Simulation software earns its cost when it narrows a decision. Producing another set of plots that everyone agrees look reasonable is not the same thing.
Decisions software should carry
- Fluid volumes and stage sequence for a stated damage mechanism.
- Injection-rate window between wormhole efficiency and fracture pressure.
- Diversion requirement across a heterogeneous interval.
- Expected skin reduction and production uplift with an uncertainty range.
- Economic screening across candidate wells in a campaign.
Decisions that stay with the engineer
- Whether the reservoir description is credible enough to act on.
- Whether the well is a candidate at all — see acidising candidate selection.
- Operational feasibility with the available equipment and window.
- Risk acceptance on formation damage or containment.
Insist on ranges
A single-value uplift prediction is an argument, not an engineering output. Sensitivity across permeability, skin mechanism and mineralogy tells management what could actually happen — and is what tender evaluators expect to see attached to a technical proposal.
Close the loop
Post-job skin evaluation fed back into the model is what converts a licence into institutional knowledge. Without it, every campaign starts from the same assumptions as the last one.