Even with a fresh discovery in hand, a lot has to happen to transform this achievement into an economic success. The sooner the discovery is confirmed and properly measured, the sooner development plans can be set in motion. In most cases, additional drilling is required to verify areas of uncertainty, to gain additional control points for critical reservoir properties, and to ascertain their median values across the prospective field. This will also address uncertainties that may exist regarding fractures, faults and alterations to the formation.

The large quantity of information that can be quickly and effectively generated and analyzed in the Paradigm solution suite makes it easy for geoscientists and reservoir engineers to understand where the key uncertainties are, and where additional wells need to be drilled to verify or quantify them. 

With the log and other borehole data fresh from the new discovery well, a number of key components of the original subsurface model can be calibrated to reflect the additional knowledge. This includes the velocity model, well tie synthetics, seismic facies maps, inversion volumes, geostatistical property maps and AVO/AVA attributes. In the seamless environment of the Paradigm integration platform, these tasks are readily accessible and the updated results are shared by all team members.  This process can iterate all though the appraisal process as additional delineation wells are drilled.  Pressure transient testing analysis adds available information to the overall knowledge of the reservoir.

In offshore acreage, the additional information from a first well can also improve the ability to identify shallow hazards that could endanger appraisal and development drilling as well as put production facilities at risk.  At deeper levels pore pressure predictions can be made based on seismic velocities, and calibrated to well information.  In many cases, the existing seismic data can be used for these studies, with significant impact on HSE compliance and field economics.