Integrated reservoir characterization-simulation studies have repeatedly demonstrated reservoir management productivity gains. This is recorded in the literature^,, and demonstrated by the increasing use of integrated 3-D project software for characterizing reservoir assets. The next level of productivity gains for integrated reservoir studies will be to improve the ‘technical workflow management’ of this complex, multi-disciplinary, iterative process. Technical workflow management will reduce the project cycle time, improve the quality of the reservoir model, provide early access to the most current interpretation, and help the operator select the appropriate level of reservoir technology for field optimization.

The future of cost-effective ‘technical workflow management’ lies in the appropriate use of the Internet and company Intranets to collectively manage project data, technical results, and the project objectives. The individual technical experts, who provide characterization-simulation results, can no longer expect to be working in the same office as the main asset team. Adaptive and distributed technical team members can provide an asset team with a competitive advantage by delivering over the internet, the best-in-class technology, skills, and workflows for collaborative team-based integrated technical studies.

This article discusses how a WEB based ‘technical workflow manager’ can provide an environment where all project disciplines can share project data, up-to-date technical interpretations, current and historical documentation, and can monitor the state of the technical project workflow. It introduces the concept of quality-control (QC) tools to allow review of the technical data and results at any stage of the project completion. The QC tools work without requiring detailed user knowledge or access to the technical software used to create the interpretation. This WEB based approach results in a dynamically maintained reservoir model, which is available on-demand to make business unit decisions using the most up-to-date technical interpretations from anywhere in the world.