A Critical Review on Material Balance Equation

Abstract

Engineers have been using the material balance equation (MBE) for almost the last five decades to estimate cumulative production. However, it still is an effective tool to estimate the original hydrocarbon (oil and gas) available in the reservoir. The conventional material balance method has been successfully applying for the regular structure of a typical reservoir. In this method, all formation properties are assumed constant. However, it is very important to take care of the alteration of rock and fluid properties concerning space and time during the production history of the reservoir. Therefore, there is an immense need to understand how rocks and fluid properties change with space and time. In this paper, a thorough review and critical analysis of MBE are presented so that researchers can find a solution to why and how the incorporation of continuous alteration phenomena is needed to be considered during the development of new and dynamic MBE. Besides, the need for incorporation of all unconventional properties is detailed in this review research This review will help the new researcher to get a guideline for starting further research on the material balance equation. This study makes a crucial scope for carrying research to make a way out for the nonlinear behavior of the reservoir. This article also shows how different unconventional properties of the reservoir have been overlooked in many researches works. Finally, a guideline is provided to overcome the previous challenges in estimating hydrocarbon reserve, and workflow is presented to develop a new dynamic MBE.