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Two Procedures for Stochastic Simulation of Vuggy Formations
Ricardo Casar-González, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo and Vinicio Suro-Pérez, SPE, PEMEX Exploración y Producción
Copyright 2001, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum
Engineering Conference held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 25–28 March 2001.
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Abstract
Simulated annealing and stochastic simulation based on
indicator kriging are used to describe vuggy formations in a
Mexican offshore field. Besides heterogeneity associated to
these carbonated formations, vug spatial distribution is an
important issue since hydrocarbon storage and deliverability to
the wells is highly controlled by vugs density and
connectivity. From computed tomography images, exhaustive
3D statistics are derived to build 3D stochastic models of
those vuggy formations. Multiple point statistics simulated
annealing and sequential indicator simulation based on kriging
are used to model vugs geometry. The results indicate that
both approaches honor the target statistics, and visual
inspection of such images confirm good reproduction of
connectivity. Further, it is shown that computer performances
are different with simulated annealing being the most
demanding. Although stochastic images from indicator kriging
can be used as initial images for simulated annealing, it is
demonstrated that few value is added by imposing multipoint
statistics in the framework of vugs modeling. Therefore, it
seems that stochastic simulation based on indicator kriging
can build, with an acceptable computer cost and good
reproduction, 3D images of vuggy formations.
Introduction
Oil reservoirs associated with carbonated rocks are of great
economic importance because between one-third and one-half
of the world oil production comes from limestone or dolomite
reservoirs (Pettijhon, E.J. 1975). The offshore reservoirs
located in the southeast of the Gulf of Mexico are the case;
this area contains about 50 percent of the oil reserves in
Mexico (PEMEX Exploración y Producción, 1999). These
reservoirs are associated to fractured and vuggy carbonated
rocks whose main characteristics are the rapid variation of
rock quality and significant secondary porosity. These items
should be addressed in any geological–petrophysical model
providing insights about properties such as porosity and
permeability. Under this context, vug connectivity and porous
space associated to vugs and fractures can be accomplished by
investigating the spatial distribution of secondary porosity
from computed tomography (CT) images of cores. Therefore,
the goal will be to reproduce quantitative aspects of the
porous-vugular media through stochastic simulation.
Geological setting
The data studied come from the Abkatun field, located in the
southeast part of the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 1). The main
reservoir rocks are dolomitic carbonated breccias from the
Upper Cretaceous-Lower Paleocene (K-T). They consist of 50
to 150 meters of coarse-grained carbonated breccias strongly
dolomitized and naturally fractured with secondary vuggy
porosity due to diagenetic dissolution processes, having a
porosity range from 6 to 14 percent and permeabilities from
800 to 3,000 milidarcies (PEMEX Exploración y Producción,
1999). The reservoir breccias and corresponding seal origin
(bentonic shale and siltstone beds), may be due to tectonic
activity which created a debris flow deposited as carbonated
breccias along the shelf margin and the shelf slope. Recent
research relates the origin of these rocks to the K-T meteoric
impact event known as Chicxulub. So the breccias sequences
are likely to have resulted from a major slumping of the
carbonated platform margin triggered by the Chicxulub impact
(Grajales-Nishimura, et al, 2000).
Scale
Petrographic studies of core samples characterized the
mineralogy, the texture and the pore system. The rock samples
are dolostones composed predominantly of moderate to
closely interlocked mosaics of dolomite crystals. They exhibit
diagenetic texture produced by complete dolomitization of
precursor peloidal limestone. Minimal crystal size is 0.02 mm
(lower fine crystalline) and maximum crystal size observed is
0.44 mm (upper coarse crystalline). Depositional textures have
been obscured by dolomitization, but it is likely that the
2 RICARDO CASAR-GONZÁLEZ AND VINICIO SURO-PÉREZ
Figure 1. Location of the Abkatún field at the south Gulf of
México.
original rock was a peloidal packstone and/or peloidal
grainstone. The pore system corresponds mainly to
intercrystal, but some samples exhibited some others pore
system types in minor proportion including micro-intercrystal,
vuggy/moldic and fracture/microfracture. The size of
intercrystal space is controlled by distribution shapes size of
the dolomite crystals. This porosity space dimension is less
