SPE-169369-MS

Integrated Modeling of a Highly Structural and Complex Reservoir Where

the Normal Modeling Rules Do Not Apply, Cerro Fortunoso.
Anthony Thompson, Abel Garriz, Gaston Manestar, Griselda Vocaturo, Vanesa Consoli, and Pablo Giampaoli,
YPF S.A.

Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference held in Maracaibo, Venezuela, 2123 May
2014.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
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Abstract
Cerro Fortunoso is a field with excess of 30 years production history which lies in Mendoza Province,
Argentina. A study was undertaken to establish if the existing five injection well waterflood pilot could
be expanded to encompass the rest of the 240 well field and that the necessary investment for facilities
could be justified.
A detailed look at the field quickly shows why waterflood has only been tried in a very limited fashion.
The Cerro Fortunoso anticline is an asymmetric, west verging structure orientated NNE-SSW and affected
by different kinds of faults located in a fold and thrust belt. The anticline geometry is affected by low and
high angle reverse faults generating an eastern flank that dips up to 80 at the central part of the fold.
An initial static model representing the structural complexity and the 17 cycle high resolution
stratigraphic framework was constructed. However interpretation of RFT data demonstrated that flow was
controlled by thin sandstones lying in the same high order cycles but which were pressure isolated from
each other, hence for secondary recovery it was necessary to understand the areal extent and connectivity
of these sand bodies. Additionally the very high angle of dip and the heterogeneous fluvial reservoir meant
that a sandstone body could plausibly connect with a number of different sandstones on a neighboring
well, leading to a situation where different correlations schemes were plausible.
This paper details how the uncertainty in the correlation of the sand bodies was reduced by integration
of static and dynamic data. A number of correlation scenarios were constructed in the static model and
subsequently evaluated by dynamic testing against the production and pressure data. Through iterations,
a dynamic model was subsequently constructed that matched production and pressure history and in which
it was possible to determine which sands were more critical to the success of any waterflood.
The geological understanding developed demonstrated that sandstone throughout the field had similar
connectivity and petrophysical characteristics to those in the waterflood pilot area. It was also seen that
if the sandstones were to be more discontinuous or to have a lower net-to-gross than modeled, historical
production could not be matched in dynamic simulation. This methodology has demonstrated the potential
to recover significant incremental hydrocarbons by waterflooding the whole field.
2 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 1a) The location of the Cerro Fortunoso field in Argentina with the productive and non-productive basins. b) Satellite image of its location.

Introduction
Argentina has several oil provinces which are all mature and hence the aim of achieving self sufficiency
in oil and gas production means that new ways must be found to increase recovery from existing fields
in addition to discovering new fields. One way YPF is achieving this is by looking at if fields currently
being exploited by primary depletion offered potential for improved oil recovery by water injection. Cerro
Fortunoso was one of the fields thought to have secondary potential. Figure 1 shows the location of Cerro
Fortunoso in Mendoza province, about 100 km SE of Malarge city and 1200km of Buenos Aires. Most
large fields in Mendoza Province were already exploited by waterflood, some decades ago. For water-
flooding not to be initiated the nature of the reservoir either had to be unclear or the capital expenditure
required had to be high. In the case of Cerro Fortunoso a substantial investment is required to cover the
cost of drilling infill wells and for the construction of a pipeline to provide injection water from a river
15 kilometers away.
To minimize the risk associated with converting the field to waterflooding, an integrated study was
sanctioned with the aim to initially characterize the field and then to subsequently determine if water-
flooding would in actual fact be economically viable.
The Field
Cerro Fortunoso has been on production since 1984 and apart from a small waterflood pilot in the
northeastern sector involving 5 injection wells, whose purpose was water disposal, it has been exploited
by primary depletion. A total of over 240 wells have been drilled on Cerro Fortunoso. Despite the limited
water injection, field water cut is currently 50%. This is due to the influence of the transition zone and
coning of water from the aquifer that lies on all flanks of the reservoir. The density of the oil (960.7
kg/m3) results in transition zones with thicknesses in the 10s of meters. In figure 2a is shown the location
of the 240 wells drilled to date on the field along with the depth of the top surface of the reservoir, it can
be seen that this varies by 1000m. Figure 2b shows the fault blocks on the field with figure 2c showing
the location of the gas cap, oil bearing zones and aquifer in comparison to the fields structure. To date
the field has produced 6.39 million m3 from a STOIIP whose estimates in the past have varied between
50 and 135 million m3.
Cerro Fortunoso is located at the external side of the Malarge Fold and Thrust Belt, Neuqun Basin,
Argentina in the vicinity of the Andes Range. Figure 3a below is shown the location of Cerro Fortunoso
in the Malarge area at the leeward side of the Andes lying in the Cuyo desertic region. The absence of
SPE-169369-MS 3

