UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI

PETRONAS
PCB 4133
ADVANCED RESERVOIR SIMULATION
September 2016

Berihun Mamo Negash

Assoc. Prof. Lee Jang Hyun
Petroleum Engineering Department (GPED)
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Select the appropriate reservoir simulation
model for a given oil/gas recovery process.
2. To construct the model equations including
initial and boundary conditions.
3. To select a solution procedure (Algorithm) for
the model.

4. To assess the effect of process parameters on

the simulation results.
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Course outlines
Overview
Importance of advanced reservoir modeling
Current trends in reservoir simulation
Basic Concepts in Reservoir Engineering:
Single Phase Flow: Darcys law, continuity equation, diffusivity
equation

MultiPhase

Flow:

fluid

saturation,

relative

capillary pressure, PVT data, black Oil modeling

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permeability,

Course outlines (cont,)

Compositional Simulation

Phase Composition, Component mass balance, Phase

Equilibrium, Diffusion and dispersion, Adsorption

Thermal simulation: Energy Equation

Volatile Oil and Gas Condensate Reservoirs

Chemical Flooding Simulation

Thermal Simulation

Solution Methods ; Multivariable Newton Raphson method,

Residuals and Jacobian matrix

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Course outlines (cont,)

Equations of State (E.O.S)

Gas Law, Virial EOS, Cubic EOS.

VDW, SRK, and PR EOS

EOS Parameters, eccentric factor

Roots of cubic EOS

Fugacity and fugacity coefficients

EOS for Mixtures , mixing rules,

interaction coefficients

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Course outlines (cont,)

Upscaling Methods

Need for upscaling, Geological models and flow models, coarse

grids and fine grids, local grid refinement

averaging techniques

Upscaling and Permeability Tensor

Pseudofunctions: relative permeability , vertical equilibrium,

capillary Pressure

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Dynamic Upscaling

Course outlines (cont,)

Streamline Simulation

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The theory and history of streamline based flow simulation

Time of Flight (TOF) concept

Generation and updating of streamlines

Applications of Streamline Simulation

Sweep efficiency, Pattern Flooding, Viscous fingering

Advantages and disadvantages of streamlines

Course outlines (cont,)

Special Topics
o

Naturally fractured reservoir: Dual porosity and

Dual permeability models

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Horizontal wells

Surface Facilities Coupling

References
1.

John R. Fanchi (2005), Principles of Applied Reservoir Simulation, Gulf

Publishing Company

2.

M. R. Carlson (2003), Practical Reservoir Simulation: Using, Assessing, and

Developing Results, Pennwell Corporation

3.

Ertekin T, AbouKassem J.H., King G.R. (2001), Basic Applied Reservoir

Simulation, SPE Textbook Series, Vol 17

4.

Kelkar M. and Perez Godofredo (2002), Applied Geostatistics for Reservoir

Characterisation, SPE Textbook Series

5.

Rafiqul Islam, Mossavizadegan, Mustafiz, and Abou-Kassem (2010).

Advanced Petroleum Reservoir Simulation, Wiley

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Lesson components
Basic Concepts in Reservoir Engineering
Black Oil Simulation
Compositional simulation
Equations of State (E.O.S)
Upscaling Methods
Streamline Simulation
Special Topics (Dual Porosity-Dual Permeability,
Horizontal wells, Surface Facilities Coupling)
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Lecturers
Berihun Mamo Negash1
Assoc. Prof. Lee Jang Hyun2
Petroleum Engineering Dept. Block L
Tel :

05-368 7109
05-368 ----

Email : bmamo.Negash@petronas.com.my
lee.janghyun@petronas.com.my
Office Hours ~ By appointment
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Graduate Assistant
Saeed

Hamed

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Course Outcomes
At the end of this course,

students will review the basic equations of multiphase multicomponent fluid flow
through porous media.

The use of these equations for compositional simulation is covered in details.

Different applications of compositional simulation to volatile oil, gas injection,

chemical flooding and thermal recovery is introduced.

