A new upscaling technique based on Dykstra–Parsons coefficient: evaluation with streamline reservoir simulation

The loss of information is inevitable in any upscaling technique. The efficiency of a given method must take in account two basic aspects: the first is the agreement of the results obtained with the coarse grid when compared to the results obtained with the fine grid and the second is the upscaling computational performance. Upscaling is really justifiable for very fine-scale reservoir models, usually with more than 1 million blocks or when many runs are necessary and the computational performance is very important. Due to the size of such fine-scale models, two problems exist. The first problem is that application of a pressure solver technique (or numerical method, which is generally more appropriate) on the upscaling is very time-consuming. The second problem is that the flux simulation of the fine-scale model, in order to validate a given upscaling technique, is very difficult and sometimes impossible through traditional simulators. In this work, an upscaling technique based on a heterogeneity coefficient (Dykstra–Parsons), which is as efficient and faster than numerical methods, is proposed. All tested fine grid reservoir models were modeled by a streamline simulator. The proposed technique was applied to three case studies obtaining good agreement between coarse and fine grids, taking in account several production parameters.