The end products of the framework model are gridded 3D models used for volume calculation and flow simulation.

Many reservoirs have very complex geometries and this causes large challenges when it comes to modelling the structural framework.

Limitations in today’s workflows and software cause much time consuming manual work and hand editing of the fault and horizon networks.

As this network is to be gridded for reservoir simulation, it also needs to fulfil the strong requirements given by the present gridding algorithms. These factors cause modelling of the structural framework to be one of the major bottlenecks within reservoir modelling.

Another important aspect is the uncertainty in the input data. All input data that goes into the model have large uncertainties. This requires flexible models that can easily be updated as the reservoir understanding increases with new data throughout the life of the reservoir.

Today’s tool and workflows makes the models very rigid and it takes too long time before new data are incorporated in the model.

Statoil is working on methods for solving this major bottleneck. We believe that better methods and workflows should make it possible to achieve faster and more efficient modelling and updating of the structural framework of the model.