American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2017 - 49

SpecialReport: Shale Resource Science
depth. Sonic data from a nearby vertical
well validated the geological relevance
of these estimates.
Results from studying varying levels
of anisotropy through tomography on the
microseismic dataset from the West Texas
Wolfcamp horizontal well demonstrate
that higher orders of anisotropy can increase perforation accuracy and aid in
developing a geologically relevant velocity
volume.
Three-D anisotropic velocity modeling
delivered more confident microseismic
results and illustrated the potential for
advanced reservoir property analysis. Utilizing the anisotropic velocity volume,
directional elastic moduli and key rock
property estimates were extracted from
perforation data, which added interpretative
value.
Subsequent work will extend these
estimates volumetrically, including the
microseismic events in the near- and farfield. Additional planned work includes
building a single 3-D orthorhombic model
to simultaneously solve for p-wave, horizontal s-wave and vertical s-wave velocity,
and to contrast the results to the 3-D VTI
velocity model.
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SCOTT TAYLOR is technical account
manager at SIGMA3. He joined the
company in 2012, and subsequently
served as operations manager and global
director of microseismic and borehole
imaging. Taylor holds degrees in finance
and business administration from American University Moscow, Franklin College Switzerland, and Touro College.
JEREMY KING is product manager

of near-wellbore imaging at SIGMA3.
He joined the company in 2012 as a
staff geophysicist and subsequently
served as a research geophysicist. King
holds degrees in geophysics and physics
from the University of Houston and the
University of Wyoming.
BEN SCHAEFFER joined SIGMA3

in 2014 as a geophysicist after beginning
his career as a geophysical analyst at
ESG Solutions. Schaeffer holds a B.S.
in geophysics from the University of
Alberta.
TODD HIBBITTS is senior geophysicist and microseismic operations lead
at SIGMA3. With 20 years of experience,

he previously worked as a senior geophysicist or data processing geophysicist
at Fusion Petroleum Technologies (acquired by SIGMA3 in 2011), 3-D Geo,
Weinman GeoScience, Paradigm, and
WesternGeco. Hibbitts holds a B.S. in
physics from Texas A&M UniversityKingsville.
LUCAS MCGREAHAM is a geologist
at SIGMA3. Before joining the company
in 2014, he served as a geologist at
Columbine Logging Inc., a project geologist at Rock Oil Company, and a
landman at Kosco Energy. McGreaham
holds a B.S. in geological sciences from
Michigan State University.
KHALED GHUNEIM is operations
manager at SIGMA3. He joined the
company in 2013 as a geophysicist and
microseismic team lead. He began his
career as a geophysicist at MicroSeismic
Inc., and subsequently served in technical
and management roles at Gardline Geosciences, Halliburton, Rock Solid Images,
and GP & Son LLC. Ghuneim holds a
B.S. in geophysics from the University
of Houston.

Wolfcamp Estimate: 20 Billion Barrels
WASHINGTON-The Wolfcamp
Shale play in the Midland Basin holds
as much as 20.0 billion barrels of oil,
16.0 trillion cubic feet of associated
natural gas and 1.6 billion barrels of
natural gas liquids, the U.S. Geological
Survey projects.
The USGS says its geology-based
assessment of undiscovered, technically
recoverable continuous petroleum resources in the Pennsylvanian-Permian
Wolfcamp Shale is the agency's first
evaluation of that formation's continuous
resources.
The USGS made a quantitative assessment of undiscovered, technically
recoverable continuous oil and gas resources for six assessment units (AUs)

defined in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp
Shale in the Permian Basin Province.
The survey says its oil assessment for
the entire play has an F95-F5 range of
11.4 billion-31.5 billion barrels. Its natural gas projection has an F95-F5 range
of 7.9 Bcf-27.3 Bcf, and its NGL assessment has an F95-F5 range of 698.0
MMbbl-2.9 billion barrels.
According to USGS, six continuous
Wolfcamp Shale AUs were defined and
quantitatively assessed: Wolfcamp A,
Wolfcamp B Upper, Wolfcamp B Lower,
Wolfcamp C, Wolfcamp D, and Northern
Wolfcamp. The six AUs are within the
Permian Basin Paleozoic Composite
Total Petroleum System.
USGS projects the Wolfcamp B Up-

per possesses the highest total hydrocarbon potential of the six UAs, with
mean total undiscovered resource estimates of 5.83 billion barrels of oil, 4.66
Tcf of natural gas, and 466 MMbbl of
NGLs. Respectively, the total undiscovered resource estimates of oil, natural
gas and NGLs for the other AUs are:
* Wolfcamp A: 5.82 billion barrels,
4.6 Tcf, and 465 MMbbl;
* Wolfcamp D: 4.92 billion barrels,
3.93 Tcf, and 394 MMbbl;
* Wolfcamp C: 1.43 billion barrels,
1.14 Tcf, and 115 MMbbl;
* Wolfcamp B Lower: 1.43 billion
barrels, 1.14 Tcf, and 114 MMbbl; and
* Northern Wolfcamp: 521 MMbbl,
417 Bcf, and 42 MMbbl.
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FEBRUARY 2017 49

American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2017

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