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Article history:
Received 27 June 2012
Accepted 26 July 2013
Available online 17 August 2013
The Khuff Formation constitutes reservoir body in many gas producer elds of the Persian Gulf and
Arabian plate. This carbonate reservoir represents a complex character which strongly affects reservoir
modeling and prediction of its reservoir performance. This paper examines construction of a reservoir
model for this formation by the use of an integrated approach and shows how geological and simulation
grids can perform consistently. This approach shows that in case of proper data integration, loss of value
in z-dimension after grid scale-up would be ignorable and will not affect actual reservoir performance.
The presented approach uses sequence stratigraphic framework (SSF) as the basis of reservoir
zonation and permeability prediction. This is resulted to consistent poro/perm models that help accurate
prediction of reservoir performance in simulation model. SSF also helped propagation of reservoir bodies
in geological model. A seismic derived effective porosity (SPHIE) cube is used in conjunction with core
and log data to distribute porosity. Hydraulic ow units (HFUs) which are assessed by the use of core and
log data are used as the basis of grid scale-up. Our ndings showed that if data integration is properly
done, strong correlation of HFUs and SSF will be obtained which results to consistent geological and
simulation models. Permeability should be populated into the 3D grid by the use of functions derived
from SSF zonation and water saturation modeling should be upon capillary pressure curves assigned to
each reservoir rock type (RRT) so that the nal geological model and coarse simulation grid would be
consistent.
The presented approach in this study explains how various visions and different scale data could be
properly used in a reservoir model. It also provides ideas about ideal consistent reservoir modeling for
the Khuff Formation and similar heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs.
& 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Khuff
static model
gridding
ow unit
Persian Gulf
1. Introduction
Reservoir modeling is a cyclic procedure which should not end up
until proper data integration (Ainsworth and Sankosik, 1998;
Akatsuka, 2000; Dubrule, 1998; Henriquez et al., 1990; Labourdette
et al., 2008; Marion et al., 2000; Mattax and Dalton, 1990; Sibley
et al., 1997; Soleimani et al., 2008; Valle et al., 1997; Van de Graaff
and Ealey, 1989; Webber and Van Geuns, 1990). Various data are used
for construction of a reservoir model each of them having particular
scale and resolution hence nding a way about how different data
should be incorporated into a single model and how various levels of
data resolution should be considered, has always been an important
challenge for geo-modelers. The way a geological model is built and
n
Corresponding author at: School of Geology, College of Science, University of
Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Tel.: 98 912 792 5420; fax: 98 21 66491623.
E-mail addresses: a.asadi@khayam.ut.ac.ir, aasadi@pogc.ir,
ashkan.asadi@gmail.com (A. Asadi-Eskandar).
0920-4105/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2013.07.010
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
2. Methodology
This study is carried out by the use of a multidisciplinary
approach for construction of a 3D geological grid with a wide
range of input data from seismic to production analysis.
A sequence stratigraphic analysis is carried out as the main
geological approach considering the fact that depositional facies
are only appropriately propagated into a 3D grid when they are
interpreted in a proper chrono-startigraphic framework. To do
this, a set of core and log data was used from the studied
carbonate reservoir. This data includes ve set of full cores
containing the reservoir succession. The non-cored wells are
correlated with cored intervals in terms of sequence stratigraphy
and facies characteristics.
Pre-interpreted seismic horizons and geological well markers
are used for construction of structural model. Formation tops are
quality controlled and depth adjusted by the use of well logs.
A seismic derived effective porosity (SPHIE) cube is used as a trend
for porosity propagation. This cube is calibrated with the well logs
and core data (porosity measurements) as well. For this purpose
single attribute (linear regression), multi attribute (multi-step
regression) and neural network (Probabilistic Neural NetworksPNN) methods are analyzed and nally the method with the
lowest validation error and highest correlation to well data is
selected to build the porosity cube. Effective porosity (PHIE) is
used as the target log for prediction according to available PHIE in
261
Table 1
Core facies classication of the Khuff Formation in the study area.
