Integration of Rock Physics, Reservoir Simulation, and Time-Lapse Seismic Data for Reservoir

Characterization at Weyburn Field, Saskatchewan

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Leo T. Brown*, Thomas L. Davis, and Michael Batzle, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

Summary

An integrated rock/fluid physics and reservoir modeling process relates changes in fluid pressure and composition to changes in
the seismic properties of the reservoir. Through calibration of the model with petrophysical relations, a quantitative
interpretation of time-lapse seismic data is made. At Weyburn Field this process is used successfully to track a miscible CO2
flood. In further research, the forward model developed in this work could be extended to joint inversion of production and
seismic data.

Introduction

Weyburn Field is a fractured carbonate reservoir in the Williston Basin, Southern Saskatchewan (Churcher and Edmonds, 1994).
The field is large, with 1.4 billion barrels of oil in place and to-date recovery of 24%. To improve oil recovery, a miscible CO2
flood is underway. During enhanced oil recovery operations, many questions need to be answered. Where is the injected CO2
going? What is the sweep efficiency? Are there areas with bypassed oil? How is flow influenced by fracture zones? How can
the injection scheme be optimized? To help answer these questions, the Reservoir Characterization Project (RCP) at Colorado
School of Mines is conducting a time-lapse multi-component seismic study of part of the CO2 flood area. The following work on
this project is summarized from Brown (2002).

Applying the scientific method to Weyburn Field, the basic hypothesis is that reservoir processes are described by a reservoir
model, fluid properties, and the flow simulation process. Reservoir simulation is used to predict the behavior of reservoir fluids
during CO2 injection. To test this hypothesis, the reservoir is monitored through time-lapse seismic reflection surveys. The rock
and fluid physics models developed are designed to link the reservoir simulation data to the time-lapse seismic data.

If the original hypothesis is correct, reservoir simulation results should be compatible with the difference anomaly observed in
the seismic data, lessening the need for seismic monitoring. If there are discrepancies between the results from reservoir
simulation and the seismic data, they should be interpreted in light of the available geologic and engineering data, uncertainty in
the simulation process, and noise in the seismic data. If desired, the process can be repeated so that the reservoir model and
simulation process are improved until they accurately characterize the dynamic reservoir processes.

Rock and Fluid Physics Modeling

The main parameters of interest in reservoir management at Weyburn are fluid saturation, pore pressure, and CO2 content. This
work establishes a theoretical and experimental basis for identifying fluid composition and fluid pressure changes in the reservoir
from changes in the time-lapse seismic data. During CO2 flooding of an oil reservoir, the P-wave impedance will tend to
decrease because the bulk modulus of oil-CO2 mixtures is less than that for oil (Figure 1). Increasing the oil saturation has the
same effect because oil is more compressible than brine. If pore pressures are increased, P-impedance may decrease due to
decreasing differential pressure.

The reservoir fluids at Weyburn field are brine, original oil, CO2, and mixtures of oil and CO2. The acoustic properties of brine
are modeled with the relations in FLAG (Fluid Acoustics for Geophysics) software. A CO2-based phase with dissolved light
hydrocarbons forms when the concentration of CO2 is higher than is miscible in oil. The composition, transport properties, and
density of the oil-based and CO2-based phases are modeled in the Eclipse reservoir simulator with the Peng-Robinson equation of
state (EOS) (Peng and Robinson, 1965). The option that works best for modeling the bulk modulus of the oil–CO2 system is a
cubic EOS based on Van der Waals equation, with coefficients optimized specifically for Weyburn oil–CO2. In this EOS,
composition of the fluid is described by average molecular weight, which is computed from the reservoir simulation output.

The fluid properties are combined with dry rock properties in a pressure-dependent, anisotropic rock physics model for the
seismic response of a saturated, fractured, fluid-rock system. The dry rock properties model consists of two parts: the model for
the isotropic matrix and the fracture parameters. The pressure-dependence of the dry rock moduli for the upper and lower (Marly
and Vuggy) reservoir zones is estimated from ultrasonic measurements on core samples. The average moduli for the reservoir
zones and the porosity-dependence of moduli are taken from the geophysical logs.

