IPTC 11512
The Application of Unstructured Gridding Techniques for Full Field Simulation of a
Giant Carbonate Reservoir Developed With Long Horizontal Wells
H. Vestergaard, SPE, H. Olsen, SPE, and A.S. Sikandar,* SPE, Maersk Oil Qatar, and I.A. Al-Emadi, SPE, and
R. Noman, SPE, Qatar Petroleum
*Now with Schlumberger
Copyright 2007, International Petroleum Technology Conference
This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology
Conference held in Dubai, U.A.E., 4–6 December 2007.
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Abstract
This paper presents a case history on reservoir simulation
modelling of a giant, complex, low permeability, carbonate
reservoir which has been completed with many long
horizontal wells. The lateral magnitude of the Al Shaheen
field in Qatar and the multiple radial layout of the 75 very
long horizontal wells in the field posed a challenge in
modelling of individual well performance using a manageable
grid size with an acceptable run time for history matching. The
gridding dilemma was solved by use of 2.5-D PEBI grids
around each individual wellbore. This allowed for sufficient
resolution between wells and also aligned the grid with the
well paths thereby avoiding grid non-orthogonality issues.
The initial fluid distribution and wettability dependent flow
properties added further complexity to the reservoir simulation
model. This paper describes how tilting free water levels,
separate gas caps and large lateral variations of oil properties
across the field were captured in the initialisation of the
simulation model. Dynamic flow properties in the reservoir
are heavily dependent on wettability and oil properties and the
paper describes the rigorous implementation of a complex
petrophysical model in the reservoir simulation model by use
of endpoint scaling.
1. Introduction
The reservoir in subject is a major carbonate reservoir in the
Al Shaheen field [Reference 1] in Block 5 offshore Qatar,
covering an area of some 2080 km2. The Kharaib Formation
forms part of the Lower Cretaceous Thamama Group that is
widely present in the Southern Arabian Gulf.
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The dome shaped reservoir has the thickest oil column of
typically 23 hydrocarbon-feet at the crest of the field thinning
towards the flank. The field has relatively low permeability
ranging from 1-15mD. The developed wells enjoy no pressure
support from the distant flank aquifer and the trapped water
present in the central part of the field is not in communication
with deeper layers. Oil gravity in the field varies significantly
from saturated with low viscosity (<1 cP) to highly
undersaturated with relatively high viscosity (35 cP). The field
has several local gas caps and a free water level dipping more
than 500 ft across the field.
The reservoir was at the time of the study developed with 75
ultra long horizontal wells of up to 30,000 ft total length
drilled in alternating producer injector patterns from 5
different platform locations. Production from the field started
in 1994 and secondary recovery by water injection
commenced in 1997.
Continuing evaluation of reservoir performance and
assessment of further development potential of the field
prompted the need for detailed history matching on a full field
basis. The modelling issues discussed in this paper were part
of a history matching study completed in 2004 which formed
the basis to further develop the reservoir with additional 89
wells to infill existing well patterns and to develop the thinner
oil column towards the flank of the reservoir.
2. Background
2.1. Geology
The Kharaib B formation is a laterally continuous limestone of
Late Cretaceous age and the reservoir has a relatively constant
thickness of some 80 ft within the Block 5 area. The lower
water bearing part is mud-dominated with poorer rock
properties whereas the upper oil bearing units are coarser
grained.
A vertically cyclic nature with low porosity zones interbedded
between the main reservoir units with higher porosity is
characteristic for this formation. The permeability is in the
range 1-15 mD.
2 IPTC 11512
2.2. Oil Properties
Oil properties vary significantly across the laterally extensive
reservoir. The API gravity ranges from 38° at the crest of the
field to 12° at the northern flank. The large variation is
understood to be due to biodegradation and multiple migration
phases which combined with the low permeability resulted in
the lack of equilibrium across the field. Reservoir oil samples
and oils extracted from cuttings from a large number of wells
were geochemically analysed to characterize the oil and
determine the lateral distribution of oil gravity across Block 5
(Figure 1).
Figure 1: Map of API Gravity.
In addition to oil gravity variations, the saturation pressure
varies from saturated near the gas caps to 1300 psi
undersaturated in low API areas. There is not, however, a
distinct correlation between saturation pressure and API
gravity. The large variation in saturation pressure means that
different natural drive mechanisms will be predominant in
different areas of the reservoir.
In areas with saturated oil the pressure will drop below the
saturation pressure almost from onset of production which
results in significant gas production reducing oil production
potential. These areas are however mostly characterized by
low viscosity oil in the order of 1 cP, hence water flooding
will yield almost piston like displacement. In areas with low
saturation pressure and high viscosity there is a lack of natural
drive. The high mobility ratio during water flood in these areas
will result in a more unstable displacement process.
As the field is developed with ultra long horizontal wells the
viscosity along the length of the wells could change by up to a
factor of 10, hence detailed representation of variation in oil
properties is essential for accurate modelling of short and long
term well performance.
