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Taking as Much Exploration Advantage of Drilling as Possible

Jeimy Mathison - Kasoil
Director General

STORY INLINE POST

Pedro Alcalá By Pedro Alcalá | Senior Journalist & Industry Analyst - Tue, 05/25/2021 - 15:59

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Q: What would you consider to be the most important lessons learned in 2020? 

A: 2020 proved to be a very challenging year. Fortunately, the oil sector is considered one of the country's essential activities, which allowed us to continue supporting our clients' operations under strict security measures. In 2020 we carried out many internal organizational changes in view of the great challenges implied by the global pandemic and oil prices, with a disruptive vision ratifying our commitment to the energy development of the country, obtaining certifications that will allow us to be prepared as a leading Mexican company in the oil industry in the southeast of the country for the great national and international challenges that we will assume in 2021. Additionally, we also developed a methodology called Reservoir Characterization while drilling which is a Kasoil trademark, which represents a unique technology at international level, as recognized by the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), this methodology involves the integration of advanced rock analysis equipment and mass spectrometry to acquire large volumes of data during a drilling campaign and generate results in terms of analysis and models integrated from different disciplines. At the end of drilling, we present a complete characterization of the reservoir including all zones of interest with hydrocarbon potential, identifying which zones are water-invaded, areas representing the oil-water contact zone, distribution of minerals present in the area, interpretation and rock physics. We have worked with this methodology in more than 20 wells in Mexico and the results have been extremely positive, providing value to our clients in making decisions and estimates of new hydrocarbon reserves.

2020 allowed us to develop new commercial strategies that helped us grow, also like all companies we faced financial challenges due to delays in payments. Overall, I would say that 2020 was a year in which we managed to strengthen ourselves, allowing us to restructure our teams and our workforce, and thus focus on potentiating the experience gained during these last 4 years. We are working hard to not only be the leading company in the southeast of Mexico, but also in the whole country. 

Q: How can the market make use of this newly patented methodology?

A: Its potential uses in the market are quite varied. While it is mainly applied to the exploration market, it can also be used for production purposes. This is because all companies are focusing a lot of their resources on making extraction as efficient as possible so that they can optimize their pricing position in the market. This is especially true after the oil price experiences in 2020. Drilling campaigns focus on finding hydrocarbons that can reach the wellhead at the lowest possible cost, which is why our methodology is based on non-intrusive and very fast processes. Our equipment is installed in mud cabins, so it does not require additional space and we generate all our data through the analysis of events that already take place during the drilling campaign. This methodology is very attractive to all operators who are developing or planning a drilling campaign or in a field, considering a geochemical and geological perspective. Mexico faces important challenges of reserve incorporation and of its national well drilling plan for 2021 which foresees drilling 128 wells. Our methodology will be instrumental in making these efforts as successful as possible and we believe it will be an important market driver for the expansion of its use in the market.

The integration of disciplines in the methodology designed by Kasoil such as sedimentology, petrophysics, engineering, geology, biostratigraphy and geochemistry has as main objective to optimize the detection of fluids present during the drilling of the well, as well as to determine qualitatively its characteristics such as porosity, permeability, fracturing and water saturation. The application of a multidisciplinary approach and with a competitive price for being a Mexican company allows us to be a fundamental piece in the decision-making process during drilling, to achieve together with our clients, the challenges of incorporation of reserves and the national drilling plan for 2021.

Q: How can you help operators fulfill their drilling objectives?

A: There is a small information gap that must be closed for drilling campaigns to achieve maximum efficiency. Drilling campaigns become inefficient and therefore less likely to meet their original objectives because operators tend to get lost and confused. This is where our methodology can help you, by acquiring data and generating as much results and analytics as possible during a drilling campaign and integrating them into a model that maximizes reservoir certainty, we can help drive your objectives closer to your completion plans and make timely decisions, in turn, making successful reserve incorporation a much more achievable goal.

With the contribution of the added value provided by this methodology, there are four simultaneous phases executed during the drilling of the well. We start with spectrometry: this technology is of great benefit since it will provide us with geochemical indicators of great relevance for the characterization of the reservoir, marking an important differentiator with respect to conventional study processes, since it determines the interpretative data of areas with greater productive potential based on its detailed analysis of the alkanes, aromatics and inorganic gases present.

Then there is spectroscopy, a technology of great effectiveness for the detailed analysis of samples to determine the composition, behavior and mineral relation of the rock, likewise it provides us with relevant information associated with the stratigraphic and sedimentological evolution of the study area.

Then there is the petrophysical evaluation as an integral part of the methodology, which is very important since it allows us to corroborate the data of the previously explained stages of zones with greater prospective interest through geophysical logs run in the well.

Finally, there is the operational geology, which together with other disciplines such as geophysics and engineering allows us to optimize the casing settlements in each stage of the well, to follow up the trajectory and geological-structural conditions to minimize and avoid any operational problem such as collapse, entrapment, losses and influxes. Also, the experience in the development of more than 70 reservoir characterization projects guarantees the correct interpretation of the data.

 

Kasoil is a Mexican exploration service provider founded by female oil and gas workers left unemployed after the downturn created a crisis in the state of Tabasco. It also provides integrated oil-field services and talent management.

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