How RESQML Version 2 Can Facilitate the Update of a Reservoir Model

Abstract

Exploration and production workflows are evolving in complexity. We aspire to transfer both data and interpretations across a wide domain range, often using a variety of software applications throughout the reservoir management life cycle. Keeping the model updated with new information while characterizing the range of uncertainty is a continual challenge.RESQML is the data exchange format used in the upstream oil and gas industry for transferring earth models between software applications in a vendor-neutral, open and explicit format. RESQML V1.1 focused strictly on data exchange. A key goal for RESQML V2 is to provide a mechanism to transfer relationship information (between data-objects, such as faults, horizons and grids), while continuing to expand the fundamental data types within the standard, for example, unstructured simulation grids. This paper describes how the RESQML format is evolving from a single exchange of independent geometry and property representations of horizons, faults, and corner-point structured grids to a comprehensive consistent earth model exchange that is able to capture and understand all the successive steps contained within a reservoir model.As an example, we explain the advantage of the RESQML V2 model versus the earlier RESCUE and RESQML V1.1 data models to associate horizon interpretations with reservoir grids all along the reservoir life cycle. We demonstrate use cases that show how these enhancements can be used to update and execute sensitivity workflows on a reservoir model, while describing uncertainty in seismic horizon picks used to build the structural framework.