Reservoir Simulation

Lecture 5: Reservoir Simulator

Haval Hawez
Petroleum Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Koya University

15.11.2018
Outline:

• Introduction

• Gridding in Reservoir Simulation

• The Calculation of Block to Block Flows in Reservoir
Simulators

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 Introduction

• Gridding process chops reservoir into spatial blocks – the

units on which numerical block → block flow calculation is
performed.
• Known as spatial discretization: ∆𝑥, ∆𝑦, ∆𝑧
• Also temporal discretization: ∆𝑡
• Generally use finite difference approximation of the
governing flow equations
• The grid for a given application is a user choice – some
practical guidelines help

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 Gridding in Reservoir Simulation
• 1D linear grids used for e.g. 1D Buckley-Leverett water
displacements or for single column vertical displacements (z-
direction) such as gravity stable gas displacement oil.

𝑄𝑤 𝑄𝑜 , 𝑄𝑤

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Gridding in Reservoir Simulation

𝑺𝒐𝒓

𝑺𝒘𝒄

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 Gridding in Reservoir Simulation
2D x/z or y/z cross sectional grid
• Vertical sweep efficiency in a
layered system
• Water/oil displacements in a
cross-section area.
• The mechanism of a gas
displacement process e.g. the
importance of gravity etc.

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 Gridding in Reservoir Simulation
2D Areal x/y grid
• Calculate areal sweep efficiencies in a water-flood or a gas
flood.
• Examine the stability of a near-miscible gas injection within a
heterogeneous reservoir layer.
• Examine the benefits of infill drilling in an areal pattern flood
etc.

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 Gridding in Reservoir Simulation
2D Areal x/y grid

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 Gridding in Reservoir Simulation
3D ( x/y/z) Cartesian grids
• Used to model a very wide range of field wide reservoir
production processes.
• The default type of calculation for a typical full field
simulation of water-flooding, gas flooding, etc.

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 Gridding in Reservoir Simulation
3D ( x/y/z) Cartesian grids

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 Numerical Dispersion
• Numerical dispersion is essentially an error due to the fact
that we use a grid block approximation for solving the flow
equations.
• How to reduce this source of error in our simulations or the
make it a minor effect.
• The balance is between accuracy (usually by taking more grid
blocks and computational cost).

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 Numerical Dispersion
Effect of Grid Size on Water Breakthrough Time

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Numerical Dispersion

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Numerical Dispersion

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Numerical Dispersion

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Numerical Dispersion

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Numerical Dispersion

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Numerical Dispersion

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Numerical Dispersion

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 Reduction of Numerical Dispersion
• Increase the number of grid cells, but this will increase the
simulation time.
• Use more sophisticated numerical scheme, also takes time
and won't pursue here.
• Calculate pseudo relative permeabilities
• Use streamline simulation

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Numerical Dispersion

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Numerical Dispersion

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 Numerical Dispersion
5-point and 9-point schemes for discretizing the grid

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 Block to Block flows in Simulators

What is the correct average for the permeability-area product, ?

What is the correct average for the phase mobility, ?

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

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 Block to Block flows in Simulators
• Averaging of the k-A product

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

• Comparing the two previous equations:

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

Exercise: For the two grid blocks below, calculate kA (in mD.ft2)

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Block to Block flows in Simulators

 For k1 = 200 mD and k2 = 185 mD. Calculate the kA.

 For k1 = 200 mD and k2 = 5 mD. Calculate the kA.

 If both grids have equal sizes, for k1 = 200 mD and k2 = 5 mD

Calculate the kA.

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Block to Block flows in Simulators
Solution:

 For k1 = 200 mD and k2 = 185 mD. Calculate the kA.

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Block to Block flows in Simulators
Solution:

 For k1 = 200 mD and k2 = 5 mD. Calculate the kA.

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Block to Block flows in Simulators
Solution:

 For k1 = 200 mD and k2 = 5 mD, and both blocks have the same
sizes:.

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