Ensemble smoothing of land displacements and deep compaction for the geomechanical
characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs
C. Zoccarato, M. Ferronato, G. Gambolati, P. Teatini
Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padova, Italy
D. Bał
Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK
ABSTRACT
In this study, a geomechanical analysis of producing hydrocarbon reservoirs is carried out
in order to establish a probabilistic framework for the calibration of numerical models.
A stochastic method is developed to improve the estimate of the geomechanical properties
of hydrocarbon reservoirs in sedimentary basins. Specifically, an ensemble-based data
assimilation algorithm, called Ensemble Smoother (ES), is implemented to calibrate
geomechanical parameters by inverting available measurements of land displacement and
reservoir deformation collected during the field development. Data of i) ground or seabed
subsidence, uplift, horizontal displacements measured with InSAR, multibeam surveys, and
GPS and ii) reservoir compaction obtained from well logs (e.g., the radioactive marker
technique) are used within a 3D numerical model to infer and reduce the prior uncertainty
of reservoir geomechanical parameters, in particular the uniaxial vertical compressibility cM.
This contribution points out the capability of the proposed methodology in a few realistic test cases.
