Here are the key concepts and methodologies which a reservoir engineer should understand to simulate a reservoir effectively, according to Emeritus Professor Val Pinczewski of the University of New South Wales.
- The internal structure of reservoir simulators – single, two and three phase reservoir simulators, black oil and modified black oil simulators, compositional simulators.
- Limitations of numerical solution methods – truncation errors, numerical dispersion and stability, grid orientation effects.
- Rock properties and saturation functions – design of effective SCAL programs and reservoir wettability, two and three-point saturation end-point scaling, rock-typing and hydraulic flow units, Leverett J-Function and Corey based models for relative permeability and capillary pressure, averaging saturation dependent property data, limitation of three-phase relative permeability and capillary pressure models.
- Upscaling and relative permeability pseudo-functions – dynamic pseudo-functions, vertical equilibrium, and viscous dominated pseudo-functions.
- Grid selection – advantages and disadvantages of structured, unstructured and hybrid gridding systems, corner-point geometry grids, PEBI grids, locally orthogonal grids, vertical heterogeneity and layering, guidelines for grid design.
- Model initialization – Capillary-gravity equilibrium, initialization with zero capillary pressure, initialization using an average capillary pressure curve, initialization using the Leverett J-Function and a reference capillary pressure curve, initialization using Eclipse SWATINIT method. Effect of different options for run-time capillary pressure.
- Aquifer modeling and history matching – unsteady-state water influx, Hurst and van Everdingen model, Carter-Tracy and Fetkovich models, material balance and aquifer history matching, guides for effective aquifer model history matching.
- Well models and gas condensate reservoir modeling – condensate blockage and the two-phase pseudo-pressure method, implementation of the method in commercial reservoir simulators, gas condensate inflow relationships, PVT and fluid flow relationships for gas-oil relative permeability ratios, gas relative permeability ratio as a function of gas-oil relative permeability ratio, high velocity effects, positive and negative coupling, velocity dependent relative permeability and capillary number, guidelines for running gas condensate reservoir simulations using commercial reservoir simulators.
These are the topics Professor Val Pinczewski will discuss in the 5-day Advanced Reservoir Simulation course to be held on June 24-28, 2019 in Singapore.