SPE 106679

Permeability Upscaling
Techniques for Reservoir
Simulation
José R. Villa, PDVSA Intevep
Melvin Salazar, Universidad Central de Venezuela

Latin American & Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 14-18 April 2007
Motivation
• Fine-scale heterogeneities can strongly
affect reservoir performance
• Fine-scale highly-detailed geostatistical
models
– 107-108 cells
• Coarse-scale models used in reservoir
simulation (forecast, uncertainty
assessment, optimization)
– 105-106 cells
– neqn = ncells*nvar + nwells
• Upscaling techniques required to
maintain geological realism in
simulation model
– Overall volumes
– Reproduction of flow and transport
Fine/Coarse Grid

PE224 Course Notes, Stanford University

Outline

• Theory
– Permeability tensor
– Governing equations
• Classification of techniques
– Analytic
– Dynamic
• Methodology
– flowsim2p
– Reference fine-scale model
– Cases
• Results
• Summary
Permeability Tensor
Classification of Techniques

• 1-Phase Parameter Upscaling:

– Analytic
• Arithmetic
• Harmonic
• Geometric
• Power Law
– Numerical (flow-based)
• Pressure Solver
• 2-Phase Parameter Upscaling:
– Kyte and Berry
Classification of Techniques
Analytic Methods: A/H/G
Analytic Methods: Power Law
Numerical Methods: 1P Pressure Solver

• Solve for pressure using finite difference methods:

• Solve for flux in local fine grid:

• Compute flux in local coarse grid:

• Compute
Numerical Methods: 2P (Kyte-Berry)

• Solve for pressure and saturation using finite difference

methods:

• Corey Equations

• Use Darcy’s Law in coarse scale:

Numerical Methods: 2P (Kyte-Berry)

Relative Permeability (krp)

Water Saturation (Sw)

Methodology
Methodology
flowsim2p
Reference Fine-Scale Model

©César Velasquez, 2007

Cases

Cases r ni/Ni
100x130x1
1 [1 1 1]
0
50x65x10 4 [2 2 1]

50x26x5 20 [2 5 2]

10x13x5 200 [10 10 2]

5x5x5 1040 [20 26 2]

Results

• Fine-Scale Simulation
• Fine vs. coarse
– Water saturation and pressure
– WBHP, WWCT
• Upscaling error
• CPU time
Reference Fine-Scale Simulation
Analytic Upscaling: Arithmetic
Analytic Upscaling: Harmonic
Analytic Upscaling: Geometric
Numerical Upscaling: 1P
Numerical Upscaling: 2P
Upscaling Error

upscaling

average
Upscaling Error
Arithmetic 2P Numerical
Upscaling Error

Numerical 2P
Numerical 1P
Geometric
Harmonic
Arithmetic
Upscaling Error

Analytical
Numerical
CPU Time
Summary

• Upscaling is an important issue in reservoir

simulation
• Among analytic upscaling techniques,
geometric upscaling better reproduced
simulation results
• Numerical upscaling techniques allowed better
reproduction of simulation results than analytic
upscaling techniques
• Best match is found when using pseudo-relative
permeability curves (2P numerical upscaling)
• Better results are obtained when using the
finest coarse-scale model
• Need a trade-off between CPU time and
accuracy of coarse-scale models
Acknowledgements

• PDVSA Intevep
• Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV)
• SUPRI-B, Stanford University
Thanks!
Governing Equations
1P Flow 2P Flow
LSOR
Thomas Algorithm