Petrel 2010 Reservoir Engineering Course PDF

Reservoir Engineering
Course
Petrel 2010
About Petrel*
Development on Petrel seismic-to-simulation software began in 1996
in an attempt to combat the growing trend of increasingly specialized
geoscientists working in increasing isolation. The result was an
integrated workflow tool that allows E&P companies to think critically
and creatively about their reservoir modeling procedures and enables
specialized geoscientists to work together seamlessly. With the
enhanced geophysical tools and the integration of ECLIPSE* reservoir
simulation software and streamline simulation, Petrel is now a
complete seismic-to-simulation application for
• 3D visualization
• 3D mapping
• 3D and 2D seismic interpretation
• well correlation
• 3D grid design for geology and reservoir simulation
• depth conversion
• 3D reservoir modeling
• 3D well design
• upscaling
• volume calculation
• plotting
• post processing
• streamline simulation
• ECLIPSE
Copyright Notice
© 2010 Schlumberger. All rights reserved.
No part of this manual may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or translated in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying and recording, without the prior written
permission of Schlumberger Information Solutions, 5599 San Felipe,
Suite 1700, Houston, TX 77056-2722.
Disclaimer
Use of this product is governed by the License Agreement.
Schlumberger makes no warranties, express, implied, or statutory, with
respect to the product described herein and disclaims without limitation
any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Schlumberger reserves the right to revise the information in this manual
at any time without notice.
Trademark Information
*Mark of Schlumberger. Certain other products and product names are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or
organizations.
Table of Contents
About Petrel* ...........................................................................2
Copyright Notice........................................................................3
Disclaimer..................................................................................3
Trademark Information..............................................................3
Module 1 - Introduction...........................................................11
Prerequisites............................................................................11
Learning Objectives.................................................................11
What you will need.................................................................12
What to expect........................................................................12
Icons........................................................................................13
Terminology.............................................................................14
Workflow diagram...................................................................19
Agenda....................................................................................19
One application, seismic to simulation...................................20
Module 2 - The Petrel User Interface...................................23

Introduction.............................................................................23
Lesson 1 – The Petrel user interface......................................24
The Petrel user interface.........................................................25
Starting Petrel.........................................................................40
Petrel Interface........................................................................41
Display window.......................................................................42
Object settings........................................................................43
Lesson 2 – Making a simple grid with simulation fault.........47
Exercises - Making a simple grid a with simulation fault......59
Making a simple grid...............................................................59
Summary..................................................................................64
Module 3 - Functions...............................................................65
Introduction.............................................................................65
Lesson 1 - Make fluid model...................................................66
Exercises - Make fluid model..................................................81
Make a black oil model from correlations..............................81
Reviewing fluid model settings...............................................83
Import a keyword fluid model..................................................83
Plotting the fluid model...........................................................83
Create multiple viewports – Optional.....................................85
Reservoir Engineering Table of Contents • 5
Lesson 2 - Make rock physics functions.................................88
Rock compaction function.......................................................89
Saturation function..................................................................91
Capillary pressure....................................................................95
Exercises – Make rock physics functions...............................98
Make a saturation function.....................................................98
Make a rock compaction function.........................................100
Reviewing rock physics functions data.................................102
Import a keyword rock physics function................................104
Summary................................................................................105
Module 4 - Initialize the Model and View 3D

Properties.................................................................................107
Introduction...........................................................................107
Lesson 1 – Initialization of the model...................................108
Introduction...........................................................................108
Exercises – Initialization of the model..................................120
Exercise Workflow.................................................................120
Exercise Data.........................................................................120
Initialize model......................................................................120
Lesson 2 – 3D Viewing..........................................................123
Exercises – Results viewing..................................................129
3D viewing.............................................................................129
Making filters using a Histogram window............................131
View data on an intersection plane......................................133
Optional Exercise - The multi-value probe............................134
Summary................................................................................135
Module 5 - Upscaling.............................................................137
Introduction...........................................................................137
Lesson 1 – Grid Coarsening using the Pillar gridding
process..................................................................................138
Pillar Gridding - Concept.......................................................140
Pillar Gridding - Terminology.................................................141
Exercises – Grid coarsening..................................................148
Grid coarsening using the Pillar gridding process................148
Changing the grid orientation...............................................151
Lesson 2 – Vertical coarsening –the Scale up structure
process..................................................................................153
Exercises – Vertical coarsening and grid quality check........159
6 • Table of Contents Reservoir Engineering
The Scale up structure process.............................................159
Grid quality check..................................................................160
Using value filter...................................................................162
Averaging methods...............................................................167
Directional averaging methods for permeability..................169
Exercises – Scale up properties............................................170
Exercise Workflow.................................................................171
Exercise Data.........................................................................171
Scale up properties...............................................................171
Apply different methods........................................................173
Review the upscaled properties............................................174
Review upscaled properties in a 3D window.......................175
Summary................................................................................177
Module 6 - Local grid refinements and Aquifers..............179

Introduction...........................................................................179
Lesson 1– Local grid refinements.........................................180
Exercises– Local grid refinements........................................190
Import a polygon....................................................................190
Make a local grid set.............................................................190
Inspect the local grid set.......................................................192
Upscale property – Optional.................................................193
Lesson 2 – Aquifers...............................................................195
Exercises – Aquifers..............................................................202
Add an aquifer.......................................................................203
Summary................................................................................206
Module 7 - History development strategies......................207

Introduction...........................................................................207
Lesson 1 – History development strategies..........................208
Exercises - Make a history development strategy................217
Import observed data............................................................217
Make a history development strategy..................................220
View the development strategy data....................................221
Add a rule to limit the production pressures........................222
Define and run simulation cases...........................................223
Exercise: Change the line style in function windows...........236
Plot window...........................................................................238
Summary data in a 3D window - Optional............................240
View data on streamlines - Optional....................................241
Lesson 3 (Optional) – History match analysis......................242
Exercises – History match analysis.......................................256
Run history match analysis...................................................256
View match data in a map window......................................257
View match data in a function window................................259
Compare cases in a Map window.........................................260
Summary................................................................................262
Module 8 - Well Engineering...............................................263

Introduction...........................................................................263
Lesson 1 – Import and Design Well Paths............................264
Well path design...................................................................267
Simple vertical well...............................................................268
Exercises – Import well data and design well paths............276
Import well data....................................................................276
Make a vertical well..............................................................278
Setting up the 3D window....................................................279
Well path design...................................................................282
Reference project tool...........................................................285
Lesson 2(Optional) – Automatic well placement..................286
Create best fit well................................................................286
Laterals design......................................................................288
Exercises – Automatic well placement - optional................291
Lesson 3 – Results, reports and quality checking.................295
Well manager and saved searches.......................................303
Well tops and well report.....................................................304
Lesson 5 – Well completion design......................................306
Exercises – Well completion design.....................................322
Import well completion events..............................................328
Make completions using the Operations tab........................331
Summary................................................................................334
Module 9 - Prediction strategies.........................................335

Introduction...........................................................................335
Lesson 1 - Prediction development strategy.........................336
Exercises – Prediction strategies..........................................347
Use a default strategy...........................................................347
Add a new rule to an existing strategy.................................349
Define a prediction case........................................................350
View simulation results.........................................................351
8 • Table of Contents Reservoir Engineering
Make a strategy with a tabular rule - Optional....................352
Lesson 2 – Keyword editor....................................................355
Import existing simulation case............................................363
Examples of use of the Keyword editor................................367
Exercises –Keyword editor - import a case..........................368
Load a simulation case ........................................................369
Edit the case..........................................................................370
Run the simulation case........................................................371
Convert to Petrel case...........................................................372
Summary................................................................................373
Appendix 1 - Advanced Workflows....................................375

Dual porosity – Dual permeability........................................375
Sector modeling....................................................................377
Hysteresis..............................................................................380
Remote job submission.........................................................382
Index.........................................................................................383

Module 1 - Introduction
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the reservoir

engineering tools in Petrel. In this course, you will create a simple
simulation grid and upscale a geological grid. You will learn how to
create black oil fluid tables and rock physics functions in Petrel. In
addition, you will import and design wells and add completion items.
Finally, you will combine it all and submit it for simulation before
viewing results inside Petrel.
Traditionally, the engineer had to employ a range of different software
tools, hence, data had to be exported/imported between the different
applications. Also, feedback to the geological model used to be difficult
to implement. The vision for Petrel RE is to make all of these tools
available from the Petrel user interface.
Prerequisites
To successfully complete this course, the user must have knowledge of
the following:
• English proficiency
• Basic Windows and practical computing skills
• Familiarity with reservoir engineering fundamentals
Learning Objectives
In this course, you will prepare black oil simulation cases for ECLIPSE*
and FrontSim* using Petrel. You will learn:
• About the Petrel user interface
• How to build a simulation grid
• How to scale up structure and properties
• How to use the correlation library to make black oil fluid tables
and rock physics functions
• How to use the well engineering tools in Petrel
• How to set up simulation cases and view the results
Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 11

What you will need
In this course, you will need the following hardware and applications in
order to perform the workflow:
• A personal computer with a minimum of 2GB of RAM; however,
we recommend 16GB of RAM for optimal performance.
• For Petrel 32-bit: Microsoft XP 32. For Petrel 64-bit: Vista 64 and
XP 64.
• A graphic card compatible with Petrel
• A Petrel license and license key
• Petrel Seismic to Simulation Software with the latest updates
• Training datasets
What to expect
In this training material, you will encounter the following:
• Overview of each module
• Prerequisites to the module (if necessary)
• Learning objectives
• A workflow component
• Lesson(s)
• Scenario-based exercises
• You will also encounter notes, tips and best practices
12 • Introduction Reservoir Engineering

Icons
Throughout this manual, you will find icons in the margin representing
various kinds of information. These icons serve as at-a-glance
reminders of their associated text. See below for descriptions of what
each icon means.
Tips Notes Best Practices

This icon points you to a tip This icon indicates that the This icon indicates the best
that will make your work following information is way to perform a given
easier. particularly important. task when different options
are available.
Lessons
Warnings Questions
This icon identifies a
This icon indicates when This icon identifies the lesson, which covers a
you need to proceed with questions at the end of particular topic.
extreme caution. each lesson.
Prerequisites
This icon identifies any

Procedures
prerequisites that are Exercise Review Questions
required for the course, or
This icon identifies the This icon indicates that it’s This icon identifies the
for individual modules.
steps required to perform a your turn to practice the review questions at the
given task. procedure. end of each module.
.
you need to proceed with
extreme caution.
Prerequisites Learning Objectives What you will need

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icon identifies any This icon indicates
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identifiesanyany
prerequisites thatare
are learning objective set out applications, hardware,
prerequisites that learning objectives set out applications, hardware,
required for the
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course,oror for the course, or for the datasets, or other material
required for for the course, or for the datasets,for
or other material
for current module. required the course.
for individual modules.
individual modules. current module. required for the course.

Terminology
Petrel introduces new terms and expressions. Some of the most
frequently used in this manual are briefly explained below.
3D Grid - A network of horizontal and vertical lines used to describe a
three dimensional geological model. Petrel uses the “Corner Point 3D
Grid” technique.
Boundary for the Pillar grid – Defines the extent of the model. You
can use a polygon as input, or you can digitize the boundary. Faults can
be set as part of the boundary.
Cases pane - Shows volumetric cases and simulations cases as set up
in the “Define simulation case” process.
Cell - The smallest volumetric element in the Pillar grid. Each cell has a
unique I, J, K position in the Pillar Grid. I, J, K positions are zero based
integer locations of cells in a grid. It uses a left-handed orientation I, J
being a horizontal surface and with K increasing downward. The grid
has a number of cells equal to the number of I times the number of J
times the number of K points. I, J, K indexing provides a way of
identifying a cells position in the grid.
Contact level - The level of a Gas-Oil contact or an Oil-Water contact,
normally at a constant depth but a tilted contact can be represented by
a surface.
Corner point grid - A flexible grid structure where the eight corners of
a cell (the nodes) can be moved to form irregular cell geometries.
Directions (in the Pillar gridding process) – User defined guidance for
orientation of cells along faults. A fault can be given a direction in
which case the grid is enforced to be aligned with that fault.
Fault - Vertical surface that segments the Pillar grid. It is represented
by a set of pillars that join together to define the fault. An area
enclosed by faults will, by default, make out a segment of the model. A
fault can be given a direction in which case the grid is enforced to be
aligned with that fault.
Filter – Petrel can display the whole model (all elements) or selected
parts of it. Powerful filter techniques enable the user to take full control
of the 3D grid and visualize only the elements of interest for quality
control. Filters in Petrel are used both for visualization and for
calculations. There are two basic types of filters in Petrel. The first type
is a simple On/Off type, where an element is either turned on or off.
Other filters are more advanced (for example filtering of properties) and
are based on values set by the user.
Function bar - Also called tool bar (in Microsoft terminology). This is a
group of icons on a horizontal or vertical bar. Only icons that can be
used with the current active process is displayed in the function bar.
Function window - Plot window used to display functions, cross
plots, sample variograms and variogram models.
Histogram window - Plot window used for display of histograms and
cumulative distribution functions.
Horizon - The equivalent of a surface, except that a horizon is a surface
in a 3D grid and an integrated part of the 3D model. A horizon in a
Petrel 3D grid can have multiple Z values at a single XY value whereas
a surface can not.
Input pane - imported data such as lines, wells, fluid models, gridded
surfaces and SEG-Y data is stored here. Also data created by Petrel
process like: Development strategy, Rock physics functions, etc.
Intersection - A cut through a three dimensional model (3D grid).
Intersections can be plane surfaces with arbitrary direction and dip, but
can also be cross sections along one of the main directions of a 3D grid
(I, J, K directions).
Intersection window - Plot window used for generation of scaled
plots of cross sections.
Editor - Allows you to use all functionality of ECLIPSE and FrontSim,
which can not be accessed through the Petrel user interface.
Layers - Fine scale division of 3D grid, which defines the cell thickness.
LGR - Local grid refinement; allows for a finer resolution of the grid in
demanding areas. Local grids are defined using wells, surfaces and
polygons as input.
Map window - Plot window used for generation of scaled plots (2D
maps), and for display of history match values and variogram maps
created in Petrel.
Menu bar - Special tool bar at the top of the screen that contains
menus such as File, Edit, and View.
Model - Complete set of data needed to describe a three dimensional
geological model. This includes the 3D grid structure with faults and
horizons, and all cells with different properties. Each project can
contain several models and each model can contain several 3D grids.
Models pane - data connected with a 3D model (such as faults, trends
and 3D grids) is stored here. Velocity models and discrete fracture
network models are also stored here.
Nodes - In a 3D grid, nodes are corner points of the grid cell. In a 2D
grid they are intersection points between grid lines.
Pillar gridding - The process of creating the three-dimensional (3D)
grid. With this process you make the framework of the 3D grid using a
combination of key pillars, trend lines and a boundary. The result is a
three dimensional framework called a skeleton grid.
Pillars – Vertical lines connecting the corner points of 3D grid cells.
The shape can be any of the four standards: vertical, straight, listric or
curved. There are two basic types of pillars in a 3D grid: faulted and
non-faulted. After the pillar gridding process, the key pillars are
replaced with faulted pillars. Non-faulted pillars are inserted in the non-
faulted area of the 3D grid.
Polygon - Polygons made in Petrel can be used for many different
purposes. Like digitize contours for structure maps, isochores or
properties. Boundary polygons are used in the “Make surface” process,
or as a boundary in the “Pillar gridding” process or the Make aquifer
process.
Processes pane - All the processes that you can apply to you data is
located here. For each Process a new set of tools is available in the
Function bar.
Results pane - the numerical results of volume calculations and
simulations are stored in this pane, such that they can be visualized and
any reports made. Also Observed data for Development strategy is
stored here.
Segments (Regions) – Segment in Petrel is an area that is closed by
faults, grid boundary, segment boundaries or any combination of these.
Segment is similar to the term “Regions” used in ECLIPSE.

Simulation grid - The 3D grid that will be used for flow simulation in
Petrel or exported to other simulation packages. This grid is usually a
coarser, upscaled version of the geological grid.
Skeleton – Three 2D grids representing the top middle and base points
of the Key pillars in a pillar grid. These are used to quality check the
pillars and therefore the 3D grid. The skeleton is not related to horizons
in the grid in any way.
Status bar - Information on processes, coordinates, etc. in the right-
bottom corner of the user interface.
Surfaces - 2D grids (imported or generated in Petrel). A surface is a
simpler version of a horizon in Petrel, the major difference being that
horizons are held in 3D grids (as opposed to 2D grids) and can therefore
have multiple Z values at each XY point. Surfaces are stored in the
Input pane, while horizons are stored in the Models pane.
Templates - Are linked to objects in Petrel and control globally their
settings for color, units, measurements etc. Petrel comes with several
predefined templates: depth and thickness color tables, property
templates and seismic color tables.
Templates pane - color tables and all the different templates are
stored under this pane.
Title bar - The file name (project name) and location is displayed in the
Title bar on top of the user interface.
Tool bar - Icons for commonly accessed commands in the user
interface. These tools are useful shortcuts for items that also can be
found by accessing the menu bar.
Transmissibility multiplier – The transmissibility is a number
assigned to cell faces that describes the ability for a fluid to flow from
one cell to another. A transmissibility multiplier can be assigned to
faults to change the ability for a fluid to flow past the fault.
Trends (in the Pillar gridding process)– User defined guidance for the
grid cells orientation in a particular direction (I- and J-directions). Also
segment divider (when no faults).
Weighting – Used in several processes to increase or decrease the
importance of some of the data in a computation. For example, in the
Scale up properties process one can decrease the influence of property
values from cells with a tiny volume when populating the coarse grid by
using the Volume weighting option.
Well tops – Intersection points between well trajectories and
structural surfaces. Sometimes called well points, well picks or tie
points.
Well trajectories - Lines in space representing well paths.
Well section window - Plot window used for display of well sections
used in the Well correlation and the Well completion design processes.
Windows pane - stores all opened and active plots and windows used
in the Petrel project. In addition it holds the Light sources and the
Cursor tracker.
Workflows pane - stores workflows made using the Workflow editor
and/or the Uncertainty and optimization process. In addition it holds a
folder with predefined variables.
Zones - A zone is defined by the volume between a top and a bottom
horizon.

Workflow diagram
Agenda

One application, seismic to simulation
Usability
Petrel 2010
Familiar
windows style
Tools from
seismic to
simulation

Traditionally, the geoscientists provided input to the reservoir
simulation model. Since Petrel provides one tool for the entire
workflow, it is easier for the different professionals to work in an
interrelated way.
The building and maintaining of a simulation model is an iterative
process. As the tools for modeling and simulation are available in one
single application, it is easier for the engineer and the geologist to
cooperate.
The engineer used to depend on a number of software products in order

to set up, run and view the results of a simulation.
Petrel now provides one common user interface for workflows from
seismic interpretation to reservoir simulation.

The vision of Petrel is to incorporate all of those tools into one common
user interface to avoid challenges and time spent on import/export.
Most of the major workflows in ECLIPSE Office, Schedule, FloGrid, and
FloViz can be accomplished in Petrel 2010.1, but there are still some
gaps.
The main gaps are:
• FloGrid – Petrel has no unstructured grids; no upgridding (the
workflow to determine where to put the layers based on
property distribution).
• Schedule – On import, Petrel extracts data from the WELSPECS
and COMPDAT keywords together with dates. But it will not
make any Development strategies. In Petrel, layer shifting is
accomplished by correcting the grid to match the well tops,
rather than moving perforations to match a bad grid.
• Compositional fluid properties – Petrel offers functionality to
make compositional and thermal PVT models. However, the
equation of state (EOS) of such models cannot be tuned to the
laboratory experiments.

Module 2 - The Petrel User
Interface
Introduction
In this module, you will become familiar with the Petrel user interface.
You will also learn how to make a grid using the Make simple grid
process. This is a process that can be used to make grids for non-
faulted reservoirs. However, it is possible to insert a “simulation fault”
into the grid to model the effect of a (partially) sealing fault.
Prerequisites
• There are no prerequisites for this module
Learning Objectives
In this module, you will learn how to:
• Start Petrel with a new or an existing project
• Navigate in the user interface
• Review and alter settings for Petrel objects
• Display data in 2D, 3D, and function windows
• Make a simple grid for a non-faulted reservoir
• Insert a simulation fault into the simple grid
Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 23

Lesson 1 – The Petrel user interface

Petrel RE for newcomers
Menus Settings Visualization File management
24 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

User interface
Menu bar
Tool bar
Function bar
Petrel
explorer
panes
Display
window
Status bar Object information
The Petrel user interface

The Petrel user interface consists of two main windows, the display
window and the Petrel explorer panes:
Petrel explorer panes: There are eight panes available in Petrel and they
can be put in two separate explorer windows (default). All panes have
free placement and grouping, and can be enabled or disabled from the
View option in the Menu bar.
The Input pane contains all data that is not defined as part of a 3D grid
or a fault model. The Models pane contains all fault models and 3D
grids with grid properties.
The Templates pane contains predefined templates, while the Results
pane is a filter for simulation and volumetric results.
The Processes pane contains a list of the available processes in Petrel
in the order which they are usually performed. The Workflows pane
contains workflows created by the Workflow editor or the
Uncertainty and Optimization process. The Cases pane stores all
simulation and volumetric cases and the Windows pane stores all
windows (3D window, interpretation window etc.).
• Toolbar: General tools related to import and visualization
• Menu bar: Familiar Windows menus, such as File > Open, Edit
> Copy, File > Save, Help > Manual.
• Function bar: Tools related to the selected process in the
Processes pane.
• Object Information: When clicking on an object in the display
window, information about it will appear in the lower right
corner.
• Status bar: Shows the status of the last performed action.
Input and Model panes
Input pane
Contains all imported data
and all subjects that are
not a part of the 3D grid.
Models pane
Contains all Fault models
and 3D grids.
Bold item
Click on an object name to
make it active.
Input and Model panes

Bold Item: Note that the name of the active item is printed in a bold
font. It is the active item that Petrel will use in a process. For instance,
if you want to use the Top Tarbert data as input for making a surface,
select it by clicking on it, it becomes bold and Petrel recognizes this as
the object to use and you know which item is active.