Figure 2a) Existing well locations & top reservoir depth, b) The fault block sectors (NE: waterflooding pilot), c) Location of the gas cap, oil bearing
layers and aquifer in the field.

Figure 3a) The location of Cerro Fortunoso in the foreground lying in the arid Cuyo with the Andes region in the background b) The arid
environment of the field

a local water supply increasing the capital expenditure required for a waterflood. Figure 3b shows the arid
nature of the environment Cerro Fortunoso is located in.
Structural Model Construction
Usually the first step in the construction of a structural model is to extract a surface from a seismic marker.
Unfortunately on Cerro Fortunoso the presence of a significant thickness of igneous rock and high angles
flanks causes a high noise and attenuation respectively, to signal ratio on existing 2D seismic data and
makes completing a 3D survey a fruitless exercise. Without 3d seismic, the structural model was
constructed based on data from both surface outcrops and subsurface well data. This was a challenge as
Cerro Fortunoso is located in a complex structural environment and the fold geometry was shown to vary
significantly along the strike of the field. To match the changes seen by well tops, nine 2D balanced
structural sections were chosen, these notionally equidistant moving from South to North and subse-
4 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 4 Stage 1: Development of east dipping backthrust in the central and southern portions of the structure.
Stage 2: Folding of the sedimentary cover possibly caused by basement involved deformation. Backthrusts formed in Stage 1 are folded together with
the sedimentary sequence.
Stage 3: Possible blocking of folding giving way to high angle reverse and strike-slip faults parallel to the fold strike.
Stage 4: Anticline segmentation due to strike-slip faulting perpendicular to fold strike.

quently termed A-I. The location of the structural sections can be seen in figure 4b based on what is
interpreted as a four stage kinematic evolution. Figure 4a shows the interpreted structural evolution along
the length of the field.
The complex structural model was successfully captured in the static model, specific challenges
successfully completed included:
Preserving the zone thickness within correlated cycles.
Modeling of complex thrust faults and stratigraphic repetitions.
What this structural history meant for the reservoir can be seen in figure 5, the deformation of the
formation results in very high dip angles varying between 35 80 degrees, 0 5 degrees is more typical
range for an oil field.
The best way to appreciate the angle of dip on this field is to look at a line of wells in the NE sector
stretching from off crest of the field into the aquifer. The variation in top reservoir between these 5 wells
is 720m as is shown in figure 6, it should be noted that this figure has no vertical exaggeration.

Effect of well Trajectory Data

It is common in the oilfield that well trajectory data is not entirely reliable. However errors are normally
minor and in a reservoir with typical angles of dip of less than few degrees, any outliers result in
inconsistent isopach reservoir thicknesses or as mountains or troughs in surfaces during the construction
of the static model. Once identified, the error can be mitigated or eliminated by using the trend of data
from other wells. In Cerro Fortunoso with a steeply dipping reservoir, horizons in the model show valleys
and hills on the side of the structure. As it is entirely plausible that these exist, it was very challenging
to determine which wells had errors in their trajectory. In figure 7 the potential impact of well trajectory
on correlation can be seen, a slight change in the actual well trajectory results in a specific point (log
response, correlation with neighbor wells and 3D surface) on the well moving 4 zones in the static model.
SPE-169369-MS 5