The use of EOS is presented.

Upscaling and pseudo functions concepts are explained.

The students are also exposed to special areas in reservoir simulation such as local
grid refinement, streamline simulation, horizontal wells, fractured reservoir and dual

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porosity, dual permeability modeling.

Course Format

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Course Credit

3 Credit Hours

Lectures

Week 1 14
2 hrs/week

Practical

Week 2 12
2 hrs/week

Class Schedule

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Class Assessment

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Assignments: Group and individual based.

Quizzes:
Short quizzes will be given during the lecture. They
may be pop quizzes (without prior notice). So, get
ready all the time.
Always bring a paper with you at every class .
Absence during a quiz will result in a zero (0) mark.
Tests (Tentative Schedule)
Test 1 - week 6
Test 2 week 12
Final Exam

Grading Policy
Coursework

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60 %

Tests (x2)

30 %

Assignments

10 %

Quizzes

5%

Project

15%

Final Examination

40 %

Total

100 %

REMINDER!
Late comers

NOT more than 5 minutes

Plagiarism

NOT in any forms!!!!

Hand phone

NOT during lecture

Attendance Policy

90% else show cause letter

- Barred from final exam (F grade), refer
to (Student Guide, Clause 2.3 pg 13).

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Introduction
Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, student will be
able to tell:
Why we need to study advanced

reservoir simulation;
What are the recent Advances in
Reservoir Simulation;
What are the current trends and
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challenges.

Reservoir Simulation
Objective
To build a model of the reservoir and to examine its performance in terms of
production and pressure
Method
The reservoir is divided into a number of blocks

Basic data is provided for each block

Wells are positioned within the arrangement of blocks
The required offtake rate is specified as a function of time
The appropriate equations are solved to give the pressure and saturations for
each block as well as the production of each phase from each well
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Why Simulate?
Corporate Impact
Cash Flow Prediction
Need Economic Forecast of
Hydrocarbon Price

Reservoir Management
Coordinate Reservoir
Management Activities
Evaluate Project Performance
Interpret/Understand Reservoir
Behavior

Model Sensitivity to
Estimated Data
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Determine Need for Additional

Data

Estimate Project Life

Predict Recovery versus
Time
Compare Different
Recovery Processes
Plan Development or
Operational Changes
Select and Optimize
Project Design
Maximize Economic
Recovery

Introduction
Garbage in and garbage out!!!
Reservoir simulation studies are very subjective and vary from
simulator to simulator.
For a modeling process to be accurate, the input data have to be
accurate for the simulation results to be acceptable.
Reservoir simulation equations have an embedded variability and

multiple solutions that are in line with physics rather than spurious
mathematical solutions
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Introduction, cont,
Should simulation engineers must be expert programmers or intelligent
users?

The tool: reservoir simulator

The intelligent user: simulation

engineer

The pertinent information:

reservoir description
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Disciplinary contributions to reservoir flow modeling

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Types of Numerical Models, cont,

Black oil model

o
o

Depletion
Water Injection
Component: oil water gas
Phase: Oil water gas

Chemical model
Polymer and surfactant injection
o Component: Water oil surfactant alcohol
o Phase: Aqueous oleic microemulsion
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Compositional model

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Gas injection to increase or maintain reservoir pressure

Miscible flooding as the injection gas goes into solution with oil
Carbon dioxide flooding, with the gas soluble in both oil and water
Thick reservoirs with a compositional gradient caused by gravity
Reservoirs with fluid compositions near the bubblepoint
High-pressure, high temperature reservoirs
Natural-fracture reservoir modeling.
o Component: C1,C2, .So2,H2S,N2,..
o Phase: Oil water gas

Which simulator to select

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Why compositional Simulation?

