Integrated Earth Modeling: From Seismic Interpretation to Flow Simulation in Reservoirs
Jean-Laurent Mallet
Ecole nationale Supérieure de
Géologie, Nancy, France
The
modeling of fluid flow in oil and gas reservoirs is a critical element in the
successful and cost effective development and production of oil and gas fields.
This is a complex task which requires input from a broad range of technical
disciplines and can be very time consuming. During the 90s, many people in the
oil and gas industry advocated an integrated approach to geo-modeling which led
to the concept of “Shared Earth Model” (SEM), which was more hope than reality.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of a unified vision, most solutions (both
software and methods) offered so far have focused on one particular step of the
modeling process rather than on the entire process from interpretation to flow
simulation and beyond. As a consequence, all these “Shared” Earth Models are
not sharable and therefore must be downgraded to the status of “Earth Models” (
The first
part of this talk reviews some of these (non sharable) Earth Models (EM),
stressing their respective weaknesses and showing why they cannot reasonably be
considered as “Sharable” between the different disciplines involved in the
modeling process from seismic interpretation to flow simulation.
The
second part of this talk focuses on the concepts of “Fine Geostatistical
Grid” (FGG) and “Rough Flow Grid” (RFG) and the needs for upscaling
FGG’s into RFG’s. An
analysis of the real needs of geostatisticians and
reservoir engineers leads to the conclusion that the two grids are
irreconcilable… at least using current technologies based on regular structured
grids whose cells all are hexahedral.
The final
part of this talk aims to provide a clear definition of an “actually sharable”
Shared Earth Model and then offers a new paradigm reconciling the demands of
seismic interpreters, structural geologists, geostatisticians and reservoir engineers. This has
the potential to streamline integrated earth modeling and reduce the cycle time
for the modeling of fluid flow in oil and gas reservoirs.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90064©2006-2007 AAPG Distinguished Lecturers