Top-Down Modeling: A Shift in Building Full-Field Models for Mature Fields

Abstract

Young Technology Showcase Description of the Technology Models are needed to develop and operate petroleum reservoirs efficiently. Datadriven reservoir modeling [(also known as top-down modeling (TDM)] is an alternative or a complement to numerical simulation. TDM uses the so-called “big-data” solution (machine learning and data mining) to develop (train, calibrate, and validate) full-field reservoir models on the basis of measurements rather than solutions of governing equations. Unlike other empirical technologies that forecast production, or only use production or injection data for its analysis, TDM integrates all available field measurements (well locations and trajectories, completions, stimulations, well logs, core data, well tests, seismic, and production/ injection history—e.g., choke settings) into a full-field reservoir model by use of artificial-intelligence technologies. Intelligent Solutions, as the inventor of TDM, has recently released software application “IMagine” for TDM development. TDM is a full-field model wherein production [including gas/oil ratio (GOR) and water cut] is conditioned to all measured reservoir characteristics and operational constraints. TDM matches the historical production and is validated through blind history matching, and it is capable of forecasting a field’s future behavior on a well-by-well basis. The novelty of TDM stems from the fact that it is a complete departure from traditional approaches to reservoir modeling. In this new paradigm, current understanding of physics and geology is substituted with field measurements as the foundation of the model. This characteristic of TDM makes it a viable modeling technology for unconventional assets, where the physics of hydrocarbon production is not well-understood. Role of Physics and Geology First-principles physics of fluid flow is not formulated explicitly within TDM, but forms the framework for the assimilation of the spatiotemporal database as its foundation. TDM is built by correlating flow rate at each well/timestep to a set of measured static and dynamic variables.