PHDwin V3 is petroleum economics software and decline curve analysis software built for the way reservoir engineers actually work. Developed by TRC Consultants, L.C., a firm in the petroleum engineering business since 1986, PHDwin V3 unites forecasting, economics, scenario management, and reserves reporting in a single environment trusted by energy professionals in more than forty countries. The current release, PHDwin V3.1.19 (build 697, released May 2026), pairs a modern Microsoft SQL foundation with the reporting flexibility teams have requested over years of real-world use. If your engineers spend more time fighting their tools than finding opportunities, PHDwin V3 was designed to close that gap.
As petroleum economics software, PHDwin V3 turns production history into defensible forecasts, economics, and reserves numbers without forcing engineers to switch between disconnected applications. The guiding principle is simple: the more accurate the economics, the more accurate the reserves. To protect that accuracy, V3 introduces improvements such as Max Cum Cash Flow for economic-limit calculations, support for differentiating sunk and discretionary investments like PDP versus PUD plugging, and economic hurdles based on discounted cash flow, non-discounted cash flow, and ROI. These hurdle options matter for teams automating large evaluations, because they let you scale volume without compromising the integrity of the underlying reserves. Revenues, expenses, and taxes can be plotted directly on production graphs, so economics and reserves appear together in one view rather than across separate screens.
Forecasting is where engineers spend much of their day, and PHDwin V3 is decline curve analysis software rebuilt to make that time productive. It offers five forecasting methods spanning conventional and unconventional needs: Arps decline in exponential, hyperbolic, and harmonic forms; Stretched Exponential Decline (SEDM) for tight formations where traditional Arps tends to overestimate EUR; Scheduled projections for development drilling and facilities-constrained profiles; Lin-Time linear projections for late-life and stripper wells; and Flat Projections for plateau phases and contractual commitments. These methods can be combined within a single well, which is essential for unconventional producers that move through multiple flow regimes across their producing life. Engineers can manipulate hyperbolic decline directly on the chart with the Drag and Drop “Bendy B Factor,” while Flow Regime Indicators automatically identify transient, boundary-dominated, and linear flow periods.
Arps decline in exponential, hyperbolic, and harmonic forms.
For tight formations where traditional Arps tends to overestimate EUR.
For development drilling and facilities-constrained profiles.
Linear projections for late-life and stripper wells.
For plateau phases and contractual commitments.
Beyond individual curves, PHDwin V3 works as an automated production forecasting tool across an entire portfolio. Graph models can be applied to one, many, or all cases at once, and when a model is updated, every case using it updates automatically, eliminating manual propagation across hundreds of wells. Mass-editing tools reinforce this: copy and paste from Excel, a Global Editor, and a Grid Editor remove repetitive re-entry, while multi-graph displays and child-case overlays let you compare parent cases against offset well performance in a single unified view. Qualified Economics and Scenarios let teams run sensitivities and lookbacks without ever breaking the base case, so automation never comes at the cost of control.
PHDwin V3 is built on the Microsoft SQL platform, giving it the profile of a true upstream energy database rather than a closed desktop file format. This is the same industry-standard infrastructure most corporate IT teams already maintain, and it delivers virtually limitless case counts without sacrificing calculation speed. SQL supports both local installations and client/server deployments, enables true multi-user concurrent operations so no one waits for another engineer’s calculation to finish, and scales further with better hardware. The open data structure also creates opportunities to integrate PHDwin with the wider systems in your technology stack. PHDwin V3 installs with SQL Express, which supports databases of roughly 100,000 cases; organizations with larger portfolios can move to a commercial or Standard Edition of SQL to grow beyond that threshold.
Most teams lose time not inside any single task but in the handoffs between them, exporting a forecast to one tool, re-keying economics into another, then rebuilding a report somewhere else. PHDwin V3 collapses that entire reserves evaluation workflow into one connected environment. Production history feeds directly into decline curve analysis, forecasts flow straight into the economics engine, and economics roll into reserves reports without a single manual transfer. Because the same Microsoft SQL database underpins every stage, the numbers an engineer sees on a graph are the same numbers an auditor pulls in a report, with no reconciliation gap in between. That continuity is what makes results defensible: there is one source of truth from raw volumes to final disclosure. For managers, it also means faster turnaround on evaluations, tighter QC, and fewer version-control problems when several engineers work the same asset. The result is a platform that supports both the day-to-day work of the individual engineer and the reporting demands of the organization above them.
PHDwin V3 was engineered to handle the full spread of North American and international assets, from long-life conventional producers to complex unconventional wells. Conventional operators benefit from proven Arps decline, flexible flat and scheduled projections, and straightforward economic hurdles. Unconventional teams gain Stretched Exponential Decline for tight formations, combinable forecasting methods for wells that shift through multiple flow regimes, and automatic Flow Regime Indicators that flag transient, boundary-dominated, and linear periods. Whether you are evaluating a mature waterflood or a freshly completed shale pad, the software adapts to the physics of the asset rather than forcing every well into one model.
