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Build a Dummy Model in Petrel from Scratch

This document helps new users to get familiar with basic/fundamental yet essential functionalities by
going through step by step process and building a dummy case from scratch in Petrel.
NOTE: The values in this document are not the optimum and may cause convergence issues if the model
was run based on them. You might need to modify them and make your own data (specifically
Development Strategy section) to make the model run smoothly in ECLIPSE.

Bring all Useful Processes in Favorite Pane

Favorite pane is a very useful and practical new functionality added to Petrel. It helps new and
experienced users to have all the processes they need in one pane and just simply navigate through
those processes. Beginners and users that use Petrel less frequently tend not to remember where to
find a specific process and favorite will organize their frequently used processes handy. Also advanced
users can benefit this functionality during presentation to higher manager where the simply follow the
process tree that they have organized in favorite pane.
Here are the steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Open an empty Petrel project.

Save the project in a directory of your choice
From Menu bar go to Project>Project Settings and select Coordinate and units tab
Change Unit system and Simulation units in this tab and click on OK. I have selected Field.

5. If the Favorite pane is not visualized, from Menu bar go to View>Panes and select Favorite. You
should now be able to see Favorite pane.
6. Now go through the processes in Processes pane and Drag-&-Drop the ones that you use the
most in Favorite pane
7. In this case we need:
a. Make simple grid
b. Make Horizons
c. Make Zones
d. Layering
e. Geometrical modeling
f. Make/edit polygons
g. Make/edit surface
h. Well completion design
i. Make fluid model
j. Make rock physics functions
k. Fault analysis
l. Make development strategy
m. Make local grids

n.
o.
p.
q.
r.

Define well segmentation

Define simulation case
Pillar gridding
Scale up structure
Scale up properties

Note: From now on, I am calling each process from Favorite pane rather than Processes pane. This
makes life easier and I dont need to repeat Processes pane and each process-group header name (e.g.
Simulation, Utilities etc.). For example instead of saying open Make Simple Grid process from
Processes pane, under Utilities Ill just say Open Make Simple Grid, since we know that all the
processes that we are going to used are already in Favorite pane.

Build a Simple Grid

In this section we are going to build a very simple 3D model (11*11*11). We do not need to have any
input at all. Our model will look like a box with no topography and later we can add simulation fault to it.
1. Open Make simple grid and give the new grid a name (I have called it Fine Grid).
2. Select Input data tab and fill the Top and Base limits as below. These are top and bottom of the
model we are creating (in this case 100 ft thick reservoir).
Note: We do not have any data (here: Surfaces) available, hence we select Skeleton only option as
below.

3. Click on Geometry tab and fill the boxes. This is the extent of your model in X and Y direction and
you can input any value you want.

4. The result of this process is a new grid skeleton in Model pane.

5. Open a 3D or 2D window and visualize Top/Mid/Base skeleton of Fine Grid (Expand New
model>Expand Fine Grid>Expand Skeleton)

We have the skeleton and areal gridding, now we should build the layers or vertical divisions of the
model.

6. Right click on Skeleton and select Convert to surface. The result is Top/Mid/Base surfaces in Input
pane as below. We need these surfaces to create horizons later on.

7. Open Make Horizons and append 3 lines as shown below and select and drop Top/Mid/Base
surfaces that we just created in previous step (Input pane) into Input #1 in pop up window.

We now have two horizons in our model and basically the reservoir is divided into two parts, upper
and lower. You can visualize Horizons, Edges and intersections from Model pane in 3D window and
see how your model look likes so far.
By default we have two zones (upper and lower) and we now need to further sub-divide them into
layers. We skip Make zones process and go straight to Layering.

8. Open Layering process and set each zone to 5, then we will have a model with 10 layers.

The model is now ready to be populated by properties (PORO, PERM etc). If you look at the Edges,
you can see that layering has been done correctly (10 layers). However, because the properties are
not populated we cannot see the 3D grids yet.
9. Go to Model pane and right click on Properties and select Calculator. Here you can set PERM,
PORO, NTG etc. Make sure you select a correct template for each property. Note that you can use
Functions and Geometry options for some practical functionalities like Ran(Min, Max) that randomly
distributes a property based on Min and Max value specified.