+/- Sign: Data is stored in folders within the Petrel explorer panes. The
folders are expanded by clicking on the plus sign and collapsed by
clicking on the minus sign in front of it.
Cases and Results panes
Cases pane
A new case is added each time
a simulation or volume case is
defined.
Results pane
Used to select lines to view in
function windows.
Used to display 3D properties
in 3D window.
Cases and Results panes

When a simulation case is defined, it is stored on the Cases pane. The
check box in front of the case is used to select to view results from that
particular case. You can plot line vectors (rates, pressures, etc.) in a
function window by specifying which data to view on the Results pane.
The simulation grid results (Static and Dynamic grid properties
computed by the simulator) are also stored on the Results pane. To
visualize it, you can use 3D or 2D window. Use the time player to see
how the properties change during simulation time.

Processes pane
Function bar 2
1. Active Process
A process needs to be
active (bold) to be used.
2. Function Bar
Shows available tools for
the selected process. 1
Only one process can be

active at the time.
Processes pane and Function bar

The Processes pane contains a list of all available processes in Petrel.
If a process is available, the process name will be colored black. If a
process is not available, it will be grayed out and you cannot select it.
There are various reasons why a process may not be available. The
most common reason is that a previously required process has not been
completed. For example, you don’t have access to property modeling
before you’ve defined horizons. Another reason is licensing. A red
prohibition sign indicates that your license configuration does not
contain that process.
The Function bar is located on the right hand side of the screen and
contains the icons/tools available for the current active process within
the Processes pane. The available tools are active and in color, this
will help you to know which tools to use for each process.

Workflow editor and the Uncertainty and optimization process:
The Workflows pane stores workflows created by the Workflow
editor and the Uncertainty and optimization process. Workflows
provide a programming-like user interface to Petrel. They allow for
automating tasks such as plotting or sensitivity studies. New workflows
are initiated from the Insert option in the Menu bar. Uncertainty, proxy,
and optimization workflows are made using the Uncertainty and
optimization process which is stored in the Utilities folder of the
Processes pane.
Windows pane
All visualization windows in a project are stored on this pane. Even if
you exit a window, it will still be stored in the Windows pane. Use the
Windows pane to organize windows. You can, for example, delete
windows and rename windows for quick access. When plotting the oil
production rate, rename the Function window to Field oil production to
better distinguish it. A checked box in front of a window indicates an
“open” window. Having many open windows can slow down
performance, thus, it is recommended you keep the number of open
windows to a minimum. Each window is stored as a folder in the
Windows pane. In this folder, icons are stored which are used for
visualizing legend, axis, setting background color, etc. Those tools are
also found in the toolbar.
Coordinate systems
Petrel offers the possibility to do

cartographic transformations of
data on export and import.
With 2010, only some data

types are supported, mainly
lattice data such as 3D seismic.
Select Null to disable this

functionality.
Petrel 2010.1 is the first release that offers the possibility of doing
cartographic transforms and conversions on import and export. Well
data is supported, but not 3D grids, hence, it is not yet fully functional
for reservoir engineering purposes. Select Null, to disable the
functionality and to make Petrel perform like pre-Petrel 2010.1.

Project settings and units
Units
Select a Unit system from the drop-
down menu (e.g. Metric or Field), or
select Customize to set units from a
mixed unit system.
Note: There is NO unit conversion inside

Petrel; it has to be done on import.
Project settings
Petrel will allow for a mix of different units to be imported into the
project. A typical example is to have well data and production data in
feet, and maps and other data derived from seismic in meters. You must
check to ensure that the data is imported with the correct units. It is
not possible to convert units of data already imported into the project,
but data can be converted on import and export.
The best workflow to ensure common units in a Petrel project is:
1. Check your data before import and decide which units are best
to use as your project units. Petrel will allow you to use local
coordinates, field, metric or a combination, which most
commonly are UTM coordinates in the XY-direction and feet in
the Z-direction.
2. When creating a new Petrel project, open the Project settings
as described on the slide and select the unit system you want
to use in your project.
3. For every object you import, check the file before import to
inspect the units of the data. Then, select to apply unit
conversion in the import dialog, if needed.
4. If you discover that the unit of a data object is inconsistent
with the other data in the project, delete it and re-import it
with the correct conversion.
When importing data from ECLIPSE keywords, Petrel is looking for
METRIC or FIELD keywords in the file. If none of this is specified then it
will assume that the data in the import file is in the same unit system
as Petrel project. If it is specified, and the units of the file you import is
different from the units in the project, then the data will be converted
on import.
Also note that Petrel has two different concepts of time units; namely
depth measured as two way traveling time for the seismic waves in
addition to the usual meaning of time.
Object Settings
1. Every object has a

settings window
2. Access settings
2
1

Object settings
To access the settings dialog for objects in Petrel, right-click on the
object and choose Settings, or double-click the object.
The Settings dialog provides information about the object and whether
it is possible to alter the objects. The tabs vary by the object type.
Object Settings
Style tab
Most objects have a Style

tab. Possible to adjust display
parameters.
Style tab
The Settings dialog contains different tabs and information. Depending
on the type of object, additional tabs will be added for more
functionality. However, the settings will always include an Info tab and
a Statistics tab. The Style tab is only active when a display window
related to the Style options is active (for example, 2D vs. 3D display
windows).

Object Settings
Info Tab
1. Rename objects by entering a

new name.
1
2. The Template can be
changed.
2
3. The Comments tab is empty
by default; designed for user
input.
3,4
4. The History tab keeps track

of the main events related to the
object (e.g. operations, dates
etc.).
Info tab
On the Info tab, you can rename the object and change the template.
The Comments tab is a white, editable area where you can add any
information such as the source of the data that was imported and its
reliability.
The history of the object is stored on the History tab, including
information about edits and operations performed on the object. By
right-clicking in this field, you can add your own date stamped
comments or clear the history completely. Note that not all objects have
a History tab.

Object Settings
Statistics Tab
The content of each item can be checked

under the Statistics tab. The zones can be
viewed separately.
Lists
The first list gives the X, Y, Z coordinates. If an
attribute is available it will also be shown.
One or all lists can be copied to an output

sheet. Toggle on one of the lists (e.g. List 1)
and click the output icon. The contents of the
list will be written to an output window.
Statistics tab
It is important to quality check (QC) the statistics for accuracy to verify
that the items hold the correct values.
By default, ‘Z’ values are negative based on a reservoir being below sea
level. If your data is above sea level, select the appropriate options
when importing your data. Remember that this is opposite from
GeoFrame which works in positive ‘Z’ values.
It is possible to generate a report from the statistics table: Click on the
Copy to output sheet button. A report will be generated and it can be
saved to file or copied and pasted into Excel.

Visualization
Windows
Visualization windows
A range of different types of windows are available:
• 3D window – for visualization of data in 3D.
• 2D window – for visualization of data in 2D. This is useful
when working with polygons, and when you want to be certain
that you are viewing from above.
• Map window – Used for plotting horizons and layers of the 3D
property.
• Intersection window – plotting window for intersections.
• Interpretation window – 2D window used for seismic
interpretation.
• Histogram window – used for plotting histograms.
• Function window – used for plotting cross plots, variogram,
and line plots.
• Stereonet window – used for displaying dip and azimuth data.
• Well section window – used for well correlation, interpreting
logs, and defining well bore completions.
• Plot window – Multiple viewports can be inserted (for
example, function, intersection, and histograms together). A
viewport is a limited rectangular area where data objects are
displayed.
• Tornado plot window – to display an organized overview of
analysis results.
Visualization
Display tools
Maneuvering from Function bar Visualization from Tool bar
Move – Left mouse button
View all displayed data

Select/Pick mode – Allows for
selecting objects and getting View from specified position
information about them (in the
status bar) Target zoom
To move the view in any of the windows, use the left mouse button.
However, to be able to move anything, you must have the View mode
(hand) active. When the View mode is active, a hand is shown instead
of the mouse pointer.
The Select/pick mode (arrow) is used to select an item. When in this
mode, you can click on any object and get information about it in
Petrel’s lower right corner.

Note that all windows that show a vertical scale can be set to show
data in either TWT (two way time) or TVD (true vertical depth). The
default is Any, which means that data from different domains can be
mixed in the windows (for example, useful for checking whether the
wells are intersecting with the seismic data cube). However, if the
vertical scale of a window is set to TWT, it is not possible to view depth
data in the window. If you ever have trouble visualizing data in the
selected window, always check that the vertical scale of the window is
set to TVD (or Any).
Visualization
Check boxes
Gray, square boxes – select the

check box to display the object in the
active window. Several objects can be
displayed simultaneously.
Gray, radio buttons –only ONE object

at a time can be displayed.
Yellow, square boxes – Filters. Used

to filter out different parts of a 3D grid.

Opening and Saving Petrel Projects
1
1. Open Project:
Opens an already saved Petrel
project (.pet). 1
2. Save Project As:

Saves the Petrel project,
2
prompting you for a new name.
The .pet file, the .ptd data 3
folder, and the .sim folder are
saved.
3. Automatic Save:
Automatically saves the Petrel
project, overwriting the current
saved version. Should be used
with caution.
Petrel File Management
The .pet file contains the

index of all data in your
project.
Note: When making a backup or sending your project to support,

you must include the two associated directories, not just the .pet
file – all it contains is the index, none of the data!

Petrel File Management
The .sim directory contains a

Each simulation case directory
directory for each case you create,
contains the simulator keyword
plus the Cache__ directory for
input files and result files
temporary index files
Exercises – The Petrel user interface

The following exercises give you a general introduction to Petrel.
Exercise Workflow
• Starting Petrel
• Petrel interface
• Display windows
• Object settings
• Editing of input data
Exercise Data
In this exercise, we use the project Dataset > Completed_2010.pet.
Starting Petrel
Start the Petrel program by double-clicking on the Petrel icon on

the desktop.
If a bitlock is used, an introduction window to Petrel will open before
the Petrel program window opens up. If you are not using a bitlock
(dongle), you will first see a “Net License Modules” dialog asking which
module package you want to run. At your location, you may have
several levels of licenses. You should use the license that has the
functionality you need for the work you are doing.
Exercise steps
1. Start Petrel. You can find the data used in this course in a
folder called Dataset. This folder also contains some
completed exercises. These are stored in the 2010 backup
projects folder.
2. Open the training project. Do this by clicking File > Open
project and select the Completed_2010.pet file from the
Dataset directory.
3. Copy the project: Save it to your Student directory by selecting
File > Save as. Give it a new name and click Save.
Online Help Manual

The Online Help Manual is a document that comes with each
installation of Petrel. It is the most extensive documentation on Petrel.
You open it by clicking Help in the menu bar.
Petrel Interface
The Petrel user interface is separated into two main window areas.
These are the Petrel explorer panes and the Display window with the
Function bar on the right hand side. The available tools in the Function
bar depend on which process is active. At the top of the Petrel interface
is a standard menu bar and a toolbar.
All data that is not connected to a 3D grid is stored on the Input pane.
Examples are wells and well top (well picks), rock physics functions,
and fluid models. Data that belongs to a 3D grid is stored together with
the 3D grid on the Models pane. Examples are, surfaces that are
defined as part of the 3D grid (in Petrel called Horizons), grid properties
such as porosity, and fluid contacts. The simulation grid properties (the
output from simulator, for example, pressure, oil saturation (SOIL)) are
stored in the Results pane.
Exercise steps
1. Click on the Input pane. Right-click the Wells folder and
select Expand (recursive) from the menu. The folder with
sub folders is now expanded. Right-click the Wells folder
again, and select Collapse (Recursively).
2. Right-click on different folders to see which options are
available. Select Settings from the list. A window providing
access to functions and settings for the selected folder opens
up.
The Processes pane contains a list of all available processes in Petrel.
If any of the panes They are sorted in the order which they are typically performed. Some
disappear, go to the View tab of the processes can only be run once the process above in the list is
in the Menu bar and select
Panes to reopen them.
completed. For example, you must create a 3D grid before you can
insert horizons, and you must define a fluid model before you can define
a simulation case. Processes that are grayed out cannot be used until
the process listed above is executed.
Like most PC software, the menu bar has the standard File, Edit, View,
etc. drop-down menus. In addition, on the right hand side of the Petrel
interface there are icons in a toolbar with additional Petrel related
functionality. This toolbar is called the Function bar, and the tools
available depend on which process has been selected in the
Processes pane. All of the icons in the toolbars have a descriptive text
associated with them. The text appears if you move the mouse pointer
over an icon.
Exercise steps
1. Click on each of the items in the menu bar to see the tools
available. You may want to experiment with some of the
options.
2. Slowly move the mouse pointer over the icons in the toolbar.
Text will appear describing the function of each icon.
Display window
A variety of windows can be displayed, examples are 3D and 2D
windows, well section windows, function windows (for plotting), and
interpretation windows (for seismic interpretation).
Exercise steps
In this exercise, you will use a 3D window.
1. Open a 3D window by selecting New 3D window from the
Windows menu in the menu bar.
2. Display an object from the Input pane by selecting the check
box next to it. Click on the Viewing mode button (at the
top of the function bar) and move your mouse pointer over the
display. A hand should appear instead of the pointer. This
means you can manipulate the display.
3. Left-click and move the mouse to rotate the object in 3D.
4. Hold the SHIFT or CTRL key down, left-click, and move the
mouse. This will pan the object. With a three button mouse,
you can use the mouse wheel to pan the object.
5. Hold both the SHIFT and CTRL keys down, left-click, and move
the mouse. This will zoom the object. With a three button
mouse, you can use the left and middle button to zoom.
6. Press the ESC key. The hand now changes back to the regular
mouse pointer. You can also use the Select/pick mode
button to do this (on the Function bar).
7. Click on an item in the display, using the mouse pointer. Note
the information that is displayed in the status bar at the bottom
of the window.
Object settings
Whether you are importing files, building a new project, or reviewing
someone else’s project, the Statistics tab of the object settings
provides you with valuable information.
Exercise steps
1. In the Models pane, right-click the 3D grid named Fine grid
and select Settings.
2. Go to the Statistics tab and check the size of the 3D grid. You
can check the minimum and maximum values for X, Y, and Z.
You can also find the number of cells and the average
increment in all spatial dimensions.
3. Go to the Properties folder of the 3D grid, and check the
statistics for a grid property. For instance, check the range of
the permeability or porosity.
4. Check the statistics of the Properties folder or of another file
folder.
The Statistics tab is read-only and is used for information and quality
checking (QC). To change the appearance of an object, you need to use
the Style and Info tabs.
Exercise steps
1. In the Models pane, right-click a property in the Properties
folder under the 3D grid Fine. Select Settings and go to the
Info tab. Note that you can change the name of the property by
entering a new name and clicking Apply. The name of any
object can be changed in its Info tab.
2. From the Info tab, the template can also be changed. Click on
the arrow alongside the template name to see the list of
available templates to choose from.
3. Open a 3D window, and clear it of all items (Window > Clear

all visualizations) and select to view one of the Horizons
under the Fine grid.
4. Right-click the Horizons folder, select Settings, and go to the
Style tab. Here you can specify display options.
5. Open the Grid lines tab and select the check box Show to
view grid lines. Click Apply and observe that you can now
view the grid lines on the horizon.
6. Deselect to view the grid lines, and open the Contour lines
tab instead. Select the check box Show, then click Apply and
observe the changes. You can also specify the thickness and
the color of the contour/grid lines in the Style tab.
7. Select to view the faults in the 3D window along with the
horizon by select the check box in front of the Faults folder
under the 3D grid.
8. Right-click the Faults folder, select Settings and go to the
Edges and intersections style tab. In the Lines sub-tab, you
can select whether to display pillars on the fault. The pillars
define the mesh cell edges in the Z-direction.

All objects have an
Info and a Statistics tab in
the Settings dialog. Some
Exercise steps objects have more tabs. For
3D grid properties, you will
1. Right-click the Porosity property under the Properties folder probably find the Histogram
of the Fine grid, and select Settings. Open the Histogram tab tab useful.
to view the distribution of values.
2. Similarly, go to the Histogram tab in the Settings of
Permeability. View the distribution of the 3D grid property.
3. Insert a New histogram window from the Window menu.
Select to display the Porosity property from the Fine grid.
You can use function windows to view simulation results. The next
exercise will show you how to select the data for display in a function
window.

Exercise steps
1. Open a New function window.
2. Select vector to view:
a. Go to the Cases pane, and select the case Aquifer.
b. Go to the Results pane, and select the check boxes in
front of Oil production rate under the folder Dynamic
results data > Rates.
c. Under the Identifier folder in the Results pane, expand
the Well folder and select P06. Thus, we will only view
results for well P06.
d. Further down in the Results pane, you can find the folder
Source data type. Expand this folder to select which
source data you want to display. Select Observed data.
Now, both simulated and observed data will be displayed.
You should see oil production rate as a function of time for
well P06 in the function window. With the default settings,
simulated and observed data are shown as a solid line and
circles respectively.
e. Go to the Cases pane and select Aquifer_RESTART. This
is the simulation case containing the strategy on how to
operate the field in the future, and display prediction for
well P06.
3. Change the display options for the function window:
a. Your function window is stored in the Windows pane.
Expand the folder Function window, and then expand
the Function 1 folder.
b. Turn the Symbol legend and the Header on and off.
c. Right-click Axis, and select Settings. Go to the Ticks tab
to specify the increment in x and y in the function window.
Go to the Annotation tab to change the size and
alignment of x- and y- axes labels.
d. Go to the Plot tab. In the Line style tab, you can change
the thickness of the lines in the Function window.
Lesson 2 – Making a simple grid with simulation

fault

Make simple grid
Make a grid without faults
The Make simple grid process, which is located under Utilities,

makes it easy to create a grid without faults. The geometry of the grid
is defined by the input to the process.
A project boundary can be added, or minimum and maximum values
from x, y, and z can be used.
Surfaces can be inserted to define horizons in the 3D grid

Make simple grid
Result
Skeleton
A top, mid, and base skeleton
grid is generated. Further
subdivision in the vertical
direction is needed.
If the process is run without using surfaces to define horizons, the result
is a skeleton grid.
A “skeleton grid” is a Petrel term for the framework that is made as the
first step towards defining a 3D grid. A skeleton grid consists of a top,
mid, and bottom mesh defined by pillars. The pillars define the lateral
position of the corners in the three meshes, and the z-position is
defined as the bottom, mid point, and the top of the pillars. After the
skeleton grid is generated, it needs to be further subdivided in the
vertical direction. This is done by inserting surfaces. The topmost and
the bottommost surface that are inserted define the top and the bottom
of the final 3D grid, hence, the top and the bottom skeleton grid are
usually outside the final 3D grid.
The reason why 3D grids are generated this way in Petrel is that the
gridding process starts with modeling the faults, which are defined
using pillars. Those pillars are then used to define the geometry of the
3D grid. The processes used to make grids based on fault modeling are
Fault modeling and Pillar gridding.

Make simple grid
With Insert Horizons
Skeleton with horizons

If you have surfaces that describe
the horizons, you can enter them
as input.
If you have surface data in the Input pane that describes the horizons,
you can drop them into the Input data tab of the Make simple grid
process. The result will be a skeleton grid with horizons.

Make simple grid
Vertical subdivision
Make Horizons
Insert a horizon in the grid to
define different zones.
Layering
Further subdivision is done by
employing the Layering process.
The Make horizons, Make zones, and Layering processes are used
to perform further vertical subdivision.
Make Horizons - This process usually defines the main depositional
units of the 3D grid and are, in most cases, the layers identified and
interpreted on seismic data. The Make horizons process samples input
surfaces into the 3D Grid. Note that a “Horizon” in Petrel is a surface
that is a part of the 3D grid.
Make zones – This process defines the sub-units of the 3D grid. The
process inserts additional horizons (and zones) into the 3D grid by
inserting isochores up or down from the previously input horizons. The
isochores can be gridded thickness maps or calculated directly from
well tops. Zones can also be defined as specific thickness intervals or
percentages of the main zone.
Layering – The final step is to make the final vertical resolution of the
3D grid.
To keep the modeling simple, we will not perform the Make zones
process. That is, we assume that the stratigraphic layering is defined by
the surfaces that we insert. Then we will do layering to obtain a
suitable resolution for simulation.
Make Horizons
1. Append desired number of horizons in the table.
2. Drop in interpretations or surfaces using the blue arrow.
The Make Horizons process

Double-click on the Make horizons process to open its process dialog
and select the Horizon tab. In the table that appears, insert the number
of horizons to be generated.
The Multiple drop option allows you to insert a list of items in one go
into the Input#1 column: Make sure your input horizons are sorted in
the correct stratigraphic order in the Input pane, then select the first
item, and click on the first blue arrow under Input#1. All of the input
horizons will then be inserted in the same order as they appear in the
Input pane. Horizon names are updated according to input names, but
can be overwritten if desired.
Horizon Type:
You should specify whether the horizon is an Erosional, General,
Discontinuous or a Base surface.
• Erosional surfaces will erode surfaces below
• Surfaces above a Base surface will be on lapped to the Base.
• Surfaces above a Discontinuous surface will be on lapped on it
and surfaces below will be truncated by it.
• A general surface will be truncated by any other surface.
Make horizons
Result
The horizons appear in

the Models pane. Select
the check box to view in a
3D window.
Available for displaying:

1. Edges - to see
zone division
2. Zone filter - to
view selected
layers
Make Horizons – Output

Horizons folder – The layers added in the Make horizons and Make
zones process will be stored in the Horizons folder.
Fault filter – The fault filter will allow you to visualize the fault throw
for just one horizon at a time and is mainly used for mapping purposes.
Zone filter – A zone in Petrel is defined as the thickness between two
horizons, and is created in either Make horizon or in the Make zones
process. The zone filter allows you to visualize the edges and the I- and
J- intersections of the 3D grid zone by zone. The zone filter is also
applicable for properties when we generate these in the 3D grid.

Layering
1. Specify the Zone division.
2. Specify number of layers (Proportional), cell

thickness (Follow top/Base) or Fractions. Proportional
Follow Base
Follow Top
Fractions
Follow Base
with Reference
The Layering process

After the Make horizons (and the Make zones) process is run, further
layering is inserted by running the Layering process. You can select
four different ways of doing the layering:
• Proportional: The zone will be divided into Number of
layers, equally thick layers
• Follow base: The zone will be divided into layers with
thickness Cell thickness, starting to build from the horizon
below.
• Follow top: The zone will be divided into layers with thickness
Cell thickness, starting to build from the horizon above.
• Fractions: The zone will be divided into a number of layers
with relative thickness as given in the input. Example: If the
input is 1, 2, 2, the zone is divided into three layers where the
two last layers are twice as thick as the first one.

