STREAMLINE SIMULATION - A CURRENT PERSPECTIVE

Recent developments in reservoir characterization and in the managemen t of uncertainty have lead to the ability of the petroleum industry to routinely generate large, multimillion-cell detailed geologic models. This has resulted in a steadily increasing gap between flow simulatio n and the static model, not only because of the size of these models, but also because of our desire to obtain reservoir performance predict ions for multiple realizations of such models. Three-dimensional strea mline-based computation offers significant potential to meet some of t hese challenges, leading to a rapidly developing technology. The purpo se of this paper is to review current streamline technology: its found ations (the 'time of flight' formulation), historical precedents (stre amtubes and front trackers), current applications, open questions, and potential limitations. A wide range of applications will be used to d emonstrate the utility of both streamline simulation and the underlyin g formulation. Where required, new material will be presented (analysi s of field tracer response, streamline modeling in corner point cells, evaluation of grid orientation effects, discussion of open questions) . Otherwise, existing results will be drawn from the literature.