Code
Description
CF1
CF2
CF3
CF4
CF5
CF6
CF7
CF8
CF9
CF10
CF11
CF12
CF13
CF14
CF15
Fig. 1. Generalized stratigraphic column of the PermianTriassic succession in the studied area (modied after Rahimpour-Bonab et al. (2009)).
262
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
Fig. 3. Characteristic of the depositional facies in the studied formation, the scattered porositypermeability makes the permeability prediction very hard. Reservoir
characteristic of depositional facies in the studied formation.
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
1
Well A
Well B
0.8
Fluid Capacity
263
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Storage Capacity
Fig. 5. Plot of cumulative PHI H (storage capacity) versus K H (ow capacity)
identies existence of 26 dynamic ow units (zones) in the Khuff Formation.
Flow units may slightly change from well to well due to minor lithostratigraphic
variations.
Fig. 4. Sequence stratigraphic reservoir zonation (SSF based zonation) in some of the studied wells. Log tracks from left to right in each well section: GR (0100 API), RHOB
(1.952.95 g/cm3)/NPHI ( 0.150.45), PHIE (00.3). SB sequence boundary, blue triangle sea transgression phase, and red triangle sea regression phase. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
264
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
Fig. 6. Comparison of SSF based zonation (Left) with HFUs (Right) in the studied formation. Log tracks from left to right in each well section: GR (0100 API), RHOB (1.95
2.95 g/cm3)/NPHI ( 0.150.45), and PHIE (00.3).
Fig. 7. Well to well correlation of the hydraulic ow units in the studied formation. Log tracks from left to right in each well section: GR (0100 API), RHOB (1.952.95
g/cm3)/NPHI ( 0.150.45) and PHIE (00.3). Upper Kangan (UK) and Nar are non-reservoir zones and hence not classied in HFUs.
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
265
Fig. 9. Comparison of PHIE (black line) and SPHIE (blue line) in the studied area. SPHIE follows the general trend of PHIE but it is usually overestimated or under estimated
and hence a correction has been done on SPHIE to make the PHIE and SPHIE consistent. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)
266
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
Fig. 10. Examples of the correlation coefcient maps (cc-maps) used to calibrate SPHIE with PHIE while propagation of porosity into the 3D grid.
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
267
Fig. 11. (A and B) Existence of cyclicity in some reservoir zones indicates disconnected carbonate shoals and inter-lagoon deposits in the studied basin. Continuity of the
reservoir property is reduced due to the cyclicity effect.
268
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
into K3-1 to K3-6. In this unit each system tract has been subdivided into early and late stage (e.g. early LST, late LST, early TST,
late TST, early HST and late HST). K4 is divided into 7 depositional
units or reservoir zones similar to K3 including K4-1, K4-2, K4-2a,
K4-3, K4-4, K4-4a and K4-5 in which K4-2a and K4-4a are
petrophysical subunits representing very thin depositional
packages not easily recognizable on the core and thin section
slides. Upper Kangan (UK) is the top of the studied reservoir which
is not considered as a reservoir zones and hence not included in
the reservoir zonation of the eld. This unit is characterized by the
use of log data due to lack of core material.
4.2. Hydraulic ow units
A hydraulic unit is dened as a volume of the total reservoir
rock within which geological and petrophysical properties that
affect uid ow are internally consistent and predictably different
from properties of other rock volume (Porras et al., 1999). The
hydraulic ow units in this study are investigated on the base of
RQIFZI and Lorenz plot concepts illustrated and explained by
several authors (e.g., Abbaszadeh et al., 1996; Amaefule et al.,
1993; Ebanks and Scheihing, 1984; Gunter et al., 1997; Rincones
et al., 2000). It has long been established that on a loglog plot of
RQI versus normalized porosity, samples lie on a line with unique
slope will demonstrate a particular reservoir character. Lorenz plot
is the plot of cumulative values of K H versus PHI H in which
any change in the slope of the resulted line will be interpreted as a
change in hydraulic ow unit along the well prole (Amaefule
-12000
-8000
-4000
4000
8000
12000
16000
-16000
-12000
-8000
-4000
4000
8000
12000
16000
16000
16000
-16000
12000
12000
8000
8000
4000
4000
-4000
-4000
-8000
-8000
-12000
-12000
-20000
-20000
-16000
-16000
Fig. 12. The main anisotropy direction coincides with the depositional trend, original shoreline is supposed to be along NWSE with lateral change in depositional along
SWNE.
