What is a Completions Geoscientist?

It has always struck me that the Engineers charged with designing and executing the hydraulic fracture simulations that recover gas and oil from tight reservoirs have very defined titles, Completions Engineers, but the Geoscientists who support them in that endeavor do not. In my career I've been called a "Geomechanics Guy", "Natural Fracture Guy" (and many more unpleasant things!) but the reality was that rather than being an expert in those areas, I was an expert in integrating those areas into a holistic, but stimulation focused, geological picture. A geological picture that helped Completions Engineers understand the degree of impactful heterogeneity in Shale reservoirs and to help them optimize pad designs to account for Geology. So I started to call myself a Completions Geoscientist.

What is the definition of a Completions Geoscientist? There isn't one (I'd love peoples views on this) but simply put it is Geologist or Geophysicist who uses a combination of methods, from fracture characterization to rock physics, to aid in the design and execution of hydraulic fracture stimulations. A Completions Geoscientist should not just have knowledge of one aspect of geology that impacts completions, but all of them. A firm understanding of Completions Engineering is critical, after all how can you deliver impactful data and models to your client (the engineer) if you don't understand what they do? Once I took that step into the engineering world it opened my eyes to how much more Geoscientists can contribute to developing unconventional reservoirs.

I'll be posting more in the coming weeks on how Completions Geoscientists have a key role to play in developing Geothermal Resources. If you are interested to learn more about what I do and how I, or a colleague at Completions Geoscience, can help you then please get in touch.