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We present new approaches to reservoir modeling and flow simulation that dispose of the pillar-grid concept that has persisted since reservoir simulation began. This results in significant improvements to the representation of multi-scale geological heterogeneity and the prediction of flow through that heterogeneity. The research builds on 20+ years of development of innovative numerical methods in geophysical fluid mechanics, refined and modified to deal with the unique challenges associated with reservoir simulation.

Geological heterogeneities, whether structural, stratigraphic, sedimentologic or diagenetic in origin, are represented as discrete volumes bounded by surfaces, without reference to a pre-defined grid. Petrophysical properties are uniform within the geologically-defined rock volumes, rather than within grid-cells. The resulting model is discretized for flow simulation using an unstructured …