MATBAL

MatBal 2.0.23 Release Notes

March 2006

Contents 1. Introduction 2. MatBal Overview

2.1 History Matching 2.2 Forecasting 2.3 MatBal Technology

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3. Installation 4. Licensing 5. Recommended Hardware Requirements 6. Software requirements 7. Known Issues

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EPS is a product line of eProduction Solutions, the Production Optimisation Division of Weatherford

1. Introduction
MatBal 2 is the second major release of EPSs material balance program and features a completely new user interface, the ability to model multiple communicating reservoirs and aquifers connected to multiple reservoirs and other aquifers. This release of MatBal 2 (version 2.0.23) is a bug fix maintenance release. MatBal 1.0 the physical model was restricted to a single reservoir which could be supported by an aquifer and have multiple wells completed in the reservoir.

MatBal 2 extends this functionality to allow multiple reservoirs and aquifers and wells producing from more than one reservoir layer with crossflow between layers.

In addition MatBal 2 contains: Additional history match functions More powerful plotting and reporting facilities A re-designed user interface
EPS Support can be contacted by e-mail at support@e-petroleumservices.com 2

2. MatBal Overview
Material balance techniques are widely used throughout all phases of field development, providing engineers with a tool for obtaining estimates of hydrocarbon volumes and other key reservoir parameters. MatBal can be run either History Match or Forecasting mode. 2.1 History Matching Calibration of a MatBal model is achieved through the following History Matching functions 1. Allocation Production data can be entered either for reservoirs or for wells: 1. When historical reservoir production data is entered, MatBal re-samples the historical production data to a common time-basis. 2. When historical well production data is entered, MatBal allocates historical well production to the individual producing layers and re-samples to a common timebasis. 2. History Match Historical production and pressure data is used to calibrate the field model using a combination of linear and non-linear regression methods, in conjunction with diagnostic plots for water influx and pressure comparison. a. Linear regression: The linear regression facility performs straight line fits to the classic material balance equations (e.g. P/Z for gas reservoirs, F-We vs. E for aquifer supported reservoirs). b. Non-Linear Regression: The non-linear regression facility varies key model parameters (e.g. OIIP, aquifer strength, reservoir-reservoir transmissibility) to obtain an optimum match to historical data and provides a simultaneous best-fit to all reservoirs in the model. 3. Simulation The Simulation option takes the entered historical production data as input and calculates the pressure, saturations and fluid properties for each reservoir in the model. These simulation calculations are performed automatically on entering Simulation mode and users can view the simulation results, generate plots and perform manual simulations in this mode. 4. Relative Permeability Tuning In this mode, the relative permeability model (Corey functions) can be tuned to observed data for Reservoirs and/or Well-Reservoir Connections.

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2.2 Forecasting The history matched field model can be used as a basis for forecasting future reservoir performance using off-take or pressure schedules. Forecasting can be performed at the reservoir or well level and four forecasting models are available: Reservoir Rate control: the user specifies field oil production and injection rates. MatBal calculates reservoir pressures, saturation and secondary phase rates and cumulative production. Well Control: wells can be controlled in one of three ways: o o o Tubing Head Pressure controlled (all well types). Rate controlled on main fluid phase (all well types). Liquid Rate controlled (only for oil producers).

Different wells can be controlled in different ways and the type of control for individual wells can be changed over the period of the Forecast. Manifold rate control: this option is similar to the Well Control option but in this case the user defines an oil production rate and minimum and maximum manifold pressures and a maximum gas lift rate and MatBal will produce the well at the specified rate (if possible) and determine the manifold pressure required to achieve that rate. Manifold pressure control: for this option the user specifies a manifold pressure along with minimum and maximum production rates (oil, gas, water and liquid) and a maximum gas lift rate and MatBal will produce the well at the specified pressure (if possible). Production and abandonment constraints can be applied to individual wells and for gaslifted systems, MatBal can also determine the optimum allocation of lift gas to individual gas lifted wells. 2.3 MatBal Technology MatBal allows the user to model multiple reservoir and aquifer systems, with interreservoir, inter-aquifer and reservoir-aquifer fluid flow. Wells can be completed in more than one reservoir, allowing for crossflow via the wellbore.
Reservoir data

MatBal can model the following types of reservoir: Oil (with or without gas-cap) Dry or wet gas Condensate (with or without oil rim) Volatile oil

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Injection of water and/or gas is allowed. Reservoir-reservoir pressure communication is modelled by transmissibilities. Formation compressibilities are entered either as single values or as functions of pressure.
PVT

Tabular PVT data is specified for each reservoir. For volatile oil and gas-condensate reservoirs a modified black-oil model (i.e. vaporised condensate in gas-phase) is used. Links to WellFlo allow the PVT data to be imported from tuned black-oil correlations.
Aquifer models

MatBal can use the following type of aquifer solution methods for line, bottom, flank and pot aquifer geometries: Fetkovitch Carter-Tracey Modified Fetkovitch Hurst & van Everdingen.

