Abstract
This chapter presents model upscaling, validation and history match. Upscaling is necessary when a reservoir model is made at a very fine scale, and its cell count is excessively large for dynamic simulators. Many geocellular models range from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of cells and cannot be simulated numerically in a reasonable time with the current mathematical algorithms and computing technology. The main principle of upscaling is the accurate representation of the fine-scaled model by the upscaled model, including the preservation of volumetrics and the equivalencies in flow and production profile between the fine and coarse models.
The ultimate utility for a reservoir model is its usability for performance prediction. Matching the past production data by the reservoir model is the most critical step for the model to face the reality. This is termed history match and it is an ill-posed inverse problem with no unique solution. Therefore, emphasis should be put on multidisciplinary integration in building the model and scientific methods of validation instead of large modifications of the model for the sake of matching historical data.
It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.
Richard Feynman
Coauthors: Xu Zhang, Y. Z. Ma and Renyi Cao (see Acknowledgement for the authors’ affiliations).
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Acknowledgement
Xu Zhang is with Schlumberger based in Houston, Texas. Y. Zee Ma is with Schlumberger based in Denver, Colorado. Renyi Cao is with China University of Petroleum (Beijing).
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Ma, Y.Z. (2019). Introduction to Model Upscaling, Validation and History Match. In: Quantitative Geosciences: Data Analytics, Geostatistics, Reservoir Characterization and Modeling. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17860-4_23
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