A parallel, multiscale approach to reservoir modeling

Abstract

With the advance of CPU power, numerical reservoir models have become an essential part of most reservoir engineering applications. These models are used for predicting future performances or determining optimal locations of infill wells. Hence in order to accurately predict, these reservoir models must be conditioned to all available data. The challenge in data integration for numerical reservoir models lies in the fact that each data has its own resolution and area of coverage. The most common data for reservoir characterization are; well-log/core data, seismic data and production data. Most current approaches to data integration are hierarchical. Fine scale models are used for integrating well-log/core and seismic data while coarse models are used to integrate mostly production data. The drawback of such a hierarchical approach is such that once the scale is changed, data conditioning, maintained in the previous scale, is lost. In this paper, we review a general algorithm as a solution to the multi-scale data integration. Instead of proceeding in a hierarchical fashion, a fine model and a coarse model is kept in parallel throughout the entire characterization process. The link between the fine scale and the coarse scale is provided by non-uniform upscaling. An optimization procedure determines the optimal gridding parameters that provide the smallest possible mismatch between fine and coarse scale reservoir models. A synthetic example application is given and demonstration of the methodology. The upgridding is accomplish by a static gridding algorithm, 3DDEGA. This algorithm aims at preserving geology by minimizing heterogeneity within a coarse grid block. The coarse grids are provided in a corner-point geometry fashion, hence this allows for accurate description of the reservoir with fewer number of grid blocks.