Analytics Helps Oil Companies Improve Production Forecasts

How can oil companies more accurately forecast well performance? Accurate analysis of reservoir behavior is fundamental for assessing reserves and forecasting production. SAS, supplier in business analytics software and services, helps oil and gas companies make better decisions by using data strategically.

SAS and Saudi Aramco discussed oilfield analytics during a technical paper presentation at the 2011 SPE Digital Energy Conference and Exhibition. Husameddin Madani and Dennis Seemann from Saudi Aramco and Keith Holdaway from SAS are the co-authors of the paper, “Automating Decline Curve Analysis in an Integrated Reservoir Management Portal.”

“For the oil and gas industry, production forecasting is a highly complex task, and as such requires an advanced analytical engine to achieve robust forecasts,” said Jill Feblowitz, IDC Vice President, Utilities and Oil and Gas.

Unfortunately, many methodologies for production forecasting underestimate uncertainty, resulting in an incomplete understanding of reserves under management. Such forecasts often are based on sample data that are manually organized and cleansed – and thus inefficient and labor-intensive. SAS helps companies quickly manage and aggregate all data necessary to estimate future production and evaluate alternative field-development strategies.

SAS offers the ability to use existing production data and apply best practices in forecasting and scenario analysis to improve confidence in Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR). Saudi Aramco, for example, already uses SAS Analytics within reservoir management.

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