Modeling Three-Dimensional Anisotropic Structures of Reservoir Lithofacies Using Two-Dimensional Digital Outcrops

Reservoir heterogeneity is a key geological problem that restricts oil and gas exploration and development of clastic rocks from the early to late stages. Existing reservoir heterogeneity modeling methods such as multiple-point geostatistics (MPS) can accurately model the two-dimensional anisotropic structures of reservoir lithofacies. However, three-dimensional training images are required to construct three-dimensional reservoir lithofacies anisotropic structures models, and the method to use reservoir heterogeneity model of fewer-dimensional to obtain a three-dimensional model has become a much-focused research topic. In this study, the outcrops of the second member of Qingshuihe Formation (K 1 q 2 ) in the northwestern margin of the Junggar Basin, which are lower cretaceous rocks, were the research target. The three-dimensional reservoir heterogeneity model of the K1q2 outcrop was established based on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) digital outcrops model and MPS techniques, and the “sequential two-dimensional conditioning data” (s2Dcd) method was modified based on a sensitivity parameter analysis. Results of the parametric sensitivity analysis revealed that the isotropic multigrid simulations demonstrate poor performance because of the lack of three-dimensional training images, conditioning data that are horizontally discrete and vertically continuous, and distribution of lithofacies that are characterized by large horizontal continuities and small thicknesses. The reservoir lithofacies anisotropic structure reconstructions performed well with anisotropic multigrids. The simulation sequence of two-dimensional surfaces for generating the three-dimensional anisotropic structure of reservoir lithofacies models should be reasonably planned according to the actual geological data and limited hard data. In additional to this, the conditional probability density function of each two-dimensional training image should be fully utilized. The simulation results using only one two-dimensional section will have several types of noises, which is not consistent with the actual geological background. The anisotropic multigrid simulations and two-dimensional training image simulation sequence, proposed in this paper as “cross mesh, refinement step by step”, effectively reduced the noise generated, made full use of the information from the two-dimensional training image, and reconstructed the three-dimensional reservoir lithofacies anisotropic structures models, thus conforming to the actual geological conditions.