The illustration above shows three different ways of specifying the
layering; Follow base, Fractions and Proportional.
Note that the zone division should reflect the horizon type. If, for
instance, a horizon is of type Base, the zone above should be of type
Follow base, Proportional, or Fractions.
Proportional and Fractions give the least “pinched out” layers and
are usually best for simulation grids.

Model a fault
Digitizing
Employ the Make/edit polygons

process to digitize a line that
defines the fault plane.
The new polygon appears at the

bottom of the Input pane.
A simulation fault can be inserted into the simple grid at the position of
existing grid nodes. To approximately give the geometry of the new
fault, you can draw a polygon within the simple grid.
The Make/edit polygons process is placed under Utilities on the
Processes pane. When the process is active, tools for digitizing
polygons appear in the function bar at the right of the display window.
Use the process to digitize a line that defines the geometry of the fault.
The new polygon is stored at the bottom of the Input pane.

Model a fault
Convert to fault
The polygon can be converted into a

fault in the active grid
To insert the fault into the grid, make sure that the grid is selected in
the Models pane. Then right-click the polygon you just made, and
select Convert to fault. The polygon is then converted into a fault in
the active grid. The new fault is stored on the Faults sub-folder of the
3D grid.

Model a fault
Define transmissibility
Use the Fault analysis process to

assign transmissibility to the fault
You need to assign a transmissibility multiplier to the fault in order to

use it in a simulation. The transmissibility multiplier defines to which
degree the fault is a barrier to flow. A multiplier of zero means that no
flow goes through the fault.
To assign a transmissibility multiplier to a fault, make sure that the fault
is active, then open the Fault analysis process. In the dialog that
opens, select to assign a constant multiplier, or to define a multiplier
based on standard equations. A new property is created and stored
under the Fault properties folder in the Models pane. Details of how
to define the transmissibility multiplier will be provided later in the
course.

Exercises - Making a simple grid a with
simulation fault
In this exercise, you will make a simple simulation model of a two-
phase black oil case. You will start by defining a simple grid with a
vertical fault. You will then go through all of the steps required until you
have a model ready for running a simulation. And finally, you will run
the simulation and view the results.
Exercise Workflow
• Make a simple grid
• Insert a simulation fault
Exercise Data
In this exercise, we use the Start_2010.pet.
Making a simple grid
Exercise steps
1. Open the Start_2010.pet project.
2. Open the Make simple grid process located under Utilities
in the Processes pane.
3. Select a name for the new grid, for example Simple.
4. On the Input data tab, select the Insert surface option.
5. Drop in the surfaces Top reservoir, Mid, and Base from the
Surfaces folder on the Input pane by clicking the Append
item in the table button .

6. Drop in the Project boundary from the Input pane into the
Boundary field by clicking the blue arrow.
7. Select the Geometry tab, and click the Get limits from
selected button. As the project boundary is selected on the
Input pane, Petrel will use that as a boundary for the grid.
8. Select a Grid increment of 350 m in both the X and Y

direction. Click OK.
9. Your new grid is stored in the Models pane. Select to view
the skeleton grid in a 3D window.
10. We will now define the vertical sub-division of the 3D grid.
Open the Layering process under Corner point gridding.
Divide ‘Zone 1’ into 7 layers and ‘Zone 2’ into 3 layers. Press
OK. Select to view ‘Edges’ under the 3D grid in the Models
pane to see the result of the layering.
Making a simulation fault

In this exercise, you will add a “Simulation fault” to the model. If you
want to add a fault with throw, you need to use a more advanced
gridding processes in Petrel. That is, you will have to use the Fault
modeling and the Pillar gridding process.
Exercise steps
1. Open a 3D window and select to view both the Top reservoir
horizon and the faults from the Fine grid.
2. Observe that the faults have a throw. For example, across
Fault5 the throw is so large that there is no communication
across. We will now insert a simulation fault in the simple grid
to model this behavior.
3. Open a new 2D window and display the Base horizon from
the Simple grid and the Project boundary from the Input
pane along with Fault5 from the Fine grid.
4. If you cannot see the fault, open the Settings of the Faults
folder of the Fine grid, and make sure the option Show
horizon-fault lines is selected.
5. Digitize a line that will be used to define the fault plane by first
selecting the Make/edit polygons process in the Utilities
folder in the Processes pane. Then:
a. Activate the Make/edit polygons tool in the function
bar. Select the Add new points tool .
b. Digitize a line that follows Fault5 by pointing in the
display and left-clicking. Add a point in the grid cell closest
to the project boundary to make sure the fault is extended
all the way to the boundary.
6. The polygon is stored at the bottom of the Input pane. Rename

it to “Fault polygon” by opening the Settings for it and
changing the name in the Info tab.
7. Make sure the Simple grid is selected on the Models pane.
8. Right-click on the polygon you just made, and select Create
simulation (grid) fault from the drop-down menu. The new
fault is stored in the Faults folder under the simple grid on the
Models pane.
Exercise steps
1. Open a 3D window and select to view your new fault.
2. Open the Fault analysis process that is located in the
Property modeling folder.
3. Enter a constant transmissibility multiplier of 0 (sealing fault)
Click OK.
4. Save the project.

Summary
The basics of the Petrel user interface were presented in this
module. In particular, how to open and use windows and how to
access and alter the settings of objects. Also introduced were the
eight different panes in Petrel which store and provide access to
data, processes, windows, workflows and simulation results.
In addition, how to make a simple simulation grid with layering
based on surface information was presented along with how to add
a fault to such a grid and how to assign properties to the fault.

Module 3 - Functions
Introduction
In this module, how to make fluid models (PVT), saturation functions
(relative permeability and capillary pressure), and rock compaction
functions in Petrel, will be covered.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites are required for this module.
Learning Objectives
In this module you will learn:
• How to create a correlation based black oil fluid model
• How to define the initial contact depths and pressure
• How to create correlation based saturation functions
• How to create rock compaction functions based on correlations
• How to import fluid models and rock physics functions from
keyword files
• How to edit and visualize the functions in Petrel
Reservoir Engineering Functions • 65

Lesson 1 - Make fluid model
Make fluid model
The Make fluid model process allows you to create black oil models
from correlations and to create compositional and thermal models. In
this course, we will only use black oil models, but we will briefly
explained how to create compositional models.
Correlation library
The correlation library we use incorporates many published
correlations, some of which use the separator conditions as input. All of
the correlations have been tested against an extensive database of
actual PVT (pressure-volume-temperature) experiments at the
Schlumberger Reservoir Fluids Center in Edmonton, Canada. Petrel
selects which correlation to use based on the input data you provide
– the API gravity, the reservoir pressure, etc.
The library contains about 70 black-oil correlations - including the ones
most commonly used in the industry.
66 • Functions Reservoir Engineering
Black Oil and Compositional Models
ECLIPSE Blackoil and FrontSim ECLIPSE Compositional

• Black oil simulators • Compositional simulator
• One component of gas and one • Both the vapor and the liquid
of oil in both vapor and liquid phase consists of several
phase components
Rv
Rs
There will always be two, or frequently three, phases present in the

reservoir during its producing life (oil, gas, water). The proportions, the
composition and the physical properties of the phases may change as
production proceeds, and pressures change. All of the phases are
considered compressible, although to different degrees.
In a black oil model, the temperature is assumed to be constant.
Typical temperatures at reservoir conditions are 350K~77C~171F. Also,
since both the liquid hydrocarbon phase and the vapor phase are
assumed to consist of mainly one component, it is customary to name
them the oil and gas phase, respectively. The compositional behavior is
modeled by allowing some of the gas component to be dissolved in oil
and some of the oil component to be vaporized in gas.
A compositional fluid model represents the hydrocarbon fluid by a
set of components (typically 6-12 for reservoir simulation). An equation
of state is then used to determine the physical properties of mixtures of
these components as a function of pressure and temperature and the
properties of the individual components.

Appropriate Black Oil Models
G: Near Critical
Pressure Fluid
Fits the Black Oil model. F: Wet Gas,
Retrograde
A: Dead Oil
Unsuited for black oil simulation

C: Live Oil,
(use Compositional simulation). Saturated D: Dry Gas
Approximated by Black Oil

varying gas/oil and oil/gas ratios
to mimic small compositional
changes.
E: Wet Gas
B: Live Oil,
Initially
Undersaturated
Temperature
Phase diagrams
The hydrocarbon behavior in a reservoir is often described in terms of a
phase diagram as showed in the illustration above. The phase diagram
relates the fluid state to pressure and temperature in the reservoir. The
upper line of the phase envelope represents the lowest pressure and
temperature limit for the existence of a liquid phase. This line is called
the bubble point line. The lower line represents the upper limit for
pressure and temperature for the existence of a vapor phase. This line
is called the dew point line. The area between the two lines is pressure
and temperature conditions where both a liquid and a vapor phase is
present simultaneously. The point where the bubble point line and the
dew point line meet, is called the critical point. At this pressure and
temperature condition, the vapor and the liquid properties are equal.
Pressure-temperature conditions close to the critical point cannot be
modelled using a black-oil model.

Make a Fluid Model
1. Select Create new

1 to define a new fluid
model.
2
2. Specify Model type.
Note : All fluid models

will be stored in the
Input pane.
In the process dialog, you need to specify whether to make a black oil,
compositional or thermal fluid model.

Compositional Model
1. Select equation of state Note: There is no
from the General tab. support for tuning an
equation of state to
2. Append a row for each match laboratory
component. measurements.
1
You can select pre-defined

components from the drop-down
menu.
2 3. Go to the Interactions tab

to give interactions and to the
Samples tab to give samples.
When you make a compositional model, you must first select an

equation of state at the General tab. Note that there is no support for
tuning the equation of state to laboratory measurements. For that, you
will have to use PVTi and import the resulting matched equation of
state.
When you add a new component on the Components tab, you need to
type in the molecular weight and then click the Fill table button to fill
in the rest of the table according to the equation of state. Note that if
you later change the equation of state, you must return to the
Components tab and click the Fill table button again.

Make a default Compositional Model
1. Select model type –
Compositional.
1 2 2. Use the drop-down

menu to specify
default model.
All sub-tabs are filled

with preset values.
Make a default Black Oil Model
1
3
4
1. Select Black oil as Model type.
2. On the General tab, specify which
phases are required (enter required
properties in the following tabs).
3. Or use one of the defaults.
4. Specify an initial condition.

There are four default black oil models to select from:
Dead oil. Two phases, oil and water. Bubble point pressure lower
than minimum reservoir pressure, hence no gas will boil out of
the oil.
Heavy oil+gas. Three fluid phases, oil, gas, and water. The oil has
API gravity of 26.
Light oil+gas. Three phases, oil, gas, and water. A lighter oil with
API gravity of 45.
Dry gas. Two fluid phases, gas and water.
To make a default model, select one of the models from the drop-down
list and go to the Initial conditions tab to specify the initial fluid
contacts.
Make a model using the settings
General tab
• Select phases.
• Enter pressure and temperature
in the reservoir.
In addition to the four default fluid models, you can make black oil
models by filling in the settings in the process dialog. Based on the
settings, Petrel will select a model based on correlations.
The General tab
In the General tab, you specify which fluid phases that are present and
also the reservoir pressure and temperature.
Reservoir conditions. This is where the minimum and the maximum
pressure in the reservoir is specified. In addition, you must enter the
temperature in the reservoir.
Separator conditions. Here you can specify the pressure and the
temperature at separator conditions. Some of the correlations need
information on separator conditions.
The Gas tab
Gas
Information on the gas phase
composition entered here is
used to select correlations.
Correlations
Leave as Default to allow Petrel
to select correlations based on
your input.
Gas properties. Enter the density or the gravity of the gas phase. If
you are defining a dry gas, you must type in the vaporized gas/oil ratio.
You can also select which correlations to use or you can make Petrel
select, based on the input you give.
If you have information on the concentration of each component of the
gas phase, this can be entered here. Note that this option is only used
to select which correlations to use, it does not mean that you are
defining a compositional model.

The Oil tab
Specify gravity and bubble
point pressure.
Correlations -
are reported on the Statistics
tab of the fluid model
Oil properties. Here, you need to specify the oil density or the oil
gravity (API gravity: The usual range starts with water density at 10
degrees and rises to volatile oils and straw colored condensate liquids
around 60-70 degrees). In addition, you must enter the Bubble point
pressure or the Solution gas/oil ratio at the oil/gas contact. Note
that if the bubble point pressure you supply is lower than the minimum
reservoir pressure, then no gas will boil out of the oil. Consequently,
you get dead oil. Also, notice that unless you plan to give a depth
dependent Solution gas/oil ratio, the bubble point pressure must be
equal to the pressure at the gas/oil contact as specified in the Initial
conditions tab.
You can either select correlations, or leave it to Petrel to select based
on the input you give. Notice that the correlations that are used to make
the fluid model are listed on the Statistics tab of the settings dialog
for the fluid model.

Initial conditions tab
1
1. From contact set.
2
3 2. Define in the table.
3. Add columns to the

table to add initial
condition regions.
Initial conditions tab

In the Initial conditions tab, you can give the initial fluid contacts as
well as the pressure and the capillary pressure at those contacts. This
information is used in the simulator to calculate the initial pressure and
phase saturations in every grid block.
For each fluid region, you must specify a reference depth (datum) and a
corresponding pressure, gas-oil contact depth, and water contact depth
(depending on which phases you have). In the Define simulation case
process you will have the opportunity to associate each of these initial
condition regions with a region of the grid.
There are two ways you can define your initial conditions:
Contact set: If you have an existing contact set, you can select the
Use contact set option and drop in the contact set from the
Petrel explorer. The option Target number of initial
conditions will control how many regions to make from a
contact set (for example, if a tilted surface is made in the
Make contacts process). This algorithm is iterative and
cannot guarantee to get exactly the number of targets
specified. For example, if you enter 10, but there are only two
distinct values in the surface, you will only get two regions.
Table: If you not using contact set, you can enter the details of
To keep the fluids
in a stair step condition, you
each initial condition in a table. The table consists of a column
will need to define the model for each initial condition region; columns can be added or
as such (with an active removed using the usual Petrel table manipulation buttons.
aquifer, capillary pressure,
etc). If you just put a tilted By default, the gas-oil contact is set as Datum. Also, the pressure at
surface for the contact, and Datum is defaulted using a pressure gradient of 0.0981 bar/m over the
then run the simulator, the
fluid will gradually slump depth given by (surface elevation - datum depth). To enter a specific
down to a flat contact. pressure or datum depth, select the check box.
Note that unless you plan to give a depth table for solution gas/oil ratio
and bubble point pressure, the pressure at the gas-oil contact must be
equal to the bubble point pressure input, specified on the General tab.
Make contacts
Make contacts is the process

where the contacts to be used in
the Volume calculation and
Simulation processes are made

To use contacts as input to the Make fluid model processes, you must
define them in a separate process in Petrel, called Make contacts.
The purpose of this is to be able to enter different types of contacts,
such as constant values, dipping contacts and surfaces, and you can
choose to use different contacts for each zone and each segment or the
same contacts for the entire 3D model.
Another purpose of contacts is to visualize them together with one of
the horizons. This will show the contact contour on the surface together
with colored intervals for each hydrocarbon interval. This is useful when
displaying the aerial extent of the hydrocarbon intervals.
Make contacts
Define fluid contacts
1. Append the number of contacts. 1 2
2. Define the contact type and name.
3. Define the contact level. 3
Can be a different value/surface for

each segment and zone.
Make contacts - Procedure

1. Open the Make contact process.
2. Choose to Create new contact set.
3. Enter the type of contacts to be created, and change the name
(if other than default).
4. Enter the contact level.

Contact level
• Can be a constant value or a surface. To enter a constant
value, type the value directly into the cell. If it is a surface,
select the little check box and use the blue arrow to copy the
surface that represents the contact into the cell.
• To use different contacts for each segment and zone, clear the
options Same for all zones and Same for all segments.
Fluid variations with depth

Vertical variations in PVT must be given in a
spreadsheet.
Right-click an Initial condition and select

Spreadsheet to enter a depth table.
Specify the bubble point or the Rs value at

each depth. If you specify one, then the
other is calculated using the correlations.
Composition of oil is frequently a function of depth

• Solution gas/oil ratio (Rs) or Bubble point pressure (Pb
• Vaporized oil/gas ratio (Rv) or dew point (Pd)
(No correlations available to create vaporized oil PVT – input
manually or import)
To model the variation with depth, you have to fill in the Spreadsheet
located under the Initial condition sub-folder of the fluid model folder.
You can specify the bubble point or the Rs value at each depth. If you
specify Pb, then Rs will automatically be calculated and vice-versa,
using the correlations the fluid model is based on.
Entering a depth table is optional. If a table is not entered, the
dissolved gas concentration in under-saturated oil is set equal to the
saturated Rs value at the gas-oil contact everywhere. This is the Rs
value that you specified on the General tab when you made the fluid
model.
If the bubble point pressure (specified on the General tab of the Make
fluid model process) is not equal to the pressure at the gas-oil contact
(as specified on the Initial conditions tab), a depth table is required.
At any position in the reservoir, the Rs value derived from an Rs or Pb
versus depth table, is subject to an upper limit equal to the saturated
value at the local pressure, since the Rs value cannot exceed this.
Spreadsheets
You can view/edit a fluid model

in spreadsheet format.
You can copy and paste to/from

existing tables.
By right-clicking the oil or gas phase of the fluid model, you can access
the data in a spreadsheet format. Data can be copied/pasted from/to
those spreadsheets from Excel.

Plotting
Fluids data can be

plotted in a
function window.
Import
Black oil models exported
from PVTi can be imported.
The status of the import is

reported in the message log.

You can import fluid models generated in PVTi, or you can import Eclipse
keyword files.
Exercises – Make fluid model

There are several ways to create a fluid model in Petrel. You can use
the Make fluid model process to generate a fluid model from
correlations, you can import data or you can define a fluid model by
using spreadsheets.
Exercise Workflow
• Make a black oil fluid model
• Reviewing fluid model settings
• Import a keyword fluid model
• Plot the fluid model
Exercise Data
In this exercise, we will continue to use the project from the previous
exercise.
Make a black oil model from correlations

In this exercise, we will create a black oil fluid model based on
correlations using the Make fluid model process in Petrel. The output
from the process is a fluid model that can be used by the simulator.
Exercise steps
1. From the Processes pane, open the Simulation folder and
open the Make fluid model process.
2. Select Create new fluid model.
3. Click on the Use presets button and select Light oil + gas
from the drop-down menu. Observe that the process window is
filled with default values.
4. On the General tab, change the Maximum pressure to 460
bar.

5. Inspect the Gas tab, accept the default settings.
6. Select the Oil tab. Change the Bubble point pressure to 200
bar.
7. Go to the Initial conditions tab. To specify the initial
reservoir conditions for the model, you can either drop in a
contact set or you can enter a table of contact depths and
pressures. In this exercise, we will use the table and enter a
value for the gas-oil contact to -1600m and the water contact
to -2600 m.
8. Enter a pressure at datum (the gas-oil contact) of 200 bar.
If the datum depth

lies above the gas-oil
contact, the pressure refers
to the gas phase.
If the datum depth lies below
the water-oil contact, the
pressure refers to the water
phase. Otherwise, the
pressure refers to the oil
phase.
9. Click OK in the Make fluid model process dialog.

Reviewing fluid model settings
In this exercise, we will inspect the settings for the fluid model we just
created to see how we can edit and change the model.
Exercise steps
1. In the Input pane you can now see that a Fluids folder has
been added. This is where the fluid models are stored.
2. Expand your fluid model inside the Fluids folder and then
right-click on Oil and select Spreadsheet from the context
menu. This opens a spreadsheet view of the oil properties that
vary with pressure.
Import a keyword fluid model

In this exercise, we will import a fluid model from a keyword file. This
file can be an included file to the simulation deck, or the main .DATA file
of the simulation deck.
Exercise steps
1. Right-click on the Fluids folder and select Import (on
selection). Navigate to the ImportData > Functions >
FLUID.INC file, and click Open to do the import.
2. On import, you may get a message that some keywords were
not imported. You can find those keywords in the Message
log. These keywords do not contain PVT data.
3. After importing, a new fluid model is added to the Fluids
folder in the Input pane. Check the imported data by using the
Settings panel and the spreadsheets.
4. The fluid you imported does not have an initial condition,
hence, an initial condition must be added before the fluid can
be used in a simulation model.
Plotting the fluid model

In this exercise, we will plot the fluid model in a function window.
Exercise steps
1. Insert a New function window from the Window menu,
and select the check box next to Oil formation volume
factor in the Oil folder of the imported Black oil model 1.
2. Use the Select/pick mode tool and click anywhere on
any of the curves. The property name and value appear in the
status bar. If you cannot see the status bar, enable it with the
View > Status bar command.
3. Deselect to view the Oil formation volume factor and select
the check box next to Oil viscosity instead.
4. Any changes made in any of the settings panels and
spreadsheets will be reflected in what you see in the function
window.

Create multiple viewports – Optional
In this exercise, we will set up a new plot window with four function
viewports so we can make a report of the fluid model and inspect more
data in one view.
Exercise steps
1. Insert a New plot window from the Window menu.
2. There are two ways to create multiple viewports in the plot
window:
a. Go to the Windows pane and find the inserted plot
window. Open the settings for Plot window 1 [Any] and
go to the Setup multiple viewports tab.
Or,
b. From the toolbar, click on the New object in window
button on the toolbar and select Create/align multiple
viewports.

3. In the settings for ‘Plot window 1 [Any]’ dialog, select
Function viewport(s) from the New viewport type drop-
down menu. Define Number of rows: 2 and Number of
columns: 2. Then click the Setup viewports button
and close the settings window by
clicking OK.
4. You should now have four function viewports ready to use for
plotting the line data. The active viewport is shown with a red
border. Click inside a function viewport to make it active.
5. As an example, select the following data to plot from the Light
oil + gas fluid model:
a. Top left viewport: Oil formation volume factor.
b. Top right viewport: Oil viscosity.
c. Bottom left viewport: Pressure and the fluid contacts from
Initial condition 1.
d. Bottom right viewport: Gas formation volume factor.
6. You should have a plot window similar to the one shown
below:

Lesson 2 Make rock physics functions
Make rock physics functions
Capillary pressure curves Relative permeability Rock compaction
The Make rock physics functions process is used to create functions

that represent the physics of the rock and the interaction between rock
and fluids, or saturation functions and rock compaction functions.

