Accurate Coarse Scale Simulation of Horizontal Wells
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Highly detailed geostatistical models of petroleum reservoirs are upscaled in order to bring them to a manageable level of detail for use in reservoir simulators. Standard flow based upscaling approaches do not account for radial flow around wells and instead use a linear boundary pressure specification for the solution of a local problem. In this report, an upscaling approach appropriate for the generation of coarse scale simulation models of horizontal wells is developed and applied. The method entails the solution of a general, single phase, well-driven flow problem at the fine scale over a limited domain. Coarse scale simulation parameters for the well region (transmissibilities and well indices) are computed from this fine scale solution using either an averaging procedure or, to achieve higher degrees of accuracy, an optimization procedure. The method is applied to single and three phase flow problems in several different heterogeneous permeability fields. Results using standard coarse scale models (with no near-well upscaling) are shown to be in considerable error in many cases. The near-well upscaling procedure is shown to provide accurate coarse scale simulation results and works well for different perneability fields and global boundary conditions. The overall upscaling method can be generalized to more complex deviated and multilateral well configurations. Another approach for modeling the effects of fine scale heterogeneity in coarse grid simulation models is through the use of local grid refinement (LGR) around wells. To gauge the accuracy of this approach, an LGR study with a horizontal well is undertaken. Factors studied include the size of the LGR region, the level of coarsening, and degree of heterogeneity. Single phase and three flow phase results are provided. Although LGR provides significant improvement over the standard coarse scale results, it is difficult to determine what combination of coarsening and LGR should be used for a particular problem. Moreover, near-well upscaling does as well if not better than a comparable LGR for much less cost.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | August 1999 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Mascarenhas, Oscar |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Durlofsky, Louis |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Petroleum Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Mascarenhas, Oscar. (1999). Accurate Coarse Scale Simulation of Horizontal Wells. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/sb042dr8484
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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