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Upscaling of Flow Units for Reservoir Flow Incorporating Small-Scale

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SPE 68702

Upscaling of Flow Units for Reservoir Flow Incorporating Small-Scale Heterogeneities

D. Mikes, Université de Rouen, O.H.M. Barzandji, SPE, J. Bruining, SPE, and C.R. Geel, SPE, Delft University of
Technology

Copyright 2001, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.

injection ratios. The ensuing upscaled relative permeabilities
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and are anisotropic and flow-rate dependent. They are used as the
Exhibition held in Jakarta, Indonesia, 17–19 April 2001.
constitutive relations for the flow units, which is the next
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of superior level to the crossbed.
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to This model and its properties are incorporated into the
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at simulation of the full reservoir described in the SPE ninth
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of comparative study on black oil simulators in heterogeneous
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is reservoirs. We will ignore the rate dependence and use a
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300
words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous constant anisotropy factor in each flow unit. The result shows
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
that small-scale heterogeneities characteristic of the various
flow cells must be specifically taken into account. Our
procedure provides a method to accomplish this. The method
is easy to implement.
Abstract
Small-scale heterogeneities have a significant effect on the
Introduction
behaviour of fluid flow through a reservoir, since capillary
Reservoirs are heterogeneous at all scales. Lack of data and
forces trap the non-wetting phase in the high-permeable parts
limitation in computer power, dictates that we need to simplify
of a water-wet porous medium. An upscaling procedure must
to obtain a manageable reservoir model. In this simplification
therefore be able to account for reservoir structure as well as
process two disciplines are involved, one is essentially
for relative permeabilities and capillary pressures on the
geological and deals with the construction of a detailed
lamina scale.
reservoir model; the other is to assign appropriately averaged
For the geological model we propose a five-scale hierarchy
permeabilities and constitutive relations to the grid blocks
with crossbed and subfacies as key elements: i.e. lamina scale
used in the reservoir simulation.
→ flow cell scale → flow unit scale → facies scale →
Lack of data precludes the construction of a completely
reservoir scale. The reservoir model is a simplified version of
deterministic reservoir model. Deterministic models are also
the geological model with the flow cell and flow unit as
unnecessarily complex, because many structures are
building blocks. As an example we take a model of a
repetitive 55. Stochastic models can represent variability and
meandering river with three types of flow units, viz. channel, correlation, but require quantification of the statistical
pointbar, and floodplain. Each of these consists of one type of
properties9,14,21 e.g. variograms. These statistics, even when
flow cell, i.e. trough crossbedding, longitudinal bedding and
they are based on geological data, are often not directly related
horizontal bedding, respectively (Fig. 2).
to a geological model of the deposits and often disregard the
We propose a four-step procedure (Fig. 1): (1) Assignment of
fine scale detail2,4,21,51 . Genetically based models can be an
flow cells and flow units; (2) Calculation of capillary pressures
alternative if the relation between sedimentary environment
and relative permeabilities of laminae; (3) Steady state flow and resulting structure is well known. The model procedure is
simulation on flow cells; (4) Assignment of the ensuing
to split the geological structure into units and subunits etc.
effective phase permeabilities and capillary pressures to the
This first of all requires a full description of these flow
flow units. The macro reservoir has the flow units as building
(sub)units. Subsequently we need a simplification of their
blocks.
internal heterogeneity and reconstitute the reservoir in terms of
We use lamina permeabilities either from our strongly
the simplified units. For reasons of lack of data natural
