Overview

EssBuilder is a new interactive development environment for reservoir simulation decks.

It helps the editing of decks, and helps visualise the elements of the deck. Moreover, it provides a scripting facility allowing the engineer to generate various aspects of the deck automatically.

Intelligent editor

The intelligent deck editor does a full syntax check. It shows any syntax errors graphically, and does ‘folding’ so that sections of the deck can be contracted or expanded.

Visualisation of tables

Simple charts of tables can be shown, by clicking on an icon next to the relevant table in the editor

3D display

A full 3D display of the deck can be shown, using 3D graphics. This includes rotation, zooming, well and fault display, interactive selection of layers or X/Y sections, and display of dynamic data from a binary results file.

Python editor

It includes a full syntax check on Python files. Python files are sometimes used by engineers to manipulate or generate decks.

Pre and post processing languages

EssBuilder includes a full implementation of a proprietary pre and post processing language. The pre processor is designed to manipulate or generate sections of a deck, and the post processing language is designed to manipulate simulation results so that derived results (such as NPV) can be created.

These languages are specially designed to be easy to use for engineers, and the language includes special features. For example, the language includes the ability to implement logic based on well names.

These languages have an interactive editor, full syntax analysis, and error checking. Moreover, the languages are executed within the same Java environment, using a Java-based implementation.

This close integration avoids many of the frustrations arising from the use of external languages and implementations, where tracing errors can be difficult.

Integration of EssRisk and EssBuilder

EssBuilder is available as a standalone free-to-use product, but its full power comes into play when integrated into EssRisk. The preprocessing language can be used to manipulate the deck in a history matching or optimisation project, and the post processing can be used to derive new results.