Reservoir Simulation Applied to Production Operations

Abstract

Abstract Reservoir simulation is traditionally used for reservoir management purpose, in an office environment. Reservoir simulation studies have often a long-term scope and require a significant amount of time to reach completion, generally several weeks. Additionally, traditional reservoir simulators require a considerable amount of training to become proficient in their use. Hence, reservoir simulation usually demands a full-time effort. For these reasons, reservoir simulation is a tool that has found little practical application in production operations and it is extremely rare to see it, for instance, being used at the well site. However, this is now changing with the availability of powerful portable computers and appropriate reservoir simulation software, which can make reservoir simulation an effective tool for decision-making in day-to-day production operations. This paper demonstrates with a number of case histories the variety of applications that reservoir simulation can have in a production environment and the added value it can generate.