improved probe-permeameter or from a database. We calculate variation is often disregarded38, but can be easily incorporated.
lamina scale capillary pressures and relative permeabilities
It is generally accepted that constitutive relations (relative
using Brooks-Corey and Leverett-J function. Upscaling is
permeability and capillary pressure) measured on the core
realized using flow simulation: A microsimulation is
scale are not representative for use in simulators42. There are
performed on each flow cell for a number of water/oil
2 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL
several approaches to obtain two phase upscaling algorithms
suitable for black oil simulation8,24,36,49 . All of them require
dividing the reservoir in appropriate sub-volumes, i.e. the size
of grid cells and finding averaged phase permeabilities and
capillary pressures. Problems occur when correlation lengths
are comparable to the grid block size. The effects of
neighboring grid blocks need then to be taken into account5.
There is a vast literature on upscaling algorithms and we
mention those that are frequently employed:
One class of methods seeks to find approximate solutions
of the pressure equations, given more or less appropriate
boundary conditions. Examples are: (1) Renormalization
methods 31 (see also refs 14,15,16,17,19,20). (2) The effective
medium approximation10. (3) Homogenisation. A second class
of methods uses pseudofunctions6,35,1,18,23,28,37 We use
simulation on a smaller scale to obtain the constitutive
relations 11,12, which constitutes a third class of procedures. Set
up in the x, y, z direction with no flow boundary conditions
along the sides, p=1 at the inlet, p=0 at the outlet. Solve the
equations and sum the fluxes. Then the effective directional
relative permeabilities can be calculated. Alternatively
periodic boundary conditions 22 lead to the full tensor effective
permeability30,45 (see also refs48,26 ). This is significantly more
accurate, but it has the disadvantage that it cannot be entered
in the commercial simulator”. This third class of upscaling
methods has the additional advantage that it is easy to
implement.
Integrated procedures, involving the construction of a
simplified genetically based reservoir model and the
subsequent derivation of averaged constitutive relations have
been employed before. In many cases, however, the diversity
of various types of crossbeds is ignored in the constitutive
relations. A single capillary pressure- and relative permeability
curve is used for all crossbeds 3,34,41,43,46,55 (see also refs13,33,50 ).
Ringrose 46,47 however, presents an elegant method to include
the effects of small-scale sedimentary structures in the scaling
up of heterogeneity. Kjønsvik et al.32 and Panda et al.40 present
sophisticated procedures to include all levels of heterogeneity
in a structure. However, they either do not use the constitutive
relations calculated on the individual laminae, or the method is
too complex to be used routinely.
Aigner et al.3 suggest a methodology to systematically
divide outcrops into flow units based on the "genetically
driven hierarchy" of heterogeneities, using the fact, that units
are repetitive and that heterogeneities occur on several scales.
Pickup et al.43 present a systematic ‘upscaling box’ in which
everything from characterization via upscaling to production
calculation is incorporated (see also refs44,45 ). For the bed-scale
they use a number of typical bed-configurations. Compared to
Aigner3 and Pickup al.43 we emphasize more the detail on the
crossbed scale regarding both description and measurement.
We add to the methodologies described above: (1) Adequate
description and simplification of the repetitive laminated
facies in terms of flow cells; (2) Measurements of laminae
permeability with an optimized laboratory probe-permeameter
set up25,52,54 . Absolute permeabilities of laminae are averaged
SPE 68702
within the laminae via simple arithmetic averaging. Laminae
are assumed homogeneous and isotropic.
The main purpose of this work twofold: 1) To improve the
translation of a geological model to a reservoir model; 2) To
provide a simple procedure to upscale heterogeneities of a
reservoir. Using a well-defined geometrical facies model,
where all sedimentological units are represented, will attain
the translation. This is accomplished by using the five-scale
hierarchy (see Fig. 1). Next comes the simplification of this
model to a reservoir model, which can serve as the base of a
flow simulation.
We compare our approach with the SPE ninth comparative
study 29. This allows easy duplication of the results. This is
