| Title | Geocritical Reservoir Flow Simulation and Display Using Open Porous Medium (OPM) Code |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Rugis, P Leary, P Malin and J Pogacnik |
| Year | 2013 |
| Conference | New Zealand Geothermal Workshop |
| Keywords | Simulation, reservoir flow, open-source, lognormal |
| Abstract | Spatial fluctuations for in situ flow structures tend to be spatially highly erratic and to scale with physical dimension. Such reservoir flow spatial fluctuation properties are reflected in the lognormal distributions of well productivities in some oil/gas and geothermal fields. Ability to efficiently recognize and manage large-scale spatially erratic flow structures when they are present is thus key to cost-effective reservoir operation. The Open Porous Medium (OPM) consortium provides industry-compatible open-source finite-element flow simulation code with robust handling of spatially complex flow distributions. For situations where the flow is dominated by fractures, 3 empirical rules be stated: (i) power-law-scaling fracture density fluctuations exist over cm-km scale lengths; (ii) changes in permeability ƒÂƒÈ are proportional to the product of permeability ƒÈ and changes in porosity ƒÂƒÓ, ƒÂƒÈ å ƒÈ ƒÂƒÓ; and (iii) ƒÈ is lognormally distributed, ƒÈ å exp(ƒ¿ƒÓ), ƒ¿ more than more than 1. OPM can be adapted to systematic modelling of this type of heterogeneity, which we show can be detected by new methods in seismic emission tomography. We exhibit here the aptitude of OPM code for simulating and displaying spatially complex, single-phase flow distributions. We show that it can be efficient and accurate used for modeling of reservoir where significant flow heterogeneity is responsible for lognormal distributions of well productivity. |