Abstract:

Integrated reservoir modeling (IRM) is a best practice in the upstream industry, which is applied through all life-cycle stages of oil and gas projects to help characterize subsurface reservoirs and optimize field development phases. In this respect, carbonate and clastic reservoirs are different in a range of aspects that will be highlighted. During the past 25 years, major developments in technology have proven the importance of IRM as a subsurface contributor to upstream projects. A brief history of IRM will be provided, using exploration examples from carbonates and development examples that progress up to the recent learnings about unconventional hydrocarbon trapping.

More importantly, these industry showcases will be used to introduce present-day challenges facing IRM. Despite the significant progress in modeling technologies, the root causes for the disappointing results of such studies are the limitations in software tools and workflows and the lack of integration. An outlook for the future of hydrocarbon development planning and IRM will be presented.

Author:

Jürgen Grötsch is global learning advisor for geology at Shell, where he is responsible for the design and deployment of advanced training programs. In this position, his focus areas are integration and building capabilities in decision-based subsurface modeling for multidisciplinary teams. He holds a PhD in carbonate sedimentology and has authored and coauthored numerous publications and books. Grötsch is wellknown as a keynote lecturer from international geoscience conferences and since 2009 has been a visiting lecturer at the GeoZentrum of the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany. He is vice president of the German Geological Society.