A deep learning-based convolutional spatiotemporal network proxy model for reservoir production prediction

Accurate production prediction is crucial in the field of reservoir management and production optimization. Traditional models often struggle with the complexities of nonlinear relationships and high-dimensional data, which hinders their ability to capture the variability of the production process efficiently and results in time-consuming calculations. To overcome these limitations, this paper introduces an innovative proxy modeling technique employing a convolutional spatiotemporal neural network. This method utilizes convolutional neural networks to extract spatial features from high-dimensional data, while the Transformer is used to model and predict complex temporal dynamics in production. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed proxy model, two case studies involving four injection and nine production wells within two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) non-homogeneous reservoirs were conducted, with the R-2 coefficient serving as the primary evaluation metric. As the number of training iterations and data volume increase, the proxy model demonstrates rapid convergence. In tests conducted on the 2D and 3D datasets, the average R-2 value exceeded 0.96 and 0.94. These results confirm the accuracy and stability of the proxy model. It also shows that the proxy model can accurately describe the geological and fluid seepage characteristics of the reservoir, which in turn can achieve a highly accurate match with the real data. In addition, the computational time is reduced by two orders of magnitude compared to traditional models. Compared with the long short-term memory method, the accuracy of the prediction results is increased by 30%, which greatly enhances efficiency and accuracy. To some extent, the presented proxy model can provide some guidance for the efficient history match of production data.