ECLIPSE (reservoir simulator)
Encyclopedia
ECLIPSE is an oil and gas reservoir simulator originally developed by ECL (Exploration Consultants Limited) and currently owned, developed, marketed and maintained by SIS
(formerly known as GeoQuest), a division of Schlumberger
. The name ECLIPSE originally was an acronym for "ECL´s Implicit Program for Simulation Engineering". ECLIPSE was the brainchild of Ted Daniels, a geologist, chairman of ECL, who recruited the UK reservoir simulation team PORES, from the UKAERE at Harwell. Ian Cheshire
was the team leader and the other engineers who played key development roles of the program were John Appleyard, David Pointing, Jon Holmes, Steve Walsh and Paul Naccache. Ted Daniels specified the original requirement for Flexible Corner Point Geometry so the simulation model would closely match the true subsurface geology. John Appleyard designed the ECLIPSE engine or solver that was a critical element in the ultimate success of ECLIPSE.
ECL was, as its name implied, an exploration oriented consulting firm. Ted Daniels decided to expand into reservoir engineering in order to broaden the base of the company and to avoid the cyclic downturns in exploration based revenues. ECL had previously been awarded the Queens Award for Exports and, based upon the success of ECLIPSE, was subsequently awarded the Queens Award for Technology.
The first ECLIPSE sale was made to BHP in Australia, followed shortly by major sales to Statoil in Norway. The program ran on a wide range of computers from large IBM systems to the HP 9000, a desk top unit. It is written in Fortran 77 and was used to help debug F77 compilers at IBM and Cray Research.
ECLIPSE uses the finite volume method
to solve material and energy balance equations modelling a subsurface petroleum reservoir.
Versions include:
Schlumberger Information Solutions
Schlumberger Information Solutions is an operating unit of Schlumberger that provides consulting, software, information management, and IT infrastructure services to support the oil and gas industry.- Software Products :Geology & Geophysics...
(formerly known as GeoQuest), a division of Schlumberger
Schlumberger
Schlumberger Limited is the world's largest oilfield services company. Schlumberger employs over 110,000 people of more than 140 nationalities working in approximately 80 countries...
. The name ECLIPSE originally was an acronym for "ECL´s Implicit Program for Simulation Engineering". ECLIPSE was the brainchild of Ted Daniels, a geologist, chairman of ECL, who recruited the UK reservoir simulation team PORES, from the UKAERE at Harwell. Ian Cheshire
Ian Cheshire
Ian Cheshire, born London 12 April 1936 is a Scottish petroleum engineer who developed the Eclipse reservoir simulator. He has most recently worked for Schlumberger where he was a Schlumberger Fellow from 1999 to 2003....
was the team leader and the other engineers who played key development roles of the program were John Appleyard, David Pointing, Jon Holmes, Steve Walsh and Paul Naccache. Ted Daniels specified the original requirement for Flexible Corner Point Geometry so the simulation model would closely match the true subsurface geology. John Appleyard designed the ECLIPSE engine or solver that was a critical element in the ultimate success of ECLIPSE.
ECL was, as its name implied, an exploration oriented consulting firm. Ted Daniels decided to expand into reservoir engineering in order to broaden the base of the company and to avoid the cyclic downturns in exploration based revenues. ECL had previously been awarded the Queens Award for Exports and, based upon the success of ECLIPSE, was subsequently awarded the Queens Award for Technology.
The first ECLIPSE sale was made to BHP in Australia, followed shortly by major sales to Statoil in Norway. The program ran on a wide range of computers from large IBM systems to the HP 9000, a desk top unit. It is written in Fortran 77 and was used to help debug F77 compilers at IBM and Cray Research.
ECLIPSE uses the finite volume method
Finite volume method
The finite volume method is a method for representing and evaluating partial differential equations in the form of algebraic equations [LeVeque, 2002; Toro, 1999]....
to solve material and energy balance equations modelling a subsurface petroleum reservoir.
Versions include:
- ECLIPSE 100 solves the black oilBlack-oil equationsThe black-oil equations are a set of partial differential equations that describe fluid flow in a petroleum reservoir, constituting the mathematical framework for a black-oil reservoir simulator....
equations (a fluid model) on corner-point gridCorner-point gridIn geometry, a corner-point grid is a tessellation an Euclidean 3D volume where the base cell has 6 faces .A set of straight lines defined by their end points define the pillars of the corner-point grid. The pillars have a lexiographical ordering that determines neighbouring pillars. On each...
s. - ECLIPSE 300 solves the reservoir flow equations for compositional hydrocarbon descriptions and thermal simulation
- Intersect, a next generation reservoir simulator developed in partnership with Chevron.