than 0.5 mm. Some vugs are visible in thin section, since they
are in the order of magnitude from 0.25 to 1.5 mm. (Figure 2).
While the maximum coverage of a standard thin section is
10 to 15 mm, the coverage of computed tomography images is
120 mm. This means that the total diameter of the core,
approximately 92 mm, can be studied by using CT. Therefore,
the observed area is about 10 times greater than the ones
coming from thin section analysis. At this scale, better view of
secondary porosity can be obtained since vugs size exceeds
thin section dimensions.
Observing the CT images from the studied core, it is relevant
to notice that at this scale, vugs are the main characteristic of
the porosity system. In these images vugs vary from 0.625 to
50 mm, with an erratic distribution. In some parts, vugs are
abundant and in others, they are absent. Further, sometimes
vugs constitute a touching vug porosity, and always they are
always surrounded by aureoles of high porosity which connect
isolated vugs or touching vugs. This porosity system has
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created a high secondary porosity network, which is an
efficient oil storage and delivery system. (Figure 3).
Taking units of 5 centimeters along 60 centimeters of core,
and obtaining the average porosity for each 5 centimeters unit,
it can be seen how irregular the porosity is along the whole
core sample. The total average porosity of the sample core is
18.8 %, while the range of the partial average porosity is from
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6.1 % to 37.9 % (Figure 4).
Vugs stochastic simulation
Vug characterization through the use of computed tomography
images was initiated by Suro-Pérez (1997) and by Casar-
González and Suro-Pérez (2000) in Mexican offshore fields.
In these references the association of secondary porosity with
vug spatial distribution and fractures, their connectivity and
vugs stochastic imaging were addressed. The simulation
algorithm used was the sequential indicator procedure for
categorical variables, which uses indicator kriging as
methodology for estimating the conditioned probability. The
last reference concluded, that the algorithm selected has been
proved to be an appropriate tool to reproduce statistics, spatial
distribution and vugs geometry.
The objective of this work is the comparison between two
methods of stochastic simulation of vuggy media, their
analyses, advantages and disadvantages of the sequential
indicator procedure for categorical variables and simulation
annealing with multiple point statistics.
Sequential indicator simulation (indicator kriging)
In stochastic simulation, the objective is to build alternative
and equally probable models of spatial distribution of the
phenomena under study. However, different simulation
algorithms give different uncertainty models and spatial
features on each realization. In this work, vuggy media is
modeled as a categorical variable where the threshold is a
percent porosity value. The approach considered here is the
application of sequential simulation for categorical variables,
which is based in indicator kriging, where:
n
Prob  Ik (u) = 1 /(n)  = pk + ∑
α =1
λα [ Ik (uα) – pk ]
with: pk = E [ Ik(u) ] ∈ ( 0,1 ) being the proportion of values
below some percent of porosity. Weights λα are given by the
simple kriging system and Ik (uα) the indicator variable defined
for a threshold k (Journel, 1989). An example of the results
obtained with this algorithm is show in Figure 5.
An indicator variable is a transformation that describes how
many of the values are above or below certain threshold. This
approach considered a cut-off value to transform the CT
porosity images into indicator images. After inspecting these
different images, it was seen that selecting the decile q0.8 as the
threshold, the vugular media according to the size of the vugs
SPE 69663 TWO PROCEDURES FOR STOCHASTIC SIMULATION OF VUGGY FORMATIONS
and the degree of interconnection between them is well
represented as compared to the actual media. (Casar-González
and Suro-Pérez, 2000).
Simulated annealing (multiple point statistics)
Simulated annealing was developed by Metropolis, et al
(1953), and it is an optimization algorithm. An outline of how
simulated annealing works concerning tomography porosity
images is as follows:
a) Training image is defined as vugs and no vugs (1’s and 0’s).
b) An image, without any spatial correlation is generated with
the same proportion of the actual image.
c) An objective function, or energy function, E, is chosen. It
measures the deviation between the training image statistics
and the generated statistics after perturbation.
d) Two locations of the grid are chosen at random, and their
values interchanged. When the new energy value is lower than
the old one, then the swap is kept. If the new energy value is
greater than the previous, the swap is accepted with a
probability equal to:
P = e (E new – E old / t)
