Development of proxy models for petroleum reservoir simulation: a systematic literature review and state-of-the-art

Proxy models are derived mathematical functions developed as substitutes for reservoir flow simulators. Several types of proxy models are reported in the literature, for instance, response surface models, surrogate models, or metamodels. These models are fast methods, recommended for their efficient response time to approximate model responses and, therefore, useful in the decision-making process related to reservoir management. These studies focus on modelling a limited set of factors, applications, and case studies of any technique. A systematic literature review (SLR) is performed to gather the aspects prompting the modelling of proxy models in the literature and state-of-the-art. For this, a set of search keywords with appropriate string were utilised to extract the most important studies that satisfied all the criteria defined and classified under journal and conference paper categories. The papers were condensed after removing redundancy, repetition and similarity through a sequential and iterative process. From the analysis carried out, several gaps were identified, especially during the proxy model construction. Proxy models have already been discussed in petroleum engineering as a representation of the real system of reservoir flow simulator software. However, the proxy model response is faster but has yet to establish the issues of uncertainty in the outputs. There is a need for the integration of fast methods and reservoir simulators which can improve and accelerate results within acceptance criteria and accuracy in decision-making processes related to reservoir management.