Simulation of Transient Well-Test Signatures for Geologically Realistic Faults in Sandstone Reservoirs

Abstract

For the design of production strategies one must identify how faults that are detected in seismic surveys influence fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs. In this study we use the Entrada sandstone formation. Arches Natl. Park, Utah, as an outcrop analog of a faulted sandstone reservoir. Field measurements of the geometry, thickness, and layered permeability of the normal faults that cross-cut this sandstone are incorporated in two-dimensional (2D) fluid-flow models, facilitating the simulation of fault signatures in transient well tests with a high-resolution finite-element method. In our simulations, structure and inhomogeneous permeability lead to fault signatures in derivative plots that ..