Figure 5Four cross sections across Cerro Fortunoso with dip angles for the more prolific eastern flank

Figure 6 a) The NE sector model with a line of wells b) Top reservoir depths from crest to Flank on the NE static model

Main Correlation
Cerro Fortunoso Field produced from Neuqun group which is differentiated into three sections: lower,
middle and upper Neuqun Group. Each of these units is separated from each other by a maximum
accommodation level. Reduced accommodation space between flooding episodes results in fluvial
channels amalgamation and hence more interconnectivity between sands, i.e. the more continuous sands
necessary for successful waterflooding. A schematic of this can be seen in figure 8 below on the partially
6 SPE-169369-MS

cored well. This figure also shows that the Zone

150, Zone NqMd and Zone 80 have the most con-
nected sands and hence potentially the best re-
sponse to waterflooding.
The entire set of well logs across the field are
formed on 98% by basic well logs (Spontaneous
Potential, Gamma Ray, Resistivity, Density or
Sonic logs) and approximately 80 dipmeters along
the field. Additionally, there are 3 borehold image
log and 8 core wells but only 3 are completed on
good conditions to be observed at the present date.
Figure 7Effect of well trajectory errors on well correlation On the other hand, bad caliper and intrusive is
another common characteristic which complicated
the response of logs and the petrophysical analysis.
According to this, the coarse correlation was based on the variations seen on basic well logs, principal
resistivity logs which differentiated its response between the shales and the productive reservoir, adding
mudlogging descriptions, information of cores, images logs and outcrops analogous of Neuqun Group
near to the oil field to create a sedimentary conceptual model which could explain the principal features
(quantity of sand, connectivity, paleoflows, width and thickness etc) for each zones. Related to the
resistivity well logs, since the field has to date been exploited predominantly by primary depletion,
resistivity logs were not adversely affected by injected water response in newer wells. The initial 17-zone
correlation can be seen in figure 9. This representing the correlation moving left to right from a well
drilled in the aquifer moving up to the crest. Note: The gross thickness of the reservoir is in excess of
400m, the net thickness is highly variable but always much less.
The question was if this correlation was detailed enough to assess the suitability of Cerro Fortunoso for
water flooding. In particular do the sands within each zone act as one unit. To asses this the RFT logs were
used, if the zones indeed represented connected sand bodies, then the RFT pressure between each sand
response within a zone should be broadly similar. The RFT responses for the MK-150, one of the zones
with the most potential for waterflooding are shown in figure 10.
In figure 10 it can be seen that within MK-150 that the first well drilled in the sector, well C, shows
the expected constant oil gradient. However the two subsequent wells adjacent wells, well D and well C
show markedly different RFT pressures within the MK-150 zone, this being the interval located between
the pink and blue horizons. well D shows pressure variations within one sand of up to 16 bar while well
C, drilled 4 years later shows pressure variations of up to 43 bar. Such large pressure variations would not
be seen in connected sands. Hence correlation needed to be completed at a finer level.
More Detailed Correlation
The high heterogeneity of the fluvial system and low thickness reservoir makes the log response appears
to vary for the same sand between adjacent wells. Additionally the high dip increase the uncertainty of
the connectivity between the sands. The challenge in correlating the sands based on static data alone can
be seen in figure 11 below.
The sand response seen on well D (pilot injector) at a depth of 20m (circled in blue) above sea level
shows no similar response to the sands lying between the depths of 40-70 m (red arrows) above sea level
in the next well updip, well C. Interpreting from a static point of view exclusively it does indeed look like
the sands are probably disconnected. However we can also investigate the historical injection and
production responses seen in these two wells. These are shown in figure 12 below. Both wells well D and
well C like other up-dip wells on Cerro Fortunoso have a very low water cut. Following conversion of well
D to water injection, it can be seen that there is a clear but delayed response in water production on well
SPE-169369-MS 7

Figure 8 Stratigraphic column of Neuquen basin and stratigraphic interpretation of Cerro Fortunoso

Figure 9 The first 17 Zone correlation moving left to right down flank to crest. The red zone is the magnified zone shown in figure 10

