TABLE OF CONTENTS The volume of information that is being generated and made publicly available about oil and gas reservoirs is increasing at an exponential rate, as is most "knowledge". The "information age" applies equally to oil and gas exploration and development as to other global issues.
Partly because of the volume and the nature of available information, and the lessons learned and discussed from specific projects, the field of reservoir characterization is approaching a healthy level of maturity. Not many years ago, being assigned to evaluate a reservoir was considered a less desirable job for an exploration geologist. As exploration declined during the 1980s, stratigraphers, who had been accustomed to doing exploration evaluations, turned to describing reservoirs in order to enhance their employment capabilities in their chosen field. Exploration geophysicists also found a niche in reservoir development. Biostratigraphers and geochemists, among others, later found that their skills were applicable to reservoir characterization.
Even the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) has now recognized the need for better balance between exploration and production. President P.J.F. Gratton (2004) stated: " the growth of hydrocarbon recovery technology as a supplement and/or substitute for our traditional focus on discovery technology requires our attention and response".
Today, the field of reservoir characterization routinely involves disciplines of geology, geophysics, petrophysics, petroleum engineering, geochemistry, bios-tratigraphy, geostatistics, and computer science. Even behavioral science must be included in this list, because people in the different disciplines do not think or act...