Rock compaction function
Used to make rock compaction tables

from a choice of correlations to model
compaction drive.
Rock compaction functions are tables showing pore volume multipliers

versus pressure, or a single rock compressibility value used by the
simulator to calculate the pore volume change. The compaction can be
thought of as the reduction in the pore volume as a function of
pressure. Creating rock compaction functions using the Make rock
physics functions process will also create a transmissibility multiplier
versus pressure curves. These are set to 1.0, by default.

Use presets
There are three preset compaction
functions to select from.
Or specify
1. Correlation
2. Rock type
3. Number of table entries
Then give:
1. Porosity, constant or property
2. Pressures
By clicking the Use presets button, you will be given three compaction
functions to select from. Alternatively, you can manually fill in the fields.
If you select the correlation User defined, you need to supply a
compressibility and a reference pressure (equivalent to using the ROCK
keyword). Otherwise, the compressibility is computed using the
correlation you select from the drop-down menu (the ROCKTAB keyword
is used). In both cases, the result of the process is a curve showing pore
volume multipliers as a function of reservoir pressure. The multiplier is
always one for the reference pressure, meaning that at this pressure
the pore volume is equal to the initial pore volume.
Note that when adding a rock compaction function to your simulation
case, the simulator will no longer compute the (initial) pore volume
taking only the porosity property that you supply on the Grid tab of the
Define simulation case process as input. Now the simulator is also
using the rock compaction curve. That is, for each grid block a pore
volume is assigned by multiplying, the original grid pore volume with
the pore volume multiplier. Consequently, if the pressure for a grid block
is equal to the reference pressure, the volume is unaltered. If the
pressure is lower, the volume is reduced. However, if you want to model
a reservoir that is already compacted at the beginning of the simulation,
you need to define a reference pressure that is accordingly higher than
the initial cell pressures.
If you want to use the pore volumes as given by the porosity property to
initialize your model, you have to use the Keyword Editor and change
Saturation function
the second entry of the ROCKOPTS keyword to STORE.
Saturation function
Make relative permeability curves based

on Corey correlations
Used to calculate initial

saturation in each cell
Used to calculate the

phase mobility
When two or more immiscible fluids (for example, oil and water) are
present in the formation, their flows interfere. Therefore, the effective
permeability to oil flow (ko) or water flow (kw) is reduced. Furthermore,
the summation of effective permeability is always less than or equal to
the absolute permeability (k). The effective permeability depends not
only on the rock itself but also on the relative amounts and properties
of the different fluids in the pores. In a given rock, ko and kw will vary
as oil and water saturations, So and Sw, vary.
Relative permeability is the ratio of the effective permeability to the
absolute (single homogeneous fluid) permeability, thus, for an oil-water
system the relative permeability to water, krw, is equal to kw/k.
Similarly, the relative permeability for oil, kro, is equal to ko/k. Relative
permeability is usually expressed in percent or fractions and never
exceed the unity (1 or 100%).
In Petrel, you can use the Make rock physics process to make
relative permeability curves as functions of saturation based on Corey
correlations.
Saturation function
1. Preset values are available for

sand, shaly sand and fracture
(for dual permeability models).
2. The number of table entries

controls the size of the tables
passed to the simulator.
The input to the Corey correlations depends on the fluid phases you
select to include in the model.
For gas:
- Sgcr: the critical gas saturation.
- Corey Gas: Corey gas exponent for values between the minimum
water saturation and (1 – Sorg).
- Krg@Swmin: Relative permeability value of gas at the minimum
water saturation.
- Krg@Sorg: Relative permeability value of gas at the residual oil
saturation.
For oil:
- Sorw: Residual oil saturation to water. Note that (1 – Sorw) >
Swcr
- Sorg: Residual oil saturation to gas. Note that (1 – Sorg) > Swcr
- Corey O/W: Corey oil exponent for values between the minimum
water saturation and (1 – Sorw).
- Corey O/G: Corey oil exponent for values between minimum
water saturation and (1 – Sorg).
- Kro@Somax: Relative permeability of oil at the maximum value
of oil saturation.
For water:
- Swmin: Minimum water saturation.
- Swcr: Critical water saturation. This must be greater than or
equal the minimum water saturation.
- Corey Water: Corey water exponent for values between Swcr and
(1 – Sorw).
- Krw@Sorw: Relative permeability of water at the residual oil
saturation value.
- Krw@S=1: Relative permeability of water at a saturation value of
unity.
Oil-water capillary pressure:
Notice that in the lower part of the process dialog you can enter input
to generate a curve for oil-water capillary pressure. You need to
provide:
- maximum capillary pressure
- water saturation when the capillary pressure is zero.

The figure shows relative permeability curves for a water-wet formation
containing only oil and water. The values of krw and kro vary with the
saturation. The curves illustrate that at high oil saturation, kro is large
and krw is small; the oil flows easily and little water flows. At high
water saturations, kro is small and krw is large; now the water flows
easily and little oil flows.
Irreducible saturations
When the Kro value reaches zero, the oil remaining in the pore space is
immovable; the corresponding value of oil saturation at which this
occurs is the residual oil saturation (Sorw).
The Krw curve becomes zero at an Sw value indicated on the figures as
Swcr. At this saturation, only oil flows in the formation and the residual
water is immobile. In a water-wet formation, there is always a certain
amount of water held in the pores by capillary forces. This water cannot
be displaced by oil at pressures encountered in formations, so the
water saturation does not reach zero.

Spreadsheets
You can view/edit rock
physics functions in a
spreadsheet.
Right-click on the Rock

physics functions
folder and select
Spreadsheet…
Spreadsheets for rock physics functions

The spreadsheet for rock physics functions has some basic validation
triggers. In the case of saturation functions, the saturation values must
increase down the column, and the relative permeabilities must be level
and increase or decrease down the columns. In the case of rock
compaction functions, the pressure must increase down the column,
and the pore volume and transmissibility multipliers must be level and
increase or decrease down the columns.
The simulator will also run a validation on the data ranges in the tables,
and will issue a warning if the end point in the tables exceeds 100%
(1.0)
Capillary pressure
In a thick reservoir that contains both water and hydrocarbon columns,
the saturation may vary from 100% water at the bottom of the zone, to
a maximum oil saturation (and irreducible water saturation) at the top.
There is a gradual transition between these two extremes in saturation.
The transition interval may be very short for porous and permeable
formations, or it may be quite long in formations of low permeability.

Capillary pressure is a function of the elevation above the free water
level (FWL) and the difference between densities of the wetting (water)
and non wetting (oil) phases.
Capillary pressure data

Oil-water
You can make oil-water capillary

pressure curves using correlations.
Capillary pressure data

Gas-oil
Petrel does not have a correlation

for gas-oil capillary pressure data.
The data can be entered in the
spreadsheet.

Plotting
Import from keywords

Import rock physics functions
Functions can be imported to the

Rock physics function folder.
The status of the import is reported

in the message log.

Rock physics functions can also be inserted manually into Petrel by
right-clicking on the Rock physics functions folder in the Input pane
You can insert
sub-folders to the Rock and selecting the option Insert rock compaction function or Insert
physics functions folder to saturation function. An empty function will appear in the folder. In
organize the fluid models.
This way you can use Petrel
turn, this can be right-clicked and you can select the option to open a
as a repository for the rock spreadsheet for editing the function. The function tables can then be
physics functions you entered manually, or copied from an external application.
regularly use.
Exercises – Make rock physics functions

There are several ways of creating rock physics functions in Petrel. You
can use the Make rock physics functions process to generate
functions from correlations, you can import data, or you can define the
functions using spreadsheets.
Exercise Workflow
• Make a saturation function
• Make a rock compaction function
• Reviewing rock physics functions data
• Import a keyword rock physics function
• Plotting the rock physics functions
Exercise Data
In this exercise, continue to use the project you used in the previous
exercise.
Make a saturation function
In this exercise, we will create saturation functions based on Corey
correlations using the Make rock physics functions process. The
output from the process will be tables that can be exported for use by
the simulator.
Exercise steps
1. From the Processes pane, expand the Simulation folder and
open the Make rock physics functions process.
2. Select Saturation function from the Function type drop-
down menu.
3. Select Create new function, then select Sand from the Use
presets drop-down menu.
4. Click Apply in the Make rock physics functions process
dialog.
5. Expand the new Rock physics functions folder on the Input
pane. This is where your saturation function is stored.
6. Open a Function window, and select to display the saturation
function.
Exercise steps
The shape of the relative permeability curve and the number of points
in the table is set in the process dialog.
1. Open the Make rock physics functions process again.
2. Select Edit existing function, and then make sure the Sand
function is selected from the drop-down list.
3. Change the number of Table entries to 8.
4. Change the Corey O/W to 1 and the Corey water to 2.
5. Change Sorw to 0.15.
6. Click OK.
7. Display the new function in the Function window.

Make a rock compaction function
In this exercise, we will create rock compaction functions based on
correlations using the Make rock physics functions process. The
output from this process will be rock compressibility tables that can be
used by the simulator.
Exercise steps
1. Open the Make rock physics functions dialog.
2. Select to create a new function.
3. Select Rock Compaction Function from the Function type
drop-down menu.
4. All the necessary fields on the dialog can be filled in with
default values by selecting an option from the Use presets
list. Click on Use presets and select Consolidated
sandstone from the drop-down menu.
5. Click OK in the Make rock physics functions process
dialog.
6. The rock compaction function is stored in the Rock physics

functions folder in the Input pane.
You can also make a rock compaction function based on constant

compressibility.
Exercise steps
1. Open the Make rock physics functions dialog.
2. Select Rock Compaction Function from the Function type
drop-down menu.

3. Select Create new function and give the new function the
name Constant.
4. Select to use 8 table entries.
5. From the Correlation drop-down menu, select User defined.
6. Enter a Compressibility of 0.00001.

7. Click OK.
8. Display both compaction functions in a function window.
Reviewing rock physics functions data

In this exercise, we will inspect the settings for the rock physics
functions we just created to see how we can edit and change the
functions. We will also plot the functions in a function window and do
some graphical editing directly on the curves.
Exercise steps
1. Right-click on the Rock physics functions folder and select
Spreadsheet from the drop-down menu. This will give you a
spreadsheet view of the rock functions.
2. You can select which function to view by using the drop-down
menu at the top of the panel. Similarly, you can change
between the relative permeability tables and the capillary
pressure table by using the drop-down menus.
3. Click Cancel to close the spreadsheet.

4. Insert a function window from the Window menu and click in
the check box in front of one of the saturation functions to plot
the curve for that function.
5. There are two ways to edit the functions. You can either make
edits in the spreadsheet, or directly on the curves in the
function window using graphical tools. There is no undo, so
make a copy of a function before you start editing.
6. Click on the Select/pick mode tool in the function bar
and click on a point on one of the curves. Information on this
point is displayed in the status bar.
7. Click on the Select and edit/add points tool in the

function bar. Click on one of the points and drag this to another
position to update the function. Note that there is no undo for
this operation!
8. Move the mouse pointer a little bit beyond a point on the curve
and click on the line itself. Hold the left mouse button and
drag. A new point is added to the function. You can move the
point, and the function table are updated accordingly.
9. Finally, click on the Selected and edit line tool . Click on
one of the points and you will now be allowed to move this up
or down, but not horizontally.

Import a keyword rock physics function
In this exercise, we will import rock physics functions from keyword
files. The file can be an include file to the simulation deck, or the
keywords can be in the main .DATA file of the simulation deck. Note
that the path to include files must be reachable.
Exercise steps
1. We will import both types of rock physics functions in one
operation. Right-click on the Rock physics functions folder
in the Input pane and select Import (on selection).
2. Navigate to and select ImportData > Functions >
ROCKPHYSICS.INC and click Open to start the import. If
there are any keywords that are not imported, they will be
listed in the Petrel message log.
3. View the imported data by using both the spreadsheets and the
function window.

Summary
How to create a fluid model and rock physics functions using the Make
fluid model and Make rock physics functions in Petrel was covered
in this module. How to edit the functions in a spreadsheet and to plot
the functions in function window was also covered. Finally, you have
learned how to import functions from keyword files and how the
functions are stored and organized in Petrel.

Module 4 - Initialize the
Model and View 3D
Properties
Introduction
In this module, you will learn how to use the Define simulation case
process to initialize the model. We will also explore the 3D viewing
options in Petrel.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites are required for this module.
Learning Objectives
In this module you will learn:
• How to initialize the model
• To use 3D visualization windows
• How to define and use filters
Reservoir Engineering Initializing the model • 107

Lesson 1 – Initialization of the model
Introduction
The Define simulation case process allows the engineer to pull
together the 3D grid with the fluid and rock physics functions to
initialize the model, that is, to compute initial saturations, pressure and
transmissibilities. The process is also used to select which simulator to
run, and which development strategy to use.
108 • Initializing the model Reservoir Engineering

Define simulation case
Grid properties
Porosity and Permeability

is set on the Grid tab of the
Define simulation case
process.
Porosity and Permeability is

automatically inserted on the
Grid tab when you select a
3D grid.
Additional Grid Properties
• Add a row by clicking

• Select template
• Drop in the 3D property
For example, insert a water

saturation to apply end point
scaling.

In addition to permeability and porosity (required input), you can drop in
other properties that are defined in the 3D grid. For example, you can
select to use a local grid set, fault transmissibility multiplier, or
endpoint scaling for saturation functions.
Three ways of Initializing

Equilibration
The simulator computes
initial saturation and
pressure using the Fluid
model and the Saturation
function that is inserted on
the Functions tab.
Enumeration (Black oil)

The user inserts initial
saturation and pressure as
3D grid properties on the
Grid tab.
Restart
Initial saturation and
pressure is read from a
restart file.
Initial gas, oil, and water pressure distribution and initial saturation
distributions must be defined in the reservoir model. Pressure data is
usually given with reference to a datum depth. In Petrel, the datum
depth is mean sea level by default.
There are three initialization options:
Equilibration – Initial phase pressures and saturation are
computed by the simulator, using the fluid model. The
equilibration facility is a means of calculating the initial
conditions on the basis of hydrostatic equilibrium. If necessary,
the reservoir can be divided into separate “equilibration
regions” in which hydrostatic equilibrium exists independently
of the other regions. The number of equilibration regions is
specified in the Make fluid model process. Within each
equilibration region, all grid blocks must use the same pressure
table for their PVT properties, but they can use different rock
physics functions tables as specified in the Make rock
physics functions process.
Enumeration – The initial value of pressure, saturation, and
bubble point pressure is set explicitly in each grid block by the
user. The 3D grid property must be dropped into the Grid tab of
the Define simulation case process.
Restart – The initial conditions are read from a restart file of a
previous run.
Functions
Black oil (PVT)
Left-click the Black oil

fluid model (PVT).
Drop in the initial

condition of the fluid
model.
Deselect Initialize by
equilibration if you use
enumeration.

Functions
Black oil regions
Different fluid models can be

assigned to different regions.
Any discrete property (such as

segments) can be used as a region
index property.
Fluid model: Spatial variations

Initially, the fluid model in reservoirs may vary vertically and aerially.
This can be modeled by assigning separate fluid models to separate
regions of the model. It is important to understand how the fluid model
is used in a simulator with fluid movement. When fluid moves from one
region to another, the simulator will change the fluid model used, such
as the viscosity and formation volume factor, as the fluids cross into the
separate regions. Unless mixing between different oils has occurred or
the pressure has changed, the fluid properties will remain the same as
they move through the 3D grid.

Functions
Rock physics
Drop in:
• Relative permeability curves
• Rock compaction function
Select Region index property

to assign different functions to
different rock types.
Initialize by equilibration
Separate rock
Given the fluid densities, the equilibration procedure sets up saturation physics functions should be
against depth curves so that in the transition zone, when two phases used for each significant rock
are mobile, the hydrostatic pressure variation is balanced by the type.
capillary pressure between the phases.

Equilibration
Compute phase pressures
The contacts in the Fluid model

are used.
Phase pressure is computed

using the fluid density as input.
Within each equilibration region, the calculation is performed in two

stages. In the first stage, an internal table of phase pressures and Rs
and Rv against depth is set up. In the second stage, the fluid conditions
in each grid block in the region is computed using interpolated values
from the table.

Equilibration
Saturation in the water, oil, and gas zone
Oil zone: So = 1-Swmin

Gas zone: Sg = 1-Swmin
In the second stage of the equilibration calculation, the local fluid

conditions are determined in each grid block in the equilibration region.
The internal table is interpolated to obtain the values of Po, Pw, Pg, Rs
and Rv at the grid block center depth. The water saturation is
determined by inverse look-up of the water capillary pressure table.

Equilibration
Saturation in the transition zones
• Calculate Pcog and Pcow

in the transition zone.
• Find Sg and Sw by
inverse lookup from the
capillary pressure curves.
Strategies
The Strategies tab can be left
blank when initializing the model.
Development strategies and

Well segmentation will be described
later in the course.
You can use a global

permeability log to compute
the KH term of the
connection transmissibility
factor. For every well, Petrel
will check if it has a
permeability log that will be
used for computing KH.
Otherwise, the grid
properties will be used as
usual.’

Results
3D initial properties
Request to write out initial

saturation and pressure.
Non standard 3D properties can

be added using Additional
Properties (e.g., bubble point
for each cell).
Advanced
Select grid type
The Editor gives access to all
simulator keywords including
those not supported from Petrel.
Select:
• Grid export type (OPF default)
• Simulator version
• Which queue to send the job to

A choice of formats for exporting grid data from the Models pane has
always been available in Petrel. However, you can also select these
formats from the Advanced tab in the Define simulation case
process.
The considerations in choosing which format to use are:
Pillar geometry: Petrel supports vertical, straight, listric and
curved pillar geometry. Several of the export formats only
support vertical and straight pillars. If your grid contains curved
or listric pillars and you use a format that does not support it,
the grid will be distorted on export. Check this in the
Statistics tab of the grid settings.
ASCII or Binary: This is important if you are planning to edit the
data outside Petrel. In that case, you need to export the data in
ASCII format.
Properties: Some of the formats do not include the properties on
export. In that case, you need to export them separately.
Compatibility: Not all formats are supported by all simulators or
third party applications. Check the available formats in the
other application before exporting.
File size: Some of the formats provide a higher efficiency
compared to others, resulting in much smaller files. This will
minimize both disc space requirements and the time needed to
move files between systems (if you are running remotely).
By default, the OPF (Open Petrel Format) format is used for all
simulation runs. It supports curved and listric pillars, is binary and
includes the properties. Note that ECLIPSE has to be 2005a version or
later in order to read this format.

Advanced
Transmissibilities tab
Use the Transmissibilities tab to:

• Set a minimum pore volume
• Compute transmissibility in Petrel
and export to the simulator
Transmissibility and pore volume

multipliers are written to the
simulator deck.
Typically, the individual simulators have calculated the pore volume of

cells, fluid transmissibility and thermal conductivity between them.
These are straightforward calculations, dependent upon the grid
geometry and properties and need only be calculated once prior to the
first simulation step. The advantage of sending these to the simulator is
that the set of connections and their strengths will be the same
whichever simulator is being used. The transmissibility and pore volume
values are sent from Petrel to the simulator as keywords or inside the
GSG file when the option Calculate and export transm. and pore
volumes is selected. FrontSim does not support this feature.

Exercises – Initialization of the model
The next exercises show you how to initialize the model.
Exercise Workflow
• Initialize the model
Exercise Data
In the following exercises, we will continue with the project we have
made earlier. Alternatively, you may load the project Mod_3_
Completed.pet from Backup Projects folder.
Initialize model
In this exercise, we will initialize the 3D model with fluid and rock
physics functions. We will leave the development strategy field empty.
Exercise steps
1. In the Processes pane, expand the Simulation folder and
open the Define simulation case process.
2. Select Create new case and name the new case Simple.
3. Make sure the Simulator is set to ECLIPSE 100, and the Grid
is set to Simple.
4. In the Grid tab, deselect the check boxes in front of
Permeability and Porosity.
5. Enter a permeability of 1000 in the I- and the J- direction and
of 50 in the K-direction.
6. Type in a porosity of 0.12.

7. Go to the Functions tab and select the Drainage relative
permeabilities in the left panel by left-clicking it.
8. Drop in the saturation function Saturation function 1 that

you imported in the Input pane (by selecting it) and clicking
the blue arrow in the dialog.
9. Still in the Functions tab, select the Black oil fluid model
from the list in the left panel.
10. Ensure that the Initialize by equilibration option is selected.
11. Drop in the Initial condition 1 of the black oil model, Light
oil + gas, that you created earlier. As you only have one
region, there is no reason to use a region index property.
12. Select the Rock compaction function from the list in the left
panel. Drop in the Rock compaction function 1 from the
Rock physics functions folder in the Input pane.
13. The Strategies tab should be left empty as you are only
initializing. If there is an empty row, delete it by selecting the
row and clicking the Delete selected row(s) in table button
14. Click Apply to save the case. The case is saved to the Cases
pane.
15. Click Run. ECLIPSE 100 is launched. Wait for the initialization
of the case to finish.
Once the run is finished, go to the Cases pane, right-click on the
simulation case (ECLIPSE 100) and select Show print file. This will
open the print file in your default text editor.

At the bottom of this file, you will find the initial fluid in place report.
You can view the initial properties that are stored in the Simulation
grid results folder on the Results pane. The next lesson explains how
to view 3D data.
Lesson 2 – 3D Viewing
3D Viewing
The simulator loads the results,

and a folder Simulation grid
results is added to the Results
pane
Three sub-folders :
- Composite results
- Static
- Dynamic
Use the Cases pane to select

which simulation case to view
3D Viewing
Time step animation
Set current date and time of

display.
You can use the report steps

available for the property. To
view report steps, select to You can use the report steps
step by - Displayed from another property. Select You can specify the report
to step by - Selection steps. Select to step by
- User Interval

3D results from simulation are accessible from the Results pane.
The time player To display simulation results, you must select a property and a
speed can be changed from simulation case. If the property is time dependant, the time player is
the Project settings menu.
used to animate the display through time.
In the folder Composite results, properties are stored as ternary
properties (saturation), vectors, and tensors. The Static folder stores
static input data to the simulators (INIT file). The Dynamic folder
contains data from the restart file and these typically change with time.
3D Viewing
1D filters
Right-click the property and select
Create 1D filter...
A 1D filter can be used to limit the

range of cells displayed for any
property.
Use the property from relevant

case.
Select the relevant report step.
Right-click on a property in the Simulation grid results folder and

The simulation grid select Create 1D filter. In the dialog that opens, you can drag the
results properties can be sliders to select the range of values you want to filter out. Here, you
converted to grid properties,
and will be stored in the
specify which simulation case the property is referring to and also
Properties folder on the which report step the filter should be applied to. The filter is stored on
Models pane. the Input pane under the Filters folder, and can be turned on and off.
This can be done to access
more property operations, for
example, map creation.

