Modeling petroleum reservoirs and the intricacies of their inherent morphological and structural characteristics requires sophisticated tools.

These tools may consist of deterministic, stochastic or objects based methods and are necessary in order to fill the interwell space.

Integrating a variety of modeling tools may be necessary for complex reservoirs, In such cases, the relationships between lithofacies, the shapes and sizes of the sedimentary bodies, and the depositional mode of the lithostratigraphic units must be defined. Depending on the scale and the purpose of the study, it may be important to reproduce the shapes of the bodies and/or their internal heterogeneities using different methods. For example:

 Object-based models are well suited for constructing channels in a flood plain

 Pixel models may be used if the internal heterogeneities of the channel are critical for fluid flow studies

 Non-stationary models are required when a regional distribution of lithofacies from proximal to distal environments induce lateral changes

It is also important to incorporate other types of information. Conceptual geologic information or 3D seismic data will enhance the model particularly when bore hole and core data are wanting. Realistically, this additional information often serves as a guide to the parameter selections required by the modeling software.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate how to combine these different methods of modeling while integrating seismic and conceptual information using data from an actual reservoir.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90928©1999 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas