About

Michael King is a Professor in Petroleum Engineering and holds the LeSuer Chair in Reservoir Management at Texas A&M University. His educational background includes a Ph.D. and M.S. in Physics from Syracuse University, and a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. His research interests focus on 3D reservoir modeling and characterization, pressure and rate transient analysis for unconventional reservoirs, upscaling of geologic models for flow simulation, and streamline-based simulation and flow analysis. He is a Distinguished Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and has received several awards, including the Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award from the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Karen and Larry A. Cress '76 Excellence in Teaching faculty award from the College of Engineering. His contributions include authoring significant publications in streamline simulation and reservoir modeling, and he is recognized for his expertise in reservoir management and simulation techniques.

Research topics

• Geology
• Mechanics
• Computer Science
• Physics
• Mathematical optimization
• Applied mathematics
• Mathematics
• Mathematical analysis
• Petroleum engineering
• Geotechnical engineering
• Geometry

Selected publications

• Development and Application of Unstructured Coarse Gridding and Upscaling of Geologic and Reservoir Models for Flow Simulation

  SPE Reservoir Simulation Conference · 2025-03-18 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Scalable flow simulation, in which spatial resolution and simulation cost are chosen at run-time, is an extremely useful reservoir engineering capability with applications to model calibration, uncertainty estimation, field optimization and reservoir management. Recent examples have emphasized the formulation of simulation problems as pore volume / transmissibility networks to develop fast physics based proxy models (Khodabakhshi et al. 2015, Lie and Krogstad 2022, Wang et al. 2022, Lie and Krogstad 2023). In the current study we develop an adaptive grid coarsening approach based on constraints that honor reservoir structure and stratigraphy, preserve fluid volumes and contacts, and retain resolution near wells, and which may be implemented within commercial reservoir simulators. We include an extension based on a fast multi-source solution to the Eikonal equation for designing unstructured coarse simulation grids that also preserves local heterogeneity. Novel flow based upscaling algorithms that extend earlier work are utilized to determine the coarsened intercell transmissibility and well connections. We present the application of the workflow in several examples: the Brugge model (Chen and Oliver 2010, Peters et al. 2010, Guo and Reynolds 2019, Alghawi et al. 2024), the Norne model (Rwechungura et al. 2010, Rwechungura et al. 2012), selected layers from the SPE10 model (Christie and Blunt 2001), and the Coastal Bend carbon storage model (Fu et al. 2024). These examples feature structured and unstructured applications, and the results are analyzed in terms of well bottomhole pressures and flow rates using commercial simulators. A static comparison of pore volumes and oil initially in place is presented to demonstrate the impact of aggressive coarsening choices and material balance models on the accuracy of these parameters. Furthermore, we present an analysis of the impact of the number of active cells and the number of non-neighbor connections on the simulation processor time, and a comparison of simulation time for some of the popular commercial simulators is presented as well.

  PublisherDOI

• Quantitative team performance metrics for dismounted infantry battle drill analysis

  Applied Ergonomics · 2025-02-05 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Performance optimization down to the small unit level in the military is critical to the success of the collective force during an operation. However, there remains a lack of objective, quantitative performance metrics to evaluate military-team performance during battle drill training. Our research identified multiple wearable-derived measures that could predict squad performance as aligned to specific battle drill performance constructs. We developed linear mixed-effects models for three critical performance constructs: 1) Communications, 2) Fire Effectiveness, and 3) Violence of Action. In these three models, measures based on inertial measurement unit (IMU), Global Positioning System (GPS), heart rate, and transcribed communication performance metrics significantly explained 51.5%–63.5% of the variance in squad performance. A future after-action review (AAR) system could integrate wearable-derived performance metrics to provide squads with quantitative assessments that supplement feedback communicated by observer-controllers and impart new, beneficial insights. • We discuss 24 metrics derived from wearables that help quantify squad performance. • We present linear mixed-effects models that predict observer-controller ratings. • Model factors include communication, firing activity, and maneuver-related metrics.

  PublisherDOI

• Novel Multiscale Full Field Simulation Applied to the Rapid Calibration of Geologic Models

  2024-11-04 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract High resolution simulations of geologic models provide precise representations of heterogeneity, flood fronts and pressure response, but at a significant computational cost, while coarse "network" models provide improved computation efficiency and can capture the pressure and rate connectivity between injection and production wells. We introduce a novel workflow for combining these two scales of simulation and demonstrate its ability to capture subsurface uncertainty applied to the dynamic calibration of the Brugge reservoir model realizations. A novel coarse partition of the reservoir volumes is presented based upon distance to the nearest well in terms of Diffusive Time of Flight (DTOF), which is obtained from the pressure diffusivity Eikonal equation. Connectivity within the reservoir is evaluated using novel pressure transient flow-based upscaling of transmissibility. The workflow is applied to selected realizations of the static Brugge model to quantify dynamic uncertainty and for calibration. The combination of coarse grid design and flow-based upscaling preserves many of the important features of the geologic models. The ensemble of Brugge models are chosen to contrast the different choices of control parameters used in generating the realizations. Commercial uncertainty and optimization software is used to calibrate region pore volume, inter-region transmissibility, and well connection factor multipliers for the coarse network models using the rate and pressure historical data for the first 10 years of the field life. The workflow is demonstrated through the application using a commercial flow simulator, to assist in technology transfer, but the underlying algorithms should be applicable to any commercial flow simulation package.