10. In 3D now you should be able to visualize PORO and PERMs under Properties.

Add Simulation Grid Fault

Since we have created a simple grid without using Pillar Gridding process, we do not have any geological
Fault in the model. However, it is possible to add a simulation fault and assign a Transmissibility
Multiplier (0-1) and use it in our simulation. Below are the steps to create these kind of faults:
1. Open 2D Window and visualize a 3D property.
2. Then create a polygon as below. To do this youd need to activate Make/edit polygons and
select Start new set of polygons (deactivate old)

button first and then draw the polygon.

3. Once the polygon is finished, its stored under the Input pane.
4. Right click on the polygon and select Create simulation (grid) fault:

5. The result is a fault under New model>Fine Grid>Faults folder under Model pane with a vertical
fault that cuts through the layers. You could rename the faults.

6. Open Fault analysis if you do not have Structural and fault analysis (RDR) license. And set the
multipliers, as below.

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Introduce Vertical Wells

The 3D Grid is ready and now we want to add few vertical wells to the model as our producers/injectors.
Assume you know where you want to put the wells in. In our case here, I will introduce four producers
at the corners and one injector in the middle. Therefore, I need to know what X and Y location of the
wells are in my 3D Grid. I visualize the grid in 3D window and click on cells that I want to have the wells
to be drilled and write down the X and Y values from Status bar. Here are my pairs: (150, 150), (150,
3150), (3150, 150), (3150, 3150) and (1650, 1650).
1. From Menu bar go to Insert and select New well.
2. Give the well a name (P1, P2, P3, P4 and IW1/IG1) to represent producer and Water/Gas
injector.
3. Input the X, Y and specify the Top and Bottom MD values.
The result is six wells introduced in Input pane under Wells folder.

There are no completion as of yet and wells can be used as they are, however they will be considered
open whole. Here I will explain a quick way to add Casing and Perforation to the wells that later can be
edited using well section.
1. Open Well completion design and select Create simple completions from Operation drop down
menu
2. Drop the wells into Wells box
3. Deselect Create liner and Create completion string as below

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Now you can open Well Section window or Settings for each Completion (Casing/Perforation) and
modify the Date and Intervals etc. I have modified the perforation to produce only from Oil zone
(7020-7080 ft) and inject water only into Oil and Water interval (7020-7100 ft) and gas only in Gas
Cap (7000-7020 ft).

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Build Fluid Model

We now have the 3D model ready and well drilled where we want them. In order to initialize the model
we need to have Fluid Model as well. Lets imagine we have all three phases in this model. Below are the
steps to create a representative fluid model:
1. Open Make fluid model and in General tab select Oil, Gas and Water under Phases section. Also
input a Temperature and Reference pressure:

2. You may have noticed that by selecting Oil, Gas and Water, extra tabs are appeared in this
window. Select a tab one at a time and see how they are empty. Select an appropriate fluid from
presets examples (Use presets button) and this will automatically fill all required boxes in each
tab, as below:

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3. Now its time to set the contacts and datum depth and its pressure. This is done using Initial
conditions tab that is equivalent to EQUIL keyword in ECLIPSE. Please note that the depth in
Petrel decreasing downwards, hence the depth values set here are to be Negative. In This case
have set WOC = -7080 ft, GOC = Datum Depth = -7020 ft and Pressure a Datum Depth = 4500 psi.
4. The results is now stored in Input tab under Fluids folder. You could open a New Function
Window and view Oil, Gas and Water properties as well as contacts and calculated pressure
gradients.

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Saturation Function and Rock Physics

To solve the fluid flow equations we need relative permeability and rock physics information. This is very
simple to build in Petrel using presets data.
1. Open Make rock physics functions and go to Saturation tab.
2. Select Gas and Oil as phases and select Sand from Use presets drop down and click OK.

3. Go to compaction tab and select Consolidated sandstone from Use presets drop down and click
OK.

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13. Now select POROSITY from Fine Grid model and drop it into this window. Then click on
POROSITY and choose Algorithm an Averaging method (Averaging (volume weighted) and
Arithmetic). Click Apply.

14. Now select and drop permeability from Fine Grid into this Upscaling property window. Then
select Permeability and choose Algorithm (Flow-based upscaling) and fill the settings and click
OK.