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
269
Fig. 13. Modeled PHIE in the K1 unit (A). The horizontal variogram (B) indicates a
range of 10 Km continuity in this zone. Vertical variogram (C) shows a range up to
15 m.
Fig. 14. Modeled PHIE in K2 unit (A). The horizontal variogram (B) indicates a range
of 9.5 Km in this zone. Vertical variogram (C) shows a range of up to 10 m, a minor
cycle effect is observed at the middle of this zone.
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necessary statistical data such as range, nugget and sill was then
estimated in each reservoir zone. Finally the PHIE was collocated
with SPHIE and propagated using co-kriging method. Kriging is a
linear estimation method which calculates the un-known values
by the use of variogram and kriging weights (Deutsch, 2002). In
this method, any un-known value has a weight which is obtained
by its distance to the known value. It also uses variogram to
understand the variability of data over a distance (Deutsch, 2002).
To nd the un-known value a linear function would be solved by
the use of Gaussian algorithm, within a particular matrix which its
members are weights, known values and the un-known value. In
this study the SPHIE was added to the linear functions of kriging as
auxiliary data. As the SPHIE has been corrected by the use of
residual maps, it helps the accuracy of porosity population.
Correlation coefcient maps (cc-map) were prepared for each
Fig. 15. Modeled PHIE in K3 unit (A). A range of about 8 km is assigned to this zone
based on horizontal variography (B). Vertical range is about 4 m indication strong
heterogeneity in z dimension at this zone.
Fig. 16. Modeled PHIE in K4 unit (A). This zone represents the maximum continuity
in the studied reservoir with a horizontal range (B) reaching to more than 11 km
and vertical range of up to 18 m.
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
1000
100
271
10
0.1
0.01
0.001
0.00
0.01
0.10
1.00
Fig. 17. Plot of normalized porosity (PHIZ) versus RQI for each DRT in the studied
formation. Samples lie on a straight line represents similar reservoir character.
Table 2
Reservoir Rock Types (RRTs) in the studied formation.
RRT
Porosity
(frac.)
Permeability
(md)
RQI
(mm)
PHIZ
FZI
(mm)
SWE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
0.0137
0.0665
0.17
0.27
0.0115
0.084
0.174
0.25
0.06
0.1
0.18
0.25
0.09
0.5
2.35
2.86
1
10.6
19
34
1
112
276
481
0.08
0.09
0.12
0.1
0.29
0.35
0.33
0.37
0.13
1.05
1.23
1.38
0.01
0.07
0.2
0.37
0.01
0.09
0.21
0.33
0.06
0.11
0.22
0.33
5.79
1.21
0.57
0.28
25.17
3.85
1.56
1.1
2.01
9.46
5.6
4.13
0.57
0.4
0.16
0.06
0.58
0.35
0.15
0.07
0.42
0.31
0.15
0.07
272
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
Fig. 18. Examples of modeled RRT in the main reservoir units (A K1 and B K2). Examples of modeled RRT in the main reservoir units (C K3 and D K4).
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Water Saturation
Fig. 19. Relationship of water saturation and height above free water level (FWL) in
each reservoir rock type (RRT).
methods such as neural work (or fuzzy-logic) use log data in order
to predict permeability in non-cored wells which is very common
in reservoir characterization studies (Katz and Thompson, 1986;
Fig. 20. Example of water saturation model in the studied reservoir (K1 zone), as
obvious the saturation model is completely compatible with RRT model because
the water saturation model is directly derived from the capillary pressure curves in
each RRT.
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
Permeability (md)
100
y = 1.2598x + 0.2927
R = 0.1096
10
0.1
0.01
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
PHI (%)
Fig. 21. Global correlation coefcient of the porositypermeability in the studied
reservoir.
