Reservoir characterization for numerical simulation. Final report

This report discussed the accomplishments of a research project dealing with quantitative reservoir description. The report has four major areas concerning: (1) a proposed reservoir description scheme; (2) a generalized statistical approach; (3) the connection between geology and statistics; and (4) how statistical descriptions affect fluid flow. Section III proposes the use of a power transformation to describe distribution functions. The transformation is theoretically motivated from a series or parallel arrangement of permeability layers and can be shown to encompass all of the single-population distributionss which characterize permeability. The power of the transformation can be determined only from the original data. Section III also shows that central tendency estimation and correlataion are both improved when the power transformation is used. In Section IV we attempt a correspondence between statistical indicators of permeability and geology. In two actual reservoir settings - fluvial and eolian sandstones - we found permeability to be controlled by stratification type, the primary depositional mode. The connection is quantitatively established from permeabilities measured in the field. The last section discusses two aspects of fluid displacements: the importance of the correlogram and volume averaging. We find that correlation in permeability can be used to classify mixing in displacementsmore » as flux, dissipative or capacitative dominated. The work on volume averaging shows that stabilized average fractional flow curves exist and can be used to lump point properties into grid block averages. 35 refs., 95 figs., 4 tabs.« less