why we have modified the original SPE model as little as
possible. There are three important points we like to
emphasize. (1) The way of incorporating small-scale
heterogeneities in a reservoir model is significant for reservoir
performance. 2) The upscaling procedure for averaged
constitutive relations must deal with capillary trapping in
small-scale lamina. (3) The procedure must be easy to
implement in the current infrastructure of petroleum
companies and institutes.
Methods:
Geological model
To demonstrate the procedure we examine a highly
heterogeneous reservoir deposited in a fluvial environment.
Fluvial reservoirs are known to be heterogeneous on a wide
range of scales53. For our purposes we generate a model in five
steps using five different scales (Table 1).
The largest scale comprises the entire reservoir and
consists of highly permeable sandy sediments deposited in or
near the river channel. These sand bodies are encased in shale,
which was deposited on the floodplain bordering the river
channels (Fig. 2A).
One scale smaller we divide the different elements into
subfacies: the encasing shale becomes the floodplain subfacies
and the sand body is split into a pointbar subfacies and a
channel fill subfacies (Fig. 2B). A typical pointbar consists of
a series of concentric layers, which dip down toward the outer
bend of the river. Sometimes these layers are separated by thin
shale streaks that extend from the top to halfway the bottom.
The channel fill may contain sand in which case there is
abundant trough crossbedding, or it may consist entirely of
shale.
Based on bedding type we may go to an even smaller
scale, the bedding scale (Fig. 2C). Here we distinguish three
types: horizontal bedding, which is found exclusively in the
floodplain subfacies; longitudinal bedding which is found in
the pointbars; and through crossbedding for the (sandy)
channel fill.
Finally, at the smallest scale the heterogeneity is expressed
in the dominant grain size of the laminae that consitute the
beds: horizontal bottomset laminae are fine or medium
grained, and the inclined foreset laminae are medium or coarse
grained.
SPE 68702 UPSCALING OF FLOW UNITS FOR RESERVOIR FLOW INCORPORATING SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITIES
Reservoir model
The reservoir model is a direct translation of the geological
model. Thus, the large-scale model consists of a single layer
(Fig. 3A). Within this layer the floodplain, pointbar, and
channel fill flow units are placed (Fig. 3B). The flow units are
rectangular versions of their subfacies counterparts. Each flow
unit consists of several flow-cells, the equivalent of the
bedding type in the geological model (Fig. 3C). We make a
large simplification here: flow cells have the same orientation
within each flow unit. Thus, the horizontal bedding in the
floodplain is always horizontal, the longitudinal bedding in the
pointbars and the trough crossbedding in the channel fill
always dip in the X-direction. As a result each of the flow
units has the same properties throughout the model.
Dimensions for the flow cells were inferred from the
geological model and are listed in Table 2. At a smaller scale,
each flow cell is made up of alternating laminae, to which
different permeabilities are attributed. Typical lamina
permeability values were compiled from literature and from
our own data (Table 3). These values were simplified to the
extent that we only have three permeabilities: 10 mD, 50 mD,
and 200 mD. The floodplain has horizontal bedding with an
alternation of 10 mD and 50 mD. The channel fill has
crossbedding (alternation of 50 and 200 mD laminae) or it is
shale filled (10 mD). The pointbar has three superimposed
regions of equal thickness: the lower part consists of cross
bedding only (alternation of 50 and 200 mD); the middle part
contains cross bedding with occasional clay drapes (alternation
of 50 and 200 mD and the clay drapes 10 mD). The upper part
is horizontal bedding with an alternation of 10 mD and 50 mD.
Microsimulation
Here we describe the procedure of obtaining upscaled
phase permeability curves and capillary pressures for the three
bed types constituting the reservoir. These upscaled
permeabilities are derived in a three-step process.
First we assign the Brooks-Corey permeabilities for the
high and low permeable foresets and at the bottom sets
constituting the facies.
2 production side to derive with Darcy’s law the phase
+3
 S − S wc  λ 2 permeabilities. Also the average oil minus the average water
k w = kk 'rw  w  := kk ' rw S we λ +3
 1 − S wc 
 
