| Title | Matatauira: a Growing Software Package for Numerical Geothermal Reservoir Simulations |
|---|---|
| Authors | P. Franz |
| Year | 2016 |
| Conference | New Zealand Geothermal Workshop |
| Keywords | coupled reservoir simulator, graphical user interface, streamline analysis |
| Abstract | Numerical reservoir simulations are a very useful tool in geothermal reservoir engineering. However existing simulators were often developed for scientific rather than engineering purposes. This limits their usability to operators within the geothermal community – operators require easy-to-use, reliable tools which can provide quick, accurate answers to a multitude of questions. At Mercury we have spent significant time to develop a user interface and bring features from different simulation packages together to form a flexible, easy to use tool for the geothermal reservoir engineer. MataTauira is a combined pre- and post-processing tool to run reservoir simulations either under a modified TOUGH2 code or using the in-house development Tauira. It features gridding of the model, population of the grid from a 2D grid-independent conceptual editor, visual run-control and post-processing either in 3D or along 1D welltracks. More complex post-processing and automatization can be achieved using customized Python scripts on broadly supported file systems (XML, HDF5). Important field data can be stored inside the model for comparison and calibration. Automated report generation is supported. Geothermal wells can be easily implemented and are automatically coupled to the TOUGH2/Tauira reservoir simulator using our in-house wellbore simulator Paiwera. Pressures and flow through complex surface networks can be modelled and automatically adjusted to changing demand targets. Makeup wells can be brought online when existing wells can’t satisfy the targets. MataTauira has been a great success at Mercury to transfer our existing TOUGH2 models into one coherent system and has already been used to develop a new full-field model. We intend to continue building more functionality into the system with streamline analysis, reactive transport and geomechanic simulations envisaged as next steps. |