2.3 Fluid Contacts
The general trend of the active Kharaib B free water level
(FWL) surface is to dip towards Northeast. This is most likely
caused by hydrodynamic effects. The FWL varies by more
than 500 ft across the reservoir and the dip causes the oil
column to be positioned some 250 ft deeper in the North-
eastern part (Figure 2).
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Figure 2: Kharaib B Free Water Level map
The FWL is modelled with the Equivalent Radius (EQR)
saturation height Model [Reference 2, 3] which is matched to
the logged saturations in the wells. Due to the short transition
zone, the modelled water saturation is very sensitive to the
depth of the FWL.
In the northern and eastern part of Block 5 the lower part of
Kharaib B contains a zone of residual oil that is modelled as
the remains of a larger palaeo oil column that subsequently
has been reduced, leaving behind immobile residual oil. The
residual oil column is modelled by use of a separate palaeo
FWL [Reference 3].
Gas oil contacts (GOC) have been identified at different levels
in the Kharaib B in separate structural closures at depths
varying up to 40 ft.
2.4 Dynamic parameters
The petrophysical model for Kharaib B is based on the
concept that the current rock wettability is a function of its
saturation history. The wettability is expressed as a function of
the maximum saturation experienced in the reservoir. This
maximum oil saturation is determined by the derived palaeo
free water level that is up to 50 ft deeper than the active FWL.
Increasing maximum oil saturation makes the Kharaib B
carbonates less water wet and more oil wet as the pore fabric
comes in contact with more oil. The wettability alteration
IPTC 11512
impacts the flow properties of fluids with water becoming
more mobile as the rock becomes more oil wet.
2.5 Well pattern and production history
The field is developed with long horizontal wells with an
average horizontal length of some 19,000 ft while the longest
wells having up to 25,000 ft of reservoir section. In total, the
75 wells intersect more than 450 km of reservoir target. Most
of the horizontal development wells are drilled radially away
from the platform locations in an alternating producer/injector
pattern. Furthermore, wells drilled from different platform
locations complement each other in developing the inter-
platform areas in the desired alternating producer/injector
patterns (Figure 3).
Figure 3: 2004 Kharaib B well location map.
The field started production in 1994 and water injection was
initiated in 1997.
At the time of history matching in 2004 the horizontal wells
originated from 5 platform locations. Most production had at
the time of history matching been drawn from the crest of the
field. Water injection was also first introduced in this central
area.
2.6 Summary
The Kharaib B reservoir has an aspect ratio of ca. 1:1,000, and
is a thin, widespread, low permeability reservoir. The radial
well pattern combined with the magnitude of the field posed a
challenge in generating a simulation grid that would provide
sufficient resolution between wells. The inner part of the wells
are typically some 500 ft apart requiring relatively fine
gridding in order to model the saturation changes between
water injectors and producers. The distal sections of the wells
are typically some 3,000 ft apart, which therefore require less
grid resolution.
3
The initial fluid distribution is heavily influenced by capillary
forces. The tilting FWL, separate gas caps, large variation in
oil properties and the wettability dependent flow
characteristics furthermore poses a challenge in the
initialisation and dynamic modelling of the reservoir.
3. Initialisation of Simulation Models
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Factors controlling the initial fluid distribution in the Kharaib
B vary significantly across the field. These effects must be
incorporated into the simulation models since they strongly
affect the prediction of oil volume and production
performance. The tilting FWL, the different GOC’s and the oil
property variations makes it necessary to break the field into a
number of equilibration regions with similar FWL, GOC, oil
density and saturation pressure.
3.1 Implementation Method
PVT properties indicate multiple filling events and varying
degrees of biodegradation. In order to capture the significant
variation in oil properties across the reservoir the oil properties
were discretised into 9 different regions based on mapping of
saturation pressure and API gravity, assigning a different oil
type to each PVT region. The oil properties within each
individual grid cell were then captured in sufficient detail by
assigning an initial saturation pressure together with the
relevant oil type (PVT region).
The most important parameter affecting the initial fluid
distribution is the FWL, which displays a tilt in excess of 500
feet across the reservoir. Oil gravity varies by at least 18 °API.
A discretisation of the variations across the modelled area has
been based on the following tolerances (Table 1):
Parameter Discretisation step
Free water level 3 feet
Gas oil contact 2 feet
Saturation Pressure 50 psi
Table 1 : Discretisation used for initialisation of simulation
Low tolerances have been selected for the contacts since the
reservoir is only 80 feet thick. Combining the individual PVT
regions with the discretised contacts and saturation pressures a
total of 2300 to 2900 equilibration regions are required,
depending on grid layout. Implementation of a non-
equilibrium situation did not have any noticeable impact on
the stability of the simulation model.
The oil in place in the simulation model was within 1%
accuracy of the detailed geological model and the logged
water saturation in appraisal and development wells was
matched by the simulation model. The method is hence
capable of representing the fluids in place accurately.
4 IPTC 11512

