Fuzzy Logic in Carbonate Reservoir Quality Assessment: A Case Study from Tarim Basin, China

Abstract

Introduction: To address reservoir quality assessment in highly complex and heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs, a methodology utilizing fuzzy logic is developed and presented in this paper. Based on carbonate reservoir characteristics, three parameters reflecting the macroscopic and microscopic of storage abundance, permeability, and median of pore throat radius were selected to establish the factor set and the evaluation criteria. After analysis of core and test data, a membership function is constructed by semi-drop trapezoid method and the weight formula is also determined by reservoir factor sub-index. The developed method then is used to evaluate a carbonate reservoir in the Tarim Basin in China. Based on the result of single well evaluation, the plane classification map of the carbonate reservoir quality is constructed. Results obtained from reservoir quality assessment in the K32 well show that I-level, II-level, and III-level reservoir qualities account for 58%, 37%, 5% of the reservoir, respectively. The results are consistent with the actual production data demonstrating reliability of the proposed method for reservoir quality assessment practices in usually very complex and heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs. Background: Carbonate reservoirs are complex and heterogeneous and this makes their evaluation a difficult task. Objective: To overcome the uncertainties associated with evaluation of complex carbonate reservoirs a reliable method to accurately evaluate carbonate reservoirs is presented. Methods: Fuzzy logic is used to evaluate a carbonate reservoir from Tarim Basin in China. Based on carbonate reservoir characteristics, three parameters reflecting the macroscopic and microscopic of storage abundance, permeability, and median of pore throat radius are selected to establish the factor set and to evaluate the criteria of carbonate reservoir. After the analysis of core and test data, a membership function is reasonably constructed by semi-drop trapezoid method and the weight formula is also determined by reservoir factor sub-index. Results: An effective methodology for the evaluation of reservoir quality in carbonate reservoirs is established by using fuzzy logic. In addition, an example reservoir from China is used to demonstrate the applicability of the developed method. Conclusion: Based on the result of single well evaluation, the plane classification map of the carbonate reservoir is constructed. Favorable zones in the reservoir are also delineated. Evaluation results are consistent with the actual production data of gas and oil which proves that the proposed method is instrumental in reservoir quality assessment.