IMPORTANT CHANGES IN GEM 2015.

11

SIMULATOR CHANGES
Hysteresis Option for Oil Relative Permeability in Gas-Liquid Table
New keyword *HYSKROG allows specification of maximum possible imbibition residual oil saturation (gas-
liquid table) for calculation of hysteresis in oil relative permeability curve. This value is used to evaluate the
shape and path of all imbibition curves which leave the drainage curve at any saturation. Existing keyword
*HYSKRO is now deprecated. In its place *HYKROW is expected.
See documentation and a template data-set gmsmo096 in the HYST_SOM subfolder under the DOC
folder.
Enhancement in Stone 1 Model for 3-phase Oil Relative Permeability Calculation
Keywords *SOMWAT, *SOMGAS, *SOMGASI, *SOMWATI allow the user to enter a table of residual oil
saturation as a function of water/gas saturation to be used in the STONE 1 three phase oil relative-
permeability model. Contributions from either drainage or imbibition or both are accounted for depending on
whether hysteresis on krow, or krog or both are specified.
See documentation and a template data-sets gmsmo095 and gmsmo096 in HYST_SOM subfolder under
the DOC folder.
Enhancement in the Empirical Foam Model
The empirical foam option now offers two models via new keyword
*FOAM-MODEL *INTREL | *MULTREL
While *INTREL is the pre-existing model based on interpolation of relative permeabilities, the new option,
invoked with keyword *MULTREL uses dimensionless foam parameter to directly modify the gas relative
permeability. For the new option, additional keyword *FMCOMP is used to designate a surfactant
component that would generate foam, and additional keyword *FMKRW is used to specify a multiplication
factor for water relative permeability krw.
See documentation and a template data-set gmsmo094 in the FOAM-MODEL subfolder under the DOC
folder.
Smoothening of End Point Relative Permeabilities
Smoothening of end-point relative permeability values between connate and critical saturations is now
optionally available through power-law options *POWERQ and *POWERC for both for SWT and SGT/SLT
tables. These options are provided through new keywords that follow *SWT and *SGT/*SLT keywords,
i.e.,
*SMOOTHEND {*LINEAR | *QUAD | *CUBIC | *QUADGEM | *POWERQ I *POWERC | *ON | *OFF}
See documentation and a template data-set gmsmo078 in SMOOTHEND_POWER subfolder of DOC
folder.
Flexibility in 3-Point Relative Permeability Scaling
A better flexibility is provided in the 3-point relative permeability scaling behavior. New keywords
*3PTSCAL_KRW, *3PTSCAL_KROW, *3PTSCAL_KRG, and *3PTSCAL_KROG allow turning on of 3-
point scaling for individual relative permeability curves.
See documentation and a template data-set gmsmo090 in the 3PTSCAL_KWS subfolder of DOC folder.

What's New in GEM 2015.11 1

Oil-Water Capillary Number based Relative Permeability Interpolation
The new keyword *INTCOMP *CAPNOW facilitates interpolation of relative permeability curves based on
oil-water capillary number. A user specified table of interfacial tension versus a key component mole
fraction in aqueous phase (*IFTTABLE) is used to obtain the interfacial tension used in the capillary
number calculation.
New keywords *INTLOG and *INTLIN can be used for logarithmic or linear table-lookup of interfacial
tension table.
See documentation and template data-sets gmsmo091, gmsmo092, and gmsmo093 in the
INTCOMP_CAPNOW subfolder under the DOC folder.
Aqueous Phase Salinity Calculation
A new keyword *COMPNAME-SAL is introduced to specify salinity components from out of the aqueous
components in the model. The composition of salinity components in aqueous phase is then used to
++ -
calculate salinity in mol / kg H2O. In absence of this keyword salinity calculation with NaCl, Na , or Cl
ions is still done as before.
See documentation and a data-set in the COMPNAME-SAL subfolder under the DOC folder.
Writing of Restart based on Elapsed Times
The new keyword *WRST *ELAPSED-HRS eltime allows restart to be written after passage of specified
amount of elapsed time in the simulation.
See documentation and a data-set in the WRST_ELAPSED subfolder under the DOC folder.
Stopping the Simulation after a Specified Time
Use new keyword *MAXCLK to stop the run after a specified time. It is similar in functionality as the
existing keyword *MAXCPU, but applies to elapsed clock-time and may be useful for models being run
with parallel processing options.
See documentation and a data-set in the NUM_MAXCLK subfolder under the DOC folder.

OUTPUT ENHANCEMENTS
Aqueous Phase Molar Density
Added output of water molar density via sub-keyword *RHOW to SR2 and out files through *OUTSRF
*GRID; *OUTSRF *SPECIAL; and *OUTPRN *GRID.
Oil-Water and Gas-Water Capillary Number and Interfacial Tension
Output of oil-water and gas-water capillary number and interfacial tension to SR2 and out files is available
via new sub-keywords *CAPNOW, *CAPNGW, *SIGMAOW, and *SIGMAGW through *OUTSRF *GRID;
*OUTSRF *SPECIAL; and *OUTPRN *GRID.
See documentation and data-sets in NEW_IO_KEYWORDS subfolder under the DOC folder.

GEOMECHANICS CHANGES
Normal Effective Stress vs. Fracture Permeability
A table-lookup procedure for fracture permeability multipliers versus normal effective stress is added. The
fracture multipliers are calculated due to change in geomechanical response. The data is input in a
tabular form in x, y, and z directions. The first column corresponds either to normal effective stress or
normal total stress in a given direction while the second column corresponds to the fracture permeability
multiplier in that direction. A table-lookup is performed to get the fracture permeability multiplier for a

What's New in GEM 2015.11 2

computed value of the stress. The keywords are: *GPERMNEX, *GPERMNTX, *GPERMNEY,
*GPERMNTY, *GPERMNEZ, *GPERMNTZ.
See documentation and a data-set in the GMC_FRACPERM subfolder under the DOC folder.

