Abstract
The recent years have seen a growing awareness of the role played by fractures in petroleum reservoirs production and recovery. Hence, much effort was devoted to the diagnosis of fracture presence and impact on production. However, turning that diagnosis into field development decisions goes through reservoir simulation. This paper addresses some of the specificities of fractured reservoirs that make that their simulation is both challenging and rewarding. Indeed, the integration of fractures into a flow simulation model is not straightforward because of the existing gap between the geological fault/fracture network and the fingerprint of that network on often-complex recovery mechanisms. Considering that fractures may impede or enhance production, fractured reservoir simulation may be seen as a technical challenge with potentially-high reward. This paper underlines that specific framework as an introduction to two technical articles dedicated to dual-porosity reservoir simulation. Although it constitutes another major aspect of any fractured reservoir study, the geological characterization of fractures is not discussed herein, but only evoked because of more and more integration of static and dynamic aspects.
Highlights
TO FRACTURED RESERVOIRS: SPECIFIC FEATURES – EXAMPLES – ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONThe occurrence of fractured reservoirs over the world is well acknowledged
Apart from image logs and production profiles that give a direct evidence of the presence of fractures, the use of other logs that may be sensitive to fracture presence and properties will not be evoked because their interpretation is most always case-specific and requires confrontation with other logs or pieces of information
Setting up the flow model of a naturally-fractured reservoir remains a challenging issue for the reservoir engineer because he has to find a compromise to meet with the following requirements: – integrate the geological information regarding the geometry and distribution of faults and fractures: the link between the geological fracture model and the flow model has to be maintained for the interpretation of the role of fractures on production and for subsequent up-dating; – reproduce and/or predict the dynamic field response for the production scenario(s) under consideration: the impact of fracture parameters is closely depending on the involved recovery mechanism(s); – take into account limited computation capabilities of industrial simulation software
Summary
Résumé — Simulation des réservoirs fracturés : un défi et un enjeu — Au cours des années récentes, la prise de conscience du rôle des fractures sur la production et la récupération des champs est devenue de plus en plus forte au sein de la communauté pétrolière. Cet article traite des spécificités propres aux réservoirs fracturés et qui font de leur simulation à la fois un défi et un enjeu. Sachant de plus que les fractures peuvent aussi bien freiner que promouvoir la production, la simulation des réservoirs fracturés peut être considérée comme un défi technique de grand enjeu. This paper underlines that specific framework as an introduction to two technical articles dedicated to dual-porosity reservoir simulation. It constitutes another major aspect of any fractured reservoir study, the geological characterization of fractures is not discussed but only evoked because of more and more integration of static and dynamic aspects
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