ECLIPSE (reservoir simulator)

ECLIPSE is an oil and gas reservoir simulator originally developed by ECL (Exploration Consultants Limited) and currently owned, developed, marketed and maintained by SIS (formerly known as GeoQuest), a division of Schlumberger. The name ECLIPSE originally was an acronym for "ECL´s Implicit Program for Simulation Engineering". ECLIPSE was the brainchild of Ted Daniels, a geologist, chairman of ECL, who recruited the UK reservoir simulation team PORES, from the UKAERE at Harwell. Ian Cheshire was the team leader and the other engineers who played key development roles of the program were John Appleyard, David Pointing, Jon Holmes, Steve Walsh and Paul Naccache. Ted Daniels specified the original requirement for Flexible Corner Point Geometry so the simulation model would closely match the true subsurface geology. John Appleyard designed the ECLIPSE engine or solver that was a critical element in the ultimate success of ECLIPSE.

ECL was, as its name implied, an exploration oriented consulting firm. Ted Daniels decided to expand into reservoir engineering in order to broaden the base of the company and to avoid the cyclic downturns in exploration based revenues. ECL had previously been awarded the Queens Award for Exports and, based upon the success of ECLIPSE, was subsequently awarded the Queens Award for Technology.

The first ECLIPSE sale was made to BHP in Australia, followed shortly by major sales to Statoil in Norway. The program ran on a wide range of computers from large IBM systems to the HP 9000, a desk top unit. It is written in Fortran 77 and was used to help debug F77 compilers at IBM and Cray Research.

ECLIPSE uses the finite volume method[1] to solve material and energy balance equations modelling a subsurface petroleum reservoir. Versions include:

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