Robust and Flexible Hydrocarbon Production Forecasting Considering Heterogeneity Impact for Hydraulically Fractured Wells

Producing oil and gas from increasingly more difficult reservoirs has become an unavoidable challenge for the petroleum industry because the conventional hydrocarbon resources are no longer able to maintain the production levels corresponding to the global energy demand. As the industrial investments in developing lower permeability reservoirs increase and more advanced technologies, such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, gain more attention and applicability, the need for more reliable means of production forecasting also become more noticeable. Production forecasting of hydraulically fractured wells is challenging, particularly for heterogeneous reservoirs, where the rock properties vary dramatically over short distances, significantly affecting the performance of the wells. Despite the recent improvements in well performance prediction, the issue of heterogeneity and its effects on well performance have not been thoroughly addressed by the researchers and many aspects of heterogeneity ha...