Roxar has announced the launch of its next-generation structural modeling solution.


The solution, which includes an intuitive user interface, new fault and horizon modeling tools, and improved 3-D and integrated simulation gridding, will lead to quicker and more accurate characterizations of the reservoir, better decision-making with greater financial returns on data acquisition and maximum reservoir performance.


The suite of structural modeling tools, which will be fully integrated with Roxar’s industry-leading reservoir modeling solution IRAP RMS, will enable users to:



  • Reduce the time required to build a structural framework from months to weeks, thereby freeing up productivity to build more scenarios and reduce uncertainty;

  • Create high-quality grids for reservoir modeling and simulation with Roxar having the ability to capture thousands of faults in a single model. Combined with other IRAP RMS™ modules, users will also be able to rapidly update the reservoir model in near real-time, where newly acquired data is processed, interpreted and updated into the model.

  • Improve simulation results with as much of the structural complexity as possible incorporated into the grid, producing simulation friendly grids, suitable for accurate predictions of production.


Features of Roxar’s new Structural Modeling solution include:



  • Increased ease of use through a streamlined workflow, an intuitive user interface, optimized defaults and minimal manual editing. Roxar’s Fault Quality Control tool will also guide the user through the model checking process, checking fault surface shape, fault/fault intersections, and truncations.

  • Improved fault geometry and fault intersection. New algorithms will create fault surfaces that closely honor the input data while also allowing the user control. Fault surfaces can be automatically adjusted to well picks, may die out laterally or in depth, and can be truncated by unconformity surfaces.


Roxar’s structural modeling tools will also enable the widest range of antithetic and synthetic fault intersections to be modeled, including Y faults, lambda faults and K faults, as well as crossing conjugate or X faults. Fault truncations can be a combination of automatic and interactively defined in 3-D.


Roxar’s new approach to horizon modeling is a faultblock-based approach, which provides an easy method for modeling repeat section due to reverse faults. Horizon surfaces can be generated directly from interpreted seismic data or calculated using well and thickness data.


Horizontal wells are also addressed, with such wells often containing a limited number of well picks, resulting in horizon surfaces erroneously crossing the horizontal section of the well. Roxar’s structural modeling can utilize the zone information from a zone log to control the horizon surfaces and ensure that the structural framework honors all the information from horizontal wells without the addition of pseudo data.


Flexible control line tools will be provided by Roxar to aid the design of simulation grids based upon the reservoir engineer’s detailed requirements. Additional tools will also be provided through IRAP RMS’s simulation grid module, RMSsimgrid, including the generation of local grid refinements, grid layer splitting and grid editing.


New 3-D grid building, designed to work with the new structural framework building, will ensure the building of the best quality grids. Any selection of faults may be treated as pillar or stair-cased faults. Roxar’s unique methodology used for stair-casing reverse faults also eliminates the shadow zone problems often seen in corner point grids and maintains layer connections across the fault blocks.


Roxar’s structural modeling will enable uses to not only adopt top or base conformal or proportional layering in a 3-D grid, but also allow for a combination of conformal and proportional. This option reduces the number of inactive cells when modeling zones that have been truncated by unconformities. Boundaries between zones may also be regularized and stepped where required, eliminating wedge-shaped cells and improving flow simulation.


Poor field development planning, as a result of incomplete structural models, can have a highly negative effect on the operators’ investments. In the North Sea, for example, reserves have increased or decreased by more than 50% in more than 40% of fields. This has led to the requirement to drill 60 to 80% more wells than originally anticipated in the field development planning process, directly affecting the financial return of each project.


Roxar’s flagship reservoir modeling product, IRAP RMS, comprises 18 fully integrated software modules including mapping, modeling, planning and workflow management tools. IRAP RMS is now operating on the Linux-64 and Windows-64 platforms, benefiting customers through increased data volumes, faster speeds and lower operating costs.

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