Super-resolution reconstruction of reservoir saturation map with physical constraints using generative adversarial network

Complete physics-based numerical simulations currently provide the most accurate approach for predicting fluid flow behavior in geological reservoirs. However, the amount of computational resources required to perform these simulations increase exponentially with the increase in resolution to the point that they are infeasible. Therefore, a common practice is to upscale the reservoir model to reduce the resolution such that numerous simulations, as required, can be performed within a reasonable time. The problem we are trying to solve here is that the simulation results from these upscaled models, although they provide a zoomed-out and global view of the reservoir dynamics, however, they lack a detailed zoomed-in view of a local region in the reservoir, which is required to take actionable decisions. This work proposes using super-resolution techniques, recently developed using machine learning methods, to obtain fine-scale flow behavior given flow behavior from a low-resolution simulation of an upscaled-reservoir model. We demonstrate our model on a two-phase, deal-oil, and heterogenous oil reservoir, and we reconstruct the oil saturation map of the reservoir. We also demonstrate how the network can be trained using dynamic coarse geological properties at various resolutions. The findings imply that even when coarse geological features and with limited resolution, the super-resolution reconstructions are able to recreate missing information that is close to the ground facts