4. Relative Permeabilities and Capillary Pressure

-
Oil -Water Relative Permeability End Points Correlations
The current wettability of the Kharaib B reservoir is modelled Required Variables

to be a function of its previous oil saturation history. For the Palaeo FWL FWL Porosity .
major part of the upper section of the Kharaib B accumulation
the oil saturations exceed 80-85% and the reservoir becomes Capillary Pressure Entry Capillary Pressure Irreducible / Critical water saturation

more oil wet. The relative permeability characteristics are Pc = f (HAFWL, Rho) Pce = f (Porosity, facies) Swir, Swcr = f(phi)

affected by oil wettability.

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MaximumKrw
EQR for both
(Palaeo& Active) EQR = PCE/PC Krwmax = f(Krwow,Krwww,Krwinit
)

The saturation-height model of the carbonate reservoir is

based on the Equivalent Radius Model EQR [Reference 2, 3] Water Saturation
(Palaeo& Active) Sw = f (EQR)
Krwow =f(sorwwat)
and Hg injection capillary pressure SCAL data were used to Only PalaeoSw
carried forward
define shape curves used for modelling of the fluid saturation. Maximum P
( alaeo)
HC Saturation Shp,Shmax= 1-SW Krwww =f(Sorwwat)
The drainage capillary pressure curves were used to derive the
Harvey-AmottWettabilityIndex
initial fluid distribution together with the FWL and GOC AWI = f(SW) Krwinit = f( AWI)
maps.
Sor for a water-wet carbonate Sorww f (Phi,Shmax,Swir
)
Multiple saturation functions have been applied to reflect the
different wettability conditions. Reservoir sections
Sor from a water-flood expt. Sorw(wat) f (AWI,Sorww)
experiencing palaeo oil saturations higher than 80% become
increasingly oil wet, and Corey exponents for oil relative
permeability curves increase from 2.25 to 4 while water TrueSor after inf. Water-flood Sorwf f (Sorwf>Shmax) thenShmaxelse Sorwf

exponents drop from 5 to around 3 (Figure 4). Furthermore the Sor for a water-wet carbonate Nowi=
No = f (AWI)

remaining oil saturation tends to decrease as the wettability Sowcr = f(Sorwf) Sorwix = f (Sorwf,AWI,Sw)
Kro(Swir/Swcr
) = 1 (definition)
Nwi =f= (AWI)
Nw f (AWI)

changes from water wet to oil wet. Krw(Sorwf) = Krwmax

Water & Oil Corey functions,

Kro(Swir) and Krw(Sorwf)

Figure 5: Schematic of endpoint definition workflow.

Corey Exponent, Kharaib B Formation

6 Only the normalized saturation functions were binned in

No
Nw
classes. The endpoints were provided on a cell by cell basis
5 and allowed for a detailed modelling of the petrophysical
characteristics. Since the reservoir rock was modelled as two
4
types with respect to Pc-characteristics, a total of about 50 sets
C orey E xponents

of primary drainage Kr-Pc curves were required and the

3
imbibition process was modelled through an additional 80
curves.
2

1
The implementation of the Kr-Pc model was defined by 3
steps:
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1. Calculate and group normalized saturation functions
Palaeo Hydrocarbon Saturation
2. Calculate endpoint data on a cell by cell basis
3. Assign saturation function groups to the individual grid
Figure 4: Corey exponent as a function of palaeo hydrocarbon
saturation
cells.

