The Nelson Full Field Model - Using Iterative Quantitative Improvements from the Initial Framework to the Final History

The Nelson Field is a stratigraphically complex, channelized reservoir that has been in production since 1994 and is at the mid-mature stage of field life. The current management strategy has focused on identifying infill well locations with the aim of recovering bypassed oil. A key component to identification of such target locations is an accurate reservoir model to highlight unswept areas through simulation. A number of generations of reservoir models have failed to history match. The causes of this are poorly understood. New insights into both the static and dynamic behaviour of the field have led to a new model build in an attempt to understand the production behaviour. There are three key areas of change: a new structural framework, a new macrofacies model and its associated petrophysical property subdivision. The focus of this paper is on the development of a new macrofacies model for the Nelson field and the quantitative, iterative improvement of the model using data from two discrete sources: Seismic close the loop and history matches.