Simulation and Scale-up Studies of Reservoir-analog Models from Miocene Carbonate Outcrops in Southeast Spain

Abstract

The La Molata and Agua Amarga outcrops in Southeast Spain provide an unparalleled opportunity to study very fine-scale carbonate exposures which can be used as analogs to some deep and shallow-water carbonate systems around the world. On one hand, two carbonate units in La Molata (TCC and DS3) are examined through engineering designs to gain a better understanding of fluid flows in the system and what is the optimal scenario to recover the most from similarly heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs. Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC) simulation results show that production well on the updip side of the model is more effective than when it is on the lower ground, the impact of sequence boundaries on recovery is limited, full completion is not required to improve production, and 5-spot patterns recover better than 9-spot patterns. Findings on Reefal Platform System (DS3) indicate that oil is trapped in the facies associated with low permeability, Scatter permeability has little effect on recovery of the system, and vertical wells with added laterals will recover more in the presence of erosion surfaces. On the other hand, the Agua Amarga project scales up previously built facies and examines the resulting connected volumes in comparison to the initial volumes. What it finds is that reservoir volumes will break down, reduce in size or be lost rather than combining into one large volume. This project answers the question whether the volumes will all merge into one and shows that facies scale-up is not a good practice for building the simulation model.