Oil & Gas
Fractured Carbonates
Representing a fractured, carbonate reservoir with a Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) produces an intuitively understandable model
The generation of a DFN is, however, expensive, time-consuming, and rarely predictive.
The high sunk cost of a DFN results in a persistence of an inadequate model which is constantly being tweaked at a local scale to fit new data.
Need:
An existing DFN model was considered no longer fit for purpose by the Operator of an oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Project:
A full assessment of all fracture and structural data was undertaken to create a Continuous Fracture Network model.
Outcome:
The creation of a reservoir model which reflects the fractured nature of the reservoir which does not require up-scaling and can be easily adjusted to reflect dynamic data.
Benefit
The construction of a Continuous Fracture Model is both quicker and cheaper than the design and upscaling of a DFN. Subsequent modifications are also simpler to implement. Without the high initial cost, the client feels more able to re-visit the model concepts prompted by the acquisition of new data rather than patch up an outdated but expensive model.