Automated Monte Carlo-based quantification and updating of geological uncertainty with borehole data (AutoBEL v1.0)

Abstract

Abstract. Geological uncertainty quantification is critical to subsurface modeling and prediction, such as groundwater, oil or gas, and geothermal resources, and needs to be continuously updated with new data. We provide an automated method for uncertainty quantification and the updating of geological models using borehole data for subsurface developments within a Bayesian framework. Our methodologies are developed with the Bayesian evidential learning protocol for uncertainty quantification. Under such a framework, newly acquired borehole data directly and jointly update geological models (structure, lithology, petrophysics, and fluids), globally and spatially, without time-consuming model rebuilding. To address the above matters, an ensemble of prior geological models is first constructed by Monte Carlo simulation from prior distribution. Once the prior model is tested by means of a falsification process, a sequential direct forecasting is designed to perform the joint uncertainty quantification. The direct forecasting is a statistical learning method that learns from a series of bijective operations to establish “Bayes–linear-Gauss” statistical relationships between model and data variables. Such statistical relationships, once conditioned to actual borehole measurements, allow for fast-computation posterior geological models. The proposed framework is completely automated in an open-source project. We demonstrate its application by applying it to a generic gas reservoir dataset. The posterior results show significant uncertainty reduction in both spatial geological model and gas volume prediction and cannot be falsified by new borehole observations. Furthermore, our automated framework completes the entire uncertainty quantification process efficiently for such large models.