C. Hence some sands must be in connectivity. Other reservoir zones show similar variability in log
response to that seen zone MK-150.
Since dynamic data showed connectivity when static data was inconclusive, it was decided to
investigate the use of dynamic data to determine which sands were linked. From figure 10 it has been
seen that some sands deplete more than others while some of the RFTs taken on sands actually ended
up supercharging due to the low permeability of the rock. We can assume that the lowest RFT
pressures correlate to the most permeable sands with the best connectivity to existing producing
wells. In this case it would suggest that the sands at 0, 50 & 60 m in well C (With measured pressures
of 69, 74 and 73 bar respectively and marked by blue circles) above sea level are in actual fact the
8 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 10 well logs and measured RFT pressures in the MK-150 for well B, well D and well C

Figure 11The challenge of correlating at the fine level in Cerro Fortunoso

most productive layers. For correlation purposes by analyzing the RFT, we are able to reduce the
number of sands in the MK-150 from 6 to 3, this including some of those sands that appear on logs
to potentially be the most productive, for instance the sand at 25m above sea level on well C (with
a measured pressure of 93 bar).
Injection Tracer Logs
In the waterflood pilot area, tracer logs had been run in the injector wells. In all cases a number of injection
logs were run and this in theory gave injected rates per sand at different times and total injection rates.
As injection was limited to a maximum pressure equivalent to initial reservoir pressure, injection only
occurs into sands which have been at least partially depleted, however initially injection can be made into
disconnected sands which have only been depleted previously by the injection well when it was previously
on production. However after prolonged injection it must mean that the water is being injected in to sand
SPE-169369-MS 9

Figure 12Historical production and injection data. a) well D and b) well C

Figure 13Water injection allocation per sand in well D and historical injection rates

where fluids are being withdrawn by another well. The injection log response for well D in zone MK-150
can be seen in figure 13.
The different perforations were assigned different letters, the shallow most perforation being the A
perforation. In figure 13 it can be seen that there is a W perforation which in well D was not even the
deepest perforation, in fact water could be injected through 23 different perforations. The percentages in
the water injection charts represent the proportional of the total water injected in well D that is thought
to have entered each specific perforation. Interpretation of the well logs confirms that all the sands
identified received some injection water. However in figure 13 it can be seen that injection into the T,
U and V perforations occurs solely in the early history of water injection on well D, this suggesting
that although these sands linked to these perforations were depleted by well D, they are not depleted by
other wells. Once water replaces the produced volumes, pressures return in these sands to initial reservoir
10 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 14 A proposed correlation in MK-150 based on injection data and RFT data

pressure and hence water stops entering these sands. The W perforation at 70 m TVDSS however shows
sustained injection over a period of a decade. Additionally the proportion of water injected into this
perforation as a percentage of the total increases, this presumably due to reduced injection with time into
the more isolated sands. Hence for zone MK-150 in the well D well, it appears that only the sands lying
at 20 m and between 60 and 70 m TVDSS (Identified by green ticks) actually communicate with sands
in neighboring wells and will contribute to incremental production from a waterflood.
The identification of key sands from both RFTs and injection logs works to simplify the correlation
challenge facing the geologist. In figure 14 we can see a proposed correlation based on the RFT data,
injections logs and of course well log data.
In the figure above it can be seen that it is possible to correlate a sand at the base of MK-150 which
shows high injectivity on well D and depletion on well C. Above this in the MK-150 there are a number
of sands in all the wells but the injection data suggests that these sands are discontinuous. Hence it is
possible to group this area as a sub zone in which sands do no need to be correlated in this area. Finally
at 20 m TVDSS on well D, we can once again see a key sand that can be correlated to a depleted sand
in well C. Another continuous sand also lies in the base of the MK-140. These are connected sands are
shown in figure 14 above.
According to all these dynamic evidences, a detail correlation was made to adjust RFT points,
productivity and waterflooding response well by well. On this second steps, the focus was made on this
data inside each zones and 35 subzones were divided on the static model in the NE Sector (waterflooding
pilot). Figure 15.
With each new correlation, it was obviously necessary to rebuild the static model grid, repropagate
facies (The log facies interpretation did not change, only the propagation) and static properties such as
porosity and permeability and then re-export them to the dynamic simulator. With each new grid being
received by the reservoir engineer, it was necessary to modify the simulation deck and schedule files and
sometimes complete run time optimization if stability issues were encountered. Therefore the iteration
process was more time consuming than would normally be the case when only properties and perhaps
facies are varied in an iteration between static and dynamic model.
SPE-169369-MS 11

