US 2010/0138196 A1 · SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PREDICTING FLUID FLOW CHARACTERISTICS WITHIN FRACTURED SUBSURFACE RESERVOIRS

Abstract

A system and method having application notably towards predicting fluid flow characteristics within fractured subsurface reservoirs. The system and method include steps of reservoir characterization, gridding, discretization, and simulation of geologically realistic models describing the fractured subsurface reservoirs. A stochastic fracture representation that explicitly represents a network of fractures within a subsurface reservoir is constructed and used to build a fine-scale geological model. The model is then gridded such that the network of fractures is represented by interfaces between the fine-scale cells. The model is the discretized and simulated. Simulation can be on a fine-scale or on an upscaled course-scale to produce efficient and reliable prediction of fluid flow characteristics within the subsurface reservoir.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method to predict fluid flow characteristics within a fractured subsurface reservoir, the method comprising:

(a) providing geological data describing a subsurface reservoir having a network of fractures;
(b) generating a stochastic fracture representation that represents the network of fractures;
(c) constructing a fine-scale geological model of the subsurface reservoir using the geological data and the stochastic fracture representation;
(d) constructing a fine-scale grid associated with the fine-scale geological model, the fine-scale grid defining a plurality of polyhedral cells having cell-to-cell interfaces at boundaries between the polyhedral cells, a plurality of the cell-to-cell interfaces adjacent to the network of fractures being used to approximate the network of fractures and defining fracture connections for the polyhedral cells within the fine-scale grid;
(e) discretizing the fine-scale grid to compute fine-scale simulation parameters for the fine-scale cells;
and
(f) simulating the fine-scale simulation parameters to predict fluid flow characteristics within the subsurface reservoir.

4 more elements

A system to predict fluid flow characteristics within a fractured subsurface reservoir, the system comprising:

a user control interface to input information into the system, the information including geological data describing a subsurface reservoir having a network of fractures;
a software package, the software package including:
(a) a fracture software for generating a stochastic fracture representation that represents the network of fractures;
(b) a modeling software for producing a fine-scale geological model representative of the subsurface reservoir using the geological data and the stochastic fracture representation;
(c) a gridding software for constructing a fine-scale grid associated with the fine-scale geological model, the fine-scale grid defining a plurality of polyhedral cells having cell-to-cell interfaces at boundaries between the polyhedral cells, a plurality of the cell-to-cell interfaces adjacent to the network of fractures being used to approximate the network of fractures and defining fracture connections for the polyhedral cells within the fine-scale grid;
(d) a discretization software for discretizing the fine-scale grid to compute fine-scale simulation parameters for the fine-scale cells;
and
(e) a simulation software for simulating the fine-scale simulation parameters to predict fluid flow characteristics within the subsurface reservoir;
a database to store the geological data, the stochastic fracture representation, the fine-scale geological model, the fine-scale simulation parameters, and the fluid flow characteristics within the subsurface reservoir;
and
means in communication with the software package to output the fluid flow characteristics predicted from the simulation software.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for predicting fluid flow characteristics within fractured subsurface reservoirs

Life of this patent

System and method for predicting fluid flow characteristics within fractured subsurface reservoirs

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19