Coupling time-lapse monitoring by satellite data and numerical geomechanical models
for reservoir management.
A. Tamburini, M. Minini
Tele-Rilevamento Europa TRE S.r.l, Milano, Italy
A. Higgs, G. Falorni
TRE Canada Inc., Vancouver, Canada
P. Teatini, M. Ferronato, F. Comola, C. Janna
M3E S.r.l., Padova, Italy
ABSTRACT
Reservoir monitoring improves our understanding of its behaviour and helps achieve
a more effective management and prediction of future performance with obvious economic
benefits. It relies on an integrated approach involving both surveillance
(well or surface based; seismic, electrical, leakage, flow and deformation
measurements etc.) and numerical modeling.
Volumetric changes in reservoirs due to fluid extraction and injection can induce
either subsidence or uplift which could trigger fault reactivation and threaten
well integrity. The deformation field is usually detectable at the surface.
The maximum value of surface displacements and the extent of the area experiencing
the movement related to the reservoir operations depend on the reservoir depth/thickness
and the reservoir/overburden rheology, mainly the soil compressibility. One of the
most recent applications presented in this paper is relevant to the Tengiz giant oil
field, Kazakhstan; in this case the top of the reservoir is about 3500 m deep.
Surface deformation monitoring can provide valuable constraints on the dynamic behaviour
of a reservoir enabling the evaluation of volumetric changes in the reservoir through time.
Whatever the surveying technique, the detection of millimetre level surface deformation
is required to monitor small surface displacement rates, which could impact risk
evaluation and land use planning.
Mapping surface effects accurately requires hundreds of observation (measurement) points
per square km which cannot be delivered by traditional monitoring methods without
unacceptably large expenditure. SqueeSARTM is one of the most promising
valuable and cost-effective techniques capable of providing high precision and high
areal density displacement measurements over long periods of time, free of atmospheric
artifacts. Moreover, the availability of surface displacement data from different for
both ascending and descending orbits enables the estimation of both vertical and E-W
horizontal displacement fields. This accurate information can be used to calibrate
geomechanical three-dimensional numerical models. Providing the deformation and stress
fields, the models can be effectively used in their forecasting potential to investigate
the expected evolution of the ground surface movements, the possibility of fault
re-activation and/or fracture generation, the risk well breaking depending on various
development plans.
Some case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of measuring surface deformation with
satellite data for the calibration of reservoir geomechanical models will be presented.