  PublisherDOI

• Improved Pressure Transient Interpretation for Unconventional Reservoirs Utilizing the Transient Drainage Volume

  2024-11-04 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract In unconventional reservoirs, rate transient analysis is routinely used to interpret production for reservoir and well characteristics, and for the prediction of economic reserves. With the inclusion of pressure data, we have developed a novel analysis based upon sequential Pseudo Steady State (PSS) flow and a modified flowing material balance plot, from which a richer set of information can be inferred: the transient drainage volume, the instantaneous recovery ratio, the transient well productivity, and the instantaneous shut-in pressure. Unconventional reservoir production analysis challenges many of the assumptions of routine pressure transient analysis (PTA) and rate transient analysis (RTA). For PTA analysis, the near well reservoir region is often over-pressurized due to hydraulic fracturing operations and the initial reservoir pressure is not known. For RTA analysis, the bottomhole flowing pressure may take months to stabilize and reservoir scale boundary dominated flow is never attained. We introduce a novel methodology and a modified flowing material balance plot based upon a transient extension to boundary dominated flow (TBDF). It is applicable if both pressure and rate information is available, and resolves the limitations listed above. A model of transient boundary dominated flow (TBDF) is used to relate the transient bottomhole flowing pressure, flow rate, and cumulative production from the beginning of the analysis period (the observations) to a transient drainage volume, the average pressure at the beginning of the transient and the well productivity (an interpretation). When applied to early time data the model can determine the initial near well reservoir pressure from which we obtain the bottomhole flowing pressure drop, and which allows the use of routine PTA analysis. During production, the model infers an instantaneous shut-in pressure, and the transient productivity and drainage volume of the well. A modified flowing material balance plot based on the pressure normalized rate will predict the economic ultimate recovery (EUR) and can be used to assess the impact of gas lift operations, for instance, on the EUR. The methodology is validated using numerical flow simulation models and demonstrated on field data sets, including data drawn from the SPE data repository (https://www.spe.org/en/industry/data-repository/). Details are provided on the methods found most effective in filtering and smoothing the field data, to aide in the technology transfer of the novel analysis methodology. The proposed methodology introduces a novel transient boundary dominated flow analysis which is used to determine the initial average reservoir pressure in the near well region, the transient drainage volume of a well during production, the average reservoir shut-in pressure in that region, and the transient well productivity. A modified flowing material balance plot can be used to determine the EUR and to assess the impact of gas lift operations on the EUR.

  PublisherDOI

• Applications of Asymptotic Solutions of the Diffusivity Equation to Infinite Acting Pressure Transient Analysis

  SPE Journal · 2024-05-23 · 11 citations

  articleSenior author

  Summary Understanding how pressure propagates in a reservoir is fundamental to the interpretation of pressure and rate transient measurements at a well. Unconventional reservoirs provide unique technical challenges as the simple geometries and flow regimes [wellbore storage (WBS) and radial, linear, spherical, and boundary-dominated flow] applied in well test analysis are now replaced by nonideal flow patterns due to complex multistage fracture completions, nonplanar fractures, and the interaction of flow with the reservoir heterogeneity. In this paper, we introduce an asymptotic solution technique for the diffusivity equation applied to pressure transient analysis (PTA), in which the 3D depletion geometry is mapped to an equivalent 1D streamtube. This allows the potentially complex pressure depletion geometry within the reservoir to be treated as the primary unknown in an interpretation, compared with the usual method of interpretation in which the depletion geometry is assumed and parameters of the formation and well are the unknown properties. The construction is based upon the solution to the Eikonal equation, derived from the diffusivity equation in heterogeneous reservoirs. We develop a Green’s function that provides analytic solutions to the pressure transient equations for which the geometry of the flow pattern is abstracted from the transient solution. The analytic formulation provides an explicit solution for many well test pressure transient characteristics such as the well test semi-log pressure derivative (WTD), the depth of investigation (DOI), and the stabilized zone (SZ) (or dynamic drainage area), with new definitions for the limit of detectability (LOD), the transient drainage volume, and the pseudosteady-state (PSS) limit. Generalizations of the Green’s function approach to bounded reservoirs are possible (Wang et al. 2017) but are beyond the scope of the current study. We validate our approach against well-known PTA solutions solved using the Laplace transform, including pressure transients with WBS and skin. Our study concludes with a discussion of applications to unconventional reservoir performance analysis for which reference solutions do not otherwise exist.