Figure 15Final detail correlation (35 sub-zones). History match in pressure.

Figure 16 J function data from mercury air core flood tests

The Simulation Model

Cerro Fortunoso proposed a unique challenge to simulate due to the larger number of cells needed in the
vertical dimension to model the 12 m thick sands which make up the productive intervals of the field.
All the 17 correlated zones were shown to contain potentially productive thin sand intervals so it was not
possible to increase the cell thickness in any of the productive zones. This resulted in the dynamic model
having 224 cells in the K direction with active cells varying in thickness between 12.5m. Additionally
to history match the waterflood pilot, it was necessary to ensure there were at least 2 cells between each
injector producer pair. As the well spacing on the field is 150 meters in some cases, this meant that the
horizontal dimension of the cells was restricted to an average of 30m. Hence a full field static model
would be either very slow or impossible to simulate. Hence it was necessary to consider simulating sectors
of the field only. Structural interpretation shown in figure 2b and the variation in deepest oil shown in
figure 17 suggest that Cerro Fortunoso is separated into individual blocks that could be simulated
12 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 17Water saturation modelling. Comparison of saturation derived from J functions and resistivity logs

separately. It was decided initially to simulate only the North East block which included the waterflood
pilot.
Gas Cap
The reservoir has a 95% CO2 gas cap from volcanic activity. However it was decided to model the Gas
cap as a conventional hydrocarbon gas cap. The gas cap region was specified as a separate reservoir region
in the simulation so the gas entering the oil bearing part of the reservoir could be reassigned as CO2 and
subsequently removed from economics calculations.
Simulation Time Optimization
To improve the running speed of the model, it was necessary to run the model constrained by reservoir
volume rate initially. If run on more the more typical liquid rate, wells unable to make their liquid rate
constraint reduced their flowing bottom hole pressure to the minimum allowable of 1 bar. If these wells
were located near the gas cap, this resulted in the subsequent production of large quantities of gas and
hence simulation instability. By limiting the amount of gas produced using the reservoir fluid history
matching constraint, the volume of gas produce in the simulation is restricted.
Relative Permeability
A number of experimental relative permeability curves were available. A number of these were regarded
as being of doubtful quality with endpoints inconsistent with the expected range for this type of oil
viscosity and reservoir permeability. Directly using relative permeability based on experimental data, even
the relative permeability that are regarded as being more reliable resulted in high levels of simulated water
production early in field life while in actual fact water production in the field was initially negligible. Even
applying the J function saturation with its lower initial water saturations than the resistivity still resulted
in an excessive simulated water production. To solve this, the critical water saturation was increased so
that water does not flow at the water saturations modeled initially by the averaged J function in the dry
oil sands. An alternative would have been to modify static data used in the construction of the J function,
SPE-169369-MS 13

Table 1Comparison of water saturations calculated from logs and J function on well C in the MK-150 zone.
Sub zone Log derived water saturation J function water saturation

MK-150 0.35 0.28

MK-150a Shale Shale
MK-150b 0.45 0.33
MK-150c 0.5 0.4
MK-150c2 0.77 Non-Reservoir
MK-150d Non-Reservoir Non-Reservoir
MK-150e 0.42 0.29

