Review of well models and assessment of their impacts on numerical reservoir simulation performance

Reservoir simulators have long become primary reservoir engineering tools for simulating fluid flow in porous media, recovery analyses and performance evaluation in the oil and gas industry. This review focuses on recent advancement in the development and representation of conventional and advanced well models used in reservoir simulators for simulating fluid flow in porous media since the last review on the subject (Demetri and Farouq, 1993). Well models have been developed to different degrees of sophistication resulting in significant positive impact on numerical reservoir simulation performance. In spite of the complexities of these developed well models and the successes recorded with them in predicting well and reservoir performances, some predictions made with them in some cases do not match actual field performances. The major factors contributing to these observed well models' limitations are emphasized and future perspectives on the development of next generation well models which are suitable for more efficient, comprehensive, faster and highly scalable next generation reservoir simulators with enhanced computing capabilities are advised.

► This is a comprehensive review on well models after the last review in 1993.
► The review highlights on the limitations of current well models.
► The need for formulating more complex well models is emphasized.
► Future perspective on next generation well models is advised.