Abstract:

A new approach to determine the influence of the relative permeabilities in the parameter estimation problem is presented in this work. Relative permeabilities govern the multiphase flow; therefore, they have a significant importance in understanding the reservoir behavior. Traditionally, relative permeabilities have been assumed as known parameters when the inverse problem is solved. This assumption introduces a new source of uncertainty in the reservoir model. The aim of this work was to study the influence of the relative permeability when automatic history matching is performed to determine reservoir parameters such as porosities and absolute permeabilities. In this work, relative permeabilities were parameterized using Corey type curves and including them into the inverse model as six additional parameters. The results obtained show the impact that using wrong relative permeabilities has on the estimated parameters. Finally, several suggestions to minimize the uncertainty introduced by the relative permeabilities are made.

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Copyright 2002, Martin Javier Cocco: Please note that the reports and theses are copyright to their original authors. Authors have given written permission for their work to be made available here. Readers who download reports from this site should honor the copyright of the original authors and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the author, Martin Javier Cocco.