'Co-opetition': a game-changing synergy among operators. A case delivering a Rosetta Stone for the Vaca Muerta Stratigraphy (Argentina)

GONZALES TOMASSINI, FEDERICO; VALLEJOS MARIA DOLORES; GONZALEZ GABRIELA; GOMEZ RIVAROLA LAURA; KOHLER, GUILLERMINA; MINISINI, DANIEL; TONI SIMO; FANTÍN, MANUEL; RODRIGUEZ SCHELOTTO, MARIA L.; KIETZMANN DIEGO; LIBERMAN, ALEJNADRO; LEANZA HÉCTOR A.; SYLWAN, CLAUDIO; DOMINGUEZ RICARDO; ALONSO, SUSANA; SANTIAGO, MARCELO; LANUSE NOGUERA, IVAN; AGUIRRE-URRETA, BEATRIZ; VITTORE, FRANCO; AGUIRRE, HUGO; CUERVO, SERGIO; GUERBEROFF, DAVID; SURIANO, JULIETA; DESJARDINS PATRICIO; MARCHAL DENIS; SATTLER, FEDERICO; REIJENSTEIN, HERNÁN; JAIT, DAMIAN; BANDE, ALEJANDRO; CROUSSE, LUISA; FEINSTEIN, ENRIQUE; DEPINE, GABRIELA; DE LA CAL, HERNAN; AMBROSIO, ALFREDO

Texas

Conferencia; Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC),; 2016

URTeC

The Vaca Muerta play is one of the top emerging unconventional reservoirs outside of North America. Since 2010 nearly 60 exploration wells drilled from black oil to dry gas windows have proven the potential of the Vaca Muerta and have generated great expectations in the oil industry as well as in the whole community about its economic potential. Projects are moving from appraisal to pilot and development phases, and up to date approximately 400 vertical and 100 horizontal wells are on production.In recent years there has been an exponential increase in subsurface studies with the objectives of de-risking this play in the Neuquén Basin. O&G operators have adopted early in the game a cooperation philosophy as a mechanism to quickly learn from each other. This has enabled a step-change in the understanding of how the stratigraphy controls the reservoir distribution, variability and behavior in a very short period of time.This approach of collaboration between different operators could be best described as ?co-opetition?, a blend of the words cooperation and competition, implying collaboration between business competitors in the hope of mutually beneficial results in a fair way. This philosophy has enabled our industry to: 1) learn faster; 2) optimize developments and maximize profitability; 3) significantly reduce the amount of capital and time spent to characterize the play; and 4) incorporate lessons learnt from neighbors.