American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2015 - 133

TECH TRENDS
ulations can be run subsequently to assess
the uncertainty on fracture parameter
models. Although widely used, DFN
models can suffer significantly from bad
input data since much of the fracture
data come from core data sampled under
laboratory conditions, rather than in situ
reservoir conditions.
To overcome these problems, a unique
fracture probability model is proposed
for the reservoir interval, taking into account the geometry of the reservoir grid
(with no simplifications of faults and
horizons), the influence of all deformations
from the time of deposition, a geomechanical facies model, and the sensitivity
of the rock materials to the fractures
(Figure 7).
In this fracture workflow, the effective
permeability of large-scale flow cells is
modeled in such a way that it integrates
the presence of small-scale fractures.
This workflow is carried out largely from
fracture permeability data from the wellbore (well test data), interpretation data,

FIGURE 7
DFN Model and Fracture Probability Model

borehole or seismic facies data (rock
type model), structural and geomechanical
attributes, and seismic data fracture and
property inversion methods.
Horizontal drilling and fracturing operations have transformed tight oil plays
from interesting and potential hydrocarbon
sources to real and significant contributors
to world oil supply. The industry is at a
pivot point where a more thorough un-

derstanding of the structural and compositional formation fabric can boost EURs
from these tight reservoirs. Emerging
petrotechnical software solutions are driving a new set of workflows for the geoscientists and engineers tasked with keeping these oil fields at the forefront of the
global energy landscape.
Ì

DUANE
DOPKIN

Duane Dopkin is executive vice president of geosciences at Paradigm. With more than 25
years of experience in managing software portfolios that advance the sciences of subsurface
imaging and hydrocarbon detection, he has helped drive and align these technologies to meet
the needs of the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining Paradigm, Dopkin worked at Digicon Inc.
and CogniSeis Development Inc., where he directed geoscientists in special project groups
tasked with developing and applying software for seismic processing, imaging, characterization
and interpretation. Dopkin holds a B.S. in geosciences from Pennsylvania State University and
an M.S. in geosciences from the University of Houston at Clear Lake.

JEAN-CLAUDE
DULAC

Jean-Claude Dulac is chief architect at Paradigm. He was founder and chief architect of
Earth Decision, a provider of integrated shared earth modeling solutions for asset teams,
which Paradigm acquired in 2006. Before founding Earth Decision, Dulac held positions at
Unocal, including development manager and senior research geophysicist. Prior to his work
at Unocal, Dulac was a developer at Total. He holds an M.S. in geophysics from Stanford
University and an M.S. in geology from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie.
JANUARY 2015 133

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2015