Figure 18 Flow test results per well and Block in Cerro Fortunoso

the porosity-permeability relationship for instance could have been more optimistic while still being
justified by the dataset.
PVT
In the simulation a live oil was coupled with a dead gas. The oil viscosity at initial reservoir conditions
had an average of 33cp although this varies depending on depth due to the high vertical extent of the
reservoir units in Cerro Fortunoso.
Saturation Modeling
The productive features on Cerro Fortunoso are thin sands dispersed stratigraphically between massive
dense beds. The impact of this was that even in the centre of a reservoir bed, well logs would be partly
reporting the log response from either the over or underlying dense formations. For both porosity and
resistivity this meant that if the log response was directly interpreted, the properties would be underes-
timated. For porosity this would obviously affect the material balance. However of most impact on the
history match was the saturation modeling. When log derived saturations were used in the model, a high
level of water production was predicted when in actual fact production history had shown negligible water
production away from the aquifer. This was interpreted as being due to the saturations in the productive
sands being estimated as lying in the transition zone of the relative permeability curve resulting in
simultaneous production of oil and water. In reality the saturation in the reservoir rock was at Swi which
obviously results in the production of dry oil.
Figure 16 shows J function numbers against water saturation data. All the data is calculated from the
capillary pressure mercury-air analysis completed on three cores taken from Cerro Fortunoso. The
averaged J function represents minimized error achievable by the application of the equation: J A *
(SwCore B)C D
The J function values were obviously calculated for the controlled relative permeability water
saturation points and entered into the simulation oil water relative permeability table. The surface tension
for Cerro Fortunoso between the oil and water systems is 25 dynes/cm. With this data and the permeability
and porosity data obtained from the static model, the saturation in the field was populated. A comparison
of the saturation calculated directly from resistivity logs and saturation from J function can be seen in
figure 17.
14 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 19 a) The location of the first two well in the NE sector model. b) The oil rates and cumulative for well B and well G.

In the stacked reservoirs of YPF, flow tests are often completed on individual sand levels. These tests
are a useful guide for approximating the location of both the gas and oil water contacts. In figure 18 below
are pictorially shown all the flow tests taken on Cerro Fortunoso with 5 possible results shown, lowest
know gas original (LKG), lowest know gas depleted (LKGa), highest known oil (HKO), lowest known
oil (LKO) and highest known water (HKW). It can be seen that while the depth of the GOC is fairly
constant through the field, at 520 m above sea level. However the depth at which flow tests are dominated
by water production varies throughout the field. This helped the geological model to split the field into
different hydraulically isolated sectors. The fact that each sector is isolated means that in theory sectors
can modeled separately to each other. However in some cases the complex field tectonics has resulted in
one sector of the field underlying the other. In these cases a well often produces commingled this
necessitating simultaneous simulation of two different blocks to obtain an accurate result. However this
is not the case in the North East block (Listed as NE on figure 17). The depth of the OWC in the NE Block
based on the results of the flow tests is 350m TVDSS.
Pressure Data
Since most of the field has been exclusively developed by primary depletion, there was limited water
breakthrough data to history match and this only after the initiation of the waterflood pilot. However there
was significant RFT data available. As the field is located in an area where the surface is significantly
above sea level, the RFT data was all critical in determining the equilibration conditions.
The first wells in each block showed equilibrium and constant gradients. Subsequent wells as could be
expected showed varying levels of pressure depletion. This demonstrating that there was pressure
communication between wells. Additionally pressure data demonstrated depletion of varying levels from
all individual reservoir zones. This meant that no reservoir zones could be discarded for history matching,
this slowing simulation run times.
The History Matching Process
In the Development Department of YPF, the policy is that the static model should be constructed at the
same scale as the dynamic modeling is expected to be simulated. This means that the upscaling is
completed in one stage at the with the upscaling of well logs rather than a two stage approach, one for
logs, the next for conversion of a detailed static model into a simulatable dynamic model. Additionally
SPE-169369-MS 15