2
+1
k o = kk 'ro (1 − S we ) 1 − S we 
2 λ
 
 
1 point bar beds and the flood plain beds are obtained. We
ϕ  2 − S wc  λ
1 repeat the same procedure but now we only allow flow in the
Pc = γσ ow
k  Sw − S wc 
For convenience we use the same values as Van Lingen;
the empirical constant γ=0.79, the connate water saturation
3
Swc=0.0, the sorting factor λ=1.5, the porosity ϕ=0.3 and the
interfacial tension between oil and water σow =0.03 [N/m]. The
end point permeabilities for water and oil are taken k’ rw= 1 and
k’ro= 1. The permeabilities are found from probe-permeameter
measurements and are summarized in Table (3). For now we
did not use image analysis data to estimate the sorting factor
and instead used an average value λ=1.5 for both foresets and
bottom sets. In this way we completely assigned the relative
permeability and capillary pressure fields for each of the three
lamina types we used in our bedding models (Fig. 3). The
aspect that the trapping is determined by the wetting state is
outside the scope of this article27,46 and we confine interest to
water wet media39.
The second step consists of performing a simulation (see
Table 4) on a part of the flow unit i.e. the flow cell (Fig. 4),
which is manageable by a simulator. Thus there is one flow
cell for every subfacies, i.e. crossbedding, longitudinal
bedding, and horizontal bedding for the channel, pointbar, and
floodplain, respectively (Fig. 2 & 3). For a relatively small
section we may assume that during reservoir production it will
go through a slowly varying sequence of quasi steady states.
This assumption is also implicit in other upscaling methods
e.g. homogenisation. Hence, following suggestions made by
many previous authors we will put no flow boundaries at the
top and side of the reservoir and inject oil and water (at
various ratios) on one side and produce at the other. We prefer
the use of no flow boundaries as opposed to periodic boundary
conditions because the latter give rise to anisotropy that cannot
be diagonalized in the (x,y,z) system of coordinates of the
simulation. Most commercially available simulators cannot
handle non-diagonalized anisotropy. The initial oil and water
saturation in the flow cell are determined by assuming a given
capillary pressure, Pc =107 kPa. We continue flooding until a
steady state is reached.
The third step is the computation of the constitutive
relations from the simulation results. We use Darcy’s law in
which we substitute the flow of oil and water together with the
average phase pressure difference between the injection and
pressure is the capillary pressure. Finally we calculate the
average saturation in the flow cell. In this way we obtain one
point in the phase permeability-saturation curve and capillary
pressure-saturation curve. We continue to use the same
procedure with water oil injection mixtures ranging from zero
to 100% oil, with steps of 10%. In this way the upscaled phase
permeabilities and capillary pressures for the channel beds, the
vertical direction.
In the simulation considered we have three-phase oil-
water-gas flow. Hence three-phase permeabilities are required.
Here we use STONE II. Admittedly the use of STONE’s
models directly for upscaled relative permeabilities is
4 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL
questionable. A much better approach would be to perform
three phase (steady state) simulations, instead of the two-phase
simulations described above. The results would, however, be
history dependent and hence three phase upscaling is
considered outside the scope of this article.
These results are not suitable yet for implementation into a
standard simulation run, because the constitutive relations are
anisotropic. Hence we make one further simplification. We
calculate the average ratio between the relative permeabilities
in the vertical and the horizontal direction. We also calculate
the one-phase permeability anisotropy from one-phase
simulations. The product of the average ratio with the one-
phase anisotropy factor determines the effective permeability
anisotropy. We use the constitutive relations obtained from the
horizontal flow simulation.
Results for upscaled permeabilities
The results from the microsimulation are summarized in
Fig. 6 for horizontal flow and in Fig. 7 for vertical flow. In the
left column of Fig. 6 we show the upscaled relative
permeabilities and capillary pressures for oil and water. The
relative permeability for oil and gas are the mirror image of
the water/oil relative permeabilities and capillary pressures 7.
• Channel beds: With respect to the input lamina relative
permeabilities we observe a substantial increase of the
