Reservoir Engineering
Detailed reservoir characterization requires geology, petrophysics, geophysics, and reservoir engineering. In this section you will find how NoDoC can help to estimate cost of Geology, Petrophysics,...
click the following links to find more about NoDoC features.
• Reservoir Properties
• Reservoir Geology
• Well Charting
• Reservoir Geophysics
• Reservoir Petrophysics
• Well Testing
• Reservoir Modelling
The technology concerned with the prediction of the optimum economic recovery of oil or gas from hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs. It is an eclectic technology requiring coordinated application of many disciplines: physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, and chemical engineering. Originally, the role of reservoir engineering was exclusively that of counting oil and natural gas reserves. The reserves - the amount of oil or gas that can be economically recovered from the reservoir - are a measure of the wealth available to the owner and operator. It is also necessary to know the reserves in order to make infomred decisions concerning the viability of downstream pipeline, refining, and marketing facilities that will rely on the production as feedstocks.
The scope of reservoir engineering has broadened to include the analysis of optimum ways for recovering oil and natural gas, and the study and implementation of enhanced recovery techniques for increasing the recovery, above that which can be expected from the use of conventional technology.
The amount of oil in a reservoir can be estimated volumetrically or by material balance techniques. A reservoir is sampled only at the points at which wells penetrate it. By using logging techniques and core analysis, the porosity and net feet of pay (oil-saturated interval) and the average oil saturation for the interval, can be estimated in the immediate vicinity of the well. The oil-saturated interval observed at one location is not identical to that at another because of the inherent heterogeneity of a sedimentary layer. It is therefore necessary to use statistical averaging techniques in order to define the average oil content of the reservoir (usually expressed in barrels per net acre-foot) and the average net pay. The areal extent of the reservoir is inferred from the extrapolation of geology and fluid content as well as the drilling of dry holes beyond the productive limits of the reservoir. The definition of reservoir boundaries can be heightened by study of seismic surveys, particularly 3-D surveys, and analysis of pressure build-ups in wells after they have been brought on production.
The overall recovery of crude oil from a reservoir is a function of the production mechanism, the reservoir and fluid parameters, and the implementation of supplementary recovery techniques. In general, recovery efficiency is not dependent upon the rate of production except for those reservoirs where gravity segregation is sufficient to permit segregation of the gas, oil, and water. Where gravity drainage is the producing mechanism, which occurs when the oil column in the reservoir is quite thick, and the vertical permeability is high and a gas cap is initially present or is developed on producing, the reservoir will also show a significant effect of rate on the production efficiency. Reservoir engineering expertise, together with geological and petrophysical engineering expertise, is being used to make very detailed studies of the production performance of crude oil reservoirs, in an effort to delineate the distribution of residual oil and gas in the reservoir, and to develop the necessary technology to enhance the recovery. See also Petroleum enhanced recovery.
Well testing broadly refers to the diagnostic tests run on wells in petroleum reservoirs to determine well and reservoir properties. The most important well tests are called pressure transient tests and are conducted by changing the rate of a well in a prescribed way and recording the resulting change in pressure with time.
The information obtained from pressure transient tests includes estimates of (1) unaltered formation permeability to the fluid(s) produced in the well; (2) altered (usually reduced) permeability near the well caused by drilling and completion practices; (3) altered (increased) permeability near the well created by deliberately stimulating the well by injecting either an acid that dissolves some of the formation or a high-pressure fluid that creates fractures in the formation; (4) distances to flow barriers located in the area drained by the well; and (5) average pressure in the area drained by the well. In addition, some testing programs may confirm hypothesized models of the reservoir, including important variations of formation properties with distance or location of gas/oil, oil/water, or other fluid/fluid contacts.
Pressure transient tests are usually interpreted by comparing the observed pressure-time response to the predicted response by a mathematical model of the well/reservoir system. Graphical techniques are used to calculate permeability. More sophisticated graphical techniques involve matching changes in pressure to pre-plotted analytical solutions (type-curve matching). Regression analysis is used to match observed pressure-time data to mathematical models. Although analytical solutions are being found for more and more complex reservoir models each year, many reservoirs are still so complex that their behaviour cannot be described accurately by analytical solutions. In such cases, finite-difference approximations to the governing flow equations can be used in commercial reservoir simulators, the reservoir properties treated as unknowns, and properties found that fit the observed data well.
Reservoir behavior can be simulated using models that have been constructed to have properties similar either to an ideal geometric shape of constant properties or to the shape and varying properties of a real (non-ideal) oil or gas reservoir. See also Model theory; Simulation.
For application to petroleum reservoirs, it is necessary to predict the simultaneous flow behaviour of more than one fluid phase having different properties (water, gas, and crude oil). The permeability, the relative permeability, and the density and viscosity of each phase constitute its transport properties for calculating its flow. The relative permeability is a factor for each phase (oil, water, gas) which, when multiplied by the permeability for a single phase such as water, will give the permeability for the given phase. It varies with the volume fraction of the pore space occupied by the phase, called the saturation of the given phase. Generally, the relative permeability of the water phase depends only on its own saturation, and likewise for the gas phase. The relative permeability of the oil phase is a function of the saturations of both gas and water phases.
click the following links to find more about NoDoC features.