GRID CHANGES
Hydraulic Fracture Data Input Simplification
A number of changes in grid-input are introduced to simplify input of hydraulic fracture data, through use
of *BLOCKGROUP, *SBLOCKGROUP *PLNRFRAC_TEMPLATE, *PLANRFRAC, and other new
keywords.
See documentation in the HF_INPUT_SIMPLIFICATION subfolder under the DOC folder.
Direct Input of Gridblock Pore Volume
For each gridblock it is now possible to specify pore volume value through new array keyword *PORVOL.
The keyword may be useful to override the input porosity in specific parts of the reservoir.
See documentation and a sample data-set in the PORVOL subfolder under the DOC folder.
Direct Input of Transmissibility Values
New array keywords *TRANVI, *TRANVJ and *TRANVK now make it possible to directly input
transmissibilities in I, J, and K directions respectively.
See documentation and a sample data-set in the TRANV subfolder under the DOC folder.
Pore Volume Cutoff for Fracture Gridblocks
New keyword *PVCUTFR allows you to specify pore-volume cut-off value for fracture gridblocks. Note
that existing keyword *PVCUTOFF applies the pore-volume cut-off to the matrix gridblocks only.
See documentation and a sample data-set in the PVCUTFR subfolder under the DOC folder.

WELL MANAGEMENT CHANGES

*BHPDEFAULT keyword
A new keyword *BHPDEFAULT is introduced to allow the user to alter the default BHP constraint values.
This is convenient for datasets involving a large number of wells with no explicit definition of the BHP
constraint. This keyword does not have any effect to wells that already have the BHP constraint defined
through keyword *OPERATE.
See documentation and a data-set in the BHPDEFAULT subfolder under the DOC folder.
Control of Well Completion Layers
A new keyword *LAYER-CTRL allows the user to change the layer status (*OPEN and *CLOSE) of
individual completion layers without having to redefine the whole perforation of the well by the *PERF (or
*PERFV) keyword. Similar to the *SETPI keyword, *LAYER-CTRL also allows the user to modify the well
indices but for particular layers through the well index multipliers (*WIMULT and *WIMULTO). See
*SETPI for detailed explanations. If the well has been recompleted by a new *PERF (or *PERFV)
keyword, the layer multiplier specified by previous *LAYER-CTRL remains as long as the layer(s) is still
active.
See documentation and a data-set in the LAYER-CTRL subfolder under the DOC folder.
Allow *AUTOLAYER in Injector’s *BACKFLOW Monitor Constraint
Now *AUTOLAYER action is permitted in injector’s *BACKFLOW monitoring constraint.

What's New in GEM 2015.11 3

See documentation in the AUTOLAYER_INJ subfolder under the DOC folder.
New Keyword *RECYCLE_GEM
A new keyword, *RECYCLE_GEM, is introduced as an alias to the GEM-only (primary) keyword
*RECYCLE. The latter was conflicting with the general sub-keyword of *GCONI. Primary keyword
*RECYCLE is still supported but is deprecated.
See documentation and a data-set in the RECYCLE_GEM subfolder under the DOC folder.
Template Dataset Changes
The following Table lists new or modified template files.
GMSMO078 Demonstrate *POWERQ and *POWERC in smoothening of relative permeability
end-points.
GMSMO090 Use of three-point end-point scaling keywords for individual relative permeability
curves
GMSMO091 Surfactant injection in aqueous phase; o-w capillary number based relative
permeability interpolation. Logarithmic interpolation of IFT table.
GMSMO092 Surfactant injection in aqueous phase; o-w capillary number based relative
permeability interpolation. Linear interpolation of IFT table
GMSMO093 Companion dataset to GMSMO091; No surfactant injected in the aqueous phase
GMSMO094 Empirical Foam Model 2 – Keyword Usage
GMSMO095 Modify oil relative permeability for Stone-1 using SOMGAS and SOMGASI tables,
in presence of hysteresis in oil relative permeability from oil-water table.
GMSMO096 Modify oil relative permeability for Stone-1 using SOMWAT and SOMWATI tables,
in presence of hysteresis in oil relative permeability from gas-oil table.
GMGMC064 Table lookup: Fracture Perm Multiplier vs. Normal Effective Stress.
GMWWM117 Demonstrate use of individual well-layer control actions.

MISCELLANEOUS CHANGES / BUG-FIXES

Bug-Fixes
1. Fixed the use of keywords *SWCON, *SGCRIT, *SWCRIT, *SOIRW, *SOIRG, *SGCON,
*SLCON, *KRWIRO, *KRGCL, *KROGCG defined via *PLNRFRAC_TEMPLATE and applied in
recurrent section via *PLNRFRAC.
2. Fixed restart runs associated with *PLNRFRAC keyword in the recurrent section.
3. Fixed a bug in distance calculation in *IRCONNECT.

4. A bug in output of log10(saturation index) is fixed. The simulation calculations are not affected.
5. Fixed derivative calculation for log(activity coefficient).
6. Fixed a bug related to injected aqueous component when keyword *INCOMP *AQUEOUS is
used.
7. Fixed a bug related to calculation of aquifer contribution in presence of chemical equilibrium
reactions
8. Bug fix for group control to ensure a group production target will not be exceeded after being
switched to other *MAX group constraints

What's New in GEM 2015.11 4

Data Incompatibilities with Previous Versions of GEM
Restarts generated from previous versions are not compatible with this version of the code due to
additional reading/writing of data.

What's New in GEM 2015.11 5