PETROPHYSICS SKILL SET GUIDELINES FOR INDEPENDENT PETROPHYSICAL CONTRIBUTORS

Abstract

During the 2014 SPWLA Topical Meeting on “Educating the Petrophysicist”, it recommended that “A minimum set of standards in terms of both knowledge and skills (competencies) for an entry level petrophysicist (SPWLA, 2014). Similar proposal has been raised before as well (Loermans, 2002). With the rapid advance in technology, continuous crew change, and a natural pandemic affecting the oil and gas industry, the learning pattern has been changing from traditional in-person structured courses to more online, on-demand, short course training. For those interested in entering petrophysics discipline or furthering their petrophysics knowledge and skills, the learning path is less clear than other discipline like reservoir engineering, or geology, due to the lack of university degree program in Petrophysics. SPWLA Education SIG has taken on this challenge and developed skill set guidelines for petrophysicists as independent contributors. The current version of the guidelines covers topics including: General Geoscience and Engineering Operations, Fundamental Petrophysical Data Acquisition, Integrated Formation Evaluation, LWD Petrophysics in Formation Evaluation and Geosteering, Reservoir Dynamic Surveillance, Integrated Petrophysical Modeling, and Data Driven Petrophysics. In each topic, it includes basic skills as well as specialized skills. The document was developed with oil and gas industry in mind and can be adapted for petrophysicists working in related fields such as geothermal, mining, carbon management, water resources evaluation, etc. The document will be useful for students interested in learning to be a petrophysicist, a company interested in developing a training program for petrophysicists, and an organization interested in developing skill assessment program for Petrophysicists.