with t being a parameter named temperature. E new is the new
energy value, and E old the previous energy value before the
two value locations being swapped.
e) Repeat the previous step, cooling down the temperature
until the energy value is close to zero. The choice of the initial
temperature, the number of swaps before decreasing the
temperature, and the rate at which temperature decreases, are
all part of the cooling schedule in the annealing algorithm.
At the end of the procedure, hopefully there is an image
honoring the variogram, which is included as the objective
function, and defined by:
E= ∑
i =1
[ γT (hi) – γI (hi) ] 2
where γT (hi) is the experimental variogram value for lag hi,
calculated for the training image, and γI (hi) is the
corresponding experimental variogram value calculated from
the image being perturbed by swapping value location.
As it can be observed, the simulated annealing advantage
over other geostatistical methods is the capability to
incorporate any statistics in the energy function: information
from different sources and different supports can be used.
However, the drawbacks include that annealing requires
thousands of swaps to reproduce the chosen statistics. If the
3
energy function cannot be updated after each swap, the
computation time will be long and then, the methodology may
be unpractical.
Srivastava (1994) presented an approach in which rather
than incorporating sophisticated statistics into the energy
function, he suggested the use of more simple statistics, as the
histogram. The idea in this approach is that the methods
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always honor the point support histogram and do not honor
any large support histogram. Therefore, in this approach n
support configuration where chosen, capturing vug spatial
distribution and their directional anisotropies. This procedure
not just honors two point statistics, it honors multiple point
statistics. In this context, the energy function or objective
function is:
n n
E= ∑∑
i =1 j =1
(PTi,j – PIi,j) 2
where PTi,j and PIi,j are the proportion of the values of the j-th
class of the histogram for the i-th support configuration, for
the training image PT and the initial image PI.
In the case of CT, images of 100 x 100 pixeles were
considered. They were extracted from the original grids of 512
x 512, which correspond to the core samples slides. Two grid
support configurations were selected: 4 x 4 and 2 x 8. The
support configurations were over imposed in the upper left
margin of the grid, from which the total amount of ones (white
pixels) was counted. The support configurations were
translocated cell by cell in X and Y directions. Accordingly,
there are 97 support configuration positions in X direction and
97 in Y direction, thus the total number of support
configuration positions are 9,409 in each image.
In both support configurations and in each position the
amount of ones’s are going from 0 to 16, so there are 17
different possibilities. For each support configuration and for
all position in an image, it was calculated the frequency of
each of these 17 possibilities. The data sets contained this
information are represented graphically by histograms.
Figure 6 show some examples of simulation results with
simulated annealing. In these figures, it can be seen the actual
vugular media and their corresponding histograms as well as
some realizations obtained with simulated annealing. Notice
the good reproduction of the statistic, which differs from 0.02
to 0.04. Also, notice how the objective function converges to
zero, starting with values next to 15 and ending with values
from 0.005 to 0.001 after 250,000 swaps.
Figure 7 compares the actual images and the images
generated by simulation. It can be seen that those obtained
with annealing show a better definition at the edges, in
contrast to those resulting from sequential indicator
simulation, which show diffuse edges as opposed to the round
forms of actual images. However, both methodologies show
an acceptable vugs geometry reproduction, and connectivity
similar to the actual cases.
Concerning spatial distribution, sequential indicator
simulation incorporates the variogram information and
4 RICARDO CASAR-GONZÁLEZ AND VINICIO SURO-PÉREZ
reproduces it, while multiple point statistics simulation
through annealing does not incorporate explicitly the
variogram information; nevertheless, it does honor the two
point statistic implicitly. Figure 8 shows the actual vugular
media as well as the media simulated by the two methods
under investigation. In that figure, it can be seen an actual
vugular media, a annealing realization, a sequential indicator
realization and corresponding experimental variograms and
their fitting models. Notice the similarity between the
experimental variograms and models of the simulated media
and the variograms and models of the actual image
It is important to mention that for a computer with a
processor at 166 MHz and 96 MB of RAM, the annealing
