CGGVeritas Has A Wealth Of Experience In Characterizing Shale Reservoirs

Since 2009, with more than 40 proprietary and multi-client projects, including over 10,000 sq miles of library data and many advanced analysis and interpretation projects in US shale plays, CGGVeritas has built a wealth of experience in characterization of shale reservoirs. The company is continuing to invest heavily in extensive multi-client programs, particularly the Marcellus, Haynesville and Bakken.

CGGVeritas has developed a unique integrated geophysical approach to characterizing shale gas reservoirs and predicting optimal locations for drilling and completion, in order to increase productivity and reduce exploration risks. This solution, which brings added value by identifying potential sweet spots, based on pre-stack azimuthal seismic data analyses calibrated with well log and core measurements, is available for both the company's multi-client and proprietary surveys.

A quantitative understanding of rock properties such as acoustic impedance, Poisson's ratio, and Young's modulus can be obtained from prestack seismic analysis and well log calibration. These properties are related to reservoir properties such as porosity, Total Organic Content (TOC) and mineral content. Relative production estimates across the field can be derived by combining seismic estimates of lithological, geomechanical and stress properties, correlated to existing well measurements. The selection of geomechanical and lithological parameters that provide the best correlation with production will vary from one shale play to another and must be derived for each survey using multi-attribute correlation.