Integration of Horizontal Wells in the Modeling of Carbonates Reservoir. Upscaling and Economical Assessment Challenges

摘要

The integration of horizontal wells during the modeling and the economical assessment of reservoirs isbecoming an important task. This is mainly due to the development of horizontal drilling and theimprovement of the logging techniques of horizontal wells. However, this integration of horizontal wellscreates additional challenges related to the uncertainty generated by the upscaling of the well data fromwell log scale to reservoir scale. A large number of probable scenarios is required prior to the economicalassessment of the reservoir potential in terms of hydrocarbon in place and reservoir performance forecast.In this paper we will present a process for quantifying and modeling the uncertainty of the upscaling ofhorizontal well logs, then we will discuss the impact of this uncertainty and the pore volume and theeconomical assessment of the reserves related to the hydrocarbon reservoir.The process of quantifying, incorporating and modeling the uncertainty introduced by the upscaling ofthe properties of horizontal wells, can be decomposed into four steps: (1) Defining the optimal geologicallayering scheme. (2) Quantifying the one dimension uncertainty introduced by the upscaling of thehorizontal wells. (3) Modeling the upscaling uncertainty in the three dimension reservoir. (4) Ranking thedifferent scenarios through pore volume calculation and flow simulation processes.The technique was applied to a tight carbonate reservoir. The study showed that the range ofuncertainty, introduced by the integration of horizontal wells into the reservoir model, can significantlyimpact the accuracy of the reservoir pore volume and the reservoir performance forecast.