The Unconventional Play

The “play” is a foundational concept in the exploration for oil and gas and typically describes the geologic conditions essential to a petroleum accumulation. Equipped with this understanding, we can then characterize the future potential of occurrences, the risks, and ultimately the value in exploring for the play. While the effectiveness of using play concepts in conventional exploration is well-established, our broad notion of plays in unconventional resources diminishes the utility of the concept. It is recommended that we formulate unconventional plays in a tiered, hierarchical framework based on the petroleum system, reservoir target and geomechanics. A more disciplined approach allows for identification of the appropriate geologic setting of a play as well as aligning the key geologic controls that drive production with risk. Additionally, systematically describing unconventional plays allows for a more reliable analogue comparison and forecasting of potential in a new area. Given that the play concept has proven to be such a valuable one for conventional exploration, a more fully developed play concept for unconventional resources will provide us with a geologic context for characterising the resource, managing the risks and assessing the value of an exploration venture.