Stochastic mapping of lithology in a carbonate reservoir

A. Sahin*, S. G. Ghori

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Stochastic maps of reservoir lithology are extremely useful for planning during field development, production and management. Moreover, lithology types may have significant controls over porosity and permeability distributions within the reservoir. Therefore, the stochastic mapping of lithology may be considered to be the first step in geostatistical modeling of porosity and permeability distributions during reservoir characterization. Several stochastic mapping (i.e. conditional simulation) techniques have been developed in recent years to generate equally-probable, multiple realizations of reservoir lithology. Each realization constitutes a high resolution stochastic image, or map, displaying a realistic level of heterogeneity. It also reproduces the histogram and the spatial pattern of the actual data besides honoring these data at all sample locations. In this study, the Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS) technique was employed to generate stochastic maps in a carbonate reservoir consisting of three lithology types (dolomite, limestone and anhydrite). The basic data consisted of lithology indicators representing these lithology types and were derived using several techniques. The simulation provided a total of twenty realizations indicating the presence or absence of one of the three lithologies within cells each having 300m × 300m × 0.5ft dimensions. The results indicate an excellent match between the histogram of the input data and that of the simulated values. Comparison of lithology maps derived from simulation with those of the corresponding well-log porosity fields indicates that porosity does not correlate well with lithology except locally with anhydrite lenses. This is explained by the gradual change of well-log porosity values across lithologic boundaries observed in the input data.

Original languageEnglish
Pages183-193
Number of pages11
DOIs
StatePublished - 1997

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
  • Geology

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