A Multi-Process Reservoir Modelling Workflow as the Key for Unlocking Reservoir Prediction in Carbonates. Application to a Sector Model from the Albion R&D Project

Abstract

In carbonate reservoirs, because of the diversity of geological processes involved in the reservoir construction, the extrapolation of properties directly from well data to reservoir model gridblocks may lead to poorly predictive reservoir properties and then production forecasts. This paper proposes a modelling workflow in which new tools from disruptive technologies are associated in order to produce reservoir models consistently with reservoir geological construction. The workflow combines the simulation of the depositional facies and their transformation after diagenesis overprint. Original depositional facies are carried out from SED-RES™, a stratigraphic forward modelling software that generates and transports carbonate sediments according to ecological conditions and wind-induced currents. Then GODIAG™, a lattice gas, reproduces the evolution of the properties of the sediment after it has been deposited. The diagenesis history can be multi-stage and can involve different kinds of physical and chemical reactions. This new workflow has been evaluated in the framework of the ALBION R&D Project dedicated to the study of the Barremian-Aptian rudist-rich carbonate platform from south France that is known as an analogue of the Kharaib and Shuaiba reservoirs (UAE). Thanks to its multi-scale and multi-site aspect, ALBION offers the opportunity to test new modelling tools. The efficiency of the new workflow has been successfully applied on a sector model from an ALBION site on which a rich geological and petrophysical dataset is available from outcrops and numerous wells,