residual oil saturation both for horizontal and vertical
flow. The higher horizontal relative water permeability at
low water saturations must be attributed to the fact that at
a given average water saturation of say Sw=0.4, the low
permeable lamina are almost completely filled with water
and hence are able to contribute to the permeability. The
vertical relative permeabilities are substantially lower,
showing the additional anisotropy effect originating from
the lamina structure.
• Point bar beds: Here the residual oil saturation appears to
be less affected by the cross-bed structure, showing that
we cannot use a single set of relative permeabilities for all
the facies. Again the vertical relative permeabilities are
substantially lower, showing the additional anisotropy
effect originating from the lamina structure.
• Flood plain beds: Here we again observe the typical
horizontal relative permeability enhancement, but this
time for oil. Still the residual oil saturation is higher than
for the laminae individually. We note the difference in
horizontal relative permeabilities with respect to the
channel and point bar. Again the vertical relative
permeabilities are substantially lower than the horizontal.
In summary we observe how much the relative
permeability behavior is affected by the way that the laminae
are distributed in the channel, point bar and flood plain. The
most important features are: (1) Horizontal relative
permeability enhancement, due to a more favorable
distribution of the saturations; (2) Increase in residual oil
SPE 68702
saturation; (3) Anisotropy of the relative permeabilities
enhancing the effective permeability anisotropy.
Macrosimulation
The numerical simulation is run on our meandering river
model, using the model of the ninth SPE Comparative
Solution Project (SPE 29110)29 as basis. This project concerns
a black oil simulation of moderate size (9000 cells) and with a
high degree of heterogeneity provided by a geostatistically-
based permeability field. Here we mention the salient features
of the simulation in order to make clear where we differ from
this base case. Further details in particular of the fluid
properties can be found in SPE 29110.
The field contains 25 somewhat randomly spaced
producers and a single water injector. The dipping reservoir is
divided in 24x25x15 grid blocks in rectangular coordinates
without local refinement. The dimensions of the grid blocks
are 300 ft both in the x-direction and in the y-direction. Cell
(1,1,1) is at a depth of 9000 ft subsea. The remaining cells dip
in the x-direction with no dip in the y-direction. In the z-
direction we have 15 layers, each represented by the height of
the grid block. The height of each of the layers is as given in
SPE 29110, the average porosity of all the layers is 0.1262.
However, for the runs with the genetically based reservoir
model we use a constant porosity (ϕ =0.3). The added total
height of the reservoir is 359 feet. All producers were
completed over a length of 56 feet in layers 2,3,4 only and the
injector was completed over a length of 207 feet in layers
11,12,13,14, and 15. The water well is located at the (24,25)-
corner grid. We use the same constraints on the producer and
injection wells as used in the 9th comparative programme. Also
the productivity indexes are based on well bore radius of 0.5 ft
and a drainage radius of one fifth of the grid block length.
Relative permeabilities and capillary pressures for the runs
with the genetically based reservoir models are used as derived
above. There is no free gas initially in the reservoir and the oil
is at the saturation pressure. PVT properties of the fluids are
taken as in SPE 29110. The oil viscosity is around 1 cP, and
the gas viscosity around 0.015 cP and viscosities are slightly
pressure dependent. We calculate the initial water saturation
distribution by assuming capillary pressure gravity equilibrium
and given the oil-water contact being at 9950 feet subsea.
Results for the reservoir simulation
We make a comparison of runs for six different conditions
(Table 4 & 5). First runs are made of the SPE 9th comparative
program, using the stochastically generated reservoir model
and all the input data of SPE 29110, whence relative
permeabilities and capillary pressures are shown in Fig. 8.
However, we like to compare the situation with two effective
permeability anisotropy ratios. First we use a ratio of the
horizontal and vertical permeability ratio of 100 (indicated by
Hspe). Secondly we use an effective permeability ratio of 5.6
(indicated as Vspe). The other four cases concern the
genetically based reservoir model developed in this paper. We
use the channel belt along strike with effective permeability
