Numerical fluid flow modelling and its seismic response in time-lapse

Vanja Milicevic, Robert James Ferguson

A timelapse reservoir characterization study is performed on a model of a producing reservoir. This model reservoir has two injection wells and one producer. Pressure and saturation models are obtained from numerical simulation of reservoir properties and fluid flow for a number of calendar days. Integration of saturation models and Gassmann's relations delivers compressional wave velocity models for each calendar day, and finitedifference algorithms are used to generate synthetic data for comparison; specifically, we compare 2D acoustic and 3C-3D elastic forward modelling. Examples show subtle similarities and differences between the models. Both, acoustic and elastic, models prove to be valuable tools in reservoir characterization.