Review of well models and assessment of their impacts on numerical reservoir simulation performance

Reservoir simulators have long become primary reservoir engineering tools for simulating fluid flow in porous media, recovery analyses and performance evaluation in the oil and gas industry. This review focuses on recent advancement in the development and representation of conventional and advanced well models used in reservoir simulators for simulating fluid flow in porous media since the last review on the subject (Demetri and Farouq, 1993). Well models have been developed to different degrees of sophistication resulting in significant positive impact on numerical reservoir simulation performance. In spite of the complexities of these developed well models and the successes recorded with them in predicting well and reservoir performances, some predictions made with them in some cases do not match actual field performances. The major factors contributing to these observed well modelsʹ limitations are emphasized and future perspectives on the development of next generation well models which are suitable for more efficient, comprehensive, faster and highly scalable next generation reservoir simulators with enhanced computing capabilities are advised.