In order to rigorously implement the complex wettability
dependent petrophysical model in the simulation model
endpoint scaling was employed to conveniently scale relative
permeability and capillary pressure curves to key parameters,
such as Swir, Sorw and Krw@Sorw on a grid cell basis. A
workflow was set up to define the oil-water endpoints in the
model based on unit type, porosity and saturation history
(wettability) as depicted in Figure 5.
Killoughs hysteresis [Reference 4] between the drainage and
imbibition processes was applied for the non-wetting phase in
order to model the dependence of relative permeabilities on
the saturation path and history.
The described petrophysical model was important for the
history match. In particular the matching of formation
pressures along the long horizontal wells was a key to history
matching since significant variations in flow properties along
the wells were observed. Matching of logged swept zones
from water injectors further provided confidence in the
reservoir/petrophysical model since no breakthrough from a
water injector to a producer had been observed at the time of
history matching to validate modelling of the flood front.
IPTC 11512
Performance of the 75 production and injection wells was
modelled with the described reservoir simulation model by use
of the rock curves as defined by the petrophysical model.
5. Gridding Challenges
5.1 Background of Gridding Techniques
The geometry of oil fields, fault compartments and well
patterns do not follow the strict requirements of finite
difference method based simulators of approximating the
space discretisation using orthogonal axes. A step closer to
allowing finer discretisation (and subsequently higher
resolution) was made with the introduction of local grid
refinements (LGRs) in simulation grids around features of
interest, especially wells [Reference 5]. While local grid
refinement techniques aim to solve a given problem with less
grid blocks than conventional fine grids, the use of nine point
scheme aimed to reduce the grid orientation effect with
adverse affects on computation costs [Reference 6]. The
limitation of being able to fully accommodate the location of
natural features or well trajectories still remained unattainable.
It was not until the 1980’s that the use of Voronoi grids in
reservoir simulation was introduced [Reference 7, 8]. The
technique essentially allows flow simulations on grids based
on aggregation of triangles within user-defined domains;
Cartesian grids then become a particular case of such a general
scheme of unstructured grids. The name Voronoi is in honour
of the mathematician (Voronoi, 1908) who first defined these
polygonal regions. Other names used for such grids in the
literature are Wigner-Seitz cells, Dirichlet tesselation, PEBI
cells, and polygons of influence. In this paper, these cells are
referred to as PEBI cells (PErpendicular BIsection).
Due to the flexibility allowed by PEBI cells, these types of
grids have found their niche in allowing the reservoir
simulation grid to seamlessly (and more exactly) represent the
geometry of features such as deviated or horizontal well, faults
and reservoir boundaries [Reference 9]. The grids are
applicable to multi-layered, multi-phase full field simulation
where heterogeneity and anisotropy can be large.
In simple terms, a typical PEBI grid may be made up of
individual domain grids that surround features of interest,
glued together by a bulk grid that discretises the remaining
volume of interest. Two major unstructured discretisation
schemes are available:
1. Full 3-D that allows PEBI cells in all directions to be
generated. This may not preserve the vertical layering
provided by the geological model and usually incurs high
computation costs.
2. 2.5-D PEBI grids allow PEBI cells to be created in (I,J)
directions only while preserving the vertical layering,
which is the scheme that was used for this study.
5
5.2 Normal Cartesian Gridding
At the onset of the study, a coarse grid model with a regular
Cartesian grid was generated for the Kharaib B reservoir. The
grid was based on a lateral resolution of 500 ft by 500 ft and
had 14 layers resulting in a 156 x 249 x 14 model (505,249
active grid cells). Vertical cell thicknesses varied between 2
and 15 feet. The model size was considered to be manageable
from a run time perspective and therefore well suited for
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initial gridding investigations.
Reservoir simulation was performed with each well being
constrained by historical subsurface voidage rates.
Relative permeability and capillary pressure curves were
applied as rock curves. In theory, it would be possible to
pseudoise the relative permeability curves to compensate for
the shortcomings of the coarse grid. However, the wells are
drilled radially, so the flow intersects the regular grid at all
angles. Furthermore, the relative permeability and fluid
characteristics vary significantly within the area, so a
pseudoisation would result in an impractical number of curves,
and therefore this approach was not pursued.
Well 1
Well 3
Well 2
Figure 6: 500 ft Cartesian Grid with well traces for 3 wells
overlaid.
Figure 6 shows an example with a subset of 3 wells in the
coarse 500 ft by 500 ft grid. The grid cannot be aligned with
all wells since they are drilled radially from the platform
location. The figure shows that as a consequence of the coarse
gridding only 0-2 grid cells are separating Well 1 and Well 2.
Furthermore, the distance between the wells in the simulation
model becomes somewhat distorted as a result of the grid size.
6 IPTC 11512