SPE 68702 UPSCALING OF FLOW UNITS FOR RESERVOIR FLOW INCORPORATING SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITIES
anisotropy ratios of 100 (indicated by N1), and 5.6 (N1v). The
last two runs concern a model with the channel belt along dip,
with again anisotropy ratios of 100 (N3) and 5.6 (N3v).
Fig. 9 presents the results of the six runs. Given the
preliminary nature of our research we are only able to describe
the most conspicuous features, without drawing definite
conclusions. Shown are the cumulative oil, the cumulative gas
and cumulative water productions. Admittedly the results of
our reservoir model (N1, N1v, N3, N3v) with porosities ϕ=0.3
are difficult to compare with Vspe and Hspe with an average
porosity ϕ=0.13 (see Table 5). We note that the different
anisotropy factors have a large effect on the cumulative
productions from the stochastically generated reservoirs.
For the genetically based reservoir model, there appears to
be a slightly more favorable (lower) water production and less
favorable oil recovery (lower) from reservoirs where the
anisotropy factor is highest. This is to be expected as the
injection well is injecting water in the bottom part of the
reservoir, and oil is produced near the top. Whether the
channel belt is along strike or along dip has little effect. This
can possibly be attributed to a more or less symmetric
situation with respect to the injection well and apparently a
small effect of dip in this particular situation.
For the conditions shown the gas oil ratio for the
genetically based reservoir model is still approximately equal
to the solution gas oil ratio indicating that we are still before
free gas breakthrough.
Our most important result is, however, that we have shown
that genetically based reservoir models can be simplified in a
way that makes these models amenable to upscaling and
reservoir simulation. Our results present the basic concept of a
procedure, which can be applied using more sophisticated
aspects in future work.
Conclusions
• A five scale hierarchy with crossbed and subfacies as key
elements i.e. pore scale → lamina scale → flow cell scale
→ flow unit scale → reservoir scale can be used to
construct a reservoir heterogeneity model, directly based
on geological insight.
• It is possible to simplify the reservoir model such that it
becomes amenable for upscaling and reservoir simulation
using state of the art technology.
• The lamina/cross bed structure introduces additional
anisotropy via the upscaled constitutive relations.
• Preliminary simulations show the importance of the total
anisotropy i.e. the product of the one-phase permeability
and the additional anisotropy originating from two-phase
flow effects.
• Further research is necessary to quantify the effect of the
distribution of facies and other parameters used in the
model.
Nomenclature
k = permeability, L2, m2
5
kr = relative permeability
S = saturation, fraction
P c = capillary pressure, m/Lt2, Pa
s = interfacial tension, m/t2, N/m
g = empirical constant
l = sorting factor
f = porosity, fraction
Subscripts
o = oil
w = water
wc = connate water
we = normalised water (saturation)
Acknowledgements
We thank B.T. de Haas for reading the manuscript.
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18. Davies, 1987, Pseudofunctions in Formations Containing
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19. Deutman, R., 1992, The Impact of Permeability Up-Scaling on
Effective Permeability and Recovery Predictions, Delft
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23. Fischbusch, D.B., and R.A. Wattenbarger, 1991, Waterflood
Simulation of Stratified Sandstone Reservoirs Using Dynamic
Pseudo Curves, SPE, Vol. 5, pp.219-235.
24. Giliberti, S., M. Erba, M. Rampoldi, and S. Said, 1995,
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26. Honarpour, M.M., A.S. Cullick, and N. Saad, 1994, Influence of
Small-Scale Rock Laminations on the Core Plug Oil/Water
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29-31, Oklahoma, SPE 27968.
27. Huang, Y., P.S. Ringrose, K.S. Sorbie, 1996, The Effects of
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29. Killough, J.E., Ninth SPE Comparative Solution Project: A
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SPE 68702
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32. Kjønsvik, D. J. Doyle, T. Jacobsen, and A. Jones, 1994, The
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33. Kortekaas, T.F.M., 1985, Water/Oil Displacement
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Reservoir geology and engineering, 13 pp.
.
8 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL SPE 68702

