Method to improve reservoir simulation and recovery from fractured reservoirs

An apparatus for modeling flow properties over a series of time increments of a reservoir in an earth formation comprising a plurality of fractures, the apparatus comprising:

• a processor configured to implement a method comprising:
• building a three-dimensional stress field representing stresses in the reservoir;
• building a three-dimensional natural fracture model (NFM) comprising fracture flow properties of the plurality of fractures using information obtained from the tool or a change to the three-dimensional stress field, and establishing a three-dimensional mesh comprising a plurality of cells to represent the reservoir;
• running a flow simulation of the reservoir for a time increment using the NFM to model the flow properties of the reservoir for that time increment;
• computing a latest change in the three-dimensional stress field from the flow simulation;
• and
• incrementing the time increment and iterating the building the NFM using the latest change in the three-dimensional stress field, the running of the flow simulation using the latest NFM to model the flow properties, and the computing a latest change in the three-dimensional stress field from the latest running of the flow simulation, wherein the incrementing continues for the series of time increments;
• wherein the fracture flow properties in the NFM comprise a fracture intensity at frictional failure (FIFF) for each fracture in the plurality of fractures and the processor is further configured to calculate a fracture intensity at frictional failure for each fracture in each cell using the obtained information and to update the FIFFs using the latest change in the three-dimensional stress field each time the latest change in the three-dimensional stress field is computed.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for modeling flow properties over a series of time increments of a reservoir in an earth formation comprising a plurality of fractures by implementing a method comprising:

• obtaining information about the plurality of fractures using a data acquisition tool;
• building a three-dimensional stress field representing stresses in the reservoir;
• building a three-dimensional natural fracture model (NFM) comprising fracture flow properties of the plurality of fractures using the obtained information or changes to the three-dimensional stress field;
• running a flow simulation of the reservoir for a time increment using the NFM to model the flow properties of the reservoir for that time increment;
• computing a latest change in the three-dimensional stress field from the flow simulation;
• and
• incrementing the time increment and iterating the building the NFM using the latest change in the three-dimensional stress field, the running of the flow simulation using the latest NFM to model the flow properties, and the computing a latest change in the three-dimensional stress field from the latest running of the flow simulation, wherein the incrementing continues for the series of time increments;
• wherein building a three-dimensional NFM comprises establishing a three-dimensional mesh comprising a plurality of cells to represent the reservoir and the method further comprises calculating a fracture intensity at frictional failure for each fracture in each cell using the obtained information and the latest change in the three-dimensional stress field wherein the fracture flow properties in the NFM comprise the fracture intensity at frictional failure for each fracture.