Figure 20 The RFT pressure match for well C in zone MK-150

Figure 21The history match of the water injection for each mandrel in well D

petrophysical properties are imported directly from the static model and any modification proposed by the
simulation engineer is imported back into the static modeling package and assessed to see if it is plausible
in the geological context of the field.
Early Field History (Primary depletion)
The static model was used as the basis for the first dynamic model. The simulation model ran but of
primary concern was that the two first wells drilled in the NE sector of the field. well B and well G, in
the history match managed to achieve initial rate but then were unable to maintain their historical
productivity. In figure 19 it can be seen that well B and well G have produced 210,000m3 and 110,000m3
respectively, the vast majority of this on primary. Since the oil is comparatively viscous and heavy, with
an initial average formation volume factor of 1.1 and a GOR of 41m3/m3, this meant that the hydrocarbon
pore volume of reservoir in contact with these wells must be significantly larger than the produced
volumes.
The sizes of the productive features in the static model were initially based on observations from a
nearby analog outcrop. An initial attempt of increasing the porosity still resulted in the early wells not
being able to achieve historical production rates. Hence it became obvious that it was necessary to increase
16 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 22NE sector oil and water rate history match

Figure 23Individual well history matches around injector well D

the size of the sand bodies despite the evidence from the outcrop. Increasing the variogram range in the
facies propagation obviously resulted in the sand responses seen in well logs being propagated further
away from the wells in the model and also increased the probability of these sand bodies intersecting sand
bodies propagated from other wells, this creating the volumes necessary for these 2 wells to achieve their
historical production on primary. Additional evidence that at least some of the sand bodies were large
enough to extend over multiple well spacings was that cumulative production from subsequent wells was
less than for these initial wells, i.e. well B and well G have depleted some of the sands seen in other wells.
SPE-169369-MS 17

Although this reduced the attractiveness of drilling further new wells on primary, it did suggest that some
sands could be exploited by waterflooding.
History matching (Second Pass)
The history matching in the second pass was focused predominantly on assessing the proposed static
models proposed through interpretation of well logs, RFT data and injection logs. Obviously the RFT data
was used to estimate sand connectivity across the field and was the key constraint for the history matching
process during the dry oil production time seen early in field life. As the history match improved with no
wells reaching unrealistically low flowing bottom hole pressures, the wells were controlled by liquid rate
and for the final history match, wells were controlled by oil rate. Following the initial simulation run, the
history match results were analyzed and it was assessed if varying the permeability globally would
improve the history match. Additionally the simulated water breakthrough was compared with historical
data. Normally the simulation suggested late water breakthrough than actually occurred so this meant
reducing the Corey exponent of the water relative permeability curve and also increasing the end point
water relative permeability.
RFT Pressure History Match
In addition to historical well production, simulated injection data was compared to the injection percent-
ages estimated from transient injection logs. The results of the history match can be seen in figure 20 for
well C in zone MK-150. The RFT match we can see is good with the simulated pressures matching the
historical trend.
Injection Log History Match
In figure 21 below is the history match for the water injection per mandrel on well D. Which mandrel
provides water to a particular perforation can vary through field life. For well D this can be seen by the
opening of the top mandrel a number of years after the base and middle mandrels. The W perforation
which was determined to take a substantial portion of the injected water receives water from the base
mandrel. No local modifiers were used to match injection. Additionally the water is injected where the
static and dynamic model suggests, i.e. only the total injection rate for the well is constrained.

The Final History Match

The field wide match of the oil and water rates can be seen in figure 22 below. Unsurprisingly the oil rate
is well match since in the final history match runs, the wells were constrained by oil rate. Water production
is well matched and follows the trend first of water influx from the flank aquifer and then of water
injection from November 1998 onwards. The historical water cut is slightly overestimated after water
injection begins, this suggesting that the effective hydrocarbon pore volume is perhaps underestimated in
the sector or they Corey exponent for water relative permeability is too low.
In this paper it is impractical to show all the history matches so we propose to show the history matches
around one of the key injectors, well D. In January 2003 the well was converted into a water injector.
Produced water was subsequently seen in all the surrounding wells, namely well B, well H, well C, well
J and well I. The history match of these wells is shown below in figure 23.
In the early field life production history, wells well B, well H and well D all show comparatively
dry oil production and this is replicated in the history match. This showing that the water saturation
model plus the depth and strength of the aquifer used in the model is plausible for this injection
pattern. Water injection on well D was commenced in 2003 and water subsequently broke through
to four of the five wells surrounding well D. In the history match the water breakthrough was
modeled as reaching all 5 wells including well B which in actual fact did not see water. well B is the
well directly updip of well D. The volume of water produced in the history match was over estimated
in 4 out of the five wells, this suggesting that the impact of the water injector extends outside the first
ring of producers around well D. Alternatively it could suggest that hydrocarbon pore volume is
18 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 24 Simulated water saturation in NE Cerro Fortunoso in 1984 and 2012

