Chapter 1: Introduction of

Mathematical Simulation
Models
1

XINGRU WU, PH.D.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
MPGE, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
+1-405-325-1207
XINGRU.WU@OU.EDU

Definitions
2

Reservoir is a subsurface porous, permeable rock body in

which oil or gas or both can be stored in the presence of
ground water
Most reservoirs are sedimentary rock formations consist
of sandstone, limestone, dolomite or a combination of
these
Reservoir engineering is a branch of petroleum
engineering which applies engineering principles to the
drainage problems arising during the development and
production of oil and gas
It is the science/engineering of producing oil and gas in
such a manner as to obtain a high economic recovery

Reservoir Engineering
3
subsurface
geology

sedimentology
geochemistry
geomechanics
petrophysics

reservoir
engineering

physics
chemistry
thermodynamics
fluid mechanics
transport phenomena

physical
sciences

applied
mathematics

calculus
differential equations
applied statistics

Four Major Subjects:

Four Questions:

Hydrocarbons in place
(volumetrics and material balance calculations)

Recovery factor
(statistics and material balance)

Rates of recovery
(flow potential, fluid flow through porous media)

Adding value to the reservoir

(pressure maintenance and the other improved and
enhanced recovery processes)

How much oil and gas was there to start with?

How much of it can I get?
How fast will I get it?
How can I get more?

The Need for Res. Simulation for PE

4

To predict the reservoir performance accurate

To mitigate uncertainties and reduce risks
Complexity of the reservoir
Structural uncertainties
Regional variations in fluids and their properties
Heterogeneous, anisotropic petrophysical properties

Complexity of hydrocarbon recovery mechanisms

Limited applicability of the other reservoir engineering
methods

Traditional Modeling Approaches-Analogical

Models
5
Reservoirs in the same geological basin are compared
Reservoirs with similar petrophysical properties are used to predict the
performance of a target reservoir

Traditional Modeling- Experimental Method

6

Micro-Models and hele-Shaw cells: Solvent + air flooding (Jeong et al., 2002)

solvent injection and asphaltene

deposition (Das and Butler, 1998)

Linear coreflood experiment

Traditional Modeling-Mathematical Methods

7

-Material balance

Initial condition
Pressure = p0

Oil: N

= 1

Water: =

Water influx

After production (Np)

Pressure = p

Oil: (N-Np)Bo

= 1

Water: Swi
+
Water influx: We

Vo + Vw + Vrock = 0

Oil, Np
Water Wp

Traditional Modeling-Mathematical Methods

8

- Decline curve analysis

Traditional Modeling-Mathematical Methods

9

Statistical methods
Correlations from regression: Empirical equations
Log r apex = - 0.117 + 0.475 Log K - 0.099 Log
K md, is in % [ref. (1)]

US Mesh Range
6/10
8/12
10/20
12/20
16/30
20/40
40/60
50/70

Permeability (Darcy)
2703
1969
652
668
415
171
69
45

(1)"Estimating Pore Throat Size in Sandstones from Routine Core -AnalysisData by

Edward D. Pittman

Traditional Modeling-Mathematical Methods

10

Analytical/semi-analytical methods

Infinite Acting:
,

1
2
=
4
2

Constant pressure boundary:

pD (rD , u ) =

K 0 (rD u ) I 0 (reD u ) K 0 (reD u ) I 0 (rD u )

u u [ K 0 (reD u ) I1 ( u ) + K1 ( u ) I 0 (reD u )]

Numerical Flow Modeling

11

The accuracy of prediction depending on input parameter and

understanding of fundamental geology, physics, chemistry, and
thermodynamics etc.
Excellent tool for uncertainty study
Probably the best tool in handling reservoir heterogeneity
Numerical solution + high speed computation

Numerical Flow Simulation (cont.)

