SCRF was initiated in 1988 to further the development of techniques for forecasting reservoir performance and for integrating geological, geophysical and reservoir engineering data. The SCRF group performs paradigm-changing research in the field of geostatistics and numerical reservoir modeling. We are not bound by the limited extent of project-based research with its short-term deadlines and limited scope. This long-term perspective has lead to revolutionary changes in reservoir modeling, amongst which: the introduction of stochastic simulation in reservoir modeling, GSLIB as a standard geostatistical software package, the advent of multiple-point geostatistics, practical solutions for large-scale inverse problems with geological constraints, an open-source software termed S-GEMS, and techniques for modeling uncertainty. The funding mechanism of SCRF has created a long-term think-tank where a group of faculty, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, visiting scholars and industry experts come together to tackle problems of first-order importance in quantitative modeling of space-time varying phenomena and their applications in reservoir modeling.

The research of SUPRI-A is relevant to so-called unconventional resources that are hard to produce with conventional techniques. Unconventional resources of current interest to the group are heavy and viscous oils and fractured, heterogeneous porous media containing hydrocarbons. With respect to the future significant new effort is envisioned. In addition to the dynamics of unstable flows, we plan an examination of the role of noncondensable gases on the gravity drainage of viscous oil from heterogeneous media. We will continue our efforts to develop cost-effective methods to produce oil and gas from tight rocks, such as diatomite, siliceous shale, and coal as well as consider the use of polymers and surfactants to enable cold production.