Tech Division Events

Geomodeling Division

For more information on this Division, please contact the Division Chair, Weishan Ren, ConocoPhillilps, at (403) 233-3428 or via email at weishan.ren@conocophillips.com.

Division Profile

The mandate of the Geomodeling Division is to provide CSPG members with opportunities for education and information related to technical developments in the subject areas of geomathematics and computer technologies as they are used in the pursuit of petroleum exploration and development. As a main contribution of the division, technical luncheon presentations are held once a month, usually on the last Wednesday of the month.

The subjects that are presented in these technical talks include, for example, The latest developments in geomathematical applications, Geological modeling technology, Geostatistical approaches to modeling and risk analysis, Geological case studies using computer technology and the benefits, Digital data organization - storage and retrieval. In addition, ad hoc forums may be organized where members can discuss geomathematical and geological computer issues with experts in the field.The Geomodeling Division does not endorse or promote the use of specific commercial software products, nor does it perform any testing or comparative studies of such products.We do encourage volunteers to present public talks on case histories that illustrate the use of technology and methods.

The success of the Division depends on volunteer participation. CSPG members are encouraged to attend the activities of the Geomodeling Division and to be involved in organizing these activities. Division meetings are held once a month over lunch. If you are interested in joining this committee or if you have suggestions for luncheon talks or other activities, please contact any members of the committee.

Weishan Ren, Chairperson, (403) 233-3428, weishan.ren@conocophillips.com
Peter Boyle, (403) 287-3228, peter_boyle@shaw.ca
Tom Cox, (403) 716-4497, tcox@calgary.oilfield.slb.com
Ned Etris, (403) 296-5729, netris@petro-canada.ca
David Garner, (403) 234-5875, davidgarner@chevron.com
Blair Mattison, (403) 645-2716, blair.mattison@encana.com
Tim McCullagh, (403) 691-2337, tim.mccullagh@shell.com

Division Talks

Trend Modeling for SAGD application at Surmont

Speaker
Olena Babak,
Total E&P Canada Ltd.

Co-Authors
Pierre Bergey, Virginia Mayo, and Denis Druesne, Total E&P Canada Ltd.

12:00 Noon
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

ConocoPhillips Auditorium
3rd Floor- above Plus 15+ level
401 - 9th Ave SW
Calgary, Alberta

Abstract
Building numerical reservoir models is an intermediate but crucial step for development planning and reservoir management. Numerical models are often used with the assistance of flow simulation to compare and choose alternative production scenarios, well locations and well trajectories. Accurate reservoir models lead to reliable predictions of reservoir performance and improved reservoir management decisions.

Geostatistical reservoir models are created in a hierarchical fashion. Major stratigraphic layers are identified first, then facies are modeled, and, finally, porosity and permeability and any other variables of importance are assigned according to facies. Facies modeling is an essential step in numerical reservoir description. There may exist many secondary data that must be considered in facies modeling including multiple seismic attributes and geological trends. Each data type carries information at different scale and with varying level of precision; all of them should be used to acquire accurate facies models and to reduce the uncertainty in the reservoir performance predictions.

The most common technique in industry for facies modeling is Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS). This method is based on indicator kriging which allows direct estimation of the conditional distribution at an unsampled location, that is, its distribution of uncertainty. Simulation is performed by including previously simulated nodes into the conditioning information, and drawing from the conditional distribution function. Secondary data in SIS is incorporated by using a trend model. This option for SIS allows not only to account for the local facies data (conditioning) and spatial variation of the facies (variogram), but also to put a stronger constrain on the facies variability derived from the secondary information (trend). SIS with locally varying mean or trend option is implemented in many if not all public and commercial software packages. Building reasonable and fair trend models for facies prediction, on the other hand, still presents an important challenge that must be addressed.

In this presentation we show a work that was undertaken for building a 3D trend model for the Surmont Lease in the Athabasca Oil Sands. For the trend modeling in Surmont two types of data were used: hard facies data and secondary seismic attribute. Our work was divided into three parts. Primary facies data were analyzed first to create 3D by-facies proportions cubes. This was achieved by using 3D overlapping moving average approach. This approach was chosen due to its simplicity and efficiency. Then, secondary seismic data was binned according to the facies data at the wells. Binning was performed in local neighborhoods to increase the facies differentiating power of seismic attribute. Finally, the seismic-derived and facies-derived proportion cubes were merged using several probability combination schemes including permanence of ratios (PR) approach and conditional independence (CI) approach. All resulting cubes including seismic-derived and facies-derived proportion cubes themselves were evaluated and validated using objective criteria of entropy and fairness.

Biography
Dr. Olena Babak is a Geostatistician with the Total E&P Canada Ltd. (TEPC). She carries out and supervises TEPC's quantitative geological evaluations and geostatistical analysis, as well as conducts research into improvement of methodologies and tools for better modeling of heterogeneity and uncertainty in petroleum reservoirs and mineral deposits. Dr. Babak is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She works with Professor Clayton Deutsch (Director of the School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Alberta Chamber of Resources Industry Chain in Mining Engineering, Canada Research Chair in Natural Resources Uncertainty Management) and his students in the Centre for Computational Geostatistics. Dr. Babak is a member of Geomodeling Committee at the CSPG. She holds a M.Sc. degree in Statistics from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (2004), a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland (2005) and a Ph.D. degree in Mining Engineering (Geostatistics) from the University of Alberta (2008). Dr. Babak has published 12 journal papers and more than 20 conference articles and technical papers/reports.

Information
There is no charge. Non-members of the CSPG are also welcome. Please bring your lunch. For details or to present a talk in the future, please contact Weishan Ren, ConocoPhillilps, at (403) 233-3428 or via email at weishan.ren@conocophillips.com.