Joint Inversion of Production and Temperature Data Illuminates Vertical Permeability Distribution in Deep Reservoirs

Joint Inversion of Production and Temperature Data Illuminates Vertical Permeability Distribution in Deep Reservoirs. (August 2012) Zhishuai Zhang, B.S., Nankai University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Behnam Jafarpour Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta Characterization of connectivity in compartmentalized deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM) reservoirs is an outstanding challenge of the industry that can significantly impact the development planning and recovery from these assets. In these deep formations, temperature gradient can be quite significant and temperature data can provide valuable information about field connectivity, vertical fluid displacement, and permeability distribution in the vertical direction. In this paper, we examine the importance of temperature data by integrating production and temperature data jointly and individually and conclude that including the temperature data in history matching of deep GoM reservoirs can increase the resolution of reservoir permeability distribution map in the vertical direction. To illustrate the importance of temperature measurements, we use a coupled heat and fluid flow transport model to predict the heat and fluid transport in the reservoir. Using this model we ran a series of data integration studies including: 1) integration of production data alone, 2) integration of temperature data alone, and 3) joint integration of production and temperature data. For data integration, we applied four algorithms: