ABSTRACT: Integrating 3D models and deformation elements to quantitatively characterize faulted and fractured reservoirs

Hennings, Peter H, Laird B. Thompson, and Don A. Best , Mobil Technology Company, Dallas, TX

Efficient production from reservoirs that are dominated by structural heterogeneities requires quantification and exploitation of the features that control fluid flow and recovery. Our approach is to construct 3D structural models and calibrate them with quantitative representations of the reservoir damage elements. This is a three-step process that begins by developing a quantitative intensity-distribution model of the reservoir damage elements to produce a deformation metric. Development of an appropriate deformation metric requires a uniform data analysis approach, typically involving wellbore image and PLT data, that has been sampled from a variety of structural positions within the reservoir. It must then be determined how the deformation metric relates to the geometry and evolution of the trapping structure. Our approach is to analyze the morphologic and kinematic attributes of the trapping structure in 3D, and determine which attribute(s) most closely co-varies with the deformation metric. The resulting calibration is then used to scale the 3D model to predict the intensity-distribution of the reservoir-scale features that are characterized by the deformation metric. The resulting models can then be used for refining volumetrics and for exploitation planning. The models can be used for input for simulation if a quantitative relationship can be determined that relates the deformation metric to producability. We illustrate this workflow using a variety of outcropping and subsurface examples, and discuss how the strengths and weaknesses of the various input data effect the robustness of the calibration.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90913©2000 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Bali, Indonesia