Integrated reservoir characterization: Beyond tomography

Lines, Larry; Tan, Henry; Treitel, Sven; Beck, J. G.; Chambers, Richard L.; Eager, John; Savage, Charles; Queen, John; Rizer, William D.; Buller, Paul; Cox, Dale; Ballard, Jim; Kokkoros, George; Sinton, John B.; Guerendel, Philippe; Track, A.; Harris, Jerry M.; Lazaratos, Spyros; Schaak, Mark van

doi:10.1190/1.1822464

Cited by 2 publications

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“…The ultimate objective of monitoring is real-time control of an oilfield. This can be achieved if one can integrate reservoir models with vertical and surface network and monitoring systems [44]. Therefore, progress must be made in advancing the technology of remote sensing with data processing and continuous feedback systems.…”

Section: Real-time Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Technologies in Subsurface Monitoring of Petroleum Reservoirs

Islam¹

2001

Proceedings of SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractMost oil fields do not produce more than 45% of the oil-inplace, even after enhanced oil recovery schemes have been applied. Most of this unproduced oil is missing because most displacement techniques by-pass significant portion of the original reserve. Finding this missing oil can lead to significant economic windfalls because the infrastructure for additional oil recovery is already in place and the cost of production is likely to be minimal. In this paper, all existing monitoring techniques, including 4D seismic and downhole seismic sensors, are reviewed. This is followed by a comprehensive review of emerging technologies in subsurface monitoring. These techniques include multi-well seismic, electrical resistivity tomography, electromagnetic and ultrasonic imaging, acoustic and fibre-optic imaging, as well as laser/infrared or MRI/NMR visualization near the wellbore region. A detailed analysis indicates that for an accurate reservoir engineering analysis, geostatistical models should have information of 1m scale. This is the only scale that would satisfy the representative elemental volume (REV) requirement of an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) system. This scale length is orders of magnitude higher than that of core samples and at least an order of magnitude lower than the conventional seismic data. This data gap constitutes the weakest link between geophysical information and reservoir engineering. Any attempt to reconstitute the reservoir without information regarding petrophysical properties and fluid saturations in the 1m level, one risks falling into the trap of multiple solutions -a typical problem of history matching through reservoir simulation.To obtain a resolution of 1m scale, one must investigate the possibility of using 50-2000 Hz seismic frequency range. While this seismic range cannot be used with vertical seismic profiles (VSP) because of the travelling distance constraints, multiwell imaging can be used with multi-component receivers. This system, in combination with borehole seismic sources, can provide one with the desired resolution.The same system can be used in combination with resistivity tomography, a method that has recently given satisfactory results for tracking ground-water contamination. The images can be further refined with acoustic and fibre-optic imaging techniques. These techniques can provide satisfactory details to track viscous fingering, wormholes, and other time-dependent properties of an active reservoir. Finally, infrared/laser or MRI/NMR imaging of a wellbore is still in its nascent state of development, but holds great promises for the future applications of real-time monitoring and eventual dynamic reservoir management.

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Section: Real-time Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Technologies in Subsurface Monitoring of Petroleum Reservoirs

Islam¹

2001

Proceedings of SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference

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“…There has been some recent work in using geophysical techniques such as cross-well tomography and vertical seismic profiling to infer subsurface natural fractures. 10 However, most common data sources for fractures are cores, well-bore imaging logs, and outcrops. This data then needs to be analyzed and extrapolated to create subsurface fracture maps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Fluid Flow in Complex Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

et al. 1998

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractWe use a new numerical code to calculate single phase fluid flow in naturally fractured reservoirs. Our code is unique in that it can handle both complex fracture patterns and the coupling of the matrix and fracture flow fields. Our results show that details of the fracture statistics can become less important as the matrix becomes more permeable. We also find that the coupling of the matrix and fracture flow fields is very strong. We demonstrate the application of our code to develop grid block permeability values for use in continuum reservoir simulators.Mapping subsurface fracture distributions for use in our code is a key challenge. We briefly present the results of a new methodology that uses physical models and geostatistical techniques to generate such data.

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Integrated reservoir characterization: Beyond tomography

Cited by 2 publications

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Emerging Technologies in Subsurface Monitoring of Petroleum Reservoirs

Emerging Technologies in Subsurface Monitoring of Petroleum Reservoirs

Modeling Fluid Flow in Complex Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

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