algorithm takes between 45 to 90 minute; with average time
per realization of 3,600 seconds. For the sequential indicator
simulation the realization takes from 10 to 20 seconds, being
15 seconds the average time per realization.
With the purpose of improving the results obtained with both
methods, it was thought of mixing both approaches. The idea
consisted of improving the realization obtained by sequential
indicator simulation applying afterwards simulated annealing.
For this aim, simulated images obtained by sequential
indicator simulation were taken as initial images, and then
were processed by simulated annealing.
If simulated annealing is being used, the average initial
value for the objective function is 15.0 (according to the used
proportion), and the final objective function values are in the
range of 0.002 to 0.006. Using an image from sequential
indicator simulation as initial image, the initial image values
for the objective function are, in average, 0.15. To reduce the
initial energy to the range of the final energy as obtained from
simulated annealing, it requires 100,000 swaps, task that takes
an average time of 1,200 seconds (Figure 9). Notice that
simulated annealing instead of decreasing the initial energy
from the image obtained by using sequential indicator
simulation, it increases the energy first, and then begins to
converge. This behavior limits the use of sequential indicator
simulation images as initial images for simulated annealing,
preventing its use together with the faster sequential indicator
simulation.
Conclusions
Stochastic simulation using simulated annealing and
sequential indicator simulation are proper tools to reproduce
vugular media, vugs geometry and spatial distribution. In the
case of simulated annealing, it was determined dependency
between the results and the chosen support configuration;
further, support configurations need to be selected according
to the scale to be reproduced and existing anisotropy.
In the case of sequential indicator simulation, the
disadvantage is related to vug geometry forms, which present
some diffuse edges in contrast to the round forms of the actual
images. Nevertheless, the resulting stochastic images seem to
be proper equivalent media, which honor one point statistic
(histogram) and two point statistics (variogram). The main
difference between both methods are the efficiency and the
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computer performance. While sequential indicator simulation
takes an average of 15 seconds per realization, simulated
annealing reaches 3,600 seconds. Hence, sequential indicator
simulation, for this particular case, is 240 times faster than
annealing. As a result of this disproportion in performances, a
mixed approach was considered, combing the two algorithms.
The simulated images obtained by sequential indicator were
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taken as initial images and were processed by simulated
annealing. However no significant value in terms of statistics
reproduction was added. Therefore, it is concluded that
stochastic simulation based on sequential indicator simulation
can build 3D images of vuggy formations with an acceptable
computer cost and vugs imaging, for posterior upscaling of
petrophysical properties and flow simulation.
References
1. Casar-González, R. and Suro-Pérez, V.: “Stochastic
Imaging of Vuggy Formations.” Paper 58998 presented at
the 2000 SPE International Petroleum Conference and
Exhibition, Villahermosa, México. (Feb. 2000).
2. Grajales-Nishimura, J.M, Cedillo-Pardo, E, Rosales-
Domínguez, C, Móran-Centeno, D.J, Alvarez, W, Claeys,
P, Ruíz-Morales, J, García-Hernández J, Padilla-Avila, P,
Sánchez-Ríos, M.A.: “Chicxulub impact: The origin of
reservoir and seal facies in the southeastern Mexico oil
fields.” Geology, V. 28, No. 4, (April 2000) 307-310.
3. Journel, A.G.: Fundamentals of Geostatistics in Five
lessons. Short Course in Geology: Volume 8. American
Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C. (1989).
4. Metropolis N, Rosenbluth, A.W, Rosenbluth M.N, Teller,
A.H, Teller, E.: “Equation of state calculations by fast
computing machines.” The Journal of Chemical Physics.
V. 21, No. 6, (June 1953) 1087-1092.
5. PEMEX Exploración y Producción. Las Reservas de
hidrocarburos de México. Volumen I y II. Primera edición,
Mexico. (1999).
6. Pettijhon, E.J.: Sedimentary Rocks. Third edition. Harper
International Edition, (1975).
7. Srivastava R. M.: “An annealing procedure for honouring
change of support statistics in conditional simulation.” In
Geostatistics for the next century. Kluwer Academic
Publishers. Netherlands. (1994) 227-290.
8. Suro-Pérez, V.: “Reservoir Description of a Portion of the
Abkatún Field, México.” PEMEX Exploración y
Producción and Amoco Exploration and Production
Sector. Report No. S97-G-15. Inedit. México. (1997).
SPE 69663 TWO PROCEDURES FOR STOCHASTIC SIMULATION OF VUGGY FORMATIONS 5