SEG Int'l Exposition and 72nd Annual Meeting * Salt Lake City, Utah * October 6-11, 2002
 Integration of Rock Physics, Reservoir Simulation, and Time-Lapse Seismic Data for Reservoir
Characterization at Weyburn Field, Saskatchewan

Marly Dolostone, Crack Density = 0.03, Confining Pressure = 22 MPa

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10.0
P-Impedance, 10 kg/m /s

Increase SO or
2

Increase CO2
Net change
6

9.5

Increase pore pressure

9.0
Brine: 85k ppm NaCl
Oil: API 29, GOR 30 L/L
Oil + 40% CO 2
8.5 CO2 Increasing differential pressure

8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Pore Pressure, MPa

Figure 1: Example of change in P-wave impedance of reservoir rock under CO2 flood due to changes in fluid saturation and pressure.

Hudson’s crack model (Hudson, 1980, 1981) is used to model the effect of fractures on the elastic properties of the dry rock.
Currently, a single set of vertical fractures is modeled, producing a transversely isotropic rock with a horizontal (HTI) symmetry
axis. Future RCP work may improve the crack model to include spatial variation and pressure interaction of cracks. The dry
rock elastic stiffness (Cij) matrix is combined with the fluid bulk modulus in Brown and Korringa’s (1975) equation to calculate
the elastic stiffness matrix of the fractured, saturated rock. Calculations are made on the reservoir simulation cell scale and then
upscaled. Through modeling, the sensitivity of the seismic properties of the reservoir to fluid pressure and composition can be
quantified. The maximum expected change in P-wave velocity of the reservoir due to CO2 injection is approximately 4% to 6%.
Synthetic seismic modeling shows that changes in the Marly and Vuggy reservoir zones are not independently resolved in the
seismic data. The maximum expected changes in P-wave reflection amplitude due to CO2 injection is 15% to 20%.

Integration of Rock Physics Models and Reservoir Simulation

Integration of reservoir simulation and rock and fluid physics modeling allows the prediction of changes in seismic attributes for
comparison with the time-lapse seismic differences. The output from the reservoir simulation includes pore pressure, fluid
saturation, fluid composition and density. Predictions from reservoir simulation are extended to seismic attributes for comparison
with the seismic data.

Seismic attribute modeling shows that VP/VS ratio at Weyburn is sensitive to change in fluid composition and not pore pressure.
Pore pressure has the strongest effect on shear-wave velocity in the integrated reservoir model. Because the predicted density
changes are small, changes in velocities and impedance are almost identical. Change in P-impedance is closely related to
changes in seismic reflection amplitude of the P-wave data volumes and is perhaps more robust than VP/VS ratio for the reservoir
interval. For these reasons it is chosen as the seismic attribute to compare to the time-lapse difference anomaly. Predicted
change in P-impedance is shown in Figure 2, with wells superimposed.

Integrated Interpretation of P-Wave Time-Lapse Seismic Data

The time-lapse seismic difference anomaly is shown in Figure 3. It is the difference in RMS amplitude, from baseline to repeat
survey, over a +/- 2 ms window centered on the reflection trough corresponding to the top of the Marly zone. An increase in
RMS amplitude at the Marly trough event, from baseline to repeat surveys, corresponds to a decrease in P-wave impedance for
either the Marly or Vuggy zones. Areas with increased reflection amplitude correlate strongly with areas of predicted high CO2
content and P-impedance decrease from integrated reservoir simulation. The greatest changes are in the southern, eastern, and
western quadrants around the horizontal CO2 injection wells, as predicted by simulation. The northern quadrant does not show as
much change because much less CO2 was injected due to difficulties with the injection wells.

