Remy Basquet

An Integrated Workflow to Account for Multi-Scale Fractures in Reservoir Simulation Models: Implementation and Benefits

ABSTRACT The recent years have seen the emergence of detailedfield data acquisition and efficient modelling tools tocharacterize reservoirs and model their complex internalstructure in a realistic way. This progress led to thedetection of multi-scale fractures in most reservoirs,and enabled to interpret unexpected field productionfeatures such as early breakthroughs. Therefore, theavailability of a workflow and an integrated modellingmethodology becomes more and more crucial to takeinto account the geological information aboutfractures/faults into the reservoir dynamic simulationprocess for optimizing field productivity and reserves.This paper reviews and illustrates the overallmethodology and the specifically-involved proceduresand tools we have gradually built from the experienceacquired in various fractured field case studies.The main steps of this multidisciplinary approach include(a) the detection, geological analysis and modeling ofmulti-scale natural fracture network from seismic andwell data, (b) its validation and calibration from dynamicfield information such as well tests, (c) the choice ofan equivalent simulation model applicable at reservoirscale, and its construction thanks to innovative flowup-scaling procedures applied to the realistic modelprovided by the geologist, (d) the implementation ofpredictive and numerically-efficient algorithms torepresent the physics of flow transfers occurring bothat local and large scale during multiphase fieldproduction.Thanks to this consistent workflow, field simulationmodels remain interpretable in geological terms, whichis helpful for subsequent model updating. Thus,specialists in geosciences and reservoir engineers cancooperate in a very effective way to improve themanagement of fractured reservoirs.

History Matching of Stochastic Models of Field-Scale Fractures: Methodology and Case Study

History matching of a stochastic model of field-scale fractures: methodology and case study — This paper focuses on the history matching of stochastic models of large-scale fractures under seismic resolution, namely sub-seismic faults and fracture swarms. First, we propose an object-based stochastic model for describing geological features of large-scale fractures. This model accounts for sta- tic constraints derived from seismic attributes, fault-related-strain-field, structural information (curva- ture), etc. Second, we review an upscaling procedure for performing fluid flow simulation in the presence of networks of large-scale fractures. Third, we present an algorithm for gradually moving and deforming