Consistent geological-simulation modeling in carbonate reservoirs, a case study from the Khuff Formation, Persian Gulf

• Integrated reservoir study.
• Corporation of the seismic data into geological grid.
• Reservoir zonation using sequence stratigraphic framework.
• Innovation in permeability prediction and modeling.
• Grid up-scaling suing hydraulic flow units.

The Khuff Formation constitutes reservoir body in many gas producer fields of the Persian Gulf and Arabian plate. This carbonate reservoir represents a complex character which strongly affects reservoir modeling and prediction of its reservoir performance. This paper examines construction of a reservoir model for this formation by the use of an integrated approach and shows how geological and simulation grids can perform consistently. This approach shows that in case of proper data integration, loss of value in z-dimension after grid scale-up would be ignorable and will not affect actual reservoir performance.The presented approach uses sequence stratigraphic framework (SSF) as the basis of reservoir zonation and permeability prediction. This is resulted to consistent poro/perm models that help accurate prediction of reservoir performance in simulation model. SSF also helped propagation of reservoir bodies in geological model. A seismic derived effective porosity (SPHIE) cube is used in conjunction with core and log data to distribute porosity. Hydraulic flow units (HFUs) which are assessed by the use of core and log data are used as the basis of grid scale-up. Our findings showed that if data integration is properly done, strong correlation of HFUs and SSF will be obtained which results to consistent geological and simulation models. Permeability should be populated into the 3D grid by the use of functions derived from SSF zonation and water saturation modeling should be upon capillary pressure curves assigned to each reservoir rock type (RRT) so that the final geological model and coarse simulation grid would be consistent.The presented approach in this study explains how various visions and different scale data could be properly used in a reservoir model. It also provides ideas about ideal consistent reservoir modeling for the Khuff Formation and similar heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs.