Beicip-Franlab rolls out new reservoir simulator (August 1998)

Beicip-Franlab (B-F), the consulting andsoftware arm of the French Petroleum Institute (IFP) is to productize Athos, a reservoirsimulator jointly developed with the IFP.

Previously exclusively used for consulting and internal use, Athos offers mutually compatible options including black-oil, bi-component, compositional, dual media (for fractured reservoir) and thermal. The black oil representation models conventional water flows, slightly volatile oils and simple gas condensate. Compositional formulation based on equation-of-state (EOS) and pressure-dependent K values, accurately models highly volatile oils and gas condensates. Both representation can be coupled with dual porosity/dual permeability media to handle fractured zones within the reservoir. In addition, a polymer module allows to solve for polymer flooding designed to prevent water production from wells. Athos has its origins in proprietary simulators, developed since the early seventies, as part of the IFP's research program and B-F's consulting activity. Athos 3.0, will be marketed from September 1998, handles both Cartesian and corner-point geometries of reservoir structure and stratigraphy.

Athos also features local grid refinement for enhanced model resolution in production zones. Finer grid spacing in the X, Y or Z direction can be defined as required, as well as vertical subdivisions of radial grids. The number of nested refinements is unlimited. The Simgrid and Simview modules offer interactive and intuitive procedures for simulation pre and post-processing. Simgrid generates corner-point geometry grids, based on structural and stratigraphic interpretation of the reservoir zones. With Simgrid, it is now possible to introduce real structural geology in reservoir simulations, even with strongly faulted reservoirs.

New options modeling steam injection and in-situ combustion have been included. Athos also implements innovative tools for computer-aided model calibration, based on an inversion loop, which facilitates the history matching procedure. These have been successfully tested in various reservoir studies, notably in Venezuela. A case-study on steam injection will be given jointly by B-F and PDVSA at the next SPE Fall Meeting. This paper will illustrates the use of B-F's geostatistical package, Heresim in conjunction with Athos for reservoir characterization production optimization. More from http://www.beicip.fr.