Chapter 1 - Introduction to Reservoir Simulation

1.01 Introduction to Reservoir Simulation (6 min.) Sample Lesson
1.02 Model Types (10 min.)
1.03 Simulation Theory Basics (14 min.)
1.04 t-Navigator (15 min.)
1.05 Simulation Strengths & Weaknesses (3 min.)
1.06 t-Navigator GUI (4 min.) Quiz: 1.06 t-Navigator GUI

Chapter 2 - Assembling of a Simulation Model

2.01 Sources of Input Data (10 min.)
2.02 Exercise 2 - Get Familiar with a Data Deck and MD project (7 min.) Quiz: 2.02 Exercise 2 - Get Familiar with a Data Deck and MD project

Chapter 3 - How to Build a Simulation Grid

3.01 Simuation Grid (16 min.)
3.02 Exercise 3 - Import a Rescue file into Model Designer (17 min.) Quiz: 3.02 Exercise 3 - Import a Rescue file into Model Designer

Chapter 4 - Fluid and Rock Properties

4.01 Fluid and Rock Properties (10 min.)
4.02 Exercise 4 - Creating the Fluid model (13 min.)
4.03 Saturation Functions (9 min.)
4.04 Exercise 5 - Creating the Rel perm property (8 min.)
4.05 Exercise 6 - Creating Rock Properties (4 min.) Quiz: 4.05 Exercise 6 - Creating Rock Properties

Chapter 5 - Initial Conditions

5.01 Initial Conditions (7 min.)
5.02 Exercise 7 - Setting Initial Conditions (17 min.) Quiz: 5.02 Exercise 7 - Setting Initial Conditions

Chapter 6 - Development Strategies

6.01 Development Strategies (14 min.)
6.02 Exercise 8 - Making a Development Strategy (22 min.) Quiz: 6.02 Exercise 8 - Making a Development Strategy

Chapter 7 - Uncertainty and Optimization

7.01 Uncertainty Analysis and Optimization (17 min.)
7.02 Experimental Design (16 min.) Quiz: 7.02 Experimental Design

Introduction To Reservoir Simulation / Chapter 1 - Introduction to Reservoir Simulation

Lesson 1.01 Introduction to Reservoir Simulation

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Transcript

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction to Reservoir Simulation 02. Agenda 03. Introduction to Simulation 04. Objective of Reservoir Simulation

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction to Reservoir Simulation

Hi, my name is Eddie Evans and I've been doing reservoir simulation for almost 16 years now. I first started doing reservoir simulation in 2009 as an undergrad at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. This the first time I ever touched a reservoir simulator, and I've basically been doing that since then. I've worked with Schlumberger's simulation software. Now I work with t-Navigator, and throughout that time I've been teaching reservoir simulation, doing reservoir simulation studies and anything that kind of comes with simulation, which ends up being a very interdisciplinary approach to reservoir performance.
So today's course is mostly to get you a clear understanding of how reservoir simulation works. All reservoir simulators share similar characteristics. They share similar workflows. We will be using t-Navigator to go through this course, but in essence, every other reservoir simulator in the industry will have similar components and it will interact in similar ways to ultimately create a simulation deck. In our case, we'll use t-Nav, but it is interchangeable with just about any other simulation package in the industry.

02. Agenda

So let us get started with this introduction to reservoir simulation. The course will cover these main 7 subjects. We'll kind of split it into 7 set sections.
The first will be just an introduction to reservoir simulation. We're going to look a little bit about the math, how they interact, how it compares to other reservoir performance mechanisms and analysis that we do.
Then the second one will be a really quick overview of how you assemble a simulation model. Basically, what parts exist in all models, both in t-Navigator and Eclipse, Intersect, CMG, different simulators, Nexus, they all have basically the same type of input data. The format changes, but in essence what goes in is the same for all of them.
Then we'll kind of break down into more detail for each particular section. We're going to have a discussion about the simulation grid in a very, very, very simplistic fashion.
Then we'll talk about the fluid and rock properties and how those go into a model.
And finally, the initial conditions. How the model gets initialized, how you have the initial pressures and saturations.
And finally, how development strategies work. Basically, how you plan to produce your reservoir.
And finally, given some time, we may look into uncertainty and optimization.

03. Introduction to Simulation

All right, so let's get started with the first part, which is introduction to reservoir simulation. So kind of this is our introduction slide. It's very common. Everyone kind of looks at it the same way.Normally, the development of a hydrocarbon reservoir is a very complex issue that requires a knowledge and experience of high-level specialists in various different fields, both of science, geology and engineering. So as such, it is a very integrated multidisciplinary approach when compared to other reservoir performance mechanisms or analysis. The reason for that is that you have to have a lot of input data that interacts with each other and that data has to be able to communicate. So expertise have to communicate across the entire project. So as a quick example, if you're used to this, this is kind of an integrated approach. You would start from seismic acquisition and interpretation. You do data preparation analysis, well logging, all these things. You then create your faults, create your structural model, go through the facies analysis, your petrophysical modeling. You'd estimate your fluids in place at some point to get an idea of is there any recoverable reserves, is it worth recovering, is it worth looking at? And then you continue going to expanding that information that's necessary to answer these questions. You do PVT models to determine what type of fluid is available, what are the properties of that fluid. Hydrodynamic simulation, which is basically the reservoir simulation aspect of it, like how can I produce this reservoir? What is a good idea? What is a bad idea? And then you can continue going through a surface network to size your facilities to understand how you should bring and optimize the way you operate the reservoir at surface. Because ultimately, we control our reservoirs not from the subsurface but from the surface, which means that you make decisions based upon what wells you can open or close at the wellhead, not at the reservoir and so you may need to couple it with surface networks. Finally, we have this last 2 parts where assisted history matching and uncertainty analysis and these kind of come hand in hand. When you have a greenfield, you do uncertainty analysis. Once you have some production response, you start doing history matching to validate the analysis you have and the interpretations you have and then correct them for if we discovered that something was very wrong, you start correcting them to reduce your overall risk through time.

04. Objective of Reservoir Simulation

So the objective of reservoir simulation, there's many different things. People always use it basically to help field development plans. But in reality, you can go through each of these bullet points. The answer is, basically, risk assessment and risk containment. You want to be able to look at all these questions and say, is this a bad idea? Is this a good idea? Will this make me money. Will this make me more money? Will this make me less money? Would this increase reserves or is this not going to increase reserves, right? So that upper level questions get answered kind of with simulation because you say OK, I want to optimize my recovery. And so I want to come up with a detailed field development plan, what wells to bring, at what time, in what order and why. I can also determine where do I want to drill my developmental wells. So if you have the original wells, you have to see where is their bypass oil, how to recover that oil? Does that just be putting a well there? Does that mean doing some form of EOR or IOR to be able to produce that oil or displace some of that oil into the existing producers? You also want to be able to size your field. So if you have a very productive reservoir, but if you've created field facilities that are too small, you can only produce what your facilities can handle. Likewise, if you sized your facilities to be too large and then you end up with a reservoir that doesn't produce it, you've essentially wasted a lot of capital just setting up your facilities that are never going to be used. So all these kind of get answered to reduce the risks involved with reservoirs and simulation helps you reduce these risks simultaneously.