Summary
Accurately modeling water-saturation variation in transition zones is important to reservoir simulation for predicting recoverable oil and guiding field-development plans. The large transition zone of a heterogeneous Middle East reservoir was challenging to model. Core-calibrated, log-derived water saturations were used to generate saturation-height-function groups for nine reservoir-rock types. To match the large span of log water saturation (Sw) in the transition zone from the free-water level (FWL) to minimum Sw high in the oil column, three saturation-height functions per rock type (RT) were developed, one each for the low-, medium-, and high-porosity range.
Though developed on a different scale from the simulation-model cells, the saturation profiles generated are a good statistical match to the wireline-log-interpreted Sw, and bulk volume of water (BVW) and fluid volumetrics agree with the geological model. RT-guided saturation-height functions proved a good method for modeling water saturation in the simulation model.
The technique emphasizes the importance of oil/brine capillary pressures measured under reservoir conditions and of collecting an adequate number of Archie saturation and cementation exponents to reduce uncertainties in well-log interpretation.
Introduction
The heterogeneous carbonate reservoir in this study is composed of both limestone and dolomite layers frequently separated by non-reservoir anhydrite layers (Ghedan et al. 2002). Because of its heterogeneity, this reservoir, like other carbonate reservoirs, contains long saturation-transition zones of significant sizes. Transition zones are conventionally defined as that part of the reservoir between the FWL and the level at which water saturation reaches a minimum near-constant (irreducible water saturation, Swirr) high in the reservoir (Masalmeh 2000). For the purpose of this paper, however, we define transition zones as those parts of the reservoir between the FWL and the dry-oil limit (DOL), where both water and oil are mobile irrespective of the saturation level. Both water and oil are mobile in the transition zone, while only oil is mobile above the transition zone. By either definition, the oil/water transition zone contains a sizable part of this field's oil in place.
Predicting the amount of recoverable oil in a transition zone through simulation depends on (among other things) the distribution of initial oil saturation as a function of depth as well as the mobility of the oil in these zones (Masalmeh 2000). Therefore, the characterization of transition zones in terms of original water and oil distribution has a potentially large effect on reservoir recoverable reserves and, in turn, reservoir economics.
The Floer homotopy type of height functions on complex Grassmann manifolds
