arrive
Module 7 — Spacing, Interference and Programme Recovery
- Drainage geometry in stimulated horizontal wells
- Parent-child relationships and depletion effects
- Pressure sinks, fracture hits and parent well damage
- Evidence of interference in production and pressure data
- Spacing tests and their interpretation
- Trade-off between well count and per-well recovery
- Optimising recovery at the programme rather than well level
- Cube and stacked development considerations
- Refracturing evaluation and candidate selection
Module 8 — Reserves and Resource Classification
- Classification frameworks applied to continuous accumulations
- Proved area determination and offsetting rules
- Reliable technology and analogue provisions
- Proved undeveloped locations and development commitment requirements
- Probable and possible categories in unconventional assets
- Contingent resource treatment and undeveloped inventory
- Aggregation of reserves across a large well population
- Reserves revision patterns and their causes
- Audit expectations and common areas of challenge
Module 9 — Development Programme Evaluation
- Inventory definition, quality tiering and location count
- Development pace, rig cadence and capital commitment
- Programme forecast construction from type curves and schedule
- Cost structure, well cost trends and efficiency gains
- Economics of unconventional development and break-even analysis
- Sensitivity to price, spacing and type curve assumptions
- Portfolio and acreage evaluation for acquisition
- Presenting an unconventional evaluation and defending its assumptions
Upon successful completion of this training course, delegates will be awarded an official Certificate of Completion issued by the Petroleum Engineers Association (PEA), an ISO 9001:2015 certified training organization. The certificate carries 10 Credits and formally records the total learning hours completed.
Each certificate is signed by the Course Facilitator and the CEO of the Petroleum Engineers Association, and serves as verifiable proof of professional training that delegates can present to employers and professional bodies worldwide.
Frequently Asked Questions
All course bookings made through PEA are strictly non-refundable. By registering for a course, you acknowledge and accept that all fees are payable in full and are not subject to refund under any circumstances, including changes in personal or professional commitments or partial attendance.
PEA reserves the right to make reasonable adjustments to course content, trainers, or schedules where necessary, without entitling delegates to a refund. Comprehensive details of each course — including objectives, target audience, and content — are clearly outlined before enrolment, and it is the responsibility of the delegate to ensure the course's suitability prior to booking.
For any inquiries related to cancellations or bookings, please contact our support team, who will be happy to assist you.