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Intercrystal pore system, rare vugs and micro-intercrystal Minor intercrystal pores, microfracture, vugs and
pores. Notice the heterogeneous pore distribution. micro-intercrystal pores. Vug size 0.75 x 0.3 mm.
Distance between marks 0.5 mm. Distance between marks 0.5 mm.

Figure 2. Thin sections showing the visible pore system.

Thin section photomicrography. The main vug has a size of CT porosity image. Vug has a size of 50 x 30 mm.
1.25 x 0.25 mm. Distance between marks 0.26 mm. Scale in mm.

Thin section photomicrography. The main vug has a size CT porosity image. Vugs have sizes from 1 to 6 mm
of 0.24 x 0.18 mm. Distance between marks 0.06 mm. approximately. Scale in mm.

Figure 3. Comparison between visible vugs in thin section and in CT porosity images. Notice that visible vugs in CT images are not
visible at the thin section scale.
6 RICARDO CASAR-GONZÁLEZ AND VINICIO SURO-PÉREZ SPE 69663

a)

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b)

c)

d)

Figure 4. CT porosity images in 3D and their porosity variation. Scan is every 2 mm. a) From 0 to 5 mm, porosity average 15%. b)
From 5 to 10 mm, porosity average 27%. c) From 10 to 15 mm, porosity average 21%. d) From 15 to 20 mm, porosity
average 7%. Notice the variation in porosity values at short distances.
SPE 69663 TWO PROCEDURES FOR STOCHASTIC SIMULATION OF VUGGY FORMATIONS 7

a) Actual indicator porosity images b) Sequential indicator simulation realization

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3D view

2D views

Figure 5. a) Some examples of actual CT indicator porosity images, 3D and 2D views. b) Some realization obtained by sequential
indicator simulation, 3D and 2D views.
8 RICARDO CASAR-GONZÁLEZ AND VINICIO SURO-PÉREZ SPE 69663

a) Actual vugular media Simulated annealing realization

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b) Support configuration 4 x 4

Support configuration 2 x 8

c)

Figure 6. Realization obtained by simulated annealing. a) Actual vugular media and simulated annealing realization. b) Corresponding
histogram of the actual media and simulated media for both support configurations: 4 x 4 and 2 x 8. c) Objective function
showing how the values decrese when swaps increase.
SPE 69663 TWO PROCEDURES FOR STOCHASTIC SIMULATION OF VUGGY FORMATIONS 9

Actual vugular media

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Simulated annealing realizations Sequential indicator simulation realizations

Figure 7. Comparison between two different methods of stochastic simulation: sequential indicator simulation (left) and simulated
annealing (right).
10 RICARDO CASAR-GONZÁLEZ AND VINICIO SURO-PÉREZ SPE 69663

a)
Actual vugular media

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γ(h) = 0.008 + 0.235 Exp 6.36

b)
Simulated annealing

γ(h) = 0.008 + 0.216 Exp 5.15

c)
Sequential indicator simulation

γ(h) = 0.028 + 0.199 Exp 6.33

Figure 8. a) Actual vugular media. b) Realization obtained by simulated annealing. c) Realization obtained by sequential indicator
simulation. Their corresponding exhaustive variograms and fitting models appear at the right.
SPE 69663 TWO PROCEDURES FOR STOCHASTIC SIMULATION OF VUGGY FORMATIONS 11

a) d)

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Initial value: 0.138 Final value: 0.0027

b) e)

Mean: 0.13
c)

Mean: 0.002

Figure 9. a) Actual vugular media. b) Initial image for simulated annealing as obtained from sequential indicator simulation. c) The
resulting image after processed by simulated annealing. d) The behavior of the objective function. e) Histograms showing
the initial and final values of the objective function for simulated annealing (20 realizations).