Sequential fully implicit well model with tridiagonal matrix structure for reservoir simulation

Abstract

A subsurface hydrocarbon reservoir with horizontal or multiple vertical wells is simulated by sequential solution of reservoir and well equations to simulate fluid flow inside the reservoir and well production rates. Sequential solution of reservoir and well equations treats wells as specified bottom hole pressure wells. This avoids solving large matrices resulting from the simultaneous solution of the reservoir and well equations which can be computationally very expensive for large number of unknowns and require special sparse matrix solvers. Such sequential solution involves regular reservoir system solvers complemented by a small matrix for the numerical solution of the well bottom hole pressures.

Description

[0001] Related Application Cross Reference [0002] This application is a continuation-in-part of, and claims priority to, applicant's co-pending, commonly-owned U.S. Patent Application No. 14 / 040,930, filed September 30, 2013, and claims U.S. Patent Application No. 1, filed February 9, 2011 Priority to Application No. 13 / 023,728 (now U.S. Patent No. 9,164,191 issued October 20, 2015). [0003] This application is also related to commonly owned U.S. Patent Application No. 15, entitled "Sequential Fully Implicit Well Model with Tridiagonal Matrix Structure for Reservoir Simulation," (Attorney Docket No. 004159.005478) and having the same inventor as this application / 061,628. technical field [0004] The present application relates to computerized simulations of hydrocarbon reservoirs in the earth, and in particular, to simulations of flow profiles along wells in the reservoirs. Background technique [0005] Well models have played an important role in numerical reservoir s...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

This method has become computationally expensive in terms of processor time for wells with many completions and for many wells in the simulation model

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