Actual versus Grid Well Distances

model as a consequence of the coarse gridding (Figure 8). At
around 9,000 ft MD where the distance between wells dropped
3000
from 1,000 ft to 500 ft the pressure in the model suddenly
2500
dropped 250 psi whereas the actual formation pressure showed
a smooth increase in pressure of some 75 psi per 1,000 ft. A
similar problem occurred at the tail end of the well where the
Well Distances [ft]

2000

pressure fluctuated by 100 psi in the model whereas the actual

1500
formation pressure was almost constant.

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1000
A similar example can be shown for one of the most important
500 wells in the history matching process, Well 6 in Figure 9. The
pressures at the tail end of the well shows the pressure
0
4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 20,000 propagation from one of the first water injection wells (Well
Well MD [ft] 5) in the field.
WELL1_Grid WELL1_Actual WELL3_Grid WELL3_Actual

Figure 7: Actual distance between wells versus simulation model

derived distances.

Figure 7 shows the actual distance from the central well (Well
2) to the two surrounding wells calculated from the well traces
(smooth lines), while the step functions represent the distances
between the grid cells intersected by the wells in the 500 ft
Well 6
simulation model. The difference between actual and grid cell Infill Producer
distances can be up to 500 ft for both wells which is
significant in the inner section of the radial well pattern and in
areas with wells spaced at around 1,000 ft. Well 7

Distributed formation pressures obtained in development wells

drilled after start of production were one of the key history Well 4
matching parameters. These pressures provided important Well 5 Water Injector
information in this field completed with long horizontal wells,
since it was possible to determine differential depletion
resulting from production/injection in nearby wells along the
entire length of the wells. This was in particular important in
Kharaib B where the oil viscosity varies significantly along
the length of a well, causing fluids to be predominantly Figure 9: 500 ft Cartesian Grid with well traces for 4 wells overlaid
withdrawn from the low viscosity areas first.
Figure 10 shows that at the tail end of Well 6 the distance to
the injector (Well 5) is oscillating between 500 ft and 1,000 ft.
Actual versus Grid Well Distances This varying distance to the water injector caused the resulting
3000 1500
modelled pressures for the subject well to oscillate by up to
100 psi.
2500 1400
Well Distances [ft]

2000 1300
Pressure

1500 1200

1000 1100

500 1000

0 900
4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Well MD [ft]

WELL1_Grid Distance WELL1_Actual Distance Pressure Model Logged Pressure

Figure 8: Actual distance between wells versus simulation model

derived distances with model and actual formation pressures.

Take the example of the 3 wells presented before (Figure 6).

The pressure obtained from the simulation model showed
strong influence of the reduced distance between wells in the
IPTC 11512 7

The results from the different models could subsequently be

Actual versus Grid Well Distances combined to provide a fine-grid modelling of the field.
3000 1900

An area of investigation was selected for the 500 ft model

2500 1800
covering around 1/5 of the wells in the reservoir. The area
around the first developed wells in the field was chosen to
Well Distances [ft]

2000 1700

investigate the effect of increasing the grid resolution between

Pressure
1500 1600
wells. This was done with 3 different local grids having an

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1000 1500
increasing resolution of the grid around the wellbores with
500 1400
lateral grid refinements of 2x2, 3x3 and 4x4, respectively
(Table 2). The 4x4 LGR grid model required 4 parallel
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
1300
18000 processors on a 64 bit cluster to handle the memory
Well MD [ft]
requirements.
WELL4_Grid WELL4_Actual WELL7_Grid WELL7_Actual
WELL5_Grid WELL5_Actual Logged Pressure Model Pressure
Sim. Model Coarse 2x2 3x3 4x4
Figure 10: Actual distance between wells versus simulation model grid LGR LGR LGR
derived distances with model and actual measured pressures. Cell size
500 ft 250 ft 167 ft 125 ft
around wells
The production performance was also influenced by the coarse No. of active
505,249 560,745 630,115 727,233
grid (Figure 11). Laterally large grid cells were inadequate for grid cells
modelling of coning of water from below despite the fine
vertical grid resolution. The example shows a well coning Table 2: Parameters for coarse and LGR grids.
water almost from the onset of production with the water cut
Reservoir and fluid properties for the LGRs were inherited
reaching 20% towards the end of the modelled period. The
from the original coarse grid model without modifications.
coarse grid model produced no water from the well causing an
overestimation of cumulative oil production of 15% after 8.5
years of production.

