Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has awarded its 16th improved oil recovery prize to Geir Evensen, chief scientist at the Norwegian research center NORCE.
NPD general director Ingrid Sølvberg presented the award as part of the ONS Digital presentations.
Evensen invented the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) algorithm in 1994 while a researcher at the Nansen Center, and during the 2000s led work to implement EnKF in Equinor’s Fast Model Update tool.
“The method…is a workflow for reservoir modeling,” he explained, “where we use a number of models in parallel to describe the reservoir’s uncertainty.
“We can also quickly update the reservoir models based on observed data. This gives us a better description of the reservoir’s associated uncertainties, which is useful in the placement of wells and the development of drainage strategies.”
EnKF has undergone further development as is now used widely by various IOCs for reservoir modeling and simulation.
According to the NPF jury, ensemble-based methods have improved understanding of the subsurface, providing oil companies with a better basis for making decisions before drilling new wells or implementing various IOR measures.
Another benefit can be substantial cost reductions, partly through reducing the number of wells needed.
Evensen’s current tasks include leading a Petromaks 2 project for further development of ensemble methods in petroleum applications.
09/02/2020
