Technology Focus: Reservoir Simulation and Visualization (July 2009)

Abstract

Technology Focus For many years, the title of this feature has been "Reservoir Simulation and Visualization," but year by year fewer papers are submitted on visualization. This clearly reflects that 3D visualization is no longer a novelty—it is a standard part of our workflow. This trend ties with another I noted last year—greater inclusion of geological modeling in history-matching workflows. Visualization is an essential part of the geological-modeling workflow, one of the geologist's key quality-checking steps, and only with good 3D-graphics workstations did geological modeling become mainstream. However, it does not seem likely that history matching will die out as a topic for papers any time soon! A great variety of techniques are being deployed to automate the process of history matching (improving the engineer's productivity) and to improve the quality of the result. Several experimental-design techniques are reported, as researchers continue attempts to extract the maximum benefit out of the fewest runs. It will be interesting to see if developments in hardware, leading to ever-reducing computing costs, result in a change of emphasis. Although history matching remains a key focus, the broader application of mathematical-optimization techniques to prediction is emerging as a key topic of interest. This application goes to the heart of our role as reservoir engineers, and it is good to see history matching treated as merely a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. The variety of reservoirs being developed and studied with simulation continues to grow, and the boundaries of technology continue to stretch. Naturally fractured carbonates, heavy oil under thermal recovery, tight gas, shale gas, coalbed methane, and other projects all feature more-complex and sophisticated wells. The 2009 SPE Reservoir Simulation Symposium produced many excellent papers on the underlying technology and algorithms of simulation and its application: It is good to see that innovation continues. Sadly, many of these papers do not lend themselves well to the synopsis format of this feature, so I strongly urge you to track down the Proceedings from a colleague if you were unable to attend. Reservoir Simulation and Visualization additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org SPE 118178 • "An Integrated Case Study From Seismic to Simulation Through Geostatistical Inversion" by S. Soni, SPE, Fugro-Jason, et al. SPE 119139 • "Comparison of Stochastic Sampling Algorithms for Uncertainty Quantification" by L. Mohamed, SPE, Heriot-Watt University, et al. SPE 122934 • "A Workflow for Integrated Barnett Shale Gas Reservoir Modeling and Simulation" by C. Du, SPE, Schlumberger, et al.