Shell and Baker Hughes has announced a software license and joint development agreement to produce a high-end platform for geological and reservoir modeling. The new platform will bring enhanced evaluation and visualization capabilities to Shell allowing geoscience and petroleum engineering experts to better plan and manage the extraction of oil and gas resources, realizing their full potential.

“High-quality modeling of complex reservoirs is a major factor in creating additional value in our industry,” said Arjen Dorland, Shell’s EVP for Technical and Competitive IT. “Today’s announcement underlines Shell’s commitment to developing innovative technologies that give us and our partners a competitive edge.”

The system will be optimized for resource modeling and production in tight/shale gas and liquids rich shale reservoirs, and is based on the Baker Hughes JewelEarth™ software platform, which has a strong track record of delivering integrated, data-driven workflows for optimizing these types of plays.

The world is now thought to have around 230 years of recoverable gas resources at current production levels – of which roughly half is tight gas, shale gas, and coalbed methane. Shell is producing these gas resources in locations including the US, China and Australia.

The new platform will complement Shell’s existing applications, including GeoSigns, Shell’s proprietary software used to visualize and interpret seismic data, and will form part of an integrated working environment for Shell’s exploration and modeling experts.

“The JewelEarthTM platform can handle multiple solutions – from basin to wellbore scale – using one generic data source,” said Mario Ruscev, Chief Technology Officer at Baker Hughes. “This capability will provide an innovative modeling and optimization platform for the fast-growing Shell user community”