Using Electrical Analogues to Model Flow in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

Larry W. Lake, Professor

The University of Texas at Austin

 

Flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs has traditionally been modeled with a pixel-based approach.   Introduced in the 1950s, such models are highly flexible, enormously complex and can be expensive to run.   Despite this advanced state of development, pixel-based models (grid blocks or cells) have a spotty history in making accurate predictions.  And they are not easy to use.

 

This presentation gives and alternative method based on a electrical analog to fluid flow.  The capacitance-resistance model (CRM) is a point-to-point (well-to-well) model that is sufficiently simple as to be able to use commercial solvers to effect history matches and provide field-level optimization.  It is consistent with the notion of field-level optimization and of the pixel-window idea of numerical simulation.

 

The presentation gives a brief introduction to CRM and shows some results applied to field data.   The most recent results from a field-level tracer study indicated that CRM could be a valuable addition to or alternative for this common technology.