North American Tight Oil

Clients benefit from an unmatched level of coverage as well as our proven track record, including our global expertise in oil markets, capital costs and macro-economics. The result: informed strategic decision-making, no matter what your role in oil production, investment or regulation.

Despite the recent increase in oil production as a result of unconventional drilling technology, there is currently no authoritative product that provides this type of detail at the play level to help assess the potential for North American tight oil.

The North American Tight Oil Study will provide customers with a basis on which to evaluate and rank opportunities, benchmark their own activities against evolving industry standards and trends and assess the more competitive international tight oil opportunities.

The North American Tight Oil Study will focus on the major mature and emerging plays that could have the largest impact on investment patterns and North American supplies. The final output will be a complete toolkit to support your analyses.

Study members will be able to:

• Estimate the resource potential and recoverable hydrocarbons of each play
• Understand geological and geochemical factors that define play fairways and sweet spots
• Understand performance metrics and future supply potential
• Establish metrics to compare key operator performance and value of each play
• Determine play entrance/exit strategies
• Determine potential partners and M&A strategies
• Develop analogs for global tight oil potential

Why a Multiclient Study?

This multiclient study responds to a key market need that is too complex or urgent to be covered in sufficient detail by our ongoing services.

This study:

• Includes a large multi-disciplinary team consisting of geologists, geochemists, petroleum engineers, company valuation analysts from IHS Herold, economists, GIS experts, Petra and data management experts.
• Leverages IHS datasets to create new and innovative research including information from IHS Herold Company Financial and Operational Database, IHS US Well and Production Databases, IHS Global Exploration and Production services, IHS Petroleum Economics and Policy Solutions, IHS International Exploration and Production Database and other IHS CERA services.

IHS brings together a community who help shape the research effort with regular feedback.

IHS CERA will evaluate each play to establish the geologic framework of the resource base and evaluate likely productive capacity.

The study will be composed of four elements:

• Performance analysis
• Play extent and sweet spot identification
• Operator performance and technology
• Costs and economics

The deliverables include:

• Maps showing production performance over time, performance enhancements, rankings and a summary of M&A activity.

Maturing Tight Oil Plays

Plays having oil dominant fairways with associated gas as well as the liquid-rich gas plays

• Bakken – Three Forks: Williston Basin, Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan
• Niobrara Shale: DJ Basin, Colorado and Wyoming
• Cardium Sand – Shale: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, Alberta
• Bone Spring – AvalonShale: Delaware Basin, West Texas and southern New Mexico.
• Eagle Fordoil and wet gas windows: South Texas
• Wolfberry Play: Midland Basin, West Texas.
• Barnett Combo: oil window play. Ft. Worth Basin, Texas
• Mississippian – Shelf: Anadarko Basin, north-central Oklahoma and south-central Kansas
• Cleveland sandstone: Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma
• Viking Sandstone: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, Alberta
• Granite Wash: Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma and Texas

Emerging Tight Oil Plays

Due to limited data on the newer plays, performance analytics, play extent/sweet spot, operator performance and costs will be limited

• Bakken – Exshaw: Southern Alberta Basin, Montana and Alberta
• Duvernay Shale: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin
• Mowry Shale: Wyoming
• Heath Shale: Montana
• Monterey formation: California
• Cane Creek/Paradox Shales: Paradox Basin, Utah, Colorado
• Utica Shale: Ohio, Pennsylvania
• Uteland Butte/Wasatch: Uinta Basin, Utah
• Atoka/Cherokee: Southeast Colorado
• Collingwood Shale: Michigan
• Tuscaloosa Marine Shale: Louisiana, Mississippi
• Woodford Shale: Anadarko oil window
• Brown Dense (Lower Smackover): South Arkansas, North Louisiana
• Montney: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin
• Nordegg: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin
• Banff: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin