The Concept of Smart Hydrocarbons and Smart Reservoirs in the Development of Oil and Gas Fields in Karst-Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

Abstract

Abstract Our studies undertaken at many oil and gas fields in different basins show that fractures separate reservoir rocks into differently-sized blocks that are complex self-similar fractal structures whose behavior is described by Pareto's common universal law. Based on this law, a fractal model of fractured reservoir was developed. It includes several hierarchical levels of matrix blocks and fractures, sometimes ten and more. In the proposed model, not only the sizes of the blocks are in the ratio of 1.618, and permeability of the fractures changes in the ratio of 1.618, which allows to reproduce the daily and cumulative oil and gas well production according to power law distribution and Pareto's law. According to the laws the article deals with one of the development paths which we proposed to call "intensive" [15]. Currently, this path of development is almost ignord by oil and gas companies, which, in order to increase the capitalization of their assets, are aimed at using modern digital technologies, using the capabilities of artificial intelligence, big data, neural networks and machine learning, etc. However, we believe that the path can make a significant economic and environmental contribution to the development of hard-to-recover resources in tight fractured carbonate reservoirs. The proposed development path is based on an understanding of the "smart" nature phenomenology and training of modern creative professionals in the base oil and gas universities. This development path allows to substantially reduce expenses while obtaining higher daily and cumulative production of hydrocarbons and preserving the natural potential of fractured reservoirs created by the nature itself. Today's specialists working on development of information technologies call this development path "nature-like technologies". However, considering natural fractured oil and gas reservoirs, we can talk about a purely natural phenomenon.