Well models

The well model in MatBal is based on parameterised inflow performance relationships (including straight-line, Vogel and normalised pseudo-pressure), and tubing performance characterised by vertical flow performance (VFP) tables. Both the inflow performance and the VFP data can be generated directly from WellFlo and imported into MatBal. It is possible to enter pseudo-relative permeability curves (parameterised by Corey functions) for wells to predict watercut and producing GOR development as a function of average phase saturations. Regression facilities exist within MatBal to tune the well-reservoir model to historical watercut and GOR evolution. Individual well constraints such as maximum watercut, maximum drawdown or maximum rate can also be specified.

3. Installation
MatBal 2 is supported on the Windows 2000 and XP platforms. If you wish to install it under NT please contact EPS (support@e-petroleumservices.com) and we will help you to install the additional components required. Note that in order to install MatBal under Windows 2000 or XP, you must have full Local Administrator privileges.

4. Licensing
In order to run MatBal you must have a valid FlexLM security key file generated by EPS on your PC. For more information on EPS product licensing please see the Software Security section of the Product CD. To obtain a FlexLm license key please contact EPS at software.licensing@e-petroleumservices.com

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Note: The FlexLM license is sensitive to changes in the machine clock setting if it is changed by more than 24 hours. Do not carry out time-sensitive testing if the same Flexlm license is to be used before and after the testing. Otherwise, even a valid license would not be accessed and the operating system may need to be re-installed.

5. Recommended Hardware Requirements

MatBal runs under the Windows 2000 and XP operating systems. The minimum PC specification is: 266 MHz PII 128 MB RAM 4 MB graphics card.

This is the minimum specification but we recommend at least a 600 MHz PIII with 256 MB RAM and a 16 MB AGP graphics card running at 1024x768 pixel resolution with 16-bit colours.

6. Software requirements
MatBal requires Internet Explorer 5.0 or later or Netscape Navigator 4.x or later. In order to import IPR, Relative Permeability and PVT data from WellFlo, WellFlo V3.8 must also be installed.

7. Known Issues
MatBal 2 is not compatible with ReO Forecast and if you wish to use ReO Forecast you must install MatBal 1.4. In order for MatBal to process decimal numbers correctly, the decimal symbol specified in the machine regional settings must be a period (.). If the PC is set to a non-English regional setting then when MatBal 2 is started a message will be displayed offering the user the option for MatBal 2 to temporarily change the delimiter to a period. If you accept this option then it will affect other applications that use the comma as a decimal delimiter. When MatBal is closed down the delimiter is changed back to the character used before MatBal was opened.

If WellFlo is already installed MatBal will read the location of the WellFlo.exe from the registry. However, if you install MatBal 2 before WellFlo then the first time a data import from WellFlo is performed you will be prompted to define the location of the WellFlo.exe file. Alternatively you can use the Settings/File Paths menu item to do this. MatBal 2 performs data validation checks and indicates the readiness or otherwise of the model for forecasting and history matching by the use of red
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and green traffic lights. However, occasionally it is possible that the required data is present but the traffic light remains red and either forecasting or history matching or both cannot be performed. If this is the case and you are certain that all of the required data is present, then firstly locate then red traffic light and double-click on it this will force a recheck of the data associated with that traffic light. If that fails then re-enter one of the items of data again this will force a data validation check and should resolve the problem. There is a problem encountered when deleting forecasts containing large amounts of results because there is a default limit of 9500 rows of data that can be deleted from an Access datafile. This default is contained in a registry key and if you have a problem deleting a large forecast then please contact EPS (support@e-petroleumservices.com) and we will advise you on the registry key you need to change. For Excel 2000 users when generating a report in .xls format the dialog below may be displayed. The sheets referred to are the blank worksheets created when a new Excel spreadsheet is created. If you select OK then the blank worksheets are deleted and if you select Cancel they will remain in your MatBal report.

In order to import a MatBal v1 file into MatBal v2, MatBal v1.x must be installed on your machine. This is available on the latest Product CD and for download from the EPS website.

EPS Support can be contacted by e-mail at support@e-petroleumservices.com 7