OPTIMIZED METHODOLOGY FOR AUTOMATIC HISTORY MATCHING OF A PETROLEUM RESERVOIR MODEL WITH ENSEMBLE KALMAN FILTER (ENKF)

A method for history matching a reservoir model based on actual production data from the reservoir over time generates an ensemble of reservoir models using geological data representing petrophysical properties of a subterranean reservoir. Production data corresponding to a particular time instance is acquired from the subterranean reservoir. Normal score transformation is performed on the ensemble and on the acquired production data to transform respective original distributions into normal distributions. The generated ensemble is updated based on the transformed acquired production data using an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). The updated generated ensemble and the transformed acquired production data are transformed back to respective original distributions. Future reservoir behavior is predicted based on the updated ensemble.