Artificial Neural Network- (ANN-) Based Proxy Model for Fast Performances’ Forecast and Inverse Schedule Design of Steam-Flooding Reservoirs

Steam flooding is one of the most effective and mature technology in heavy oil development. In this paper, a numerical simulation technology of steam flooding reservoir based on the finite volume method is firstly established. Combined with the phase change of steam phase, the fully implicit solution for steam flooding is carried out by using adaptive-time-step Newton iteration method. The Kriging method is used for stochastically to generate 4250 geological model samples by considering reservoir heterogeneity, and corresponding production schedule parameters are randomly given; then, these reservoir model samples are handled by the numerical simulation technology to obtain corresponding dynamic production data, which constitute the data for artificial neural network (ANN) training. By using the highly nonlinear global effect of artificial neural network and its powerful self-adaptive and self-learning functions, the forward-looking and inverse design ANN models of steam-flooding reservoirs are established, which provides a new method for rapid prediction of steam-flooding production performance and production schedule parameter design. In 4250 samples, the error of the forward-looking model is basically less than 0.1%, and the error of the inverse design model is generally less than 15%. It fully shows that the ANN models developed in this paper can quickly and effectively predict oil production and design production parameters and have an important guiding role in the implementation of the steam flooding technology. Finally, the forward-looking ANN model is applied to efficiently analyze the influencing factors of steam flooding process, and uncertainty analysis of the inverse design ANN model is conducted by Monte Carlo Simulation to illustrate its robustness. Besides, this paper may provide a reference for the application of neural network models to underground oil and gas reservoir, which is a typical invisible black box.