Actual Watercut

Modelled watercut

Figure 11: Well production performance in coarse grid.

5.3 Local Grid Refinement around wells Figure 12: 2x 2 LGR grids in confined area of investigation.
The 500 ft model hence proved inadequate to model the
individual well behaviour due to the lack of grid resolution Figure 12 shows the 2x2 LGR around all wells in the area of
between wells. Creating a fine grid model to allow for at least investigation. The whole area is essentially a 250 ft grid with
3 grid cells between wells would require grid dimensions of all the LGR areas around the wells being amalgamated. The
only 200 ft or less. This translates into a full field model with inner part of the wells is though in a few instances still only
some 3 MM grid cells. Such a large model was considered separated by 1 grid cell. Further refinement of the grid
inefficient for history matching purposes due to the significant mitigates the problem, at the cost of additional memory
run-time and memory requirements. requirements and run-time.

Alternatively, a number of models could be built with local

grid refinements (LGR) only in separate parts of the field,
while the remaining area in each model would be modelled by
a coarser 500 ft grid to ensure realistic boundary conditions.
8 IPTC 11512

5.4 Full Field model based on PEBI grid.

The PEBI gridding technique was then applied to investigate
the feasibility of this alternative modelling approach.

Perpendicular bisector cells (PEBI) were adopted to grid

laterally around the wells. The PEBI grid was aligned with the
well paths (Figure 15). For each well a local domain grid was
created which for the main part had 3 grid cells each 150 ft

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orthogonal to the well.

Figure 13: Well water coning performance in different simulation

grids.

Figure 13 shows historic well performance as simulated from

the coarse 500 ft model with an increasing amount of LGR
cells around the well bores. The water cut performance of the
well showed a high degree of dependency on the number of
grid cells around the wells in the model. The 500 ft coarse grid
model did not produce any water, while the water cut
progressively increased as the number of grid cells around the
well were increased. The 4x4 grid refinement, i.e. 125 ft grid
cells, yielded a water cut rising to around 20% in line with the Figure 15: Subset of PEBI grid showing near wellbore grid
actual well data. resolution

This ensured that the flow path between all producer-injector

pairs was always modelled by at least 6 grid cells, while
slightly higher number of cells were used when well spacing
increased. Simulation of variation in reservoir and fluid
properties along the wellbore required less grid resolution and
the cell size along the well path was set to 300 ft.

Figure 14: Well BHP performance in different simulation grids

The flowing bottom hole pressure (BHP) was also found to be

sensitive to the degree of grid refinement, with the fine grid
models predicting bottom hole pressures up 200 psi lower than
the coarse grid model (Figure 14). Similar observations were
made for most wells in the LGR area.

Figure 16: Full Field Model PEBI grid

IPTC 11512 9

The underlying grid was divided into two regions. An outer Comparison of Pressures along the wellbore before start of production
region with limited hydrocarbons mapped was constructed 1900

with lateral grid dimensions of 1500 ft by 1500 ft and the

1800
central region used grid dimensions of 500 ft by 500 ft (Figure
16). The resulting grid had some 760 x 154 x 14 cells 1700

(1,638,560) of which around 700,000 were active in dynamic

Pressure (psia)
simulation i.e. around 28% more active grid cells than the 500 1600

ft Cartesian grid model.

