Numerical Modelling

Laurie wrote at a time of significant reservoir modelling software development and advances;

“…but to apply sophisticated numerical methods to generalise about formation properties by such means as generating statistical correlations and regression analysis should be reduced to a minimum. Reservoir performance is so often dominated by some physical feature (the bit in the corner), which may be a weakness or strength, that can be completely overlooked through the smudging effect inherent in the application of number crunching methods”

Practice – p 2

"All too frequently, engineers at meetings are unable to address fairly obvious questions without resorting to construction of a simulation model."

Practice - P6

In the past 15 years development of numerical models has continued a pace. Shared Earth Models have led to the arrival of integrated software packages and conventional reservoir simulation has been enhanced for multiple scenario and optimisation simulation. Is it no longer true to say as Dake did in 1994 that;

“It is not unusual, for instance, to find a group of engineers slaving away in the back room for months with their computers only to emerge with the pronouncement that – ‘the model is great but there seems to be something wrong with the reservoir’”

Practice – p 4