Reservoir engineering is back in the news, and this time what we’re hearing about most is fracking.
Fracking is the process of recovering oil from shales located thousands of feet underground. Because fluids don’t flow well through these sedimentary rocks, they must be stimulated. To do this, miners pump water, sand, and small amounts of chemicals or detergents through cement-lined bore-wells to fracture the rock—a technique that has environmentalists concerned. (To read more about the controversy, see Wikipedia’s great treatment.)
So what does this mean for reservoir engineers?
Though the practice of fracking is still fairly uncommon, rising demand for oil field exploration means that more companies are considering this option. And since engineers often find it difficult to predict oil flow through fracked stone, more simulation data is required …
… And more data means more challenges with data management.
CFD software more in demand than ever
When working with large amounts of reservoir data, engineering companies require robust management software.
Tecplot RS is that software. A specialized visualization and analysis tool, it gives engineers a faster way to understand reservoir simulation data. In addition, it is the easiest to use and produces the most visually powerful output of all of the post-processing tools available.