Multi-scenario Geomechanical Modeling for Investigating Well Deformation in the Deep Overburden Over a Compacting Reservoir in the North Sea

Yuan, Roger; Calvert, M.; Schutjens, Peter; Bourgeois, Frédéric

doi:10.1007/s00603-019-01863-z

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Reliable, i.e. quantitative coupled poro-mechanical studies with meaningful uncertainty bounds, are needed when the reservoir is expected to deform due to production-or injection-induced changes of the pore pressure and present-day stress field, which may induce seismicity, subsidence, uplift, cap rock failure, fault reactivation, or changes in flow paths (Teufel and Rhett 1991;Dusseault et al 1996;Fredrich et al 1996Fredrich et al , 2000Teatini et al 2011;Rutqvist 2012;White et al 2014;Göbel 2015;Feng et al 2016;Gaitea et al 2016;Goebel et al 2017;Kim et al 2018;Feng et al 2019;Yuan et al 2019). Fundamentally, the alteration in flow paths arises when production-induced pressure changes modify the pore structure of the pore space within the reservoir rock, and consequently alter porosity, permeability, capillary pressure, and relative permeability (Rossen and Kumar 1994;Haghi et al 2018Haghi et al , 2019Haghi et al , 2021.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poro-Mechanical Coupling for Flow Diagnostics

2022

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Accounting for poro-mechanical effects in full-field reservoir simulation studies and uncertainty quantification workflows using complex reservoir models is challenging, mainly because of the high computational cost. We hence introduce an alternative approach that couples hydrodynamics through existing flow diagnostics simulations with poro-mechanics to screen the impact of coupled poro-mechanical processes on reservoir performance without significantly increasing computational overheads. In flow diagnostics, time-of-flight distributions and influence regions can be used to characterise the flow field in the reservoir, which depends on the distribution of petrophysical properties that are altered due to production-induced changes in pore pressure and effective stress. These extended flow diagnostics calculations hence enable us to quickly screen how the dynamics in the reservoirs (e.g. reservoir connectivity, displacement efficiency, and well allocation factors) are affected by the complex interactions between poro-mechanics and hydrodynamics. Our poro-mechanically informed flow diagnostics account for steady-state and single-phase flow conditions based on the poro-elastic theory and assume that the reservoir does not contain fractures. Fluid flow and rock deformation calculations are coupled sequentially. The equations are discretised using a finite-volume method with two-point flux-approximation and the virtual element method, respectively. The solution of the coupled system considers stress-dependent permeabilities. Due to the steady-state nature of the calculations and the effective proposed coupling strategy, these calculations remain computationally efficient while providing first-order approximations of the interplay between poro-mechanics and hydrodynamics, as we demonstrate through a series of case studies. The extended flow diagnostic approach hence provides an efficient complement to traditional reservoir simulation and uncertainty quantification workflows and enable us to assess a broader range of reservoir uncertainties.

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