Experimental Design as a Framework for Reservoir Studies

Summary Numerical simulation integrates extensive geoscience and engineering data with complex process models to examine reservoir behavior. Reservoir studies commonly consider many scenarios, cases, and realizations. However, reservoir simulation can be expensive. Complexity, combinatorics, and expense motivate improved reservoir study methods. The experimental design framework selects relevant models, records factor settings for models, creates data files, controls execution, gathers summary data, and creates response models. Response surface models facilitate Monte Carlo simulation, uncertainty analysis, optimization, parameter estimation, upscaling, and performance forecasting. A predevelopment study of a Gulf of Mexico turbidite reservoir uses this framework to examine the sensitivity of oil production predictions to well location, absolute horizontal permeability, pore compressibility, aquifer size, skin, and vertical permeability. Well location is optimized for cases with uncertain parameters.