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1500

Reservoir and fluid properties and their distribution across the 1400

field were unaltered compared to the original coarse grid

model. 1300

1200
5.4.1 Results from PEBI Grid Model 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000
MD (ft)
The PEBI grid model was used for reservoir simulation with Logged Pressure PEBI Model Pressure COARSE GRID Model Pressure
each well being controlled by reservoir voidage rates.
Figure 18: Well 6 Comparison of pressures; Actual formation
Comparison of Pressures along the wellbore before start of production pressures, 500 ft Cartesian model and PEBI grid model.
1500

1400
The same was seen for the pressure response from the water
injector observed in infill Well 6 (Figure 9). The PEBI grid
1300
resulted in a smooth pressure curve at the tail end of the well
Pressure (psia)

1200
reflecting where the well was opposite to the water injector,
whereas the coarse grid model oscillated by 100 psi due to the
1100 varying distance to the injector caused by the non-alignment
of the wells with the grid. The pressure profile was smooth at
1000
the inner section of the well in the 500 ft grid as the distance
900
to the nearest well was almost constant, since the well trace
4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000
MD (ft)
14,000 16,000 18,000 20,000
intersected the grid along the cell diagonals. The outer part of
Logged Pressure PEBI Model Pressure COARSE GRID Model Pressure the well on the contrary is zigzagging through the grid cells
which results in the step wise changes in distance to the
Figure 17: Well 2 Comparison of pressures; Actual formation nearby well affecting the modelled pressures.
pressures, 500 ft Cartesian model and PEBI grid model.

The grid being aligned with the wells and having at least 6 Comparison of Pressures along the wellbore before start of production
grid cells between wells allowed for more accurate modelling 1900
of the field performance. The model pressure profiles became
smooth as the gradually increasing well distances were now 1800

exactly matched with the PEBI grid. Figure 17 shows a 1700

comparison of the pressure profile shown for the 500 ft coarse

Pressure (psia)

1600
grid Cartesian model together with the profile obtained from
the PEBI grid. The PEBI grid model was able to reproduce the 1500

smooth increase in formation pressure as observed in the

1400
actual data with a maximum of 50 psi difference.
1300

1200
4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000
Logged Pressure PEBI Model MD (ft)
Pressure COARSE GRID Model Pressure
LGR 2x2 LGR 3x3 LGR 4x4

Figure 19: Well 6 Comparison of pressures; Actual formation

pressures, 500 ft Cartesian model, LGR models and PEBI grid
model.

Figure 19 shows a comparison of the pressure profile shown

for the 500 ft Cartesian model and the LGR cases together
with the profile obtained from the PEBI grid. The refined grid
cases still revealed the impact of the grid imposed varying
distance between the wells at the tail end of the well. The
oscillation of the pressure profile reduced from 100 psi to 50
10
psi for the 2x2 LGR grid. The 3x3 local grid refinement
reduced the oscillation to 30 psi while the 4x4 LGR reduced it
further to 25 psi. Even though the oscillation in the 4x4 grid is
small it is still a distortion of the results caused by gridding
effects.
The matching of pressure profiles was critical for this
reservoir with long horizontal wells. The capability of
modelling the large changes to flow properties along the well
bores, partly governed by the variation in saturation pressure,
was one of the most important factors to obtaining a history
match of the performance of the reservoir.
Figure 20: Comparison of well performance; Actual, 500 ft
Cartesian model and PEBI grid model.
The coning of water in the PEBI grid from below was in most
wells similar to the results from the 4x4 LGR grids (Figure 20)
whereas the 3x3 and 2x2 LGR grids underestimated the water
cut. In a few cases the water production was higher for the 4x4
LGR grid case than for the PEBI grid case. Modelling of
coning of water from below was primarily dependent on the
actual grid size rather than the distance to other wells.
More important for the crestal area of the field was modelling
of the progression of the flood front between injectors and
producers where the distance between wells was critical to
ensure correct modelling of break through time and water cut
development. At the time of history matching, water
breakthrough from an injector had however not occurred and
could not be included in the history match. The advancement
of a flood front was as part of the reservoir characterisation
matched to a logged swept zone close to a water injector.
5.4.2 Summary of the Use of PEBI Grids for Full Field
Modelling
The problem of non-alignment of wells with the grid and the
lack of resolution between wells in a manageable Cartesian
grid was effectively solved with the 2.5-D PEBI gridding
along the well path. The use of well aligned PEBI grids
enabled accurate matching of formation pressures without
having the distance between wells distorted in the model due
IPTC 11512
to poor grid resolution and non-alignment of wells.
Furthermore, it resolved the issues of modelling bottom-water
coning and flood front advancement between injectors and
producers since the grid size was reduced around the wells
where the large pressure drops and saturation changes
occurred, while still maintaining a reasonable model size. This
approach also met the requirement for conducting history
match runs using a full field model with a reasonable run-time,
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and issues relating to the merging of results from different
sector models and boundary conditions were eliminated.
Several advantages of PEBI grids were identified:
1. Ability to grid around geological features and well
locations while honouring their locations exactly.
2. Exact modelling of inter-well distances, which was
essential for history matching dynamic pressure profiles
along horizontal wells.
3. The need for local grid refinements (LGRs) diminished.
Fewer number of active cells in the grid saved computation
costs.
4. The need for pseudoised relative permeability curves was
effectively reduced or even removed due to the dedicated
high resolution gridding around all wells.
5. Discretisation around features independent of the
surrounding cells to improve model fluid flow.
There are, however, some drawbacks that were encountered
during the study:
1. The grids used for history matching were not readily
adaptable for prediction runs if the new wells required
unstructured grid domains around them.
2. Non-intuitiveness when modifications were needed to be
carried out on static or well connection properties due to
the unstructured character of the PEBI grid.
3. Existing linear solvers in reservoir simulators are not
efficient at handling PEBI grids. Despite the fact that no
numerical convergence errors were reported, costs of a
Newton iteration compared to a Cartesian grid with
similar grid cell sizes were high.
On balance, the benefits associated with the use of PEBI grids
for this reservoir outweighed the disadvantages of this
approach.
IPTC 11512 11