  PublisherDOI

• Multi-Resolution Simulation for Efficient Pressure & Stress Calculation in Large-Scale CO2 Storage Using Pseudosteady State Pressure as Spatial Coordinate

  2024-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Validation of Models for Depletion in High Contrast Systems

  2023-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Summary Upscaling of high-resolution geologic models is a useful technique to improve computational flow simulation efficiency, with the challenges of retaining model heterogeneity and subsurface uncertainty. This work extends the recently developed diffuse source upscaling techniques for high contrast systems to pressure transient models of flow, and to determine the impact of averaging sub-volume on the flow capacity (half-cell transmissibility). Examples from selected layers in the SPE 10 benchmark model are presented to demonstrate the concepts. Several models of depletion were compared, and flow characterization was obtained for high contrast geologic model (SPE10) upscaling. Diffuse source upscaling was found to be consistent with a new pressure transient upscaling calculation in many of the upscaling regions but may over-estimate the pressure depletion in less well-connected regions. The new PT upscaling approach makes fewer approximations than the DS calculation and is expected to provide improved upscaling accuracy.

  PublisherDOI

• New Rapid Solutions for Production Analysis From Multi Transverse Fracture Wells

  2023-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Impact of heterogeneity upon the accuracy of the Eikonal solution using the Fast Marching Method

  Computational Geosciences · 2023-04-22 · 8 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Reservoir Connectivity and Compartmentalization Inference Using Drainage Volume and Dynamic Data

  2022-10-31 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract In hydrocarbon reservoirs, reservoir heterogeneity and fluid production/injection result in unique reservoir energy signature (waves/pulses) and determine its shape and propagation. Reservoir engineers uses this propagation of the pressure waves or pules to determine many key reservoir properties (e.g., drainage volumes, reservoir energy, rock properties, decline analysis, etc.) to help in evaluating different field development strategies. The objective of this paper is to illustrate applications of Fast Marching Method (FMM) in assessing reservoir performance, identifying reservoir patterns and anomalies from production/injection data, and predicting the reservoir response when considering modeling uncertainty for model calibration. The proposed hybrid approach in this work is a physics-constrained data-driven approach. It uses the diffusive time-of-flight (DTOF), this represents the propagation time of pressure disturbance/wave from a source or a sink, from which the drainage volumes can be obtained as it is the case in traditional well testing. The DTOF is calculated from the 3D diffusivity equation after the transformation to a 1D equation. The high frequency diffusivity solution can be casted in the form of the Eikonal equation to allow for an analytical computation of the DTOF, which is solved via the FMM. Using the DTOF calculated production and injection rates will help us inferring faults existence and their transmissibility, fracture networks (existence, location, orientation and direction, faults’ transmissibility, fractures’ conductivity, and inter-well connectivity network.). The fundamental concept is to formulate a solution of the diffusivity equation that describes the transient flow. In this work, several synthetic models were used to benchmark. The work demonstrates how the DTOF was used to: generate pressure maps for reservoir monitoring, predicts the operational constraints (e.g., bottom-hole pressure) drainage volumes, and predict new wells’ performance. FMM results approximately matches in terms of well performance compared to simulation results; the DTOF gives a great insight about the pressure drop in the reservoir during the early- and mid-stages of the simulation. For a relatively short time intervals, FMM proved to be computationally efficient with a much shorter turnaround time to solve the problem, and closely matching the results obtained from numerical reservoir simulation. The physics-constrained data-driven using the DTOF was able to identify the pressure drop for the whole reservoir and to predict the bottom-hole pressure for the wells. Using the DTOF, it is possible to infer major geological features such as faults, fracture networks and regional heterogeneity. Fast Marching Method is an efficient method for solving the diffusivity equation for the DTOF to quickly give engineers an insight into the reservoir pressure (energy) and contacted reservoir volumes in order to maintain evergreen reservoir models.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Akhil Datta‐Gupta

  138 shared

• Changdong Yang

  38 shared

• Xu Xue

  Mitchell Institute

  24 shared

• Zhenzhen Wang

  22 shared

• Lichi Deng

  22 shared

• Jiang Xie

  Chevron (China)

  20 shared

• Neha Gupta

  Amity University

  20 shared

• Krishna Chaitanya Nunna

  University of Southern Mississippi

  16 shared

Education

• PhD, Physics

  Syracuse University

  1980

• BS, Physics, Mathematics

  The Cooper Union

  1976

Awards & honors

• 25 Year Volunteer Recognition Award, Energistics RESQML SIG…
• Karen and Larry A. Cress '76 Excellence in Teaching faculty…
• Energi Simulation Chair in Robust Reduced Complexity Modelin…
• Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award, Society of Petrole…
• Distinguished Member, Society of Petroleum Engineers (2013)