Forward Process-Based Modeling of Submarine Turbiditic Environment: BC-10 OSTRA Case Study

Abstract

Abstract Some of the current methods of geological modeling cannot imitate the order and complexity that is observed in nature. It's been recognized among the geoscientist community how a process-based modelling may facilitate a step change in reservoir building capabilities. The advantage in decoupling the grid design from the facies distribution poses a tremendous opportunity to close the gap between the static and dynamic reservoir model. A major advantage is capturing fine-scale heterogeneities (shale drape, amalgamation, etc) which are hard to capture with pixel-based techniques. The goal of process-based geological modeling is to simulate that order by generating rules. These rules make possible to create high-fidelity 3D geological models representing more realistic depositional and stratigraphic events than those that are randomly generated using conventional geostatistical techniques. In this paper we illustrate the use of surface-based modeling within a submarine-turbiditic environment and the procedure followed to deliver a dynamic model conditioned to production data. The procedure follows development of physics-based methods and rule-base stacking of events to reconcile geological complexities and uncertainties with well performance. We'll present a process combining Design of Experiments and gradient-based techniques to assimilate production data. The method generates complex geometries comparable to those observed in high resolution near-surface seismic datasets. The case under consideration is an oil field offshore Brazil developed with horizontal wells and state of the art surveillance. The proposed workflow has delivered a simulation model that has achieved a good history match to production data in the form of water cuts and pressures.