Case Study Three

Step 1 — Reservoir characterization. Discretized a dipping reservoir using a 2D finite-difference grid derived from realistic geological structure. Depth ranges from approximately 12,000 to 13,400 ft. Reservoir properties: porosity ≈ 26%, permeability ≈ 1800 mD, average thickness ≈ 200 ft within the productive zone.

Step 2 — IMPES formulation. Employed Implicit Pressure Explicit Saturation (IMPES) strategy: implicit pressure solution coupled with explicit saturation update. This provides computational efficiency for two-phase flow while maintaining stability within IMPES limits.

Step 3 — Multiphase physics. Implemented Brooks-Corey relative permeability formulations fitted to laboratory rock-fluid data. Integrated capillary pressure modeling through empirical curve fitting. Included gravity potential calculations to capture flow behavior in dipping reservoirs.

Step 4 — Numerical stability. Applied upwind mobility weighting to ensure numerical stability during water displacement. Investigated timestep sensitivity and numerical dispersion near displacement fronts.

Step 5 — Well modeling. Dynamic well productivity calculations using Peaceman-type well modeling concepts. One water injector operating at approximately 2000 STB/day and three producing wells with bottom-hole pressure constraints and water-cut tracking.

Step 6 — Adaptive strategy. Implemented an adaptive development strategy in which producing wells are automatically converted into injectors once water cut exceeds 95%, improving pressure support and extending field life.

Step 7 — Validation. Validated against the classical Buckley-Leverett analytical solution for one-dimensional immiscible displacement. Excellent agreement between analytical and numerical saturation fronts confirmed accuracy.