A Novel Assisted History Matching Workflow and its Application in a Full Field Reservoir Simulation Model

Abstract

The significant increase in using reservoir simulation models poses significant challenges in the design and calibration of models. Moreover, conventional model calibration, history matching, is usually performed using a trial and error process of adjusting model parameters until a satisfactory match is obtained. In addition, history matching is an inverse problem, and hence it may have non-unique solutions. In typical reservoir simulation problems with a large number of unknown parameters, the problem could be ill-posed. In recent years, assisted history matching approach has been offered to solve this problem hopefully. In this paper, proposes an efficient assisted history matching workflow is recommended, and its application in a full field reservoir simulation model of a mature gas-cap reservoir is presented. In addition, Sobol sequence experimental design technique, Kriging proxy modeling, and three novel metaheuristic optimization algorithms are used to assist the history match of 28 years of historical production and pressure data. Finally, the results are compared with those obtained using a manual history matching procedure and with those obtained using the most widely used assisted history matching workflow. Also, in the proposed workflow, a significant improvement in terms of match quality and solution time is shown.