10/4/2022

RESERVOIR SIMULATION

Hussein Y. Ali
Basrah University for Oil and Gas

Introduction to Reservoir Simulation

Traditional Modeling Approaches

LECTURE
ONE Classification of Reservoir Simulators

Black oil and Compositional Simulators

Major Steps Used to Develop Reservoir Simulators

Steps to Perform Reservoir Simulation

1
 10/4/2022

MAIN REFERENCE

WHAT IS RESERVOIR SIMULATION?

• An area of reservoir engineering in which computer models are used to predict the
flow of fluids (typically, oil, water, and gas) through porous media.

• Reservoir simulation combines physics, mathematics, reservoir engineering and

computer programming to develop a tool for predicting hydrocarbon reservoir
performance under various operating conditions.

2
 10/4/2022

WHAT IS RESERVOIR SIMULATION?

• Reservoir simulators used to answer several questions:

1. How should a field be developed to maximize economic recovery?
2. What is the best enhanced recovery scheme for the reservoir?
3. What is the ultimate economic recovery of the field?
4. What type of laboratory data is required?
5. What is the best completion scheme for wells?
6. From what portion of the reservoir is the production coming?

BASICS…

1. The reservoir is divided into a number of cells

2. Basic data is provided for each cell

3. Wells are positioned within the cells

4. The required well production rates are specified as a function of time

5. The equations are solved to give the pressure and saturations for each block as
well as the production of each phase from each well

3
 10/4/2022

WHAT SHALL WE KNOW FROM A WELL?

HOW TO DESCRIBE A RESERVOIR?

Formation

Tops Layer Zone Thickness Net Thickness Faults Boundary Permeability Porosity

Fluid
Property

Density, Formation
Relative
Saturation Gravity Viscosity Volume
permeability
(API) factor

4
 10/4/2022

TRADITIONAL MODELING APPROACHES

Analogical Experimental Mathematical

methods methods methods

1-ANALOGICAL METHODS

• Before drilling when limited or no data are available.

• Reservoirs with same geological basin or province or reservoir with similar

petrophysical properties are used to predict the performance of target reservoir.

• Used to estimate recovery factor, initial production rates, decline rates, well spacing
and recovery mechanisms.

10

5
 10/4/2022

2-EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
ANALOG MODELS

11

2-EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
PHYSICAL MODELS

• Used to make direct measurements of

flow properties through porous media.
There are two types:
1. The first type doesn’t account for the
flow geometry occurring in the
reservoir such as core-flood
experiments.
2. The second type uses geometrical,
mechanical and thermal similarity
concept. The performance of this
type scaled model reflects that of
reservoir.

12

6
 10/4/2022

3-MATHEMATICAL METHODS
MATERIAL BALANCE EQUATIONS

• Initial = remaining + removed

13

3-MATHEMATICAL METHODS
DECLINE CURVE ANALYSIS

14

7
 10/4/2022

3-MATHEMATICAL METHODS
STATISTICAL APPROACH

• Uses empirical correlations

that are statistically derived by
use of the past performance of
many reservoirs to make
prediction for others.

15

3-MATHEMATICAL METHODS
ANALYTICAL METHODS

• Based on the exact solutions of theoretically derived models such as Pressure

Transient Analysis and Buckley-Leverett analysis.
• Are often used to determine how various parameters affect reservoir performance.

16

8
 10/4/2022

CLASSIFICATION OF RESERVOIR SIMULATORS

BASED ON…

Recovery Geometry and

Fluid Type
Processes Dimensionality

Black oil Primary (Black oil) 3D models (x,y,z)

Secondary (water
Compositional or gas injection) 2D models (x,y)
(Black oil)

chemical flooding (
polymer or
2D models (r,z)
surfactant )
(chemical )

Thermal (steam)
1D model
(Thermal)

17

BLACK OIL AND COMPOSITIONAL SIMULATORS

• Black oil simulator assumes that oil and gas phases each can be represented as one
component through time. The properties of this component can change with pressure
and temperature, but the composition does not change.

• Compositional simulator tracks each component of the oil and gas in the reservoir
(for example, c1-methane, c2-ethane).this method is used to model fluids near the
critical point where changes in the pressure and temperature of the compositional
system can result in very different fluid behavior.

18

9
 10/4/2022

SOME COMMERCIAL SOFTWARES

• CMG: Industry-standard black oil simulator IMEX, compositional simulator GEM and a thermal
compositional simulator STARS.
• Schlumberger Eclipse: Industry-standard reservoir simulator developed by Exploration
Consultants Limited and currently owned by Schlumberger.
• Landmark Nexus: A simulator developed by Amoco, and currently owned by Landmark
graphics.
• RFD tNavigator: A high performance reservoir simulator.
• Schlumberger Intersect: A high performance reservoir simulator jointly developed by
Schlumberger, Chevron and Total. Commercial rights owned by Schlumberger.
• Stone Ridge Technology Echelon: A full-GPU, high performance reservoir simulator jointly
developed by Stone Ridge Technology (SRT) and Eni. Commercial rights owned by SRT.
• Meera Simulation: AI-Physics hybrid reservoir simulation production forecasting tool for
operation planning and budgeting by Target solutions LLC.
• Merlin Simulator: Very simple to use, black oil, applied reservoir simulator. Trusted by the US
government, simple workflow can build large model in minutes.

19

SOME OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARES

• MRST: The MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox, provides new methods and
concepts on unstructured grids, can be applied to large and complex systems.

• BOAST: Black Oil Applied Simulation Tool, it is a numerical simulator to estimate the
pressure destitution for a certain time to calculate the saturation destitution. Good for
educational purposes.

• OPM: The Open Porous Media, provides methods and tools to simulate flow of fluid in
porous media.

20

10
 10/4/2022

MAJOR STEPS USED TO DEVELOP RESERVOIR SIMULATORS

21

STEPS TO PERFORM RESERVOIR SIMULATION

1. Set the objectives

2. Prepare and validate all reservoir data
3. Construct the reservoir model
4. History matching
5. Prediction

22

11
 10/4/2022

GOLDEN RULE

23

THANK YOU

24

12