Objectives of Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineers are the Asset Holders: they are

responsible for the management of the hydrocarbon
assets of the company.

Main Task: Maximising the value of these assets,

The final objective is to make Money

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 Reservoir Engineering: Practical Tasks

As asset holder the reservoir engineer occupies him/herself

with:
– Volumes in Place
– Ultimate Recovery
– Development
– Production
– Reserves

Main contributor and often the responsible party for the

Field Development Plan
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 Reservoir Engineering

The task of the reservoir engineering is similar to a financial

investor:
• How are my assets doing
• How can I improve the performance
• How can I maximise the value of the resources I have
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 Reservoir Engineering

In order to answer these questions, the reservoir engineer

needs to have:
• a model for the maximum expected theoretical
performance
• a measurement on how the actual performance is

Therefore the requirements are:

– reservoir model
– performance data to test the model => Reservoir
Monitoring
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 Methods and Tools

This course occupies itself not with the reservoir model, but
concentrates on the measurements to test the RM:

Reservoir Monitoring

Results of which are used in reservoir performance tools like:

– Decline curves
– Material Balance
– Simulation
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 Decline Curves

Most reservoirs, oil and gas, follow a decline curve during

production. For instance for oil:
qoi
qo = a

 b 
1 + i t 




 a 

q = oilrate
b = instantaneous decline rate
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t = time
a = hyperbolic decline constant

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 Decline Curves

For some reservoirs, like water driven oil reservoirs with

unfavourable mobility ratio, it is easier to express this decline in
terms of oilcut, instead of rate:

f oi
fo = a

 b 
1 + i t 




 a 
Advantage: independant on gross production

fo = oilcut
© 1987-2002 - 021010

b = instantaneous decline rate

t = time
a = hyperbolic decline constant

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 Decline Curves: Oil

a = ∞ : exponential qo = qoi e − bt

qoi
a = 1: harmonic qo =
1 + bi t

oilcut (fo) can be substituted for

q (rate)
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All rates of all reservoirs decline

as function of time.

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 Decline curves: Oil

Oil rate of each individual reservoir is governed by:

– pressure: reservoir, well and well head

– water cut and/or gas cut

– lift dynamics
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 Decline Curves: Gas

Basic Gas Law: PV=n.z.R.T or:

P/z = n.R.T/V
R and T constant in the reservoir.

n Volume (mols) produced fluids

P Reservoir pressure
V Reservoir volume
z gas deviation factor
R Universal Gas Constant (8.314 joules/g-mole K)

Therefore p/z versus n is a straight line

intersects the X-axis at V = GIIP.
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 Decline curves: Gas

Performance of gas reservoirs is almost exclusively driven by

pressures.

But water and condensate can hamper production severely

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 Decline Curves: An Example

Pressures as function of Cumulative gas: P/z plot => GIIP

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 Material Balance

Basic expansion equations plus extensions:

– Aquifer support
– Detailed PVT description
– Includes lift curves, therefore can handle:
• water production
• Connecting different reservoirs in the same well

Material Balance: 1 Dimensional

I.e. 1 or more tanks produce as function of time
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 Reservoir Simulation

Extension of Material balance

Multi-Dimensional (2D-4D)
Time and geometrical model (1, 2 or 3 dimensional)
Divide the reservoir into small blocks, assign properties
• geological (connectivity, extension)
• petrophysical (porosity, saturation)
• dynamic: permeability, aquifer properties
• PVT: viscosity, phase behavior
Add wells and run using basic physical algorithms (saturations,
capcurves, rel perms).
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 Volume in Place

GIIP or STOIIP = A.h.Φ.n/g.Sh.E

A Area of accumulation
h gross sand thickness of hc bearing interval
Φ porosity
n/g net over gross ratio, ie percentage of productive sands
Sh hydrocarbon saturation (1-Sw)
E Expansion factor Gas >1, Oil < 1
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 Ultimate Recovery and Reserves

UR = RF x VIIP
Ultimate Recovery = Recovery Factor x Volumes Initially In Place
Reserves: UR - Produced Volumes To Date

Issues effecting the UR

• Effectiveness of drainage
• (Changing) Economic conditions
• Oil price
• Taxes
• Price of extraction
• Permit limits
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 Recovery Factor

Recovery Factor is dependant on several factors:

• Saturations: inital and residual
• Areal sweep efficiency
– connectivity
– aquifer
– PVT properties
• Vertical sweep efficiency
– Kv/kh
– layering
• Drainage efficiency of the completion

Items in green are targets for Production Logging surveys

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 Reserves cont.

Reserves can be further divided into Developed and Undeveloped.

Developed: Developed reserves are expected to be recovered from

existing wells including reserves behind pipe. Improved recovery
reserves are considered developed only after the necessary
equipment has been installed, or when the costs to do so are
relatively minor. Developed reserves may be sub-categorized as
producing or non-producing.
Undeveloped Reserves: Undeveloped reserves are expected to be
recovered: (1) from new wells on undrilled acreage, (2) from
deepening existing wells to a different reservoir, or (3) where a
relatively large expenditure is required to (a) recomplete an existing
well or (b) install production or transportation facilities for primary or
improved recovery projects.
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 Uncertainties

Reservoir Engineering deals foremost with uncertainties is all

the parameters involved in the calculations.

This is compounded by the fact that the underground situation

can change as function of time. For example:
• water movement
• gas cap development
• PVT changes (condensate dropout)
• Faults breaking down
• etc.
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 Uncertainties

Input parameters:

• sand thickness and porosity

• extension of the reservoir
• Connectivity
• Saturation
• PVT properties
• Sweep Efficiency

Example: change porosity from 12 to 15% , increase GIIP

with 25%
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 Uncertainties cont.

How to decrease uncertainty

Field Extension Delineation - Appraisal

Reservoir Properties Geological modeling

Petrophysical analysis
Well Testing (PL)

Connectivity Pressure - Production

measurements:
Pressure Build-Up Test
(Multi-Rate) Production
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Logging
MDT

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 Modeling & Monitoring (1)

Common activity for these modeling methods:

• decline curves
• material balance
• reservoir simulation

is monitoring of the performance:

• pressure
• rates
• temperature
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preferably of all the layers and producing intervals.

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 Modeling & Monitoring (2)

Models are improved and refined as function of time after start of

production.
This is an interactive process:
– Define reservoir model
– Predict performance as function of time
– Measure Production
– Measure reservoir performance: surface and downhole
– Compare with prediction
– Adjust reservoir model

The process to gather the information and observe the reservoir

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performance is called reservoir monitoring

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 Modeling & Monitoring (3)

Reservoir Model

Adjust

Measured Predicted
Performance Performance

continue Compare:
OK?
yes no
© 1987-2002 - 021010

Reservoir Monitoring

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 Modeling with Uncertainties: Probability Curve

Total volume is calculated using the parameters, with their uncertainties.

The result is the probability curve:

Probability
Often used calculation methods:
1
• Monte Carlo
0.95 • Beta Curves

0.50

0.05
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1P 2P 3P Volume

25
 Modeling with Uncertainties: Probability Curve
(2)

Reservoir Monitoring is designed to change:

This into This

Probability Probability

1 1
0.95 0.95

0.50 0.50
© 1987-2002 - 021010

0.05 0.05

1P 2P 3P Volume 1P2P 3P Volume

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