Table 1 − Size scales with all respective unit names and examples
used in our procedure. Shaded areas are the key units.
Stratigraphic Units Reservoir Units Geological Units Facies Example Bed levels Scale Range
Formation Reservoir Facies River m-hm
Member Flow Unit Subfacies Pointbar Bedset dm-m
Bed Flow Cell Bed Trough bed Bed Cm-dm
Lamina Lamina Lamina Foreset Lamina Mm-cm
Grain Pore Pore Coarse sand Grain µm-mm

Table 2 − List of input parameters for the flow-cell models.

Channel Point bar Flood plain
Parameter U M L
T 12.55 cm 10 cm 10 cm 10 cm 24 cm
W 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1cm
L 50 cm 50 cm 50 cm 50 cm 50 cm
α 10-30° 0° 30° 30° 0°
C gr.block # 925 - 264 225 -
F gr.block # 925 250 264 225 600
B gr.block # 200 250 22 - 600
Total gridblock # 2050 1600 1200

Table 3 − List of permeabilities for the flow-cell models.

Permeability [mD] Channel Point bar Flood plain
U M L
Coarse F-set 200 - 200 200 -
Fine F-set 50 50 50 50 50
Bottomset 10 10 10 - 10
Keff 87.0 34.7 29.6
Keff,model 37.0
Keff,spe 94.0
ϕriver 0.3
ϕave,spe 0.13

Table 4 − List of properties for the flow-unit model.

Channel belt along strike Channel belt along dip SPE stochastic K-field
N1 N1v N3 N3v Hspe Vspe
Pc Pc,calc Pc,calc Pc,spe
Kr,ow Kr,ow upsc Kr,ow upsc Kr,ow spe
Kr,sgt Kr,sgt upsc Kr,sgt upsc Kr,sgt spe
K Kriver Kriver Kspe
Kh/Kv(eff) 100 5.6 100 5.6 100 5.6
Tlayer Constant constant variable
Channel: 65 Channel: 64
Gridblock # Pointbar: 160 Pointbar: 152 600
Floodplain: 375 Floodplain: 384

Table 5 - Initial values and production results for the three simulation scenarios.
Hspe9 Vspe9 N1 N1v N3 N3v
6
Total Pore volume 10 STB 453 1324 1324
6
Initial Oil in place 10 STB 186 234 261
6
Mobile Oil volume 10 STB 156 82 92
9
Total solution Gas volume 10 SCF 259 325 327
9
Free Gas volume 10 SCF 0 0 0
6
Water volume 10 STB 246 1061 1063
6
Cumulative Oil produced 10 STB 17.5 25.2 25.9 27.1 25.5 27.2
9
Cumulative Gas produced 10 SCF 71.1 101 29.2 31.2 28.4 30.9
6
Cumulative Water produced 10 STB 2.1 1.6 18.2 23.7 18.9 24.6
6
Cumulative Water Injected 10 STB 1.5 2.5 2.6 3.9 2.7 4.0
SPE 68702 UPSCALING OF FLOW UNITS FOR RESERVOIR FLOW INCORPORATING SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITIES 9

INTEGRATED UPSCALING PROCEDURE

1 Geological model

RESERVOIR CHARACTERISATION
CONSTRUCTION
MODEL

Facies Subfacies Bed

Reservoir model

Reservoir Flow-Unit Flow-Cell

SIMULATION ASSIGNMENT

2
PARAMETER

Pc b
f
c
Kb Kf Kc

C. f-set F. f-set b-set

K rw K rw K rw
K ro K ro
Core Kprobe K ro

3
NUMERICAL SIMULATION
Hor. Vert.
MICRO

K rw K rw
K ro K ro

Flow-Cell model

4
SIMULATION

Production
MACRO

o
w
g

Reservoir model

Fig. 1 − The 4-step procedure. Step 1: Geological description; Step 2: Parameter assignment; Step 3: Microsimulation; Step 4:
Macrosimulation.
10 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL SPE 68702

Meanderbelt in floodplain shale

Floodplain

C) Bedding

Horizontal bedding Longitudinal bedding Trough X-bedding

Fig. 2 − River geological model .

SPE 68702 UPSCALING OF FLOW UNITS FOR RESERVOIR FLOW INCORPORATING SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITIES 11

Meanderbelt in floodplain shale

B) Flow Units

Floodplain

C) Flow Cells

Horizontal bedding Longitudinal bedding Trough X-bedding

Fig. 3 − River reservoir model.

