Intelligent Production Data Analysis IPDA^TM is the software application and the workflow developed by Intelligent Solutions, Inc. for "Top-Down, Full Field, SubSurface Modeling".

Conventional reservoir simulation and modeling is a bottom-up approach. It starts with modeling the geology of the reservoir and is followed by adding petrophysical and geophysical information in order to reach at a relatively complete (the best possible at the time of development) geological perception of the reservoir. Engineering fluid flow principles are then added so as to arrive at a dynamic reservoir model. The dynamic reservoir model is tuned using the production history of multiple wells and the history matched model is used to strategize field development in order to improve recovery.

Top-Down full field simulation and modeling approaches the reservoir simulation and modeling from an opposite angle and direction when compared to conventional process by attempting to build a realization of the reservoir starting with well production behavior (history). The production history is augmented by core, log, well test and seismic data in order to increase the accuracy of the Top-Down modeling technique. This innovative and novel approach to reservoir simulation and modeling can substitute (at a fraction of the cost) conventional reservoir simulation and modeling in cases where performing conventional modeling is cost and man-power) prohibitive. In cases where a conventional simulation and model of a reservoir (field) already exists, Top-Down modeling should be considered as a complement to, rather than a competition for the conventional technique. It provides an independent look at the data coming from the reservoir/wells in order to identify optimum development strategy and recovery enhancement.

Top-Down full field simulation and modeling starts with well-known reservoir engineering techniques such as Decline Curve Analysis, Type Curve Matching, History Matching using single well numerical reservoir simulation, Volumetric Reserve Estimation and calculation of Recovery Factors for all the wells (individually) that are involved in the analysis. Using statistical techniques multiple Production Indicators (3, 6, and 9 months of production as well as 1, 3, 5, and 10 year cumulative oil, gas and water production and Gas Oil Ratio and Water Cut in those intervals) are calculated. These analyses generate a large volume of data and information about the reservoir that is processed using ISI's implementation of state-of-the-art in artificial intelligence and data mining (neural modeling, genetic optimization and fuzzy pattern recognition) in order to arrive at a cohesive picture of the reservoir as a whole. Using ISI's unique and proprietary algorithms augmented by its unique implementation of data driven modeling, the large amount of data and information generated is analyzed in order to arrive at an integrated and comprehensive realization of the reservoir and its behavior that is later used in order to develop and test new strategies for recovery improvement.

REFERENCES
Top-Down Modeling Workflow
Top-Down Modeling Project;
Paper in SPE Journal of Reservoir Engineering & Evaluation