3D Viewing
I, J, K layer filter
You can view all cells with

the same I, J, or K index by
pressing the filter symbol in
the function bar.
The filter tools are available

in the function bar when any
of the property modeling
processes are active.
3D Viewing
Well filter
Right-click on the Well filters

folder and select Insert new
well filter. Specify top and base of the
filter.

Right-click on the Well filters folder under the Wells folder on the
Input pane to insert a new filter. In the dialog that opens, you can
select which interval of the well trace you want to display. The filter
applies to both well logs and traces.
The new filter takes effect when the check box in front of it is selected.
User filters
Schlumberger Private
You can make filters interactively from function and histogram
windows.
In a histogram window, you can drag a section along the x-axis to
specify the filter. The new filter will appear on the Input pane and can
be applied to other properties. In the illustration above, the histogram
window is used to make a filter for high values of porosity. This filter is
applied in a 3D window to show oil saturation in high porosity cells.
It is also possible to create a filter from a function window. For
example, a cloud of data points can be selected from a cross-plot of
two properties.

3D Viewing
Ternary property display
Select Saturation from the

Simulation grid results
(Composite results sub-folder).
Activate Show/hide auto legend

from the toolbar.
General intersection

Right-click on the Intersections folder on the Models pane and select
Insert general intersection. An intersection plane is added to the
folder.
When the general intersection is displayed in the 3D window, the
intersection toolbar appears.
Click the Toggle visualisation on plane tool button to enable
visualization on the intersection plane. Once this tool is activated,
subjects with blue check boxes can be displayed on the intersection.
Use the Manipulate plane tool from the function bar to drag the
plane.
Intersection window
The intersection plane can be

turned into an intersection window.
Right-click the general intersection and select Create intersection

window to display your general intersection in an intersection window.
Select the check box in front of the subjects to put them into view. If
you drag the general intersection in the 3D window, the intersection
window is automatically updated.

Exercises – Results viewing
In the previous exercise, you initialized the 3D grid. This exercise will
show you how to display 3D properties.
Exercise Workflow
• View 3D simulation data
• Use filters
• Use of general intersection planes
• The multi-value probe
Exercise Data
For this exercise, continue to use the project you used in the previous
exercise.
3D viewing
Your simple grid is now initialized and the initial properties are stored
in the sub-folders of Simulation grid results on the Results pane.
You can view any of the initial properties, such as saturation or
pressure in a 3D window. The exercises demonstrate how to apply
different filters for a better view.
Exercise steps
1. Open a new 3D window.
2. Go to the Cases pane and select the relevant case.
3. Go to the Results pane, and expand the Simulation grid
results folder. Then, expand the Dynamic sub-folder. Select
to display Water saturation (SWAT).
4. Click the Show/hide grid lines button in the function bar
to display the grid lines. If the icon is not on the function bar,
activate the Define simulation case process on the
Processes pane.
5. Click the Show/hide axis button in the menu bar to
display the coordinate axis.
6. Click the Show/hide auto legend button in the menu bar
to add the legend to view.
7. To get a better view, you can apply filters. Right-click on Water
saturation, and select Create 1D filter.
8. In the dialog, use the slider to select a minimum water
saturation of 0.35. Click Apply, and observe the change in the
3D window. Click OK to close the dialog.
9. Go to the Input pane, open the Filters folder and turn off the
filter you just made.

Using I, J, and K filters in a 3D window
There is a wide range of available filters you can use when you are
viewing data in 3D.
Exercise steps
1. Continue to work with the 3D window displaying the water
saturation.
2. To make the I, J, and K filters available, activate the Define
simulation case process from the Processes pane.
3. Click the Display the cells with same K button to view
one K-layer at a time.
4. You can use the Step property forward/backward buttons
/ to go to another K-layer.
5. Click once more to cancel the K-layer filter.
6. Click the Toggle simbox view button to change to a view
that flattens the model.
Making filters using a Histogram window

You can make a filter based on data displayed in a histogram or a
function window. The filter can be applied to data displayed in a 2D or
3D window.
Exercise steps
1. Open a histogram window, and display the initial pressure
2. Click the Select using 1D range on x-axis button in the
function bar.
3. Left-click in the histogram window and drag to select the
values that should define the filter. Select only the largest
pressure values to create a filter that exclusively displays the
cells with high pressure.
4. Go back to the 3D window that displays the water saturation.
5. Go to the Input pane and expand the folder Filter folder >
User.
6. Select the Pressure filter, and observe the effect in the 3D
window.

View data on an intersection plane
You can insert a general intersection into the model and select to view
data on it. The plane can be moved and tilted.
Exercise steps
1. Use the 3D window displaying the water saturation, but turn
off all filters.
2. Right-click the Intersections folder under your 3D grid
(Simple) and select Insert general intersection.
3. Click the Clip in front of plane button in the General
intersection player toolbar at the bottom of the user
interface.
4. To view data on the plane, click the Toggle visualization on

plane button on the intersection plane toolbar.
5. Items that you can display on the plane now have a blue box or
a radio button. Select the box in front of Water saturation to
view the saturation on the plane.
6. Click the Manipulate plane button in the function bar to
move the plane to a different position.
7. Right-click the General intersection on the Models pane
and select Create intersection window.
8. Select to display the water saturation in the intersection
window.
9. Select to tile the intersection window and the 3D window by
selecting Tile vertical from the Windows menu.
10. Move the intersection plane in the 3D window and notice how
the intersection window is updated simultaneously.

Optional Exercise - The multi-value probe
Sometimes it is useful to be able to view several property values in the
same grid cell. The Multi-value probe gives you a tabular view of the
grid properties.
Exercise steps
1. Return to your 3D window that displays the water saturation
and select to view the pressure.
2. Now you have an access to the Multi-value probe mode
button in the function bar.
3. In the dialog that opens, add four rows by clicking the Append
item in the table button .
4. Use the blue arrow in front of each row to drop the property
into the dialog. Start with porosity from the fine grid.
5. In order to use the grid properties from the simulation results,
simulation case need to be provided (see Input part of the
dialog). Drop in the Simple case from the Cases pane as
shown in the picture below. In the Results part of the dialog,
drop in Porosity (PORO) from the Static sub-folder of the
Simulation grid results. Then, from the Dynamic sub-folder
drop in Water saturation (SWAT) and Pressure
(PRESSURE). Note: these properties were taken from the first
time step.
6. Left-click on any cell in the 3D window and observe how the

table is updated to show the property values in that cell. Note
that you can compare the property values between different
grids by using this tool.

Summary
In this module, it was demonstrated how to initialize a simulation case
and how to inspect the initial 3D grid properties.

Module 5 - Upscaling
Introduction
In this module we will briefly cover how to convert a geological grid into
a simulation grid. Geological grids can contain tens of millions of grid
cells; however, a model that is suitable for simulation usually consists
of 100.000 to one million cells, depending on the computer the
simulations are run on. Consequently, a coarser, less detailed model is
required. In addition, since the simulators are designed to work on
orthogonal grids, the coarse simulation grid should be as close to
orthogonal as possible.
The first step is to coarsen the fine scale grid. To do this, you must first
define the resolution in the x-and y-directions using the Pillar gridding
process. Afterwards, the subdivision in the z-direction will be made
using the Scale up structure process.
Once the geometry of the coarse grid is defined, we will use the
Geometrical modeling process to quality check geometrical
properties of the coarse grid, such as grid cell volumes and angles.
Finally, the properties from the fine grid will be re-sampled into the
coarser simulation grid using the Scale up properties process.
Prerequisites
• Basic knowledge of Petrel is required.
Learning Objectives
In this module you will learn how to:
• Make a coarse simulation grid based on a fine scale grid using
the Pillar gridding and Scale up structure processes.
• Compute geometrical properties such as cell angles and
volumes for a 3D grid
• Scale up properties from a fine to a coarse grid using the Scale
up properties process
Reservoir Engineering Upscaling • 137

Lesson 1 – Grid Coarsening using the Pillar
gridding process
Upscaling
Workflow
1. Coarsen the fine grid in the x- and y-direction
2. Make a vertical subdivision of the coarse grid
3. Quality check the resulting 3D grid (cell angles)
4. Sample properties from the fine grid into the coarse
Coarsen the grid in the x- and y-direction

Simulation considerations
Cell size and shape

• Sufficient detail to describe flow
• Number of cells small enough to run
simulation
Grid orientation
• Permeability anisotropy
• Fault directions
Wells
• Enough cells between wells
138 • Upscaling Reservoir Engineering

You may find that there are conflicts between the different
requirements of the simulation model. A description of the reservoir in
sufficient detail, describing changes in saturation and pressure, may
conflict with the maximum number of cells a simulator can do
computations on in a reasonable amount of time. While a geological
model can consist of tens of millions of cells, a typical desktop
computer cannot perform simulations on models with much more than a
million cells.
Making the Coarse Grid

Two methods
Make simple grid

• Simple and fast
• For models without faults
• Can insert simulation faults
Pillar gridding
• Used to make 3D grids that adapt to
faults
There are two ways to make a simulation grid using Petrel, the Make
simple grid process and the Pillar Gridding process.
Previously, we made a grid using the Make simple grid process, and
were then able to insert vertical ‘simulation’ faults at the position of
existing grid nodes. Simulation faults can be barriers to flow, but do not
have throw, so they do not create communication between layers. You
can introduce throw along simulation faults using the Edit 3D Grid
process, but this is not recommended as the editing process is very time
consuming and can be difficult to quality control. Use the Pillar
Gridding approach if you have faults with throw, non-vertical faults or
if you want the faults to define segments in your grid.
The result of both of these processes will be a skeleton framework of
the 3D grid that is ready to insert surfaces into.
Pillar gridding
Overview
1. Create a grid adjusted to the mid-points 2. Extrapolate the pillars to the top and
of the Key Pillars. base shape points. This will create a
3D grid of pillars, represented by the
top, mid and base skeleton grids.
Pillars will be
created at
every corner of
every grid cell.
Pillar Gridding - Concept

Pillar Gridding is the process of making the “Skeleton Framework” of a
3D grid that incorporates faults. The Skeleton is a grid consisting of a
Top, a Mid, and a Base grid. Besides the three skeleton grids, there are
pillars connecting every corner of every grid cell to each other. In the
above slide, the figure to the right shows an example of the three
skeleton grids and one intersection through the grid that shows the
Pillars connecting grid cells together.
When creating the Pillar Grid, you will work with the Mid Skeleton grid.
The Mid Skeleton grid is the grid attached to the mid-point of the Key
Pillars, which defines the fault planes (left figure). The purpose is to
create a grid that has good geometrical properties at the Mid point
level, with respect to grid cell size, orientation and appearance of the
cells. The next step is to extrapolate this Mid Skeleton upwards and
downwards in order to create the Top and the Base skeletons. This is
done when you click OK in the Pillar gridding process dialog.

Pillar gridding
Terminology
Pillar Gridding - Terminology
Boundary:
Polygon, boundary segment or part of
boundary
Trends:
Guidance for the grid and used as
segment divider (where no faults)
Faults and directions:

Guidance for the grid (optional to set no
fault or set no boundary)
Segments (Regions):
Compartment closed by faults or trends
Segments – (fault compartments) are areas that are enclosed by

faults, grid boundary, trends or any combination of these. Segments are
used in several processes in Petrel. For instance, different settings and
filtering can be applied to segments, and volumes will be reported by
segment when running the Volume calculation process. Segments are
similar to the term ‘Regions’ used in ECLIPSE. Segments can be used to
create different Fluid in Place Regions with different contact levels and
fluid properties.
Boundary – The boundary defines the extent of the model. You can use
a polygon as input, or you can digitize the boundary. Faults can be set
as part of the boundary.
Trends – Trends can be used to orient the grid cells in a particular
direction. Trends can be set outside of the grid to give an overall
direction for the grid cells. The trends can define both I and J directions.
Trends can also be used to connect one fault to another or they can be
inserted between faults. Trends cannot cross faults. Trends can be used
inside the model to separate areas into different segments.
Faults – An area enclosed by faults will, by default, make out a
segment of the model. If a direction is assigned to a fault, the grid is
forced to be aligned with that fault.

Pillar gridding
Cell shape
Make zig-zag type faults

Gives a grid with cell angles close to
90°.
Simulators assume right angles at cell

corners.
Pillar Gridding - Settings

• Give a name to the model or overwrite an existing model.
• Enter the increment in I and J. The increment is given in
project units.
• If you are making a simulation grid, define zig-zag type of
faults. As a general rule, the deviation from 90° should be less
than 25 –30°, and the average less than 15°.
• Once all of the settings are entered, click Apply. This will
create the Mid skeleton grid.
• When the Mid skeleton grid looks good, click OK and the
pillars will be extrapolated upwards and downwards in order
to create a Top and a Base skeleton grid.

Pillar gridding
Cell shape and orientation
To create a simulation grid with

orthogonal cells, the number of trends
and directed faults in the grid should
be kept to a minimum.
Use zig-zag faults
Use trends OUTSIDE the boundary to

get zig-zag faults AND the correct
grid orientation, or set the orientation
in the process dialog.
You must choose whether some faults should define a direction in the
grid. For a simulation grid, the fewer the better, as this will allow the
algorithm to make orthogonal cells. The default grid orientation is
North-South. To change this without making a fault into a directional
trend, create a trend outside the area of the grid. By doing this, you can
give a direction to the grid, and still ensure that all faults are zig-zag.
Alternatively, go to the Expert tab on the Pillar gridding process
dialog and specify the rotation angle.

Pillar gridding
Cell size
I and J increment
Gives the average cell size, and hence
the model size
The cell size specified is an average –

cells will vary in size as the gridding
honors faults
One of the many aspects to consider when setting cell size is the effect
of numerical dispersion. Numerical dispersion is due to the
discretization of the volume into cells with properties at the center.
Water is injected into Cell 1 and as soon as the critical water saturation
is reached, water will be able to move to Cell 2. Once water is mobile,
it will advance in every time step, no matter the length of the time step.
This creates a smeared out water saturation front, instead of the
correct sharp displacement front. One way to reduce the effect is to
have smaller cells.
If the model contains cells with a small volume, this could cause the
time required for the simulator to increase. It is possible to select to set
such cells inactive. If the total volume of all such cells is significant,
consider redoing the gridding.

Throughput related problems
You can set a threshold value for pore

volume. Cells with a smaller pore
volume will be set inactive.
Once your simulation case is initialized, the pore volume property is

stored in the Static sub-folder of the Simulation grid results folder
on the Results pane. If this property shows that you only have a few
cells with a small pore volume, you can select to set those cells inactive
to avoid throughput problems and increased simulation time.
Select the Advanced>Transmissibilities tab of the Define
simulation case process and type in the minimum pore volume. On
this tab, you can also set max pinch-out thickness for no-neighbor
connections to be generated.
Notice that the export of transmissibilites and minimum pore volumes
from the Define simulation case process is not supported by
FrontSim.

Pillar gridding
Faults tab
You can select to remove faults
In the Faults tab:

1. Select Selected faults/trends
2. Deselect All faults
3. Select/deselect faults in list
4. Click Update visible from lists
Faults can be excluded from the Pillar Gridding process by turning

them off on the Faults tab of the process dialog. You must click the
Update visible from lists button to see the effect in the 2D window.
Pillar gridding
Pillar geometry and grid formats
Select a simple pillar geometry for

simulation grids
Five types of geometry files can be created

for simulation:
.OPF – most flexible, incl. curved faults,
binary
.GRID – incl. curved faults, binary
.EGRID – straight line faults, binary
.GRDECL – straight line faults, ASCII
.GSG – incl. curved faults, binary

The more complex the pillar geometry, the more accurately the cells
will honor volumes on either side of faults. However, the cells will be
less orthogonal. Notice that the grid formats GRDECL and EGRID (uses
the ZCORN and COORD keywords) only supports vertical and linear
faults. If you use listric or curved faults in your Petrel project and export
the grid to the simulator in one of these formats, the grid will be
distorted.
Refer to the Initialization lesson in Module 4 for more information on
the grid formats.
Pillar gridding
Result
The result of the Pillar gridding is a skeleton grid. The skeleton grid
consists of a top, a mid, and a base skeleton, representing the top, mid
and base shape points of the Key pillars, respectively.
Along and between all of the faults are a set of pillars, evenly
distributed based on the given increment in the I and J direction. This
defines the framework, including the faults and the cell size, that the
surfaces can be inserted into. As no surfaces are inserted yet, there are
no 3D grid cells at this stage.

Exercises – Grid coarsening
You are provided with a 3D geological scale grid with properties, which
should be coarsened for simulation purposes.
The Pillar gridding process is a key part of building a 3D grid. This is
where the size and geometry of each cell will be set. The steps outlined
below do not cover all the functionality available in Pillar gridding.
Further information is available in the Online Help.
Exercise Workflow
• Make the coarse grid using the Pillar gridding process
• Change grid orientation
Exercise Data
In this exercise, continue to use your project from the previous exercise.
Grid coarsening using the Pillar gridding process

Exercise steps
1. Open a 3D window, go to Petrel RE 2010 folder in the
Models pane and display the Fault model.
2. Single-click on the Petrel RE 2010 model (remember to

always click on the icon of an object) to make it active – bold.
Operations in Petrel are done on the active item, not on
items displayed in a window.
3. Double-click on the Pillar gridding process under Corner
point gridding in the Processes pane. Ensure the top border
of the Pillar gridding process dialog reads Pillar gridding
with ‘PetrelRE2010/Fault model’. You will be prompted with
a 2D window displaying the faults from the fault model as
illustrated below. Inspect the Models pane and make sure
that only objects from the active model are visualized.
4. You need to specify a boundary for your reservoir. In this
exercise, we will use the boundary that was made for the fine
model. Expand the Fault model and notice that it has a
boundary.
5. In the Settings tab of the Pillar gridding process dialog,

select Create new. Name the grid Upscaled. Change the
Increments to 350x350 m, and select Make zig-zag type
faults.

6. On the More tab, select the Vector field method (utilizes
FloGrid algorithms for I/J assignment).
7. In the Geometry tab, make sure Listric and Curved faults are
deselected, both in Non faulted pillar geometry and in
Faulted pillar geometry. This ensures that the final grid will
only have linear pillars.
8. In the process dialog, click Apply. Petrel will attempt to build
the mid skeleton grid with the parameters you have specified
as illustrated below. Note that there is a direction assigned to
one of the faults causing the grid to be directed along that
fault.

Changing the grid orientation
Often a specific grid orientation is thought to be better for simulation
purposes. In this exercise, you will learn how to set the grid orientation.
Exercise steps
1. To remove the direction from the fault, first select the fault that
is colored green by left-clicking it. Then click the Set arbitrary
direction button in the function bar.
2. Click Apply to see the effect. The grid should now have the
default north-south direction.
3. To change the orientation of the grid, simply insert an I or J
trend line outside the grid using the New I-trend or the
New J-trend button (left-click to start and double-click to
end the trend line). Trends can be deleted by selecting them
and pressing Delete on the keyboard. Click Apply to see the
effect once you have added a trend.

4. When you are happy with the mid skeleton grid, click OK in the
process dialog. Accept the generation of lower and upper
skeleton grids by clicking Yes. Examine these in the 3D
window.
It is possible to only use a sub-set of the faults in the simulation grid
without removing any data from the original Fault model. You can
remove faults from the simulation model in two ways:
a. Turn them off in the Faults folder under the Fault model in
the Models pane.
b. In the Faults tab of the Pillar gridding dialog, select Grid
with selected faults/trends. Then, deselect the All
Faults check box. You can now specify which of the faults
in the list you want to include in the 3D grid. Click the
Update visible from lists button to update the 2D
window.
Lesson 2 – Vertical coarsening –the Scale up

structure process
Simulation results will be different!

Stratigraphic
Model
Sim Model 3 Sim Model 2 Sim Model 1
0 1000
Permeability, mD
A fine scale geological model can be represented by models of different

resolution for simulation. It is important for the simulation models to
keep the main characteristics, such as horizontal flow barriers, of the
original model.

Two methods
Based on input data

Use the Make horizons, Make zones,
and the Layering processes
Based on the fine model

Use the Scale up structure process

There are two ways to subdivide the simulation grid in the vertical
direction.
Based on input data – Use the Make horizons, Make zones,
and the Layering processes to do the subdivision based on the
available input data such as surfaces, seismic interpretations,
and isochore data. This type of vertical subdivision is usually
done as part of the geological structural modeling process;
further details are covered in the Structural modeling course.
Based on the fine model – Use the Scale up structure process
as shown in the illustration on the slide. In this case, a fine grid
is given as input to the process and then the layering of the
simulation grid is done by using information on the layering of
the fine grid. This procedure will be explained in the following
slides.
Scale up structure
Settings for each zone
Specify the type of layering in each
zone.
Specify the number of layers in each

zone.
You can combine two zones into

one by clicking
Remember to update the Top and
Base horizon of your new zones.
Settings for each zone - Once a fine scale model is inserted into this
interface, the bottom panel is populated with the vertical layering
scheme of the fine model. You must then do the required edits to
produce a coarser vertical layering. Select the settings with great care
to make sure that important features of the fine model are captured,
such as a sealing layer.
In this panel, you also specify the zonation of the coarse grid. It is
possible to combine two zones in the fine grid into one zone in the
coarse grid. To do so, delete one of the rows in the table. Then, insert
the correct top and bottom horizon on the remaining zones by selecting
them in the Input pane and dropping them into the table by using the
blue arrow. For each zone, you must select the type of zone division;
proportional, follow base, follow top, or fractions. Finally, specify the
number of layers or layer thickness within each zone.
After the grid is built, and before the properties are upscaled, the grid
geometry should be checked. Cells which deviate considerably from
orthogonal, have small volume cells next to large volume cells and
badly distorted cells, can have a negative impact on the simulation. If
errors are encountered as a result of poor grid geometry, the simulation
time may increase considerably or may not complete at all.
Use the simulation report to identify problems related to cell geometry.
Cells which cause problems can be set as inactive (ACTNUM=0). If
problems are severe, the grid should be rebuilt.

