Modeling of naturally fractured reservoirs (NFR) is a challenging problem which occurs frequently in reservoir engineering. Rock matrix, natural fractures, vugs, and also micro-fractures, constitute these NFR. Furthermore, it is well known that vugs effect on permeability is related to their connectivity. Likewise, in certain cases NFR exhibit fractures at different scales with poor fracture connectivity and disorderly spatial distribution of them. Thus, it is important to consider other alternatives for characterizing these heterogeneities in a more efficient way than traditional approaches. One of the reasons which drive to find solutions to these challenges is because these geological formations contain more than 60% of the world's remaining oil. Therefore, in order to exploit in a more efficient way the remaining hydrocarbons reserves, it is frequently necessary to face greater reservoir characterization and modeling challenges than those ones existing when these reservoirs started their productive life. This is even more relevant when a pressure maintenance project or an IOR/EOR process is planning to be implemented.rnThis work summarizes recent advances that address different dynamic modeling approaches, taking into account NFR's features like the presence of vugs and fractures at multi scales with a non-uniform spatial distribution. Thus, it is demonstrated the advantages of these continuum approaches to model anomalous behavior that cannot be reproduced by the conventional Warren and Root dual porosity model in order to obtain good-quality history matches for these systems. Also, the characterization challenges that the proposed models pose to the user are reviewed. Finally, some insights aimed to improve the proposed modeling techniques are provided.
展开▼