Figure 25Simulated pressure in Cerro Fortunoso in 1984 and 2012

under estimated in this area or that the water relative permeability curve has an endpoint that is too
high.
In figure 24 is the initial water saturation seen over the productive MK-150 zone. A transition zone can
be seen extending up half of the structure and it can be seen that in the simulated saturation for 2012, the
aquifer has displaced some flank oil. Additionally the impact of the waterflood pilot can be seen further
updip as change in the water saturation in comparison to initial water saturation.
The simulated pressure shown in figure 25 shows that in the MK-150, reservoir pressure are estimated
dropped 60-70 bar over the life time of the field, this being dangerously close or sometimes below the
initial bubblepoint pressure of 90 bar. In the waterflood pilot area, about 40 bar of this has been regained.
Therefore there is plenty of potential to increase water injection.
Results
In figure 26 below the additional layers that were identified in the final history match are listed.
Unsurprisingly more layers were identified in the most productive reservoir zones, in particular MK-150,
the zone that has been described in most detail in this paper. Mk-150 a-e represents the 5 additional layers
identified by integrating dynamic data in to the construction of the static model. The split of layer c into
2 layers, c1 and c2 represents a further iteration based on feedback from the dynamic model.
As a result of the integrated modeling project, a development plan for expanding the existing
waterflood has been proposed for the whole field. However to date forecasts have been limited to the NE
sector. In figure 27 we can see the simulated water saturation in the MK-150 zone in 2038. The left hand
SPE-169369-MS 19

Figure 26 Final correlation of Cerro Fortunoso

Figure 27Simulates water saturations in the NE bock in 2038 with the existing waterflood or an expanded waterflood injection

side showing the continuation with the existing pilot waterflood and the right hand side with an expansion
of waterflooding to cover the entire block. The reduction in oil saturation with expansion of the waterflood
is especially apparent in southern region of the NE block.
In figure 28 the base case and water injection forecasts can be seen. Incremental production from
increasing water injection in the North East sector will lead to simulated incremental volumes of 1.3
million m3. This triples the potential volumes extractable from this sector and the same methodology can
be applied to the other blocks on Cerro Fortunoso, this justifying the necessary capital investment for
waterflooding.
Conclusion
With the easy conventional oil in Argentina having been produced, one remaining way to find new oil in
existing fields is by converting fields from primary to secondary production or from secondary to tertiary.
However the reasons for not converting reservoirs historically from primary production to secondary were
normally based on risk. For Cerro Fortunoso the high capital costs required to develop the field combined
20 SPE-169369-MS

Figure 28 Simulated base case and expanded water injection forecasts

with the ambiguous log response which suggested that sand were predominantly disconnected resulted in
secondary production not being implemented. To reduce the risk, it was necessary to complete a
waterflood pilot to both demonstrate that waterflooding has potential and to provide water injection and
production data to constrain the history matching process. It was also demonstrated that the successful
modeling of the field would not have been possible without integrating dynamic data in the static
modeling process. The modeling of Cerro Fortunoso has reduced the risk associated with a waterflood and
hence an expansion of the waterflood has been approved.

Acknowledgements
Firstly I would like to thank the management of YPF S.A. for giving us permission to publish this paper.
Those working on the asset have provided data and given valuable opinions that have improved that
quality of this work with special mentions for Dante Crosta and Luis Strappa. Finally I would like to thank
the entire development team of YPF for their ideas and suggestions both during the study and the
completion of this paper.