Cell angles
Cell angles - Where faults have been set as I or J trends, the grid may
become distorted and cells deviate considerably from being orthogonal.
Compute the geometrical property Cell Angle and use the property filter
to identify cells with angles that are far off from 90 degrees. The values
calculated are angles representing the maximum deviation from 90
degrees at each corner. As a rule of thumb, values less than 15 are
good for simulation. Higher values can result in errors when used in a
typical five-point difference scheme. However, distorted cells may not
be so important in regions that are not significant for flow (e.g. inactive
Remember to select
cells or aquifer regions). Create new property if you
are running the
Create 1D filters - To get a better view of where a property takes on Geometrical Modeling
values in a particular range, right-click on the property and select process to create several
Create 1D filter. Use the sliders to specify the values you want to filter new properties. Petrel will,
by default, select to
out. The new filter is stored in the Filter folder of the Input pane. overwrite an existing
property.

Cell inside-out
Cells close to faults may become so distorted that they sometimes can
turn ‘inside out’, where one axis is pushed through a different face.
These generally do not visualize well, but can be isolated by using the
property filter to remove the cells which deviate from 0 (normal). The
cell inside-out check just gives a flag to indicate errors. If it is zero
everywhere, the grid is OK.

Exercises – Vertical coarsening and grid quality
check
In the previous exercise, you specified the coarse grid layout in the
x- and the y-direction. The next step in the coarsening process is to
specify the vertical subdivision. In this exercise, the layering of the
coarse grid is done based on the layering in the fine grid using the
Scale up structure process.
After the grid has been subdivided in the vertical direction, you can
check the geometry of the grid cells by computing cell angels and
volumes.
Exercise Workflow
• Use the Scale up structure process to specify the layering of
the coarse simulation grid based on the layering of the fine
grid.
• Check the geometry of the resulting grid, in particular check for
bad cell angles and twisted cells.
Exercise Data
In this exercise, continue to use the project from the previous exercise.
The Scale up structure process

The layering should be done with care. Do barrier layers in the fine
model need to be kept as separate barrier layers in the upscaled model,
or can you combine these into a thick layer together with other layers?
How can you preserve the lateral and vertical heterogeneities?
It is important to keep the fine model (the geology) characteristics. This
is done by keeping more of the layers separate. However, it will always
be a compromise between fewer cells and keeping the level of detail.
Exercise steps
1. Make sure the upscaled grid you created in the Pillar
gridding process is active (bold) by clicking on its name.
2. Double-click the Scale up structure process in the
Upscaling folder of the Processes pane.
3. Expand the Petrel RE 2010 model and click on Fine grid.

4. Click on the blue arrow in the Scale up structure process
dialog to insert this grid as the Input grid. When this is done,
the layering in the fine scale model is displayed in the lower
part of the window.
5. There are three zones in the input grid. We are going to specify
two zones in the coarse grid. Left-click on the symbol in front
of Zone 1, then click the Delete selected row button.
6. Rename the two remaining zones Top and Base, respectively.

7. Go to the Models pane, select the Top reservoir horizon
under the Horizons folder of the Fine grid, and drop it in as
the Top horizon of the zone Top.
8. Select proportional layering for both zones.
9. Select to use 5 layers in the Top zone, and 3 layers in the Base
zone.
10. Press OK to run the process.
11. Select to view the Edges of your Upscaled grid in a 3D
window to see the resulting layering. Save the project.
Grid quality check

Quality checking of the grid should be a continuous process during the
upscaling process. This includes checking the grid for cells with small
volume or with angles that deviate too much from 90 degrees.
Exercise steps
1. Activate the upscaled grid (make it bold). Petrel processes
apply to the highlighted grid, which may not necessarily be the
same as the one displayed in the 3D window.
2. In the Processes pane, open the Property modeling folder
and double-click on Geometrical modeling. The process
dialog header (at the top of the process dialog) shows which
3D grid you are working on.
3. Ensure Create new property is selected.
4. Use the drop-down list Select method to select the method
Cell Volume. Accept the default property template.
5. Click Apply. You now have a new property called Bulk

volume in the properties folder in your active 3D grid. The
property gives the bulk volume for each individual cell.
Right-click on the Bulk volume property, select Settings and
inspect the Statistics tab to check for negative/small cell
volumes.
6. Repeat the two steps above with Cell Angle and Cell Inside
Out as the method. Remember to select Create new
property each time and to select an appropriate template. The
Cell Angle property gives the deviation from angles of 90
degrees for each cell. If the Cell inside out property is
different from zero, the cell is twisted.
7. Examine the new properties located in the Properties folder
in a 3D window. You may need to reset the color scale. First
select to view the color legend by clicking the Show/hide
auto legend button in the top tool bar. Then, click on the
Adjust color table on selected button .

Using value filter
You can filter the grid on properties to see only cells with extreme
values for each of the geometrical properties.
Exercise steps
1. Display the Cell angle property in a 3D window.
2. To create a value filter, right-click the Cell angle property and
select Create 1D filters.
3. Use the sliders to make a filter where you only see the largest
values.
4. Click Apply.
5. Go to the Input pane. Note that you can turn the filter on and
off from the Filters folder. Save the project.

Lesson 3 – The Scale up properties process
Upscaling
Workflow
1. Coarsen the fine grid in the x- and y-direction
2. Make a vertical subdivision of the coarse grid
3. Quality check the resulting 3D grid (cell volumes, cell angles)
4. Sample properties from the fine grid into the coarse

Scale up properties
Select the property or the folder of
properties to scale up by left-
clicking in the Models pane.
Click the blue arrow in the Scale

up properties process dialog to
drop in the selected property.
You need to select the properties to scale up. You can select any
property from a Properties folder on the Models pane, not only from
the grid that was used for the structural upscaling. Multiple properties
can be scaled up in one run.

Scale up properties
Expand the fine grid inside the Scale up
properties process dialog.
You can scale up many properties in one go.
Once you have selected the properties to scale up, a folder for each
input grid is add to the process dialog. To access the settings for each
property, you need to expand the folder for the 3D grid, and then
left-click the property.
The coarse grid cells to populate can also be restricted by enabling the
Upscale to filtered cells only option. This will restrict upscaling to
those output grid cells, which are included in the currently active filter.

Scale up properties
Select algorithm for each property
Left-click one of the properties from the fine
grid to access the settings available.
An algorithm must be selected for each property. Left-click each of the

properties to make it active. Then, select an algorithm from the
drop-down menu.
For scalar properties there are three algorithms to select from:
Averaging (volume-weighted) – This algorithm computes an
average of the property value of the fine grid cells, using the volume of
each cell as weight.
Averaging (cell count) – This algorithm computes an average of the
property in the fine grid cells with the same weight on each input cell
no matter its size.
Summation – Computes the sum of the property value in all fine grid
cells that contribute to the value of a coarse cell. This method should
only be used to scale up volumes.
In addition to those three algorithms, there are two more available to
scale up permeability:
Directional averaging – Gives the user the possibility to use different
averaging methods in different axis directions.
Flow-based upscaling – This is an algorithm where a flow simulation
is run over all fine cells making out each coarse cell to estimate the
total permeability in each axis-direction of the coarse cell.
Scale up properties
Several methods available for each algorithm
Averaging methods
For all continuous properties, select between the methods:
• Arithmetic mean - Used for additive properties such as
1 n
porosity, saturation, and net/gross. x a = ∑ xi
n i =1
• Geometric mean – Normally a good estimate for permeability.
It is sensitive to lower values: x g = n ∏ in=1 xi
• Harmonic mean – Gives the effective vertical permeability if

the reservoir is layered with constant value in each layer. It is

n
sensitive to lower values: x h =
∑ 1
n
i =1 xi .
1 n 2
• RMS (quadratic mean) -
xr = ∑ xi
n i =1 .
• Minimum – selects the lowest value.

• Maximum – select the highest value.
• Power – The user must specify the power ‘p’. If p=-1, this
method is equal to harmonic mean, if p=2 it is equal to RMS.
1 n p
xr = p
∑ xi
n i =1
For discrete properties, the choice of algorithms is different:

• Most of. Assigns the value that occurs the largest number of
times.
• Minimum. Assigns the minimum value.
• Maximum. Assigns the maximum value.
• Arithmetic. Computes the arithmetic mean.

Algorithm
Permeability – directional averaging
Input: Specify each of the input
components. Those can all be the same.
Output: Three permeability components.
Directional averaging methods for permeability

Permeability is different from other grid properties in the way that the
value in a cell is dependent on the value in neighboring cells. Therefore,
there are more methods available for permeability than for other
properties.
• Arithmetic-harmonic – for each coarse grid cell, the fine cells
in each plane perpendicular to one of the axis direction are
arithmetically averaged to give an approximate permeability
for that plane. The plane permeabilities are then harmonically
averaged to give the permeability for the coarse grid cell in
that axis direction. This is repeated for each of the I, J and K
directions to produce the three different output permeability
properties.
• Harmonic-arithmetic – This method works in the same manner,
only in this case the harmonic averaging is computed first, then
arithmetic.
• There is also Arithmetic-Power, and Power arithmetic. These
methods work as the two methods explained above, only
power averaging is used instead of harmonic.
Note that harmonic mean gives more cells with low values than
arithmetic mean does. Therefore, harmonic mean is commonly used to
upscale permeability for which it is important to capture cells with low
values.
Exercises – Scale up properties

In the previous exercise, you completed the 3D grid. In this exercise,
you are going to sample properties from the fine grid into the coarse
grid. To do so, you need to instruct Petrel on which fine grid to sample
properties from. You also need to specify which properties to re-sample
and by which upscaling method. There are several averaging methods
available in Petrel. Each method gives you a slightly different result. For
instance, a harmonic mean puts more weight on small values than an
arithmetic mean does. Flow based upscaling will assign permeability in
the upscaled grid that reflects the flow in the fine grid.
Finally, you must tell Petrel which of the layers in the fine grid should
contribute to each of the layers in the coarse grid.
Exercise Workflow
• Select which grid to sample properties from
• Specify which layers in the fine grid should contribute to each
of the coarse grid layers when properties are upscaled
• Select which properties to scale up and by which method
• Quality check the results
Exercise Data
In this exercise, continue to use the dataset from the previous exercise.
Scale up properties
Exercise steps
1. Make sure the Upscaled[U] 3D grid you created is active
(bold).
2. Open the Scale up properties process which is located
under Upscaling in the Processes pane.
3. You need to specify which properties to scale up. Select
Permeability and Porosity from the Properties folder of
Fine grid in the Models pane and drop them into the process
dialog by clicking the blue arrow.
4. Select the Porosity property by left-clicking it.

5. Use Averaging (volume weighted) as algorithm.
6. Select Arithmetic as Method.

7. Left-click the permeability property, and select to use
Directional averaging as algorithm.
8. Select Arithmetic-Harmonic as the averaging method.
9. Notice that the permeability property has now turned into a

folder in the list in the process dialog. Expand the folder.
10. Select either of the components of Permeability by left-

clicking it.
11. Select the correct input for each of the permeability
components. Use Permeability for the I- and J-direction and
PermK for the K-direction.

12. Click OK to scale up permeability and porosity.
Apply different methods

Exercise steps
1. Open the Scale up properties process again.
2. Notice how the settings for the properties that you have
already upscaled are preserved and listed in the process
dialog.
3. Also, notice how the Calculate setting is deselected. This
means that as you add new properties to the dialog and click
Apply, only the new ones will be computed.
4. Select Permeability and Facies from the Fine grid on the
Models pane and drop them into the process dialog.
5. Left-click on the Permeability property that you just added to

the process dialog.
6. Select to use Averaging (volume weighted) as the
algorithm, and Harmonic as the Averaging method.
7. Enter a name for the new permeability property.

8. Left-click the Facies property.
9. Select to use Averaging (volume weighted) as algorithm,
and Most of as Averaging method.
10. Click OK to scale up the properties.
Review the upscaled properties

Exercise steps
1. Open a function window.
2. Select Permeability_I (arithmetic-harmonic) and Perm_

harmonic (harmonic). Harmonic average will usually honor the
lower values more than arithmetic-harmonic. Observe this
trend in your plot.
3. Open a histogram window and select to view the upscaled
permeability properties along with the fine grid property.

4. When you work with histograms, note that you can toggle
between comparing the number of cells or percentage of cells
by clicking the Use percentage in Y-axis button in the
function bar. It is useful to compare percentage of cells when
you compare values from the fine grid with values in the
coarse grid.
5. Also you can select to volume weight the cells you are viewing
by pressing the Weight histogram with volume button .
Review upscaled properties in a 3D window

Exercise steps
1. Open a 3D window.
2. Select to view the facies property on your upscaled grid.
3. Click the Multi-value probe mode button in the function You can make a CDF
-curve (cumulative
bar. distribution function - curve)
4. In the dialog that opens, drop in porosity from both your fine by pressing the Show
and your upscaled grid along with the facies property from cdf-curve icon or you
your upscaled grid. can display a line between
the histogram bars by
5. Left-click both in the channel and floodplain cells and compare pressing the Show lines
porosity values. between the columns icon
. Both tools are in the
Function bar.

Summary
In this module we have upscaled a model from geological scale to a
simulation grid. First, we did the coarsening in the horizontal direction
using the Pillar gridding process. Next, we specified the layering of
the coarse model using the fine grid layers as input. Using
Geometrical modeling, we checked the coarse grid for poorly shaped
and small cells. Finally, properties were scaled up to the coarse grid
from the fine grid.

Module 6 - Local grid
refinements and Aquifers
Introduction
In this module, you will learn how to add local grid refinements and
aquifers to your simulation model. Aquifers are used to model the
pressure support from water or gas on the edge of a model. In Petrel,
such processes are modeled using the Make aquifer process. It is
useful to refine the grid in areas of fast flow, and this feature is
available through the Make local grids process.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of Petrel is required for this module.
Learning Objectives
In this module, you will learn how to:
• Add local grid refinements
• Model aquifers

Reservoir Engineering Local grid refinements and Aquifers • 179

Lesson 1– Local grid refinements
Local grid refinements
To better model fluid flow behavior, local grid refinements allow for a
finer resolution of parts of the 3D grid. Transmissibility between the
local grids and the global model are computed automatically by
ECLIPSE/FrontSim. The properties of the cells in the refined grid cells
can be inherited from the global grid or specified explicitly for the
refined cells.
The Make local grids process is available from the Corner point
gridding folder in the Processes pane. Local grids are defined using
wells, surfaces, and polygons as input.
180 • Local grid refinements and Aquifers Reservoir Engineering

Local Grid Refinements
Choose to create a new LGR set or

edit an existing LGR set.
A set contains a number of local

grids.
Each set is stored as a folder on

the Models pane.
The areas that should be refined can be selected using:

Wells: You must specify a radius. All cells that have their center closer
to a well than the specified radius are refined.
Polygons: Petrel computes the vertical Z-projection of the polygon with
the host grid and selects all of the cells in the uppermost layer whose
centers lie within the polygon. The polygon must be closed. This set of
cells is then projected down through the layers (K-index) to produce a
cell set.
Surfaces: When surfaces are used as input to the Make local grids
process, the cells that are refined are found by examining the distances
between the cell-centers and the surface in a direction normal to the
surface and around the edges. If the distance is less than the source
influence distance, the host cell is added to the set.

Specify host cells from sources
Host cells
Select the sources:
Wells: Make a refinement around the
well.
Polygons: Make a refinement inside
the polygon.
Surfaces: Make refinements above or
below.
Click the blue arrow to add sources to

the gridding process.
Refinement Method
Select a source or folder of sources in the
source list, and then select refinement
method.
Cartesian : Give number of fine cells inside

each coarse cell
Cartesian Gradual : The coarse cells are
refined gradually. Finest resolution in the
middle. Give number of levels.
Illustration: Cartesian gradual refinement

with 2 levels.

Cartesian Nx,Ny,Nz: You specify the number of subdivisions required
in each grid direction (Nx, Ny, Nz) and each host cell in the host cell set
is sub-divided equally.
Cartesian Dx,Dy,Dz: You specify the maximum size of the subdivisions
required in each grid direction (Dx, Dy, Dz). Each host cell in the host
cell set is sub-divided equally using the closest value to that requested.
Cartesian Gradual Nx,Ny,Nz: Similar to the Cartesian Nx,Ny,Nz
method, except that Petrel gradually increases the refinement degree
towards the local-grid source over a number of levels specified in
Levels. The parameters Nx, Ny, Nz thus represent the target number of
subdivisions (in each grid direction) within the highest-refinement level
(i.e., closest to the source). The method is available when surfaces or
wells are given as input.
Cartesian Gradual Dx,Dy,Dz: Similar to the Cartesian Dx,Dy,Dz
method except that Petrel gradually increases the refinement degree
towards the local-grid source over a number of levels specified in
Levels.
Set source parameters

Select a source or folder of sources in the
source pane, and then set the selection
parameters.
Zone and Segment filters: Limit the

refinements to some zones/segments.
Grid separate zones: Creates a separate
local grid in each zone.
Source influence distance: Distance from
well or surface that is refined.
Click the Display host cells button to see

the cells in the 3D viewer that will be selected
for local gridding.

Zone filter: You can select which zones should be included for grid
refinement. This selection is also used when Grid separate zones is
selected. Similarly, you can use the Segment filter to only generate
grid refinements inside some of the segments.
Grid separate zones: Non-gradual refinement methods only. Select
this if you want to create separate local grid sets for each zone.
Use active filter: Select this if you want to restrict the local grids to
the host grid cells that are currently displayed.
Extending host cell along I, J, K

The local grid can be made more or
less regular in shape by extending it No extension
along the I, J, or K direction
An extended grid may have:

• Fewer surface cells – thus, fewer
connections to the coarse grid.
Less work for the simulator. Extended in K
• More cells in it – the more cells,
the more work for the simulator
When local grids are exported to the ECLIPSE simulators, they are
decomposed into cuboids (in I,J,K). You can reduce the number of
cuboids by extending a host cell set in any, or all of the I, J or K grid
directions. This will generate larger host cell sets, but fewer cuboids in
their decompositions. You must choose between these issues so that it
generates an acceptable simulation.

Grid to well connections
Only cells with connections are refined
Choose this option for a selected well if you want to restrict the active
source to open well–grid connections only (for example, perforations
and open-hole sections).

Set different parameters for different sources
By default, cell selection and

gridding parameters are the same
for all sources.
To change settings:
• Select a source
The source panel displays a
• Deselect Use default summary of the parameters for
• Specify individual settings each source.

The two images above illustrate that a local grid cell gets the same
property value as the coarse cell. This does not apply for geometrical
properties such as cell volume or cell angle.
Upscale properties
If the Use property filter option
is on, Petrel will only upscale
onto the grids that are visible.
• Select property in the fine grid

• Display only the local grid
• Use property filter
• Deselect Ensure all cells get values
You can use the Scale up properties process to scale up a property

onto the local grid set. To do so:
• Display a property in a 3D window
• In the Models pane, deselect to view the Global grid so that
only the local grid set is displayed
• Open the Scale up properties process and select which of
the fine grid properties to scale up
• Select Use property filter and deselect Ensure value in all
cells

Grid coarsening
1. Use polygon
2. Select generation method – Coarsen
3. Specify settings
Cells can be amalgamated to reduce the total number of active cells in

the global grid. Coarsening sets must not overlap one another, but they
can be joined together.
Local grid refinements cannot be placed within or adjacent to a grid
coarsening; that is, the local grids can only be applied to non-coarsened
cells.
Petrel sends the original fine model to the simulator together with the
generated geometry for grid coarsening (COARSEN keywords).

LGR - Export
1. Make the local grid set active (bold)
by clicking on its name.
2. Right click the global grid set and
select Export…
By default, properties do not get exported

with LGRs. ECLIPSE will apply host cell
properties to LGRs.
To export a local grid set, it must be highlighted (bold). It is not

necessary to display the local grid set.
Local grid properties are not exported explicitly; ECLIPSE will read the
local grid keywords and apply the host cell properties.
The export formats that support local grid refinements are:
• Open Petrel Format (OPF) (Binary)
• GSG (Generic Simulation Grid)
• ECLIPSE Grid keywords (grdecl) (ASCII)
• VIP Grid keywords (grdecl) (ASCII)
The CARFIN keyword is exported to set up a Cartesian local grid

refinement. It specifies a cell or a box of cells identified by its global
grid coordinates I1-I2, J1-J2, K1-K2 to be replaced by refined cells. The
dimensions of the refined grid within this box are specified as NX, NY,
NZ.

Exercises– Local grid refinements
Local grid refinements allow for a finer grid resolution near wells or in a
region to better model fluid flow behavior. The Petrel workflow permits
you to create local grid sets inside polygons, around wells, and close to
a surface. The Define simulation case process only allows you to
include one Local grid set, so all local grids required for the simulation
need to be within this set. You can return to the Make local grids
process and add or remove local grid definitions as required.
Exercise Workflow
• Import a polygon
• Make a local grid set
• Inspect the local grid set
• Optional – Upscale property to the refined grid
Exercise Data
In the following exercise, we will continue with the project we made in
the previous exercises. Or you can use backup project Module_5_
Completed.pet.
Import a polygon
Exercise steps
1. Right-click in the Input pane and select Import(on tree) and
import the file ImportData>Local grid>LGRpolygon. Make sure
the file type General lines/points (ASCII) is selected.
2. Click OK in the dialog.
3. In the Input data dialog: select Generic boundary polygon
as Line type, then click OK. The polygon appears at the
Make a local grid set

Exercise steps
1. Activate your upscaled 3D grid.
2. Expand the Corner point gridding folder in the Processes
pane.
3. Double-click on the Make local grids process.
4. Make sure Create new is selected.
5. In the Input pane, expand the Wells folder, then expand the
Producers folder. Select the wells P03, P04, and P05 and drop
them into the process dialog by clicking the blue arrow .
6. Click the polygon you imported (in the Input pane) and drop it
into the process dialog by clicking the blue arrow .
7. Select the Polygons folder in the Make local grids process
dialog.
8. Select the method Cartesian Dx, Dy, Dz and set Dx/Dy to
100. Set Dz to 10.
9. Select the Wells folder in the Make local grids process
dialog. Select the Cartesian Gradual Nx, Ny, Nz method.
10. Enter a refinement of 3x3x1 and type in 2 Levels for the wells.
11. Select a Source influence distance of 600.

