Keynote Address:Characterizing Fractured Reservoirs with Seismic & Structural Attributes

Taking the risk of being a little bit provocative, I would say that we don’t care about fractures: we are only interested in their impact on subsurface flow forecast by flow simulators. There are two possible approaches to flow modeling in the subsurface: either a “small scale” approach based on “correct physical laws” governing the trajectory of fluid particles (the Navier-Stokes equations) or a “large scale” approach based on a “phenomenological law” (the Darcy law) where the exact trajectories of fluid particles are irrelevant. Taking fractures into account can be addressed similarly: we can either consider the problem at the “fine scale” of fractures or at the “large scale” of the “flow cells” used by the Darcy law in flow simulators.