FULL FIELD RESERVOIR DESCRIPTION AND NUMERICAL
SIMULATION OF AURORA OIL
RESERVOIR, NORTH SLOPE OF ALASKA
COPEN, James D., PANDA, Manmath Nath, CARHART, Steve R., and YOUNG, James P., Petrotechnical Resources Alaska, Anchorage, AK 99510, [email protected]
The Aurora reservoir is a satellite of the giant Prudhoe Bay Field. The field
currently produces ~9,000 bopd from lower shoreface sands of the Cretaceous
Kuparuk River Formation. Production started in 1999. Integrated geological,
geophysical petrophysical and reservoir engineering studies were recently
completed for Aurora. The studies used seismic, core, log, fluid property, well
test, and production data from appraisal and development wells for reservoir
analysis, building a full field geocellular model
, and simulating reservoir
performance.
The subsurface challenges involve building a representative reservoir model
on a fine scale to represent a very heterogeneous system. Complex stratigraphy,
severe faulting and reservoir compartmentalization, variable fluid contacts, and
significant variation in pay thickness and mineralogy make reservoir modeling
very challenging. These challenges were overcome by: 1. using a fine scale grid
(250' X 250' X 1~2') to
model
the large number of faults (throws range from 10'
to 250'), 2. representing each flow unit as a zone, and 3. using hybrid modeling
techniques (object and pixel based) to capture the heterogeneity of each zone.
The
model
is calibrated using the short Aurora production history and then used
to develop an optimal reservoir management strategy including tertiary recovery
optimization and flood pattern conformance.
This paper discusses the challenges of selecting suitable modeling methodologies, of matching the limited production history, and conducting production optimization forecasts for the geologically complex Aurora Field on Alaska's North Slope.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90058©2006 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, Anchorage, Alaska