Analytical Solutions of a Production System

by
Vincent Guillot, MSE

University of Texas at Austin, 1999
Supervisor: Dr. Larry W. Lake

In the oil industry a great importance is given to reservoir management, and reservoir uncertainty analysis in reservoir simulation studies is a key to obtain accurate results. The main objective of this research is to develop a novel approach to study and quantify the uncertainty in reservoir simulation studies.

A specific process was designed and studied. This process describes an injection/production mechanism occurring in a two-layer reservoir. From the mathematical formulation, an analytical solution was derived. An investigation of the dimensionless groups generated from this solution gives the parameters influencing this system.

The analytical solution for the system pressures proves that the eigenvalues are real, thus no oscillations of pressures or production rates can occur. The results shown from the approach used are that the system is highly sensitive to the vertical transmissibility and that once a certain value as been reached, the system is essentially equivalent to a one-layer system.

Back to theses index