12. Open a 3D window and display the wells, the polygon you
imported, and the porosity property from the upscaled grid.
Select to show the grid lines by clicking the Show/hide grid
lines button in the function bar.
13. Press the Display host cells button in the
process dialog. The grid cells that will be refined are displayed
in the 3D window.
14. Increase the Well influence radius to 800 and click on Display
host cells again to see the effect.
15. You do not create any refinements until you clcik Apply or OK.
You can continue to experiment with the settings.
16. Select well P05 in the Source name list of the process dialog
and then deselect the Use default check box. Now, you can
adjust the settings for this particular oil producer. Change the
method to Cartesian Nx, Ny, Nz and the Source influence
distance to 500.
17. Click OK to generate the local grid set.
Inspect the local grid set

Exercise steps
1. In the Models pane, under the active 3D grid, you will now
have a folder called Local grids.
The local grids have 2. Expand the Local grids folder. Right-click on Local grid set 1
a yellow tick box. This means and select Settings. Change the name on the Info tab to
they can be used as a filter in
Petrel similar to the Zone,
Wells and Polygon.
Fault and Segment filters 3. Click on different properties in the model; note that the local
under the 3D grid. The filter grids have inherited the host cell properties, with the exception
can also be used with the
Property calculator. of geometric properties and simulation results. Geometrical
properties must be computed for the local grid cells, and
simulated properties are only available if the simulation was
run with local grid refinements.
Normally, when you are using the Property calculator, turn off any
local grids under the active grid or turn off the Use filter option in the
Property calculator. Local grid cells will then inherit the properties
from host cells. The local grid cells will display a grey color if they have
not inherited the host cell properties (which is the case if they have
been included in the filter settings in some way).
Upscale property – Optional

In this exercise, you will upscale a property onto the local grid that you
have created without re-upscaling the entire grid. As a result, any
corrections that may have been made to the global grid will not be
changed by this new upscaling run. It is always wise to make a copy of
the properties you intend to update.
Exercise steps
1. Click on the porosity property in the Properties folder of your
coarse (upscaled) grid, then use the copy and paste
functionality on the toolbar.
2. Give the new porosity property the name Porosity_lgr.
3. Ensure the property Porosity_lgr is displayed in the 3D
window.
4. Deselect to view the Global grid under the Local grids
folder.
5. To scale up the porosity to the local grids, open the Scale up
properties process under Upscaling.
6. Left-click the Fine grid in the process dialog.
7. In the Target cells part of the dialog, select the check box in
front of Upscale to filtered cells only.
8. Left-click the Porosity property in the process dialog.

9. Select Porosity_lgr from the Edit existing drop-down menu.
10. Make sure that Calculate is selected for Porosity_lgr and

that Ensure all cells get value is deselected.
11. For all the other properties make sure Calculate is deselected.
(See tool-tip for more information).
If you do not want to

upscale all of the properties
from the fine grid to the local
grid (for example, you only
want the Porosity to be
upscaled) be sure that No is
selected in the “Calculate”
column of the Scale up
properties dialog. In this
case, you will upscale only
the Porosity. Compare both
of the porosity properties by 12. Click OK to scale up porosity to the local grid cells.
toggling between them. The 13. When the process is completed, select the check box in front
only difference should be of the Global grid in the Local grids folder on the Models
between the properties on
the local grids. pane.
Lesson 2 – Aquifers
The illustration shows cells that are connected to an aquifer. In this

case, the aquifer is placed underneath the reservoir and along the grid Make a folder of
edges to simulate pressure support from water. aquifers in order to use
multiple aquifers in the
simulation run. The Define
simulation case process
has only one place for
aquifer input.

Make aquifer
Choose to create a new aquifer or edit an
existing aquifer.
Select type of aquifer model

• Numerical
• Carter Tracy
• Fetkovich
• Constant flux
• Constant pressure gas
• Constant pressure/head water
• Rainfall
Each aquifer model is stored in the

Aquifers folder on the Models pane
under the parent grid.
The Make aquifer process is located under Simulation in the

Processes pane.

Connections
Select model.
Enter area of interest:

Use the Make/edit polygons
process to define the boundary
polygon.
First, specify which model to use. Then, specify the area that should be
influenced by the aquifer. This is done by supplying a closed polygon.
The polygon can be made using the Make/edit polygons process.
You can drop in multiple polygons defining the connection areas of
interest. Each of the polygons have individual settings for creating a
unique drive direction for each area of interest.

Independent polygon areas and drive direction
Use the compass to define drive Fault edges

directions, the connections the connection
aquifer will have to the grid.
The direction of the aquifer can be:

• Top down
• Bottom up Bottom up
• Grid edges connection
• Fault edges
After the area of interest is specified, you must select the drive
direction and the vertical extent.
If Bottom up is selected, the aquifer is connected to the bottom edge
at the bottom of the reservoir for all cells within the area of interest. In
addition, it is possible to specify the vertical extent.

Use the compass to specify which cells should be connected to the
aquifer.
Aquifer modeling
Numerical
Numerical aquifer - A set of cells in the

simulation grid is used to represent the aquifer.
Their position in the model is irrelevant.
The properties of the aquifer grid cells are set on

the Cell settings tab. Hence the properties of an
aquifer grid cell is independent of its actual
position in the grid.
E.g., when Number of cells is 2 - the aquifer is

modeled using two grid cells.
Numerical aquifers do not connect to local grid

cells.

You can select to use between one to five cells to model a numerical
aquifer. To be able to include a numerical aquifer, Petrel needs the same
number of grid cells that are undefined (for example, outside the grid) or
have zero volume, porosity, or ACTNUM value. These cells cannot be
part of a local grid set.
The properties of the aquifer grid cells are set on the Cell settings tab,
hence, the properties of the grid cells that are used to model the aquifer
do not depend on the position those cells have in the 3D grid.
If the numerical aquifer is modeled using one cell, it is the properties of
this single cell that is used to represent the aquifer. All cells with a
connection to the aquifer is consequently given boundary conditions
depending on those properties. If more than one cell is used, all cells
with connections to the aquifer are given boundary conditions using the
properties of aquifer cell number one, while aquifer cell number one is
attached to aquifer cell number two, and so on.

Fetkovich aquifers can effectively represent a wide range of aquifer
types from the steady state infinite aquifer which provides constant
pressure support to the “pot” aquifer, which is small compared to the
reservoir and whose behavior is determined by the reservoir influx.
The aquifer properties (compressibility, porosity, initial pressure, depth,
productivity index etc.) are set on the Properties tab, and the aquifer
connections to one or more faces of the reservoir are specified on the
Connections tab.
The Carter Tracy aquifer model is a simplified approximation to time

dependent model.
The influence function of a Carter Tracy model is given as tables of
dimensionless time versus a dimensionless pressure, hence, this
aquifer model can be used to model changes in pressure with time. The
default table models an infinite aquifer with constant terminal rate as
given by van Everdingen and Hurst. To supply alternative tables, use
Import (on selection) or Create new function and drop it into
Properties tab of the Carter Tracy model.
Make aquifer
Properties tab
Required input depends
on the selected aquifer
model.
The different aquifer models require different input. Refer to the Online
Help manual for details.
Exercises – Aquifers
In this exercise, we will add an aquifer to see whether a better match
can be achieved.
Exercise Workflow
• Use the Make/edit polygons process to draw a polygon that
specifies the area that is influenced by the aquifer
• Use the Make aquifer process to add an aquifer to the model
Exercise Data

Add an aquifer
Exercise steps
1. Open a 2D window and display one of the horizons along with
the faults of your upscaled grid from the Models pane.
2. Activate the Make/edit polygons process from Utilities
folder in the Processes pane.
3. Use the Start new set of polygons (deactivate old) tool
. Draw a polygon which encloses the eastern part of the
model. Use the Close selected polygon tool to close the
polygon.
4. The new polygon is stored on the Input pane. Rename it to

Aquifer boundary.
5. Make sure the Upscaled grid is active on the Models pane.
6. Go to the Processes pane, and open the Make aquifer
process located under Simulation.
7. Select Create a new aquifer, and define aquifer model:
Carter Tracy.
8. Rename Aquifer 1 to Carter Tracy.
9. In the Connections tab, select the Aquifer boundary
polygon on the Input pane, and drop it into the Area of
interest field by clicking the blue arrow .
10. Select Grid edges as Drive direction. Make the compass
connecting to the cell faces from all directions.
11. Under Vertical extent, select a Top limit of -2600 m (the

oil-water contact).
12. Go to the Properties tab, and then select the fluid model
Light oil + gas from the Input pane. Drop it into the process
dialog using the blue arrow.
13. Type in a datum of -1600 m.
14. Click OK to save the aquifer model, leave the dialog open.
15. Display the grid in a 3D window now.

16. Go to the Models pane, you will find newly created aquifer
under the Upscaled grid > Aquifer folder. Toggle the new
aquifer on. The cell faces connected to the aquifer are
displayed in the 3D Window.
17. Now go back to the Make aquifer process, and deselect the
directions between E and S in the compass (see picture
below), then click Apply. Only the cell faces in the greyed
parts of the compass are taken into account for the aquifer
connection. This allows you to filter out the unwished aquifer
cell connections.

Summary
The Make aquifer process was used to model the presence of water
at the edge of the reservoir. How to use The Make local grids
process, which allows you to refine the simulation grid, was also
demonstrated.

Module 7 - History
development strategies
Introduction
In this module, you will learn how to set up a development strategy
based on imported observed data. We will also look at how to import
the historically observed production data.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of Petrel is required.
Learning Objectives
• Import observed data
• View observed data in a function window
• Make a history strategy
• View line data
• Optional: Use the History match analysis tool to view results
Reservoir Engineering History development strategies • 207

Lesson 1 – History development strategies
Development strategies describe to the simulator how a field will be
developed – that is, which wells will produce or inject, at what rates
and pressures they will flow in, what operations will be carried out on
the wells over time, and so forth.
Development strategies make it easy to keep track of how the control
of a field evolves with time. For example, as new wells are drilled, the
target field rates change, wells are converted from producer to injector,
new platforms and manifolds are added and so on.
Furthermore, development strategies make it easy to apply the same
constraint to many wells by using well folders or different values of a
particular constraint to individual wells.
The simulation is normally run in two phases: history match and

prediction.
By using the history match we try to match actual production history
with the simulated history. We use geological, geophysical and
petrophysical input to build a reservoir description, and from those, we
build a simulation model.
Next, we import actual production and pressure information, run the
model, and compare the simulated results with the actual history.
208 • History development strategies Reservoir Engineering
Sensitivity runs are used to identify which properties have the greatest
effect on the simulation results.
This loop can be run
Tuning runs are used to modify the properties of the model to improve many times.
the match between simulated results and the actual production history.
When we have an acceptable match, we switch to prediction mode.
This is where we use our calibrated model to predict the production
response to new wells, new recovery techniques or changes to existing
well operations.
The focus of this lesson is History strategies.
History-Prediction
History:
• Done to validate the
model against history
• Use observed rates as
well control data
• Use historic events;
dates for perforations
Prediction:
• Used to predict future
behavior
• Give the rates or
pressures that the wells
should be operated at
forward in time
The *.vol format is

The simulator needs the well paths (deviation surveys) in order to know the format Petrel reads when
where the wells are located in the simulation model. loading historical production/
injection data. For simulation
The well bore history is a record of the location and dates of results or historical data, the
export is on the Results
perforations, squeezes, plugs, hydraulic fractures, etc. Normally, this pane. You can export
information is put into an events file that is read into Petrel. simulated or historical data
from an imported or existing
The production history, or “vol file”, can be exported from OFM or Finder simulation case as well as
and imported into Petrel. imported observed data in
the *.vol format.

Import observed data
Observed data are imported
using the Well observed data Match the well name in the file
format to wells in your project
To import Observed data (historical data), right-click the Global

observed data folder and select Import (on selection). Select the
Well observed data file format. The imported data can be used in the
Make development strategy process.

Go to the Data tab to match

properties on file with a
property identifier in Petrel
On the Data tab, you need to specify the type of data in each of the
columns of the file you are importing. In the illustration, column three
contains the bottom hole pressure (BHP).

Once the observed data vectors are imported, they can be viewed in a
function window. To display observed data, you must select a vector (for
example, oil rate), a well, and the observed dataset on the Results
pane.
User interface
To make a history strategy, you can use the default strategies as a

starting point and then add the features (rules) needed.

Use defaults
A history strategy
Two rules are added:

• Reporting frequency
• History rate control
To create a history strategy using the Use presets button:

1. Make sure that you have loaded the necessary data into the
project – wells, completion events and observed data.
2. Open the Make development strategy process.
3. In the dialog, click on the Use defaults button and select
History strategy from the drop-down menu.
The history strategy you just made contains:
• The start and end dates from the first observed data in the
project. These are shown in the strategy tree.
• All the wells in the project. Do not worry if some of them did
not produce or inject in the history – this will be detected on
export to the simulator and the wells are ignored. The wells
are all added to the default group. If you want group reporting,
you will need to reorganize them.
• The history rate control rule has been set up with the
recommended defaults for history matching. If needed, change
these in the Rules table. This refers to the first observed data
set found in the project. If you have multiple observed data
sets, and want to use a different one, simply drop the required
set into the rule.
• The report frequency rule has been set to monthly reports, as it
is the most common choice; however, this can be changed.
History strategy
Edit default rules
Drop in the
observed
data
Edit control
modes
Selecting Oil here, will

make oil the target
rate for the simulation
Edit time
stepping

In between control changes, regular reports can be output from the
simulator by changing the settings in the reporting frequency rule. By
default, this is added to the first date of every strategy. However, it can
be removed and can be copied to later dates if you want to change the
settings, for example, to report yearly in the early part of a history
match, and monthly in the most recent year.
Plot the observed data versus the development strategy in a function

window.

Data averaging
Imported data is often densly

sampled.
The data is averaged within the
report step in the Development
strategy.
The imported data is averaged over the report step length selected in
the Make development strategy process. Plot the observed data and
the development strategy to see how the averaged data matches the
observed data.
Define a history case
Drop the strategy into the Strategies tab

of the Define simulation case process
dialog.

Go to the Strategies tab of the Define simulation case process to
drop in a development strategy. Multiple strategies can be inserted by
first adding a row to the table.
Exercises - Make a history development strategy
Exercise Workflow
• Import observed data
• View the imported data
• Make a history development strategy
• View the development strategy data
• Define a simulation case
Exercise Data

In this exercise, you will import observed production and injection data
for the wells in the project.
Exercise steps
1. Right-click the Global observed data folder under the Wells
folder in the Input pane and select Import (on selection).
2. In the dialog that opens, select the file ImportData>Well_
Engineering>HistoryInj.vol then click Open.
3. In the Import observed data dialog that opens, make sure the
well names in the file matches the correct well in your project.
4. Go to the Data tab.
5. Check that the Column number is correct for the data you are
importing and that an appropriate Property identifier is
selected.

6. After you have selected a Property identifier for all the
vectors you are importing, make sure that you select Create
new in the Global observed data column to add a subject to
the Global observed data folder.
7. Click OK to import the observed water injection data.
8. Right-click the Global observed data folder under the Wells
folder again and select Import (on selection).
9. In the dialog that opens, select the file ImportData>Well_
Engineering>HistoryProd.vol to import the production data
then click Open.
10. In the Import observed data dialog that opens, select the
Merge with radio button to make one observed data set
containing both injection and production data.
11. Go to the Data tab.
12. Again, check that the Column numbers and the Property
identifier are correct.
13. Observe that the bottom hole pressure is attached to the
existing Global observed data subject. Click OK to import.

Exercise steps - Visualize the observed data
2. Go to the Results pane, expand the Results folder and then
the Dynamic results data folder. Expand the Source data
type folder. Select the check box in front of Observed data.
3. Expand the Identifier folder and then the Wells folder to see
all of the wells. Select to view well P04.
4. Select the check box in front of Oil production rate in the
Rates folder along with Bottom hole pressure in the
Pressures folder. Leave the Function window open.

Make a history development strategy
In this exercise, you will create a history strategy using the Make
development strategy process. You will see that the process
automatically selects the imported observed dataset you imported.
Exercise steps
1. Expand the Simulation folder in the Processes pane and
open the Make development strategy process.
2. Select Create new development strategy.

3. Click the Use presets button, and select History strategy
from the drop-down menu.
4. Name the new strategy History.
5. On the Strategy tree, set the start date and the end date for
simulation, 2005-02-01 and 2009-02-01, respectively.
6. Find the Rules folder in the Strategy tree (the left pane of the
Make development strategy process dialog) and click the
History rate control (Wells folder) rule. Note that the
observed data set and the wells have been inserted
automatically.
7. Make sure the Production control mode is set to Reservoir
volume.
For the Reporting frequency rule, leave the report frequency to the
All dates are entered default every (1) month.
in the format YYYY-MM-DD,
as recommended by the SPE
standard.

8. To save the history development strategy, click OK.
9. You will find the new Development strategies folder at the
View the development strategy data

In this exercise, we will examine and compare the history development
strategy to the observed data in a function window.
Exercise steps
1. Return to the function window and make sure you have
selected the following from the Results pane: well P04, Oil
production rate, and the Observed data.
2. Add Development strategies in the Source data type
folder to view in the window. You should now see your
development strategy data and your observed data. Since they
both are monthly, there should be no difference.
3. Reopen the Make development strategy process, and
change the Reporting frequency rule to every three months
and click OK. You can now see a difference between the
averaged development strategy data and the observed data.

Add a rule to limit the production pressures
It is possible to add a rule to the history strategy to limit the allowed
bottom hole pressures.
Exercise steps
2. Select your History strategy in the Edit existing
development strategy drop-down menu.
3. Click the Open ‘Add rules’ dialog button .
4. In the dialog that opens, left-click the History pressure limit
rule, then click Add rule.
5. Use the arrow to drop the Wells Folder from the strategy
tree (not from the Input pane) into the new rule. Enter a
Minimum production BHP limit of 110 bar and a Maximum
injection BHP limit of 380 bar.
6. Click OK to save the changes and to close the dialog.

Define and run simulation cases
In this exercise, we will define and run simulation cases using the A message log will
history development strategy we just created. We start by running a be shown while the
simulation is running.
case on the simple 3D grid that we initialized earlier. Information on completion
Exercise steps thresholds is printed on the
message log. The completion
1. Open the Define simulation case process and select to edit threshold can be changed in
the Simple case. the Settings for global
completions. This will be
2. Open the Strategies tab, and add a line to the table by covered in the chapter on
clicking the Append item in the table button . Drop in the completions.
History development strategy that you just made by selecting
it in the Input pane and clicking the blue arrow.
3. Click Apply to save the changes and then Run to run the case.
We will now define and run a case based on the Upscaled 3D grid that
we made in the upscaling exercises.
Exercise steps
1. Open the Define simulation case process and select to
create new case and give it name, Basic.
2. Change the grid from Simple to Upscaled. Make sure the
Simulator is set to ECLIPSE 100.
3. Go to the Grid tab. Make sure you insert the properties you
want to use for simulation. Expand Upscaled grid [U] under
Models pane. Open the Properties folder and drop
Permeability and Porosity into the Grid tab. To be able to
use the blue arrow, you have to select the check box in front of
it .

4. Go to the Advanced tab. Make sure GRDECL export format is
Five types of selected on the Advanced grid sub-tab. (See tool tip for more
geometry files can be information). Click Apply to save the changes.
created for simulation:
5. You are now ready to run your simulation case. Click Run.
.OPF – most flexible, incl.
curved faults, binary
.GRID – incl. curved faults, Exercise steps
binary
.EGRID – straight line faults, In this exercise we will create a case, which include local grid
binary refinements.
.GRDECL – straight line 1. Open the Define simulation case process and select to
faults, ASCII
.GSG – incl. curved faults,
create new case and give it name: NoAquifer.
binary
2. Go to the Grid tab. Drop in the local grid set (Wells and
Polygon) from the Models pane.
3. Click Apply to save the changes, and Run to run the case.
Next, you will define a simulation case where an aquifer is used in
addition to the local grid refinements.
Exercise steps
1. Open the Define simulation case process.
2. Select the case NoAquifer that you made in the previous
exercise from the drop-down menu.
3. Select Create new case, and name the new case Aquifer.
Note that all settings from your case are preserved.
4. Go to the Grid tab. Add a row to the table .
5. Use the drop-down menu to select Aquifer. It is located at the
bottom of the list.
6. Select the Aquifer (Carter Tracy) from the Models pane and
drop it into the process dialog.
7. Click Apply to save the changes and Run to run the case.
The next lesson will focus on viewing line data.
Lesson 2 – Plotting data
Plotting data
Open a New function
window
• Select line data and
identifier from the Results
pane
• Select case from the Cases
pane
To display simulation results in a Function window, you need to make a

selection of Vectors (rates, ratios, pressure) and Identifiers (Field or
some of the wells) from the Results pane, and afterwards, select one
or more cases from the Cases pane.
The Results pane contains results from volume calculations,
simulations, and history matching runs.

Function window - settings
Customize plot display
1. Go to the settings
for Function 1 (of
Function
window 1) in the
Windows pane
or,
double-click on a
line.
2. Adjust settings
under the Plot tab.
Line Styles – Color, Width and Type

Petrel is set up to help you color the lines in an informative manner. You
can select to colour the lines from the Settings panel of the function
viewport. To access the settings, double-click on the line you are
plotting in the function window or navigate to the settings of the
function viewport in the Windows pane.
The settings for the axis, the header, and legend are contained on the
tabs of the dashboard as well as the Plot tab which displays the style
settings for the lines plotted.
Please, refer to the online help documentation for details.

Function window - settings
Customize axis display
Adjust settings in the Axis
tab to get the desired plot
layout.
Navigate to the Axis sub-tab of the Settings dialog of the function

viewport to change the appearance of the axis. Here, you can specify
the size of the annotations, the number of ticks, and axis labels.
Similarly, you can open the settings for the Header or the Legend and
do your edits.

Results pane
Categorize results
Use the Reset categorize to get
Right-click on Dynamic data and
back to the default configuration.
select Categorize results.
The Results pane can be organized in different ways. Right-click the

Dynamic data folder and select Categorize results to change to
another layout. Select the Categorize results option again. This will
sort the data by phase.

Results pane
Filter results
Right-click a vector, an identifier or a source
type and select Filter results tree. Now, only
data relevant to your selection is shown.
Right-click the Dynamic data folder and

select Cancel tree filter to cancel the
filter.
The Results pane can contain a large number of vectors. If you only
want to list vectors that contain data for a specific well or a particular
simulation case you can right-click this subject and select Filter
results tree.