• Reservoir Properties
• Reservoir Geology
• Well Charting
• Reservoir Geophysics
• Reservoir Petrophysics
• Well Testing
• Reservoir Modelling
The technology concerned with the prediction of the optimum economic recovery of oil or gas from hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs. It is an eclectic technology requiring coordinated application of many disciplines: physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, and chemical engineering. Originally, the role of reservoir engineering was exclusively that of counting oil and natural gas reserves. The reserves - the amount of oil or gas that can be economically recovered from the reservoir - are a measure of the wealth available to the owner and operator. It is also necessary to know the reserves in order to make infomred decisions concerning the viability of downstream pipeline, refining, and marketing facilities that will rely on the production as feedstocks.
The scope of reservoir engineering has broadened to include the analysis of optimum ways for recovering oil and natural gas, and the study and implementation of enhanced recovery techniques for increasing the recovery, above that which can be expected from the use of conventional technology.
The amount of oil in a reservoir can be estimated volumetrically or by material balance techniques. A reservoir is sampled only at the points at which wells penetrate it. By using logging techniques and core analysis, the porosity and net feet of pay (oil-saturated interval) and the average oil saturation for the interval, can be estimated in the immediate vicinity of the well. The oil-saturated interval observed at one location is not identical to that at another because of the inherent heterogeneity of a sedimentary layer. It is therefore necessary to use statistical averaging techniques in order to define the average oil content of the reservoir (usually expressed in barrels per net acre-foot) and the average net pay. The areal extent of the reservoir is inferred from the extrapolation of geology and fluid content as well as the drilling of dry holes beyond the productive limits of the reservoir. The definition of reservoir boundaries can be heightened by study of seismic surveys, particularly 3-D surveys, and analysis of pressure build-ups in wells after they have been brought on production.
The overall recovery of crude oil from a reservoir is a function of the production mechanism, the reservoir and fluid parameters, and the implementation of supplementary recovery techniques. In general, recovery efficiency is not dependent upon the rate of production except for those reservoirs where gravity segregation is sufficient to permit segregation of the gas, oil, and water. Where gravity drainage is the producing mechanism, which occurs when the oil column in the reservoir is quite thick, and the vertical permeability is high and a gas cap is initially present or is developed on producing, the reservoir will also show a significant effect of rate on the production efficiency. Reservoir engineering expertise, together with geological and petrophysical engineering expertise, is being used to make very detailed studies of the production performance of crude oil reservoirs, in an effort to delineate the distribution of residual oil and gas in the reservoir, and to develop the necessary technology to enhance the recovery. See also Petroleum enhanced recovery.
Well testing broadly refers to the diagnostic tests run on wells in petroleum reservoirs to determine well and reservoir properties. The most important well tests are called pressure transient tests and are conducted by changing the rate of a well in a prescribed way and recording the resulting change in pressure with time.
The information obtained from pressure transient tests includes estimates of (1) unaltered formation permeability to the fluid(s) produced in the well; (2) altered (usually reduced) permeability near the well caused by drilling and completion practices; (3) altered (increased) permeability near the well created by deliberately stimulating the well by injecting either an acid that dissolves some of the formation or a high-pressure fluid that creates fractures in the formation; (4) distances to flow barriers located in the area drained by the well; and (5) average pressure in the area drained by the well. In addition, some testing programs may confirm hypothesized models of the reservoir, including important variations of formation properties with distance or location of gas/oil, oil/water, or other fluid/fluid contacts.
Pressure transient tests are usually interpreted by comparing the observed pressure-time response to the predicted response by a mathematical model of the well/reservoir system. Graphical techniques are used to calculate permeability. More sophisticated graphical techniques involve matching changes in pressure to pre-plotted analytical solutions (type-curve matching). Regression analysis is used to match observed pressure-time data to mathematical models. Although analytical solutions are being found for more and more complex reservoir models each year, many reservoirs are still so complex that their behaviour cannot be described accurately by analytical solutions. In such cases, finite-difference approximations to the governing flow equations can be used in commercial reservoir simulators, the reservoir properties treated as unknowns, and properties found that fit the observed data well.
Reservoir behavior can be simulated using models that have been constructed to have properties similar either to an ideal geometric shape of constant properties or to the shape and varying properties of a real (non-ideal) oil or gas reservoir. See also Model theory; Simulation.
For application to petroleum reservoirs, it is necessary to predict the simultaneous flow behaviour of more than one fluid phase having different properties (water, gas, and crude oil). The permeability, the relative permeability, and the density and viscosity of each phase constitute its transport properties for calculating its flow. The relative permeability is a factor for each phase (oil, water, gas) which, when multiplied by the permeability for a single phase such as water, will give the permeability for the given phase. It varies with the volume fraction of the pore space occupied by the phase, called the saturation of the given phase. Generally, the relative permeability of the water phase depends only on its own saturation, and likewise for the gas phase. The relative permeability of the oil phase is a function of the saturations of both gas and water phases.