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Black-oil simulation does not provide a good enough description of

reservoir processes in a number of situations. Compositional simulation
has to be used, for instance
1. For Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes that involves a miscible
displacement
2. Cases where gas injection/re-injection into an oil produces a large
compositional changes in the fluids
3. If condensates are recovered using gas cycling. In general,
compositional simulation has to be used if the composition of the
injected gas is significantly different from the composition of any free
gas in the reservoir.
4. Surface facilities department needs detailed compositions of the
production stream.

Phase behavior diagram

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Advantages of Compositional Simulation

Compositional simulators can account for the effects of composition
on:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

Phase behavior
Multi-contact miscibility
Immiscible or near-miscible displacement behavior in compositionally
dependent mechanisms such as vaporization, condensation, and oil
swelling
Composition-dependent phase properties such as viscosity and density
on miscible sweep-out
Interfacial Tension (IFT) especially the effect of IFT on residual oil
saturation.

Number of components required in a compositional fluid description?

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Condensate recovery using different PVT

descriptions of the fluid
The minimum number of
components needed in a
reservoir simulation will
depend on the
hydrocarbon fluids and on
the production scenarios
being simulated.
For this fluid and this
model, 5 components are
enough, but the minimum
number of components will
vary from case to case.

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Difficulties with Compositional Simulation

There are a number of issues that
may need to be considered when
running any compositional
simulator.
1.

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Calculating phase composition

around the critical point or in
the plait-point region can be
difficult. K-values and physical
property calculations (as well
as EOS) are less accurate in
plait - point region, and
experimental data in this region
(used to calibrate EOS) are
often lacking.

 Modeling viscous fingering in large grid blocks is not

easy. The effects are usually ignored and complete
mixing of fluids within a grid block assumed.

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 Numerical dispersion is an issue in both black-oil and compositional

simulation, but can have a greater effect in compositional. Grid
orientation effects are also common to both types of simulation.
Techniques exist but they are cpu time-consuming.

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Difficulties with Compositional Simulation

4. Computing time is one of the reasons why reservoir
engineers have been traditionally reluctant to run
compositional instead of black-oil reservoir models.
With the advent of faster and faster computers and
improved software programs this is less of an issue.
Computing time is needed because :

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1. A lot of calculations are needed to work out how many

phases are present and what are the composition and
properties of those phase
2. There are more equations to solve because there are more
components.

GEOLOGICAL REVIEW

Reservoir simulation Process

RESERVOIR
PERFORMANCE REVIEW
Production Review
DATA GATHERING
Screening
APPROACH
Single Well or Pattern
Cross Section field Model

INITIALIZATION

HISTORY MATCHING

PREDICTIONS
Tuning Prediction

REPORT &
PRESENTATION
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Recent Advances in Reservoir Simulation

Speed and accuracy (fractured reservoirs)

New fluid flow equations

Coupled fluid flow and geo-mechanical
stress model (Geomechanical stresses); and
Fluid flow modeling under thermal stress.

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Future Challenges in Reservoir Simulation

Experimental challenges (determining rock and fluid properties). all relevant thermal
properties including coefficient of thermal expansion, porosity variation with
temperature, and thermal conductivity need to be measured;

Numerical Challenges (Theory of Onset and Propagation of Fractures Due to Thermal

Stress; 2-D and 3-D Solutions of the Governing Equations; Viscous Fingering During
Miscible Displacement; Improvement in Remote Sensing and Monitoring Ability; and
Improvement in Data Processing Techniques); and

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Future Challenges in Reservoir Simulation,

cont,

Remote sensing and real-time monitoring (Monitoring Offshore Structures;

Development of a Dynamic Characterization Tool (Based on Seismic-whiledrilling Data); Use of 3-D Sonogram (for volume visualization of the rock
ahead of the drill bit); Virtual Reality (VR) Applications; Intelligent Reservoir
Management (develop a novel Knowledge Based Expert System that helps
design engineers to choose a suitable EOR method for an oil reservoir))

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Concluding Remarks
Closing the gap.
Reducing the uncertainties.
Assumptions Behind Various Modeling Approaches
proper reservoir simulation should be transparent and empower
decision makers rather than creating a black box.

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