Oil and Gas

Oil and Gas | Reservoir Engineering

An Introduction to Reservoir Engineering for Geoscientists

Course Code: N006
Instructors:  Mark Cook
Course Outline:  Download
Format and Duration:
4 days
5 sessions

Next Event

Location: Stavanger
Date:  8 - 11 Apr. 2024
Start Time: 09:00 CEDT
Event Code: N006a24C
Fee From: GBP £3,680 (exc. Tax)

Summary

This course examines the standard reservoir engineering processes and techniques, particularly their interface with geoscience activities. This course illustrates, with examples, the use of subsurface data in the construction of a reservoir model. It covers three related main themes: static reservoir models; developing dynamic reservoir simulation models; and reservoir management during the producing life of a field. This course covers the fundamentals of fluid flow in porous media, from a rock and fluid perspective. Reference is made to the application of reservoir engineering principles in carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Business Impact: By building a greater awareness of reservoir engineering principles, participants will be able to communicate more effectively with their Reservoir Engineering colleagues, ensuring better integration between disciplines, thereby improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of business activities.

Feedback

"The course, and Mark, provided a brilliant introduction to the fundamentals of Reservoir Engineering. One of my goals for this course was to be better able to communicate with my RE colleagues, which I have already noticed is the case."

Schedule

Event Code: N006a24C
Duration: 4 days
Instructors: Mark Cook
Dates: 8 - 11 Apr. 2024
Start Time: 09:00 CEDT
Location: Stavanger
Fee From
GBP £3,680 (exc. Tax)
Good Availability
Please login to book.
Event Code: N006a24V
Sessions: 5 sessions
Instructors: Mark Cook
Dates: 21st - 25th Oct 2024
Start Time: 14:00 BST
Location: Virtual
Fee From
GBP £2,485 (exc. Tax)
Good Availability
Please login to book.

Duration and Training Method

This is a classroom or virtual classroom course comprising a mixture of lectures, discussion, case studies, and practical exercises.

Course Overview

Participants will learn to:

  1. Operate more effectively, and work more collaboratively, with their Reservoir Engineering colleagues.
  2. Interpret original fluid contacts, through analysis of logs and pressure vs. depth profiles, prior to production start-up; define saturation vs height relationships and estimate original hydrocarbon in place volumes.
  3. Employ fluid sampling techniques and differentiate the physical and chemical properties of hydrocarbons and their description through phase diagrams.
  4. Examine the uses and importance of well tests and appraise how analysis is conducted. 
  5. Identify the controls on fluid flow in the reservoir, the balance of viscous, capillary, and gravity forces and the impact of reservoir drive mechanisms including depletion, water and gas drive.
  6. Analyse production performance in the wellbore and debate artificial lift techniques and the potential benefits of horizontal wells. Compare production enhancement through stimulation, horizontal wells, and completion techniques.
  7. Define the processes and interfaces of building both static and dynamic reservoir models, including the challenges of upscaling, and demonstrate knowledge of the principles of reservoir numerical simulation techniques, and its validation.
  8. Evaluate the importance of continued reservoir management for forecasting future production profiles and maximising economic hydrocarbon recovery from a producing field over the complete life cycle.
  9. Compare the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)  techniques: steam and fire flooding, miscible and immiscible gas displacement.
  10. Apply key reservoir engineering principles to carbon capture and storage (CCS).

 

The material covered in this course is built around the reservoir model, which can be constructed using analytical (calculator) or numerical (simulation) processes. The process is in three parts:

  1. Building a static reservoir model
  2. Developing a dynamic model – analytical and simulation
  3. Reservoir management during the producing life of a field

The following topics will be covered:

Introduction

Basic reservoir rock and fluid description

Controls on fluid flow in the reservoir

  • Rock permeability and relationship with porosity
  • Reservoir zonation - Darcy's Law and impact of permeability contrasts

Defining fluid contacts and estimating volumetrics

  • Defining fluid contacts -  pressure vs depth relationships
  • Capillary pressures and saturation-height relationships

Reservoir fluid properties

  • Fluid sampling
  • Analysis of fluid samples
    - Chemical and physical properties of hydrocarbons
    - Phase diagrams
  • Making use of the PVT report

Well test analysis

  • Uses of well testing
  • Planning a well test
  • Well testing operations
  • Well test analysis – determining kh, skin, PI, boundary effects
     - Analysis techniques – semi-log and log-log analysis
     - Understanding the non-uniqueness of engineering analysis

Dynamic behaviour of reservoir fluids

Material balance and fluid displacement

  • Drive mechanisms - depletion, gas cap drive, water drive
  • Material balance for oil and gas reservoirs
  • Fluid displacement on a macroscopic scale - sweep efficiency
  • Fluid displacement on a microscopic scale - relative permeability
  • Estimating recovery factors
  • Diffuse and segregated flow regimes

Dynamic well performance

  • The inflow performance relationship
  • Tubing performance curves
  • Artificial lift techniques
  • Horizontal wells

Reservoir simulation

  • Gridding and simulation principles
  • Upscaling static and dynamic model properties

Measuring reservoir performance and reservoir management

Reservoir monitoring

  • Overview of reservoir management
  • Monitoring tools: pressure, PLT, TDT, RFT, MDT, XPT pressure data, production and injection data

Production

  • Decline curve analysis
  • Reservoir simulation and history matching
  • Reserves reporting

Enhanced oil recovery techniques

  • Mobility control (polymer)
  • Miscible and immiscible techniques (surfactants, gas flooding) 
  • Thermal techniques (steam and fire flooding)

Carbon capture and storage (CCS)

  • Selecting the container (saline aquifer, depleted gas fields)
  • Displacement in the reservoir and residual gas
  • Capillary trapping and risk management in CCS

This course is aimed at Geoscientists and other subsurface professionals who interface with Reservoir Engineers in their regular work, or who wish to obtain a broad grounding in reservoir engineering principles. This course will also benefit new team leaders tasked with managing multi-disciplinary teams.

Mark Cook

Background
Mark Cook is a Principal Reservoir Engineer for TRACS International. His specialties are reservoir engineering, petroleum economics, and risk analysis and field development planning, subjects in which he has developed and delivers training courses to advanced levels.

Mark graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering and has worked in the oil and gas industry since 1981, spending the first eleven years with Shell International as a reservoir engineer on field development projects, equity negotiations and operations in the UK, Oman, Tanzania and Holland. He then co-founded TRACS International in 1992, setting out to provide training and consultancy to the upstream industry. He built the business over time as Petroleum Engineer and Director, before taking on his current part-time role as Principal Reservoir Engineer.

He runs the SPE Short Course in Field Development Econmics, and has been an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in Risk Analysis. He is a guest lecturer at Heriot Watt Univeristy. He is co-author and editor of "Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production" (Jahn, Cook, Graham, 2008) and has written "Petroleum Econmics and Risk Analysis", published by Elsevier in January 2021.

Affiliations and Accreditation
MBA, Henley Management College
BSc, University of Nottingham, Chemical Engineering
Director, Delta-T Energy Consultancy Ltd. (Dublin)

Courses Taught
N006: An Introduction to Reservoir Engineering for Geoscientists
N014: Petroleum Economics and Risk Analysis
N444: Development Planning For Mature Fields

CEU: 2.8 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 28 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.