For teams that answer to regulators, lenders, and third-party auditors, PHDwin V3 supports SEC-compliant reserves reporting and produces auditable oil and gas reserves your stakeholders can trust. Engineers can change report formats and ranking metrics without re-running economic evaluations, switching between templates or analyzing present worth and value rank inside the same workflow, then exporting structured results to Excel in seconds. Enforced data discipline, consistency, and reduced QC time make results predictable and comparable, which is exactly what an audit trail depends on. For corporate reserves tracking and reconciliation across many projects, PHDRMS integrates with PHDwin to archive reserves and forecasts into a single SQL database, streamlining regulatory disclosures and producing benchmark information on company performance.
Teams evaluating an ARIES software alternative will find PHDwin V3 a practical, modern option that reads their existing work rather than forcing a rebuild. PHDwin imports ARIES data directly through Access databases, so migrating historical evaluations is straightforward, and the V3.1.19 release specifically improved the ARIES import experience across lookup tables, investment, expense, ownership, and projection data. If you are weighing Aries vs PHDwin, TRC maintains a dedicated Aries vs PHDwin comparison to help you decide. Organizations exploring a ValNav software replacement or comparing Mosaic petroleum software will find that PHDwin V3 covers the same core disciplines forecasting, economics, and reserves reporting on a modern SQL foundation; because migration paths depend on the source system, we recommend starting a trial or contacting the team to confirm how your specific data maps into PHDwin.
The V3.1.19 release focuses on the reporting and workflow improvements users requested most. The headline addition is the return of the Monthly Volume Export Report, which sends monthly historical and projected oil, gas, water, and NGL volumes straight to Excel with no row limitations. The new History and Projection Variance Report compares historical and projected volumes month by month and can display variance as an absolute value or a percentage, while a new Variance Major Phase (%) measure shows how closely a projection fits historical production and surfaces in sorting, filtering, and graph titles. The release also adds “Magic” (virtual) handles for interacting with projections beyond the visible chart, a Scenario Manager upgrade that applies a qualifier as primary across all types with a single drag and drop, and expanded Spotfire integration. You can review every change on the V3.1.19 release page and browse earlier updates in the version history.
PHDwin supports more than twenty-five data vendors and file types in addition to database and spreadsheet sources, including Accumap, DrillingInfo/Enverus, IHS, Merak, Rystad, WellDatabase, and WoodMackenzie, so most organizations can bring historical work in without starting over. The interface itself is highly definable: Forms place data anywhere on the screen, Views group those Forms into shareable task-specific layouts, and true multi-monitor support scales your workspace across every display. Beyond the software, TRC offers professional services including database conversions, integration consulting, custom reports, and PSC/PSA modeling, along with a full training program spanning classroom, online, and onsite sessions.
Getting started is simple. New users can begin with a 14-day free trial that requires no credit card, using the secure, Windows-compatible installer available on the official PHDwin download site. Most people should choose the recommended V3.1.19 .exe installer, while IT departments managing deployments can obtain the .msi installer and dependency downloads from the release page. Users installing from the .msi should note that SQL Server 2019 Express, the msodbcsql13 driver, .NET Framework 4.8.1, and the Visual C++ 2015 redistributable must be added manually, since the .msi cannot install them automatically. Existing V3 users upgrading to 3.1.19 will typically only need the .NET Framework 4.8.1 component if they do not already have it.
PHDwin V3 is petroleum economics software and decline curve analysis software used to build production forecasts, run economic evaluations, manage scenarios, and produce reserves reports, including SEC-compliant disclosures, in a single environment.
Yes. PHDwin imports ARIES data through Access databases and improved that import experience in V3.1.19, making it a practical ARIES software alternative. TRC also publishes a dedicated Aries vs PHDwin comparison to help teams decide.
PHDwin V3 covers the same core disciplines forecasting, economics, and reserves reporting on a modern SQL foundation, so it is worth evaluating as a ValNav software replacement or against Mosaic petroleum software. Because migration paths vary, start a trial or contact TRC to confirm how your data maps in.
Yes. PHDwin V3 supports SEC-compliant reserves reporting and produces auditable oil and gas reserves through flexible report templates, enforced data discipline, and integration with PHDRMS for regulatory disclosures and reconciliation.
Yes. Graph models apply to one, many, or all cases at once and update automatically when changed, making PHDwin an effective automated production forecasting tool across large portfolios.
PHDwin V3 offers Arps, Stretched Exponential Decline (SEDM), Scheduled, Lin-Time, and Flat Projections, and these methods can be combined within a single well for unconventional producers.
PHDwin V3 is built on Microsoft SQL, functioning as an upstream energy database. It installs with SQL Express, which supports roughly 100,000 cases, and scales to commercial SQL editions for larger portfolios.
Download PHDwin V3 from the official site at phdwindownload.com. Most users should choose the recommended .exe installer, while IT teams can use the .msi installer and dependencies from the release page.
Yes. TRC offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, using a secure, Windows-compatible installer.
PHDwin has been developed by TRC Consultants, L.C., in Austin, Texas, in the petroleum engineering business since 1986. Support is available at 512-467-2639 or 888-248-8062, Monday through Friday.
Whether you are replacing legacy software or standardizing reserves across a growing team, PHDwin V3 delivers the speed, accuracy, and auditability to work with confidence. Download the free trial, explore the full feature set, or contact the TRC team to see how it fits your workflow.
