Ensemble based History Matching

Prepared by:

Konul Alizada
BSc Petroleum Engineering
Baku Higher Oil School/Heriot-Watt University

Supervised by: Lecturer Farad Kamyabi

MSc Reservoir Engineering
Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Outline of Presentation

Reservoir modelling and simulation

History matching problem and uncertainty prediction
Ensemble Kalman Filtering (EnKF)
Field case example

What the Reservoir Simulation is

A computer run of a reservoir model over time to examine the flow of fluid within the
reservoir and from the reservoir!

Simulation is done by calibration of reservoir and production data in a process called

HISTORY MATCHING.

Reservoir data
Static parameters:

Production data
Well production rate, bottomhole pressure, water cut, gas oil ratio

Porosity and permeability

Challenges impede history matching performance

Dynamic parameters:

Unknown parameters

Pressure and phase saturations

Measurements (too much data)

Uncertainty quantification.

Ensemble Kalman Filtering vs Traditional History Matching

Updates both static and dynamic quantities (such as pressure and

Updates only static quantities (such as porosity and

saturations)
Suitable for updating non-linear reservoir simulation models

permeability)

One flow simulation for each ensemble member

No need of sensitivity coefficients
Fully automated
Ensemble members updated sequentially in time and reflecting latest

assimilated data
Uncertainty of prediction always up-to-date and straightforward from the

ensemble members

Repeated flow simulations of the entire production history

Sensitivity coefficient calculations
Not fully automated

History matching repeated with all data when new data are available
Not suitable for real-time reservoir model updating
Difficult for uncertainty assessment

Ensemble Kalman Filtering vs Traditional History Matching

General Workflow of Ensemble Kalman Filtering

Illustration of the EnKF from the point view of Bayesian concept

OUTLINE OF THE ENKF ALGORITHM

Ensemble matrix ,

( ) 2
, ,

Methods to solve the assimilation step:

Direct Inverse Calculation

Standard EnKF Assimilation Calculation
Square Root Algorithm with Measurement Perturbations

Square Root Algorithm without Measurement Perturbations

Field Case Example

Mean represents the most probable model
Variance depicts the change rate called uncertainty

Which assimilation solving is better?

Reference permeability field for 1 injector

and 4 producing wells

Field Case Example