Methodological Approach for Reservoir Simulation

Abstract

The reservoir simulation is a technology of generalized use in the petroleum industry to evaluate actual and future reservoir performance. However, a general methodology for reservoir simulation has not been completed defined in the literature (Refs. 1,2,3,4). In view that reservoir simulation is a basic tool of reservoir management, Maraven S.A decided to standardize the procedures involved into a reservoir simulation study, developing a methodology aimed to eliminate engineering and computing time waste during the process of model initialization, history match, and predictions, which represent the main part of the reservoir simulation processes. Consecuently, work processes were stablished and documented including flow diagrams, and forms were prepared to obtain information, in order to keep track of the time used during the execution of each stage of the processes, allowing to use statistic control to monitore each process performance. The application of the developed methodology allowed to identify the main time consuming activities, optimizing the studies execution process by reducing the risk of overlooking key aspects and variables, thus increasing the level of confidence of the simulation results.