New Software Release

Product overview

The INTERSECT high-resolution reservoir simulator sets a new standard in reservoir simulation that goes beyond the capabilities offered by current-generation simulators. The result is improved accuracy and efficiency in field development planning and risk mitigation—even for the most complex fields. 

The INTERSECT simulator enables engineers to accurately and quickly model

• Complex geological structures 
• Highly heterogeneous formations 
• Challenging wells and completion configurations 
• Advanced production controls for reservoir coupling and flexible field management.

Petrel Reservoir Engineering constitutes the user environment for all Schlumberger reservoir simulation solutions. Users can run the INTERSECT simulator from Petrel Reservoir Engineering.

Learn more about INTERSECT

Release highlights

The release of INTERSECT 2022.4 delivers many key features in performance, physics, CO2 storage capabilities, field management, usability, and more. Among others, these features include full-GPU compositional simulation, brine modeling in thermal simulations, and water phase property modification according to dissolve species.

INTERSECT 2022.4 key developments

Performance

• Full-GPU acceleration has been extended to support compositional and AIM IMPES simulations. Full-GPU acceleration can also enhance simulations that use the Peng-Robinson equation-of-state (EOS) and the Lohrenz-Bray-Clark or Pederson viscosity correlations. Simulations using these features will run at peak performance.

Physics and CO2 Storage

• Brine-fluid models can now be used in thermal simulations with component solubility in water (CSIW). The effect of salt on aqueous phase properties such as density, viscosity, and enthalpy can be modeled. This development is expected to serve as the basis for future support of advanced CO2 storage physics such as drying and salt precipitation.
• To support CO2 storage workflows—which require a better representation of water phase properties in the presence of dissolved hydrocarbon and brine components—several new composition-dependent models are introduced for aqueous density, viscosity, and enthalpy properties in thermal simulations. Density can now be calculated using Ezrokhi correlation or Amagat’s law of additive volumes. Similarly, Ezrokhi and linear-weight-fraction compositional viscosity models can now be set. Lastly, a compositional enthalpy model has been added based on first- and second-order heat capacity coefficients. The previous option to calculate from internal, pure-water-steam tables remains available.
• The general Ezrokhi density and viscosity models for the aqueous phase are a popular approach for CO2 storage simulations and are now supported by the isothermal salinity-dependent CSIW functionality. In these models, the effect of the brine components is considered through Ezrokhi coefficients in the same way as for hydrocarbon components that are soluble in the aqueous phase.
• The solid model can now be used in thermal simulations involving CSIW This allows better support for carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) workflows where CO2 dissolution in the water and (at a later stage) mineralization of the dissolved CO2 are the two main carbon-storage mechanisms.
  
   

Fidelity

• Under the RegionFamily node, a new field named UnsetCellRegion has been added that lets you assign unset cells for a defined region. If you do not set this field, INTERSECT will continue with the current behavior of assigning the unset cells to the first region family. 

Field Management

• The IXF2CSV utility has been extended with support for separator conditions as well as instructions. In addition, representation of properties has been improved for fluid stream, fluid sources, and tubing hydraulics tables. This utility helps convert field management representation into Excel format, from which the user may further edit and control the run.
• For Microsoft® Windows® users, the Engine Services workflow using the ECLRUN one-click launch facility now supports full installation of the PIPESIM steady-state multiphase flow simulator, without needing to install the PIPESIM engine separately. You can choose to install the full PIPESIM simulator, the PIPESIM engine, or both.
  
   

Usability

• A new HysteresisDebug node has been added to RockMgrDebug. This node outputs the relative permeability hysteresis data and capillary pressure hysteresis data for individual gridblocks when the hysteresis option is active. This includes cell properties, nonwetting phase hysteresis endpoints, historical saturations, relevant hysteresis checks, and scanning curves.
• Partial regional edit is now enabled for the CellSelectionFamily node. This means that if only some of the I, J, K values are specified, the edits will apply to the minimum or maximum value of the missing box coordinate. 
• An additional third-party Python™ package, TIBCO® SpotFire®, has been added to the existing list of packages (NumPy, SciPy, pandas, Python-tabulate, and Scikit-learn). The same list of third-party packages is also installed in the DELFI cognitive E&P environment.
  
   

Users

The INTERSECT simulator brings value to reservoir engineers who perform numerical simulation using high-resolution models and complex field operating conditions. The INTERSECT simulator also brings benefits for production and completion engineers working with advanced completion simulations and complex hydraulic fracture scenarios. Reservoir geomechanics engineers also can use the INTERSECT simulator when dealing with cases like reservoir integrity analysis and permeability changes, which is possible through the integration of the INTERSECT simulator and VISAGE finite-element geomechanics simulator.