Choosing the Heterogeneous Reservoir Modeling According to the Exploration Stage

Helene Beucher, Isabelle Cojan, François Geffroy, Jacques Rivoirard, and Didier Renard
Ecole des Mines de Paris, Fontainebleau, France

Reservoir models are ideally expected to reflect the supposed deposition processes, honour the facies data at wells, adapt to seismic information and reflect the stratigraphic scheme. The respective role, and the weight, of these different inputs, however, vary largely with the exploration stage.

In the early stages, the hypotheses on the deposition processes are essential, while in the later stages, the quantification is largely driven by the number of wells and the seismic derived data.

The priority given to one type of information or the other is reflected in the stochastic model that can be used. Different approaches are compared in this respect: pixel-based models e.g. truncated gaussian or indicator simulations, object-based models such as boolean models, or process-based models.