Chapter 6 - Reservoir Characterization

Abstract

Accurate reservoir characterization is a key step in developing, monitoring, and managing a reservoir and optimizing production. To achieve accuracy and to ensure that all the information available at any given time is incorporated in the reservoirmodel, reservoir characterizationmust be dynamic. To achieve this goal, however, one starts with a simple model of the reservoir at a given time point (a static model). As new petrophysical, seismic, and production data become available, the reservoir model is updated to account for the changes in the reservoir. The updated model would be a better representative of the current status of the reservoir. Both static reservoir properties, such as porosity, permeability, and facies type; and dynamic reservoir properties, such as pressure, fluid saturation, and temperature, needs to be updated as more field data become available. Characterizing a reservoir by updating of both static and dynamic reservoir properties during the life of the field is referred to as dynamic reservoir characterization. Dynamic reservoir characterization is discussed in Chapter 7, dealing with time lapse or 4D geophysical data and reservoir monitoring. This chapter, however, focuses on static reservoir characterization.