Flow in Fissured Reservoirs
Authors: Reiss L.H. , Bossie-Codreanu D.N. , Du Prey E.J. Lefebvre 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the Second European Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in London, England, April 2–3, 1973. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon requested to the Editor of the appropriate journal, provided agreement to give proper credit is made. provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussions may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

A research program on fissured reservoirs has been set up by several French Companies in order to constitute a set of simulation models meeting the requirements of industry. Emphasis must be first put on production geology in order to define the production geology in order to define the fissuration structure of the whole reservoir. This is the first step to be taken for an evaluation of physical phenomena. Laboratory experiments give a better understanding of elementary phenomena and help to define methods permitting to obtain the physical parameters necessary for model input. Works parameters necessary for model input. Works on polyphasic flows in the fissures and gravity influence on recovery curves for immersed blocks are of interest for exploitation by water injection. A now available set of simulation models can be used to adjust field parameters on past performance and for production forecast. The great variety of these models allows to cover a wide range of exploitation problems. Examples from field case studies are presented in the present paper.

Introduction

Many reservoirs may be considered as "fissured reservoirs". They are characterized as such from exploration geology or first production tests. They may be produced in a production tests. They may be produced in a regular way: monophasic depletion, dissolved gas drive, water or gas injection… However, their behavior is different from that of the usual porous granular reservoirs and regular reservoir engineering methods do not apply to such reservoirs. In each case, fissure discontinuities permit an easy fluid flow and define matrix blocks. The physical problem is therefore more sophisticated and the simulation models must be elaborated on different grounds.

To solve these problems a research program has been set up by French Companies program has been set up by French Companies with the help of a Consultant. This work completes the effort undertaken to evaluate the practical skill and means displayed by each practical skill and means displayed by each Company in their attempt to answer their specific needs.