6. Simulation Performances 7. Conclusion

As discussed in the previous sections, the history matching of
the Kharaib B reservoir required a model with a fine grid
resolution to capture the main flow paths and drive
mechanisms in the reservoir to be able to model field and
individual well performance to a sufficient degree of accuracy.
However, the run time of the model had to be manageable to
This case story shows how the history matching requirements
for a giant low relief carbonate reservoir, completed with a
large number of horizontal wells drilled in irregular
producer/injector patterns with complex initial fluid
distribution and flow characteristics led to the selection of a
simulation model based on the PEBI gridding technique.

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allow for a large number of sensitivities to characterise the
reservoir.
1. The application of PEBI grids around the long horizontal
wells allowed for sufficiently refined cells between wells
Coarse Coarse + 1/5 refined drilled in radial patterns and accurate representation of
LGR LGR LGR PEBI intra well distances without compromising run-time.
Cartesian
2x2 3x3 4x4
Active cells 2. The numerical performance of the Full Field PEBI model
505 561 630 727 698
[*1,000] having fine resolution around all 75 wells was similar to
Grid dimens. that of a 4x4 LGR model covering only 1/5 of the wells.
500 250 167 125 150
[ft]
Memory 3. Advanced initialisation technique was required to
2.1 2.4 2.7 3.0 3.9 incorporate a complex initial fluid distribution in the
Req. [GB]
Newton Iter. 1,312 2,360 2,473 2,699 1,395 reservoir simulation model. This included an accurate
Linear Iter. 5,613 11,048 13,420 16,112 14,868 representation of the tilting FWLs, separate gas caps and
large lateral oil property variations.
Lin./Newton 4.3 4.7 5.4 6.0 10.7
iter. (avg)
4. The use of endpoint scaling on a grid cell basis combined
CPU time 1.1 2.5 4.3 6.9 6.5 with normalised saturation functions allowed for rigorous
[hours]
implementation of complex petrophysical properties of the
Table 3: Summary of simulation performance for different grids. reservoir. The petrophysical model reflects the concept that
the current rock wettability is strongly dependent on the
Table 3 shows the size and performance of the models created previous oil saturation history (palaeo) and that the rock
for the study. All simulations were run on Linux machines properties in turn are strongly dependent on wettability.
with 4 nodes x 2 CPU AMD Opteron chips with 8 GB of
memory each. The CPU times given are from 4 way parallel
runs with all models having identical numerical settings. History matching of this complex reservoir has allowed a
systematic evaluation of the existing development strategy,
CPU consumption varied from 1.1 to 6.9 hours for simulation and evaluation of a range of further development options. The
of the 10 years of field history. The PEBI model was 6 times next stage of development of this carbonate reservoir,
slower than the original coarse grid model, but the runtime involving 89 horizontal wells, is now in progress.
was similar to that of the LGR 4x4 case. All LGR cases had
refined grids only around 20% of the wells, whereas the PEBI Acknowledgements
model provided sufficient resolution around all wells The authors wish to thank Qatar Petroleum and Maersk Oil
independent of location or orientation. The PEBI model Qatar AS for permission to publish this paper.
thereby proved to be an efficient tool for history matching the
Kharaib B reservoir with acceptable run-times.

Reports on numerical performance showed, that the number of References

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