Elfen Forward Modelling
Elfen fm is utilised to create accurate simulations of geological evolution that can be quickly interpreted, studied and understood.
Supported by an efficient and intuitive UI & Analysis tool to gain an understanding of the subsurface material and stress state to support geological evolution simulations.
Elfen fm can be used to confirm the validity of structural restoration workflows, with the additional benefit of providing full stress, pressure, temperature and material state histories.
These are utilised to address uncertainties and provide a more complete subsurface interpretation.
Elfen fm covers basin to field to wellbore scale with the output of models able to unlock the essential aspects of a prospect
- Reduce drilling hazards and production uncertainties
- Clarify poor seismic resolution and identify sub-seismic structure
- Support informed decisions over the whole life of an asset, from well planning to production to abandonment.
Elfen fm helps validate geological evolution with accurate simulations which can lead to a more complete interpretation of the subsurface allowing uncertainty to be addressed and mitigated.
Features and Benefits
- Reduce subsurface uncertainty
- Stress, material state, temperature and pore pressure evolution/prediction: exploration > development > production
- Targeted drilling and identification of drilling hazards
- Enhance structural interpretations (highly successful where seismic imaging is poor)
- Geological process-based workflows for reservoir and fracture network characterisation
- Understand the evolution of geological structures, capturing information such as stress, pore pressure and the deformation history
- Coordinates of potential traps, sub-seismic structures and flow pathways
- Full-physics based framework for treating coupled deformation, temperature changes, and fluid migration over geological-time scales
- Natural fracture and fault prediction
- Sophisticated material models capable of representing various lithologies
- A better understanding of maturation
- Flexible geometry import. Export to industry standard formats and interfacing with external packages e.g. FracManTM
Elfen FM Forward modeling can be utilised in multiple industries
Forward Modelling case study
Predicting the Paleo Evolution of Overpressured Geological Structures
The project
The ability to predict the physical formation of geological structures provides significant benefit in understanding the evolution of stress and pore pressure distribution within a field and, in particular, the material state of the reservoir units. Geometric or kinematic techniques are often used to analyse geological structures but they ignore the mechanical deformation response of the rock strata.
The Software
The HM forward modeling technology has been applied to simulate the formation of the ACG (Azeri, Chirag, Gunashli) anticline. In the ACG anticline, the layers that make up the hydrocarbon reservoir section are understood to be in an overpressured state prior to production as a consequence of recent rapid sedimentation and lateral shortening.
