Reservoir models typically contain hundreds-of-thousands to millions of grid cells in which petrophysical properties such as porosity and permeability vary on a cell-to-cell basis. However, although the petrophysical properties of rocks do vary on a point-to-point basis, this variability is not equivalent to the cell-to-cell variations in models. We investigate the impact of removing cell-to-cell variability on predictions of fluid flow in reservoir models. We remove cell-to-cell variability from models containing hundreds of thousands of unique porosity and permeability values to yield models containing just a few tens of unique porosity and permeability values grouped into a few internally homogeneous domains. The flow behavior of the original model is used as a reference. We find that the impact of cell-to-cell variability on predicted flow is small. Cell-to-cell variability is not necessary to capture flow in reservoir models; rather, it is the spatially correlated variability in petrophysical properties that is important. Reservoir modelling effort should focus on capturing correlated geologic domains in the most realistic and computationally efficient manner.

储层模型通常包含数十万到数百万个网格单元，其中岩石物理特性（例如孔隙率和渗透率）在每个单元之间变化。但是，尽管岩石的岩石物理特性确实在点对点的基础上发生变化，但是这种变化并不等同于模型中的单元间变化。我们研究了消除细胞间差异对储层模型中流体流动预测的影响。我们从包含成千上万个独特的孔隙率和渗透率值的模型中删除了单元间的变异性，以生成仅包含数十个独特的孔隙率和渗透率值的模型，这些模型被分组到几个内部均质域中。原始模型的流动行为用作参考。我们发现，单元间差异对预测流量的影响很小。细胞之间的可变性对于捕获储层模型中的流量不是必需的。相反，重要的是岩石物理特性的空间相关变异性。储层建模工作应集中在以最实际和计算最有效的方式捕获相关的地质领域。