Discrete Fracture Network Simulation: Application of Tectonic Simulation and Conditional Global Optimization Technique

Gholizadeh Doonechaly, Nima ¹; Rahman, Sheik ¹
(1) Petroleum Engineering School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Modeling of naturally fractured reservoirs is associated with the uncertainties due to the lack of sufficient field data. Two major approaches exist to simulate naturally fractured reservoirs, namely tectonic and statistical simulations. Tectonic simulation is a powerful tool to estimate the probability of the presence of fracture based on the deformation history of the basin. Also there exists a wide variety of statistical approaches to model naturally fractured reservoirs. In this study a combination of tectonic and statistical modeling technique is utilized to get more accurate results. Finite element method is used to model folding/unfolding of tectonic events to construct a 3D map of fracture probability in the reservoir layer. Then an object based conditional global optimization technique is used to integrate results of the tectonic simulation and all other field data, such as seismic attributes, core descriptions, borehole images, well logs etc. to simulate the discrete fracture network. The proposed hybrid model improves the results over existing modeling techniques such as, stochastic simulation due to utilizing continuous data in both horizontal and vertical directions. The methodology is presented through a case study of Palm Valley gas Field in Australia. The results show that the model is able to simulate discrete fracture network of petroleum reservoir with great accuracy while hard data is not available.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.