SEG Int'l Exposition and 72nd Annual Meeting * Salt Lake City, Utah * October 6-11, 2002
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SEG Int'l Exposition and 72nd Annual Meeting * Salt Lake City, Utah * October 6-11, 2002
 Integration of Rock Physics, Reservoir Simulation, and Time-Lapse Seismic Data for Reservoir
Characterization at Weyburn Field, Saskatchewan

The color bar in Figure 3 is calibrated so that white and yellow correspond to the expected change for development of a CO2-
based phase. Red corresponds to the amplitude increase predicted for a significant (25% to 50%) increase in CO2 content. Blues
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and greens are the background noise level and are difficult to interpret because of superposition of fluid and pressure effects.
Purples represent a decrease in reflection amplitude, which could be due to pore pressure decrease, increase in water saturation,
or lack of repeatability of amplitudes in the 4-D seismic data (noise). Reservoir simulation predicts that pore pressure changes by
approximately +/- 2 MPa in the reservoir.

The anomalies in the seismic data are much more spread out than in the model. This is probably due to reservoir heterogeneities,
such as fractures, which affect flow of reservoir fluids but are not included in the reservoir model. Discrepancies between
locations of predicted CO2 increase and CO2 “response” in the seismic data are probably due to the difference in the permeability
structure of the reservoir and the simulation model.

CO2 “fingering” is observed in the seismic data and is identified on Figure 3. Fingering is movement of the CO2 phase along
high permeability or fracture zones, and can cause premature CO2 breakthrough at production wells. Evidence for fingering is
near wells 15-18-6-13, 1-13-6-14, and 9-12-6-14. These wells experienced increased CO2 production 0 to 6 months before the
repeat seismic survey (Sandy Graham, PanCanadian Petroleum, personal communication 2002). Well 15-18-6-13 had to be shut
down because of CO2 breakthrough.

Conclusions

The main contribution of this work is the development of a consistent, integrated reservoir modeling process to relate changes in
fluid pressure and composition to changes in the seismic properties of the reservoir. This integrated model has been used in
interpretation of the P-wave data volumes, showing that time-lapse seismic surveying can be used to track the CO2 flood at
Weyburn Field. Ultimately, the forward reservoir simulation model developed in this work could be extended to an inversion
scheme where reservoir models are optimized based on both production and seismic data.

References

Brown, L.T., 2002, Integration of rock physics and reservoir simulation for the interpretation of time-lapse seismic data at
Weyburn Field, Saskatchewan, M.Sc. Thesis: Golden, CO, Colorado School of Mines.

Brown, R., and Korringa, J., 1975, On the independence of the elastic properties of a porous rock on the compressibility of the
pore fluid: Geophysics, v. 40, 608-616.

Churcher, P.L., and A.C. Edmonds, 1994, Reservoir characterization and geologic study of the Weyburn Unit, southeastern
Saskatchewan. Prepared for PanCanadian Petroleum by P.L. Churcher, and A.C. Edmonds; T.J. Mullane, P. Tottrup, W.D.
Barnhart, H. Usselman, J.R. Eade, J. Gilroy, J. Stewart, D. Bird, P. Way, D.W. Berndt, and C.B. Austin contributors.

FLAG 4.0 (Fluid Acoustics for Geophysics), HARC and CSM.

Hudson, J.A., 1980, Overall properties of a cracked solid: Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc., 88, 371-384.

Hudson, J.A., 1981, Wave speeds and attenuation of elastic waves in material containing cracks: Geophys. J. Royal Astronom.
Soc., 64, 133-150.

Peng, D. and D.B. Robinson, 1965, A new two-constant equation of state: I.&E.C. Fundamentals, 15, No. 1, 59-64.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Reservoir Characterization Project and Rock Physics Lab at Colorado School of Mines. It is the
result of collaboration and interaction with many fellow students at CSM, including Hiro Yamamoto (reservoir simulation), Ida
Herawati (seismic inversion), Reynaldo Cardona (rock physics), Marty Terrell (seismic design and reservoir modeling), and Hans
Ecke (Perl programming). Sandy Graham of PanCanadian Petroleum was particularly helpful in providing necessary data for
Weyburn Field.

SEG Int'l Exposition and 72nd Annual Meeting * Salt Lake City, Utah * October 6-11, 2002