McLin Petrographics
Petrographic Services for Industry
Petroleum, Mining & Civil Engineering, CCUS, Geothermal
Ryan H. McLin
Petrology Consultant
Clastic, Carbonate, and Unconventional Petroleum Reservoirs; Mining & Civil Engineering; CCUS; and Geothermal
Ryan McLin founded McLin Petrographics in late 2013 to deliver exceptional service quality and value to the petroleum industry in reservoir quality analysis. His extensive industry-recognized expertise in petrography and petrology gave him valuable insight into the needs of the industry that were not being met by cookie-cutter and off-the-shelf petrology products offered by existing firms. He understands that clients are looking for a partner in accomplishing exploration and production success, not a consultant who is serving the competing interest of his employer. Ryan differentiates his services by offering fit-for-purpose client-specific solutions to minimize risk and optimize productivity from their reservoirs through detailed and experienced reservoir characterization and interpretation.
Additionally, Ryan provides petrographic services to numerous other industries. With the ramp-up of carbon sequestration, as well as further development in the geothermal, mining and civil engineering fields, clients need rapid identification of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock types and complex concrete identification to assist in their project design and execution.
Ryan McLin began in the petroleum industry at TerraTek, a Schlumberger Company in 2005 and advanced to become Petrology Manager at Schlumberger Reservoir Laboratories. There Ryan developed his specialization in microtextural analysis and characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs including conventional and deepwater sandstones and carbonates, and unconventional shale-gas and shale oil-reservoirs. He also developed and championed new technologies and service products to improve data quality as a decision justification tool for clients. As the sole proprietor of McLin Petrographics, Ryan’s focus is developing and executing investigations that will provide clients with solid, scientifically rooted answers to their questions about reservoir quality, diagenesis, rock mechanics and strength, and fluid sensitivity. This is accomplished through thin section petrology (description and quantification), Touchstone characterization of conventional sandstone reservoirs, scanning electron microscopy (imaging and analysis), geomechanical textural analysis, and data interpretation and integration (petrological, routine, and special core analysis, X-ray diffraction, and TOC/Rock Eval). Ryan has a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s degree in Geology from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Other non-traditional services that Ryan offers include image and point count analysis of large-scale SEM images on ion-milled shale surfaces and pore morphometrics such as length, width, area, perimeter, and distribution of these properties by image analysis. Further, Ryan pioneered the imaging of shale sister samples by both traditional methods and argon-ion milling as described in Spain and McLin, 2013. This effectively evaluates the nature and distribution of organic matter and porosity by looking and similar features at the same scale to accurately determine microtexture and differentiate mineral cements of different densities. Understanding where the dominant porosity is occurring, either in the organic matter or the matrix, allows for a better understanding of pore network wettability, providing critical data to completion design.
As a client of McLin Petrographics, you can expect the highest data quality, timely delivery, and full customization of products offered. Ryan will work directly with you to assure all data collected and analyses run are delivered and interpreted in the most cost effective, complete, and timely manner so that you get the answers you need when you need them.