Interdisciplinary study of reservoir compartments and heterogeneity. Progress report, January 1--March 31, 1996

The major project objective is to help move small American businesses (oil and gas independent operators) from traditional practices in oil and gas reservoir management to an unproved integrated team approach making better use of information and the expertise of people. This objective is being accomplished in two ways: (1) Specific examples resulting from our field study, and (2) A general manual documenting the process of integrating data and people from the disciplines of geology, geophysics, and petroleum engineering. An actual oil field in the Denver Julesburg Basin in Colorado was selected to test the methods of integration. Efforts during this quarter were dedicated to history matching of the simulation model and to planning for various forecast runs. The geologic model and the engineering analysis resulted in a reservoir simulation model that is representative of the main features of the reservoir, such as the compartments and differing gas-oil contacts in each compartment. As a result of the history matching process, changes were made in the model. The economic significance of these changes, if any, will be addressed in the final report