Reservoir Heterogeneity
With Darcian approach (considering only macroscopic fluctuations despite the reservoir being heterogeneous microscopically and involving frequency as well as spatial distribution along with an inherent stability of the mechanism associated with every single rock/fluid reservoir parameter), it may remain feasible to compute the effect of reservoir heterogeneity on reservoir behavior, but it may not be possible to specify the heterogeneity itself (that essentially dictate the extent and the significance of reservoir irregularities).
Is it true?
Even, if it remains to be true, when do they become significant?
I'll suggest that it is impossible to specify the heterogeneity of most reservoirs due to the inherent complexity of mineralogy, diagenesis, structural deformation etc. and the problem of areal extrapolation away from the locations of borehole data. The best we can do is create a range reservoir properties based on actual rock data, preferably cores tied to good outcrop models with associated variograms. Computing the effect is important but the range of uncertainty of the effect must be clearly understood. I'll argue that real-world applications of reservoir analysis will always be stochastic, not deterministic so significance depends on how the uncertainty affects the economic decision at hand.
Yes, it is true that with a Darcian approach, it may remain feasible to compute the effect of reservoir heterogeneity on reservoir behavior, but it may not be possible to specify the heterogeneity itself. This is because a Darcian approach considers only the macroscopic fluctuations in the reservoir, which are averaged over a large area and do not take into account the microscale variations in the rock and fluid properties.
However, the significance of reservoir heterogeneity depends on the specific properties of the reservoir and the objectives of the analysis. In some cases, the heterogeneity may be negligible and can be ignored without affecting the accuracy of the analysis. In other cases, the heterogeneity may have a significant impact on the reservoir behavior and cannot be ignored.
Some factors that can make reservoir heterogeneity significant include:
In general, reservoir heterogeneity becomes more significant as the scale of analysis becomes smaller, and as the objectives of the analysis become more precise. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider the specific properties of the reservoir and the objectives of the analysis when evaluating the significance of reservoir heterogeneity.
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