Laaiba Akmal

Software Engineer

[email protected]

Laaiba Akmal is a software engineer at ResFrac, where she is responsible for assisting with software development and support.

Before joining ResFrac, Laaiba worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Texas at Austin. Her master’s thesis, Improved Subsurface Resource Prediction by Integrating Engineering Physics and Information Theory into Spatial Data Science Models, focused on innovative approaches to subsurface modeling. Her work explored topics such as new information theory measures for feature ranking and physics-based discrepancy modeling for well-log imputation. She also gained industry experience as a Reservoir Engineering and Data Science Intern at ExxonMobil, where she developed data-driven workflows and predictive models to support Type Curve construction in the Permian Basin.

Laaiba earned her Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering (Highest Honors) and her Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering from UT Austin. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, exploring nature, photography, and Pilates.

Laaiba's posts

$Horizontal fracture initiated along weak bedding plane or frictional interface in ResFrac$

Horizontal hydraulic fractures in ResFrac

Horizontal hydraulic fracture propagation is believed to be widespread in shale plays where the frac gradient approaches the overburden – such as the Vaca Muerta, Utica, and Montney. However, horizontal propagation is nearly always ignored in hydraulic fracture modeling. In ResFrac, we are obsessed with ‘getting the physics right’, and so naturally, we extended our simulator to handle horizontal fracturing. The first version of this new capability was released earlier this year. We are eager to start collecting feedback from users, which will help us to fine tune the algorithm and workflow.

Advanced ‘proppant transport in the well’ capabilities are now implemented in ResFrac!

Proppant transport in the well is an intriguing topic that has attracted a lot of interest in recent years [1-8]. Proppant transport processes determine the uniformity of proppant placement, which has a direct impact on productivity. Cipolla et al. estimate that the difference between poor and excellent proppant uniformity is about $2.5M in net present value per well.

Digesting the Bonkers, Incredible, Off-the-Charts, Spectacular Results from the Fervo and FORGE Enhanced Geothermal Projects

I’m out of superlatives – I used them all up in the title. But seriously – Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) projects have had a really, really good summer. In this article, I summarize the results that have been recently presented by Fervo and FORGE. At their annual Tech Day and in a white paper posted this week (Norbeck et al., 2024), Fervo Energy provided their first update on Project Cape, a Utah project where they are developing 400 MWe of new production over the next two years. So far, fourteen wells have been drilled, and three of them have been stimulated.