Marco R. Thiele is president of Streamsim Technologies, a software company specialized in the development and application of streamline simulation technology to modern reservoir simulation practices.  He is also a Consulting Professor in the Department of Energy Resource Engineering at Stanford University and an Associate of Quantum Reservoir Impact.

He has published widely on reservoir flow modeling and application of streamline-based flow simulation to reservoir engineering and is a frequent invited speaker on the topic at international conferences and symposiums. Most recently, he co-authored a Distinguished Author article in JPT titled “Streamline Simulation for Modern Reservoir Engineering Workflows,” which appeared in the January 2010 issue, and was an invited speaker at the 2009 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition special session on the challenges of reservoir management. Thiele is the recipient of the 1996 Cedric K. Ferguson Medal and winner of 1994 International SPE Student Paper Contest.  He is an associate editor for the SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering Journal and has served on the SPE Books Committee from 2004-2010. Thiele received a PhD in petroleum engineering from Stanford University, California, USA, in 1994 and MSc and BSc degrees in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA, in 1989 and 1986, respectively. 

Marco R. Thiele, Streamsim Technologies/Stanford University

Streamlines in Modern Reservoir Engineering

How streamline simulation can be employed for managing and improving flood performance of brown fields.

This presentation is aimed at giving a high-level description of Streamline Simulation (SLS) and focusing on the use of the technology to help manage and optimize flood performance. Advantages and disadvantages of SLS are highlighted throughout for a balanced presentation of the methodology. The talk concludes with a look to the future by commenting on the directions SLS is evolving toward.

Because streamlines connect source (injectors) and sinks (producers), the bundle of streamlines connecting quantifies the volumetric flux between the two, a key piece of information when considering flood management. The most valuable information that can be extracted from SLS for flood management is instantaneous injection efficiencies and conformance plots for each injector. A significant paradigm shift caused by SLS is looking at well patterns as being time-varying and centered on an injector and its off-set producers it is connected to. Moving away from having to define static well patterns is a significant development that has significant repercussions as to how one might go about improving performance of a flood.

SLS hinges on moving components along 1D, time-varying streamlines rather than on a static 3D structured or unstructured grid, and often there is a significant speed advantage that becomes essential when trying to optimize field performance. Speed, together with the novel information provided by the streamlines, is a significant aid to flood optimization. However, SLS also makes some significant assumptions that might not be appropriate for all reservoirs, and this will be highlighted throughout the talk.

SLS has been maturing since the early 90s and the next decade should bring further developments into sharper focus.  The talk concludes with a look to the future discussing the topic of hybrid flow simulation (a mix of traditional modeling and streamline modeling), SLS as an enabler for uncertainty quantification through ensemble modeling, and, finally, SLS as a visual stronghold that allows multidisciplinary teams to find a common language for making better decisions.