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Abstract
In inter-well tracer tests (IWTT), chemical compounds or radioactive isotopes are used to label injection water and gas to establish well connections and fluid patterns in petroleum reservoirs. Tracer simulation is an invaluable tool to ease the interpretation of IWTT results and is also required for assisted history matching application of tracer data. In this paper we present a new simulation technique to analyse and interpret tracer results. Laboratory results are used to establish and test formulations of the tracer conservation equations, and the technique is used to provide simulated tracer responses that are compared with observed tracer data from an extensive tracer program. The implemented tracer simulation methodology use a fast post-processing of previously simulated reservoir simulation runs. This provides a fast, flexible and powerful method for analysing gas tracer behaviour in reservoirs. We show that simulation time for tracers can be reduced by factor 100 compared to solving the tracer flow equations simultaneously with the reservoir fluid flow equations. The post-processing technique, combined with a flexible built-in local tracer-grid refinement is exploited to reduce numerical smearing, particularly severe for narrow tracer pulses.
Highlights
Tracer testing in petroleum reservoirs is a mature technology, where fluid movement is tracked by tagging injection fluids by inert chemical or radioactive compounds
A new tracer simulation technique has been introduced, where the most important characteristic is that the tracer simulation is performed in a post-processing manner, based on pre-calculated solutions of the fluid flow obtained from reservoir simulation
The technique can be used with any reservoir simulator that can store fluid flow results in an accessible format
Summary
Tracer testing in petroleum reservoirs is a mature technology, where fluid movement is tracked by tagging injection fluids by inert chemical or radioactive compounds (for a review see [1]). During IWTT injected fluids are labeled using unique radioactive or chemical tracer compounds, which are subsequently used to trace the fluids as they move through the reservoir. Compounds are subject to harsh temperature and pressure conditions, biodegradation, scaling reactions, ion exchange, adsorption to the solid phase etc Modeling of these effects would require a detailed description of the chemical and physical conditions in the reservoir, conditions that are generally not known. In the fluorinated tracers carbon atoms are replaced by fluor atoms The latter group of tracers are commonly referred to as chemical tracers, in contrast to the former radioactive tracers. Due to regulatory issues radioactive tracers are sometimes avoided, environmental impact of either group of tracers is small
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