12
The equations derived during the formulation process are often partial differential
equations (i.e., pdes)
if the pdes solved analytically (exact), the solution would give the results (rate,
pressure, saturation) as continuous functions of time and location
Because of the following reasons analytical techniques cannot be used and,
therefore, numerical solutions (i.e., approximation) are desired
Non-uniform petro-physical properties of the reservoir rock matrix, i.e., reservoir
heterogeneities
Irregular geometric shapes (complex boundaries) of the reservoir
Nonlinearities of the governing equations due to changing flow properties with
pressure and saturations
Numerical solutions rely on a discretization process and give the values of rate,
pressure and saturation only at discrete points in the reservoir and at discrete time
steps

Numerical Flow Simulation (cont.)

13

Discretization is the process of converting the differen- tial equations into

algebraic equations
Several numerical methods can be used to discretize the fluid dynamics
equations. Common ones are:
Finite difference method
Finite element method

The most common approach in the oil industry is the finite difference
method
The nonlinear algebraic equations then must be linearized (i.e., put in the
form of linear equations) to solve them using well-known algebraic linearequation- solving techniques

Numerical Flow Simulation (cont.)

14

The linear algebraic techniques fall into two categories:

Direct methods
The solution obtained after a fixed number of mathematical
operations: i.e.: Gaussian elimination

Iterative methods
An initial estimate of the solution is improved successively until it is
reasonably close to the exact solution: i.e. Gauss-Siedel method,
Sucessive-over-relaxation (SOR) methods
The number of mathematical operations is not fixed, in this case, and
depends on:
initial estimate
tolerence (what is reasonably close to the exact solution?)
properties of the system of equations

Numerical Flow Simulation (cont.)

15

Reservoir simulator classification is often based on the fluid

description and fall into two categories:
Black-oil simulator
Used in situations when the recovery processes are insensitive to compositional changes in
the reservoir fluids
Mass transfer between the liquid-liquid and liquid-gas phases may exist although it is pressure
dependent only
The fluid properties Bo, Bg, Rso govern PVT behavior

Compositional simulator
Used when recovery processes are sensitive to the compositional changes in the
reservoir fluids
Typically a cubic equation of state is commonly used to describe the PVT behavior

Simulation Classification
16
Classification based on geometry and dimensionality
Three-dimensional (3D) simulation models in rectangular coordinates (x, y, z)
used for full-field applications
Two-dimensional (2D) simulation models in rectangular coordinates used
areal (x-y) or cross-sectional (x-z) applications, i.e., areal and vertical sweep
efficiencies during a pattern flood
Three-dimensional (3D) simulation models in spherical coordinates (r- -z) used
for single well simulations with well completions involving partial penetration
Two-dimensional (2D) simulation models in cylindrical coordinates (r-z) used for
single well simulations, i.e., water coning, pressure transient testing, cyclic steam
stimulation
One-dimensional (1D) simulation models used for applications involving linear
displacement, i.e., laboratory core floods
25

Reservoir Simulator Application

17

Reservoir simulation is generally performed in the

following five steps:

Set the study objectives

Acquire and validate the reservoir data
Construct the reservoir model
History-match the reservoir model
Run prediction cases

The main objective is gaining knowledge of the subject

reservoir with the purpose of predicting rate of recovery

Questions for Computer Modeling

18

How should a field be developed and produced to

maximize RF?
Whats the best EOR scheme for the reservoir?
How does the lab results impact on field scale?
Why is the reservoir not behaving according to
predictions?
What are critical parameters that should be
measured in field application of a recovery
scheme?

References
19

1. Coats, K. H.: "Use and Misuse of Reservoir

Simulation Models," JPT (Nov. 1969) 1391-1398.
2. Mattax, C. C. and Dalton, R. L.: Reservoir

Simulation, Monograph Series, SPE, Richardson,

TX (1990) 13.

3. T. Ertekin, J. M. Abou-Kassem and G. R. King:

BASIC APPLIED RESERVOIR SIMULATION,

2001 SPE Textbook Series Volume 7, Richardson,
Texas.