273
274
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
Zone 6 (K - 2TST)
10.00
1000
y = 0.0548e30.809x
R = 0.6656
100
1.00
K (mD)
K (mD)
10
y = 0.0829e21.266x
R = 0.6468
0.10
0.01
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0
0.00
0.25
0.05
PHIE_Frac
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
PHIE_Frac
1000
1000
y =0.0503e29.436x
y = 0.3437e20.161x
R = 0.6417
100
0.10
100
R=0.7219
10
K (mD)
K (mD)
10
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
PHIE_Frac
0
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
PHIE_Frac
Fig. 22. Examples of porositypermeability relationship in SSF based reservoir zones representing excellent correlation coefcient in comparison with global poroperm
relationship of the studied formation.
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
275
Fig. 23. Examples of the modeled permeability in the main reservoir units (A K1 and, B K2). Examples of the modeled permeability in the main reservoir units (C K3 and
D K4).
Fig. 24. Comparison of the original PHIE (black), up-scaled PHIE (pink) indicating the accuracy of well log up-scaling in the studied reservoir. Z size is variable depending on
the reservoir quality of each zone with a range of 0.8 m for porous layers and 35 m for tight layers (average of 1.2 m). PHIE up-scaling method is arithmetic averaging. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
276
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
Fig. 25. (A and B) Histogram comparing up-scaled and original PHIE (up) and K (down). Z size is variable depending on the reservoir quality of each zone with a range of
0.8 m for porous layers and 35 m for tight layers (average of 1.2 m). PHIE up-scaling method is arithmetic averaging.
Fig. 26. Comparison of the modeled PHIE in the up-scaled 3D grid (green) with the SPHIE (blue) showing a good correlation. Grid size in up-scaled 3D grid is 500 500.
Z layers are variable in each zone which depends on the thickness of HFUs (average of 15 m). (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
277
Fig. 27. Comparison of the modeled PHIE in the scaled-up 3D grid (green) with the SPHIE (blue) and PHIE (black) indicating a loss of information in z-dimension due to grid
scale-up. Dynamic model performance of the reservoir is very good however which shows that in case of accurate integrated studies, coarse grids can perform similar to ne
grids although some details will be lost in z-dimension as a result of grid scale-up.
Fig. 28. The performance of simulation grid was absolutely acceptable comparing the model with the real production history of the led which showed that loss of values in
z-dimension will not be a big deal even in heterogeneous formations. The key to accurate reservoir modeling is real multi-disciplinary understanding and proper integration
of geological and reservoir engineering data.
278
A. Asadi-Eskandar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 109 (2013) 260279
5. Conclusions
The result of a multidisciplinary approach was examined in a
heterogonous carbonate formation hosting some of the world's
largest gas reserves in the Persian Gulf and Arabian plate. Construction of the geo-cellular model was done upon particular
integrated geological methods by which the original rock property
and reservoir heterogeneity was kept but the model is completely
compatible and correlatable with hydraulic ow units of the eld.
This approach uses the sequence stratigraphic framework (SSF) of
the studied formation as the basis of reservoir zonation. Depositional packages are determined in an accurate way that made
permeability prediction possible by the use of some very powerful
porositypermeability equations. These functions were derived
from SSF zonation. An accurate porosity model conducted by well
and seismic data provided a realistic geological model. Moreover,
the permeability population is compatible with effective porosity
(PHIE) distribution as it is derived from porositypermeability
functions. The presented approach in this study showed how a
dynamic model can perform properly although many details
would be lost in z-dimension after scaling-up geological grid. This
indicates that in case of proper data integration constructing a
model with geological concepts and scaling-up it within hydraulic
ow units (HFUs) will provide realistic reservoir models accepted
by all involved disciplines in a eld study.
Acknowledgments
Data and facility used in this study was provided by National
Iranian Oil Company and POGC which the author is really thankful.
Mr. Asghari is thanked for reviewing the manuscript and helpful
suggestions. Head of Geology and R&T department are appreciated
for technical advices and permission to publish this paper. University of Tehran is thanked for providing the source materials. Mr.
Meysam Tavakoli and Mr. Farid are thanked for helpful technical
comments while performing this study. Schlumberger and CMG
are thanked for providing the commercial software of Petrel
and GEM.
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