Direct simulation of complex grid models of highly heterogeneous and fractured porous media - a technology that bypasses the need for upscaling

Modern methods for 3D geological modelling and reservoir characterisation are leading industry to routinely build very large and detailed reservoir models; grid models of the subsurface geology currently range in size from 10 to 100 million cells and are growing. Such models pose a serious computational challenge to numerical reservoir simulators. Indeed, there is a steadily increasing gap between the level of detail seen in industrial geomodels and the capabilities of current flow simulators that cannot be closed by incremental improvements to legacy simulators.

SINTEF ICT has set an ambitions goal to try an close this gap by developing a unique and novel suit of multiscale reservoir simulation tools. This is done through GeoScale, a portfolio of strategic research projects funded by the Research Council of Norway and two industry partners (Schlumberger and Shell). In particular, we study:

• use of geocellular models as direct input to flow simulation
• efficient multiscale pressure solvers
• fast transport solvers on coarse, intermediate, and geocellular grids

Using our new simulator technology and striking optimal balances between reduced computational time, geological representation, and complexity of flow physics, we seek to speed up existing work processes by fast flow simulation and bring simulation to new work processes that require almost instant computation of flow responses.