12 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL SPE 68702

Channel

Pointbar

Floodplain
Fig. 4 − The three flow-cell models for Channel, Point bar, and Floodplain, resp.
SPE 68702 UPSCALING OF FLOW UNITS FOR RESERVOIR FLOW INCORPORATING SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITIES 13

High Perm Foreset

1.0 120
0.8 100
0.6 80
60
0.4
40
0.2 20
0.0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Sw

Krw Krow Pcow1

Low Perm Foreset

1.0 120
0.8 100
0.6 80
60
0.4 40
0.2 20
0.0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Sw

Krw Krow Pcow2

Bottom Set

1.0 120
0.9
0.8 100
0.7 80
0.6
0.5 60
0.4
0.3 40
0.2 20
0.1
0.0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Sw

Krw Krow Pcow3

Fig. 5 − The capillary-pressure- and relative-permeability curves for the laminae of the three flow-cells.
14 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL SPE 68702

Channel Channel
1 120 1 120

100 0.8 100

0.8
80 80
0.6 0.6
60 60
0.4 0.4
40 40

0.2 0.2 20
20

0 0 0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.5 1

Sw Sgt

Krw Krow Pcow Krg Krog Pcog

Point Bar Point Bar

1 120 1 120

100 100
0.8 0.8
80 80
0.6 0.6
60
60
0.4
40 0.4
40
0.2 20 0.2
20
0 0
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Sw
Sgt

Krw Krow Pcow Krg Krog Pcog

Flood Plain Flood Plain

1 120 1 120

0.8 100 0.8 100

80 80
0.6 0.6
60 60
0.4 0.4
40 40
0.2 0.2 20
20
0 0 0 0

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Sw Sgt

Krw Krow Pcow Krg Krog Pcog

Fig. 6 − Capillary-pressure- and relative-permeability curves for the entire flow-cells for horizontal flow. The oil-gas rel-perms and capillary
pressures are the mirror image of the water-oil rel perms.
SPE 68702 UPSCALING OF FLOW UNITS FOR RESERVOIR FLOW INCORPORATING SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITIES 15

Channel Vertical Flow

1 120

0.8 100

80
0.6
60
0.4
40
0.2 20

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Sw

Krw Krow Pcow

Point Bar Vertical Flow

1 120

0.8 100

80
0.6
60
0.4
40
0.2 20

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Sw

Krw Krow Pcow

Flood Plain Vertical Flow

1 120

100
0.8
80
0.6
60
0.4
40
0.2 20

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Sw

Krw Krow Pcow

Fig. 7 − The capillary-pressure- and relative-permeability curves for the entire flow-cells for vertical flow.
16 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL SPE 68702

1.2 450

400
1
350

0.8 300

250
0.6
200
0.4
150

0.2 100

50
0
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-0.2 -50

S w

krw krow pcow

1.2 4.5

4
1
3.5
0.8
3

0.6 2.5

0.4 2

1.5
0.2
1
0
0.5
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-0.2 0

S g

krg krog pcog

Fig. 8 − The capillary-pressure- and relative-permeability curves for the SPE model.
SPE 68702 UPSCALING OF FLOW UNITS FOR RESERVOIR FLOW INCORPORATING SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITIES 17

Along-strike meandering river model

Channel
Pointbar
Floodplain

Along-dip meandering river model

Fig. 9 − Along strike and along dip flow simulation models for IMEX.
18 D. MIKES, O.H.M. BARZANDJI, J. BRUINING, C.R. GEEL SPE 68702

30
Cumulative Oil

25 Hspe
20
MMBbls

Vspe
15
N1
10
N1v
5
N3
0
N3v
0 300 600 900
Time (days)

25
Cumulative Water

20 Hspe
MMBls

15 Vspe
10 N1
N1v
5
N3
0
N3v
0 300 600 900
Time (days)
Cumulative Gas 10^9

120
90 Hspe
Vspe
SFC

60
N1
30
N1v
0
N3
0 300 600 900
N3v
Time (days)

Fig. 10 − Oil, Water, and Gas Simulation Production Results by IMEX.

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