Flow upscaling in highly heterogeneous reservoirs

Pinggang Zhang, Gillian Elizabeth Pickup, Hashem Monfared, Michael Andrew Christie

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In the early stages of field development, there are many uncertainties and the current trend is to generate coarse-scale models so that many simulations can be run rapidly in order to determine the main sensitivities in a model. However, at a later stage, more data are available and there is less uncertainty in the model, so a more detailed modelling approach is desirable. In this paper, we discuss two modelling procedures which are suitable for different stages of the life of a field, and address the problem of upscaling at each stage. First, we consider a novel approach for generating coarse-scale models for evaluating uncertainty. When there is a large amount of uncertainty, the generation of fine-scale models is too time-consuming, and upscaling them by large factors may produce large errors. We demonstrate an alternative approach for modelling at a coarse scale, while preserving the heterogeneity of the fine-scale distribution, in such a way as to reproduce the fine-scale flow results. Secondly, we focus on more detailed geological models, generated at a later stage of field development. These models may comprise millions of grid cells, and may be highly heterogeneous. Such models require upscaling, but traditional methods may be very inaccurate. We have developed a method for upscaling using well-drive boundary conditions. Tests of this method show that it can reliably reproduce the fine-scale recovery in a range of models. © The Geological Society of London 2008.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)135-144
    Number of pages10
    JournalGeological Society Special Publications
    Issue number309
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2008

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