Unlike the rest of the process industries where the inputs and outputs to the process are largely known, oil and gas production comes from unseen reservoirs. Reservoir models are built by geologists from numerous sources—log data, lab data, seismic data, outcrop data, etc.

Emerson’s Tor Barkve, a Technical Product Manger in the Roxar Software Solutions business unit, has written a whitepaper, Honoring Geology in Flow Simulation Models (registration required). He shares how to build and upscale representative flow models to support decision making in the management of the producing oil & gas field.

A second whitepaper, 5 Benefits Operators Expect from Their Reservoir Models (reg. req’d), by Emerson’s Tyson Bridger, Garrett Leahy & Tone Kråkenes describes how through a model driven interpretation workflow, operators can squeeze maximum value from their reservoir models and realize:

1. a more complete representation of the data
2. early estimates of reservoir volumes
3. risk estimates for drilling decisions
4. enhanced productivity
5. improved decision-making across the reservoir management lifecycle.

Model driven interpretation is a key part of the latest release, RMS 2013 reservoir management software. This model driven interpretation provides geologists and geophysicists the ability to set and collect uncertainty information associated with an interpretation, easily and reversibly test geologic hypotheses, and the ability to put detail in the model where the data require it.

In this 2:23 YouTube video, Garrett explains how geoscientists’ workflows are improved to allow them to get from the data to the model, to making decisions based on the model more quickly.

Key changes to the existing workflow include bring uncertainty management and quantification of geologic risk to the interpretation phase. This common platform for geophysicists and geologists provides a forum for cross-disciplinary discussions around managing the reservoir to take place.

RMS 2013 provides users with a more complete representation of the data. With domain experts now able to integrate and share knowledge across the lifecycle, RMS 2013 places model driven interpretation and uncertainty management in the center of the asset team. This results in improved quantifying of uncertainty and risk and better decision-making.