Geostatistical reservoir modelling using statistical pattern recognition

The traditional practice of geostatistics for reservoir characterization is limited by the variogram which, as a measure of geological continuity, can capture only two-point statistics. Important curvi-linear geological information, beyond the modelling capabilities of the variogram, can be taken from training images and later used in model construction. Training images can provide multiple-point statistics which describe the statistical relation between multiple spatial locations considered jointly. Stochastic reservoir simulation then consists of anchoring the borrowed geo-structures in the form of multiple-point statistics to the actual subsurface hard and soft data.