Application of the Recovery Curve Method for evaluation of matrix–fracture interactions

• Applying the newly introduced recovery curve method in the history matching process.
• Showing that phase contact movements depends on forms of the recovery curves.
• Using the historical phase contact data for more realistic description of fracture-matrix interaction.
• Representing applicability of Neighborhood Bayes algorithm coupled with genetic algorithm for uncertainty quantification.

The Discrete Fracture Network and Dual Continuum concept are two common methods to model naturally fractured reservoirs. Each has specific limitations. The newly introduced recovery curve method is believed to be a compromise between these two current methods. In the recovery curve method, two recovery curves for water and gas displacements are used to more realistically calculate matrix-fracture mass exchanges. This paper presents a new approach to determine appropriate recovery curves by using the recovery curve method and production data. In particular, two recovery curves were determined for a column model by matching phase contact positions throughout the production data. Hybrid genetic algorithm and Neighborhood–Bayes technique were utilized for optimization and uncertainty quantification purposes respectively. Also, the distribution of the history matched models was shown by Boxplot. The results with the predicted recovery curves, showed very good agreement with the reference production data and the Bayesian credible intervals (P10–P90) of the proposed method were acceptable.