Results pane
Export simulation results
Select :
• Result vectors
• Identifiers
• Case
Right-click the Dynamic data folder and select Export to export line
vectors. In the Export dialog that opens, you must specify a file name
and format. The only format available is Petrel Summary Data where
the columns are separated by tabs.
In the next dialog that opens, you can make a selection of result
vectors, identifiers, and cases for export.

Plot window
A plot window can be used to
combine several view-ports.
A plot window is opened by selecting New plot window under

Window on the menu bar.
Use the New object in window tool to add new view-ports. You
can combine several view-ports of the same type, or as in the
illustration, you can combine different types.

Well section window
You can display a simulated

property (such as oil
saturation) through time for a
selected well.
If you hold your mouse over a

well section, the value of that
property will appear.
3D Viewing
Summary data
1. Display relevant wells from the Input pane.
2. Go to settings for Dynamic data.
3. Select : Disc, Sphere, Stack or Bars0
4. Specify vectors to display from Dynamic

results data.
5. Check the proper Identifier.
Use the time player

The user can display summary data, for example Oil production rate in
3D and 2D windows. The summary vector can be displayed as a disc,
stack, bar or sphere and the size represent the magnitude of the vector.
The display can be animated through time.
Bubble maps
Time varying data
Display time varying data such as

production rates as bubble maps
• Insert new map window

• Select result vectors from the
Results pane
• Select simulation case from
Cases pane
• Play time with the time player
toolbar
Bubble plots can be displayed for observed data, development

strategies, and simulation data. Use the time player at the bottom of
the user interface to go to the time step of interest.

3D Viewing
Streamlines
Streamlines are stored in the

Streamlines folder at the bottom of the
Models pane.
In the settings panel of the streamlines,

you can change the color and the
thickness of the streamlines.
If FrontSim was selected as simulator, a Streamlines folder is added

to the grid folder on the Models pane when the simulation is finished.
Different attributes can be visualized on the streamlines, such as
saturations, pressure, and travel times.

3D Viewing
Streamline filters
Use the Startwell or

Endwell filters to view
streamlines from/to
particular wells.
The Startwell filter is useful for displaying all of the wells that are
supported by an injector. Similarly, the Endwell filter is used to display
all of the injectors that support one producer.
Exercise: Change the line style in function

windows
By default, simulated data is plotted with a solid line, development
strategies are plotted with a solid line with points, and observed data is
plotted as circles. The line color is selected automatically, however, you
can override those defaults.
Exercise steps
1. Continue to work with the function window that you used in
the previous exercise. Or display any plot data from the
Results pane.
2. Double-click on any of the lines in the plot to open the
Settings panel for the line data.
3. To access the settings for one of the lines, select the line in the
list at the left of the Settings panel by left-clicking it.

4. You can now edit the line and point styles by using the bottom
right part of the settings panel. Select a line with of 8 pt, and
click Apply to see the change.
5. Make sure that Auto line styles is selected, then select a

different line color for one of your simulation cases. As you hit
Apply, this color is assigned to that simulation case and will
also be used in later plots.
6. Deselect Auto line styles and then change the color of one of
the simulation cases. Click Apply. The corresponding line
changes color in the active function window, but the simulation
case still has the same color on its settings panel.
7. Select the Axis tab of the Settings panel for the function
window, then select the Annotation sub-tab.
8. Use the Annotation font drop-down menu to select another

font size, and click the B button if you want to display the axis
annotation in bold face. Click Apply to see the changes.
9. Select the Legend tab to customize the automatic legend.
Select to use four rows in the legend. Click OK to apply the
change and close the dialog.
Plot window
It is possible to combine several view-ports in one plot window.
Exercise steps
1. Open a New plot window.
2. Click the New object in window icon and select New
function viewport.
3. Click and drag to insert the new function viewport.
4. Select one of your cases in the Cases pane. Select Oil and
Water production rate from the Dynamic results data
folder on the Results pane. Select Field in the Identifier
folder.
5. Click the New object in window button again, but this
time select New map viewport.
6. Click and drag to insert a new map viewport.
7. Select the radio button in front of the Dynamic data sub-
folder of the Views folder on the Results pane.
8. Select to view Oil and Water production rate for all
producers.
9. In addition, select to view a horizon from your upscaled grid on
the Models pane. You should now see a bubble map of the
production in the map window. Use the time player to go to the
time steps of interest.
10. If you want to change the size of the bubbles, right-click the
Dynamic data in the Views folder on the Results pane and
select Settings. Use the sliders under in the Chart scale
section of the Settings panel to set a new bubble radius..
11. Go to a 3D window, and select to display water saturation at
the last time step. Click the Copy bitmap icon. Then click
the Paste bitmap button. The bitmap is stored on the
Input pane.
12. Go back to your plot window and add the bitmap to view by
selecting it from the Input pane.
13. You can drag the bitmap into another position and rescale it
when you are in Select/pick mode .

Summary data in a 3D window - Optional
You can visualize production data with multiple of other data types. The
summary vector is displayed as disc, stack, bar, or sphere and the size
represent the magnitude.
Exercise steps
1. Open the 3D window, display the Producers from the Input
pane.
2. Go to the settings of Dynamic data under the Views folder in
the Results pane.
3. Select Chart type as Disc, click OK.
4. Under Dynamic results data, select Oil production rate
and Water production rate.
5. Remember to activate the proper Identifier (select the check
box in front of Producers under Identifier folder on the
Results pane).
6. Use the time player to play production data in time.

View data on streamlines - Optional
By rerunning one of your cases using the FrontSim simulator, you can
view the results along streamlines.
Exercise steps
1. Open the Define simulation case process, and select the
Basic case from the Edit existing drop-down list.
2. Select Create new case, and name the new case Basic_FS.
3. Select FrontSim from the Simulator drop-down menu.
4. Click Apply to save, and Run to run the case. Then close the
process dialog.
5. Open a 3D window and go to the Input pane, and select to
view the Injectors and the Producers wells. Then, expand
the Streamlines folder under the Upscaled grid in the
Models pane and select to view your case Basic_FS. By
default, the water saturation at the first time step is displayed.
You can use the time player to view the saturation at later time
steps.
6. Expand the Attributes folder and observe the other properties
that can be viewed on streamlines.
7. Select only well I02 from the Startwell filter folder to only
view streamlines starting in well I02.

Lesson 3 (Optional) – History match analysis

Match values are computed for all wells with observed data. In the
expression on the slide:
M is the match value that will be reported
N is the number of points used to compute M, that is the number of
time steps in the simulation or the number of observed data points. You
select which of those to use in the History match analysis process
dialog.
S is the simulated value. S is a vector containing the simulated value
for a specific well at each point in time. Hence, S is a vector of length
N.
O is the observed value, that is, O is a vector containing the observed
value for a specific well at each point in time. O has length N.
s is a normalization parameter that can be used to make sure all the
match values are in the same order of magnitude.

Remember, that since the water cut is the ratio of water to liquid
hydrocarbons produced in a well, it will always have values between
zero and one. Therefore, a well with a large production is not
distinguished from a well with a small production. Consequently, it is
more reliable to use rates when computing the history match data.

History match analysis
Select the Observed data set you

wish to compare your simulation
results to.
Select settings:
• the sample frequency
• zero data filtering
• normalization
The settings apply to all vectors by default.

To change the settings for a vector:
1. Select the vector
2. Clear the Use default check box
3. Specify the settings

Sampling
Sampling controls the times at

which comparisons are made.
For infrequent observed data such

as bottom hole pressure, use
Observed frequency to compare
only where observed data is
available.
Remember, the expression for the match value M given in slide 4. The
number N is determined by the sample frequency. If Observed
frequency is chosen, the simulated data is compared to the observed
data only when observed data is available. Consequently, N is the
number of samples of the observed data. The simulated data will be
sampled backwards. That is, at a time where there is observed data this
value will be compared to the first simulated value backwards in time.

If Simulated frequency is selected, the simulated and the observed
data will be compared at all simulation time steps. For each simulated
time, the observed data are sampled forward in time, meaning that the
observed data is treated as a constant from each measured point to the
next. The average observed data value over one simulation time step is
compared to the simulated value.

Zero data filtering should be turned on for the rates that were used to
set the rules in the Development strategy process. If one of those
rates is zero for a well, you would get a perfect match only because the
well is closed for flow.
Note that the normalization parameter s can be used to give one

vector, or a selection of the vectors, more weight than the others in a
combined match.
That is, if a large normalization parameter is used for some of the
vectors, the match value for those vectors will be relatively small
compared to vectors that were assigned a small parameter.
If you select to use Absolute normalization, you must select the size of
the normalization parameter carefully.

Results viewing
The history match set is

stored in the Results pane
You can use the data to:

• Compare wells and
vectors for a case
• Compare wells and
vectors between cases
There are several options to view match data:

Function window. Crossplots of two vectors or a vector and a well
can be displayed in a function window. Also a vector or combination of
vectors can be plotted for several different cases.
Map window. In a map window, the match values can be plotted at
the well position. The data can be viewed together with a surface or a
horizon. Either two cases can be compared at each well, or the match
value for the different wells can be displayed for a single case.

In a map window, you can select to view data in either a qualitative or
in a quantitative mode.
Qualitative mode: The results are grouped into five bins, ranging from
poor to perfect match.
Quantitative mode: The actual match values, M, are displayed.
When viewing match values in the quantitative mode, be aware that
the maximum value depends on the normalization parameter you have
selected. Also, the maximum value may have great variations between
the different vectors.

In the settings panel for the History match set, you can set the
Threshold limits and the Equality number. Updating these values does
not require re-sampling of the data, it only changes the appearance of
the plots.
Threshold: The settings are used to visualize match results in the
qualitative mode. All vectors with a match value lower than Min will
be reported as Match. All vectors with a match value greater than
Max will be reported as Poor. Note that the size of the parameters
Min and Max must be chosen depending on how you select to
normalize the match.
Equality+/-:The number you enter here is used to visualize the
difference between two cases. Vectors with a match value less than
this number will be displayed as being equal.

Match values in Map window
Single case
A bubble map
shows the match
statistic for one or
more vectors at
each well.
Here, the well

P04 has the worst
oil production
match.
In the above illustration, the match values are displayed in a

quantitative mode, which means the actual match values are displayed.
If a qualitative mode was selected, the results would be lumped into
five categories from Match to Poor.

Match values in Map window
Case compare
Switch on Case
compare mode
Select vectors and

wells in the Results
pane.
Select two cases to

compare in the
Cases pane.
In the above illustration, two cases are compared. The values are
lumped into three categories: Case 1 is displayed as better, equal, or
worse than Case 2.
Function window
History match statistics settings
You can select the color for:

• The best match
• The worst match
• The remaining match values
You can select to view:

• A combined match value for all
vectors
• A separate match value for
each vector

If you compare several cases in a function window, you can select to
assign the best and the worst match-value a specific color.
If you select to view the match for several vectors simultaneously, you
have two choices. You can either view one combined match value for
all the vectors for each case, or you can view a separate match value
for each vector for each case.
Function window
Cross plot two vectors
Cross plots can highlight if improving

one match makes another better or
worse.
To make a crossplot:
1. Use the right mouse to select which vector to plot on the
x-axis. Then select a second vector for the y-axis.
2. Select the cases you want to compare in the Cases pane.
A trend to the origin indicates both matches improve together, while a
trend to the ends of the axes indicates improving one match worsens
the other. You can crossplot two wells in a similar way.

Function window
Single vector versus case number
In the illustration, you can see the match values for a single vector,
water production rate, for all wells in several cases. In this example,
the user has selected to give the best match the color green and the
worst match the color red. The remaining matches are in black.

Exercises – History match analysis

In this exercise, you will run the History match analysis process on
the history cases we set up previously. The resulting match-vectors will
be used to explore whether the simulated results reproduce the
observed production data.
Exercise Workflow
• Run the History match analysis process
• View results in function and map windows for a single case
• Adjust settings to improve the visualization
Exercise Data
In the following exercise, we will continue with the project we made in
the previous exercises.
Run history match analysis
Exercise steps
1. Open the History match analysis process from the
Simulation folder on the Processes pane.
2. Select to Create new match. Make sure that your historical

data set is selected as the observed data set.
3. Select Water cut, deselect Use default and select Absolute
Normalization. Enter 1 as the normalization parameter.
4. Select the Bottom hole pressure, and deselect Use default.
Then, select Observed frequency.
5. Click OK to compute the math vectors.
View match data in a map window
Exercise steps
1. Open a New map window.
2. Select your Aquifer case in the Cases pane.
3. Select to view the Base horizon by selecting the check box in
front of it under your Upscaled grid on the Models pane.
4. For only viewing the contour lines, right-click in the Horizons
folder under the Upscaled grid and select Settings.
5. Go to the Solid tab and deselect Show. Click OK to close the
settings.
6. Go to the Results pane and select the new match set. Also
select Bottom hole pressure from the Vector matches
folder. Select all the producers in the Identifier folder.
7. If you do not see the wells, click the View all in viewport
button .
8. Open the settings for History match statistics by right-
clicking the folder and then selecting Settings.
9. Go to the Map window tab and select the radio button
Quantitative.
10. Still on the Map window tab, select the check box Enable
bubble plots. Click Apply.
11. Go to the General tab and click to change the range of the
color legend. In the dialog that opens, click Max and Min
to get the range of your pressure match vector. Click
Apply. Notice how well P01 has the poorest match in bottom
hole pressure.
12. Turn off the Bottom hole pressure, and select to view the
Oil production rate instead.
13. Switch to Qualitative mode in the Map tab of the Settings
panel for the History match statistics, then click Apply.
14. Open the settings for your New match set and enter the
threshold for the match values that should be considered good
and bad. Select Min =0.1 and Max=3. You should now see a
qualitative match of the oil production rates. Notice that well
P04 has a poor match in oil production rate.

View match data in a function window
Exercise steps
2. Select all of your cases on the Cases pane.
3. Open the settings dialog for the History match statistics
folder and go to the Function window tab.
4. Select the check boxes Color best match and Color worst
match, then check the box Combine. Click OK to close the
dialog.

5. Select your New match set, Bottom hole pressure, Oil
production rate and well P04 from the History match
statistics folder on the Results pane.
6. You should now see the match values in the function window.
Compare cases in a Map window

Exercise steps
1. Open a Map window.
2. Select to view all wells and the Bottom hole pressure from
the History match statistics folder on the Results pane.
3. Activate the Case compare button in the function bar. It
should now have an orange background color.
4. Then, select to view both the Aquifer case and the Simple
case.
5. Right-click the New match set folder on the Results pane
and select Settings.
6. On the settings panel, select the Bottom hole pressure, then
set Equality to 0.3.

7. You should now see that the Aquifer case has the best match
for most of the wells.

Summary
In this module, you learned how to use the Make development
strategy process to set up a simulation case using observed well data
as input. You also learned how to import observed data. Finally, it was
demonstrated how to use the History match analysis process to
compare simulated results to observed data.

Module 8 - Well Engineering
Introduction
In this module, we will import well data, digitize a new well in Petrel
using the Well path design process, and complete the well with
completions using the Well completion design process. We will use
various Petrel windows and tools to create, quality check and inspect
the well data.
Prerequisites
Learning Objectives
In this module, you will learn:
• How to import well data into your Petrel project
• How to design a well path using the Well path design and
the Laterals design processes
• How to use the well completion design process to insert
completions for your wells
• How to QC wells trajectories and completions.
Reservoir Engineering Well Engineering • 263

Lesson 1 – Import and Design Well Paths
When you import a well header, make sure to select the correct file
format. In the import dialog that appears, notice that there is a capture
of the file you are importing at the bottom. View the data in the file
capture, and fill in the column number for the x and y coordinate and the
depth data into the Columns part of the dialog.
To import well header data:
• Right-click the Wells folder and select Import(on selection)
from the drop-down menu
• Select Well heads (ASCII)(*.*) as the file format
264 • Well Engineering Reservoir Engineering

Import well paths
Use the Well

path/deviation(ASCII) format
to import the well trajectory.
Match file name to

existing well name.
Import well path / deviation file

If the well is not vertical, it is necessary to import the corresponding
deviation file. The deviation file will be attached to the well header
already imported.
Select a well path input file by right-clicking on the Wells folder and
selecting Import (on selection). In the window that opens up, select
the files defining the well paths for one, some, or all of the wells and
select the appropriate format (for example, Well paths/deviations
(ASCII)(*.*)).
Associate each well path with a well
A well created by
The illustration above shows the window that will open up while Create well (vertical well) or
importing. The window displays the well names in the file in the left imported into Petrel using
well deviation format is
column. Use the right column to match the deviation data on file to the created by the minimum
correct well in your project curvature interpolation
method. This method is very
Link the field types with the file’s columns different from the advanced
drilling trajectory algorithm
As for the well heads file, an Import well deviation window will available in Well path
open up where you will have to specify which column in the file design, both in objective and
corresponds to each of the attributes, such as MD, Inclination and mathematics.
Azimuth; X, Y and TVD.
To import branching wells, you need to use the Multiple well paths/
deviations file format. Notice that if Well B is branching off from Well
A, then it needs to be named Well A%Well B on the file you are
importing.

Well path design
We will now focus on how to make new well traces in Petrel. The
simplest way to add a new well, is to make a new vertical well. The
Well path design process which is located in the Well engineering
folder in the Processes pane allows you to digitize new well traces,
and the Laterals design process makes it easy to add laterals to an
existing well.
Well path design
Make vertical wells
Digitize well paths
Make wells using the Well

path design process

Simple vertical well
To insert a new vertical well into the project:
1. Decide where in your 3D model you want to locate the new
well.
A well created by the 2. Click the location in a window using the Select/pick mode.
Create well is created in the The status bar will display the X and Y surface coordinates.
DxDyTVD domain, and is not
intended to be modified by
3. Right-click the Wells folder in the Input pane and choose
the Well path design New well from the drop-down menu.
process. Therefore these are 4. In the Create new well dialog, enter a name for the well,
the only editable values on
the spreadsheet. select a well symbol and enter the X and Y coordinates. You
can also enter a top measured depth and a bottom measured
depth to specify the depth interval of the well.

Well path design
Trajectory
A well path is generated between the

design points.
The path is a combination of straight and
curved sections; an approximation of how
wells are drilled in the real world.
Petrel algorithm - Advanced Design

Trajectory - will attempt to restrict
curvature to a specified dog leg severity
(DLS).
The well path design process

You may want to
Well path design lets you create paths for wells either manually by change vertical exaggeration
point-and-click, or automatically using the Create best fit well and to 2 instead of the default of
5. This should give a better
Well optimizer methods. understanding of the well
geometry
When designing a well manually, the first step is to start digitizing the
well path and edit the well points into position. This can be done in
several ways, and will be described on the following pages.
The DLS settings
Petrel makes well traces through the design point which is a play an important role in
generating the well path
combination of straight lines and curved sections. Petrel will use a ‘J’ using the ADT algorithm. If
curve between points 1 and 2 (straight section then curve), a straight you are not happy with the
generated well path then he
section between points 2 and 3 and ‘r’ curves between subsequent can change these settings, or
points (curve then straight section). edit the well interactively.
The Well path design process is creating wells according to the

drilling constraints. Therefore, there is additional data associated with
the well traces exposed in the spreadsheet for each well. The well is
created in the XYZ domain (design points). Consequently, these are the
only values that can be edited in the spreadsheet.

Dog leg severity (DLS)
The algorithm will attempt to design a well that passes through all of
the design points with a curvature which is smaller than the “requested
upper” dog leg severity (DLS) set by the user. This is done by using a
series of straight sections and curves of the requested DLS.

Dog leg severity (DLS)
DLS is the deviation from a straight
path in degrees per 30m (100 ft).
The illustration shows the result of using different DLS constraints on

the well path. In the picture at the top, a maximum DLS of 5 was
allowed, while in the bottom picture the highest DLS is set equal to the
requested DLS of 3.
The method for computing a trace between the design points, needs
input to decide to what degree the path is allowed to deviate from a
straight line. You need to specify the Dog leg severity (DLS) of the
resulting well trace. The DLS is the deviation from a straight line
measured in degrees per 30 m (or 100 ft ).
Requested - this is the dog leg severity which will be used on the
curved sections of the well path if possible.
Maximum - the maximum dog leg severity which can be used in
the well path. If the requested DLS can not be achieved
because of the positioning of the design points (the points are
too close together and at a too severe angle), then the
algorithm will use the highest DLS required without exceeding
its maximum.

Digitize well path
A) Digitize on a General Intersection
Display all the data of

interest:
• Property
• Horizons
• Faults
• Seismic etc.
B) Digitize on a filtered property
Well design walkthrough

A new well path is digitized in the Well path design process by using
the Add new points button. Later, the digitized points can be edited
and deleted, and additional points can be added.
There are several ways of digitizing the well path, depending on the
available data.
Digitize on a General intersection (GI) - You can create a GI
and position it in the place where you want to digitize the new
It is also possible to path. Any type of data can be displayed on the intersection. It
first create a polygon (that is possible to perform detailed editing at any time, for instance,
can consist of several
straight line segments joined
if you do not want your well along a straight line.
together), create a vertical Digitize on a filtered property - Use the value filter in the
section along the polygon, property filter to filter on, for example, high porosity values,
display data on the section
and then digitize. and use the zone filter to view the different zone(s) you want.
Digitize in 3D view and attach the digitized points to the cells
that are left after filtering.
Create a STOIIP map from volume calculation - This map
shows the density for each cell. The STOIIP map can be draped
across the surface representing the top reservoir. The surface
used to digitize the new well should be placed below the top of
the reservoir to make sure that the well trace is always inside
the reservoir.
Digitize well path

1. Activate the Well path design process Tip: Use these two
options to increase
2. Continue digitizing on an existing (active; or decrease point
bold) well… size.
3
3. ... or Start new well (Deactivate the old)
4. The new well trajectory is stored in the

Proposed wells folder under the main
Wells folder.
1 4

Well type
Simple
Side
track
Stand
alone
You have the possibility to extend the proposed well trajectory to the
surface by selecting one of the Advanced algorithm options:
Simple : The well head is assumed to be vertical above the
uppermost design point.
Standalone : The well head, KB and MD need to be provided by
the user.
Side track : User must specify the main well to which Petrel will
connect proposed trajectory.
The Simulation trajectory algorithm is available only for imported wells
from simulation deck. The algorithm joins the design points with
straight lines.

Edit well path
1. Activate the Select/pick mode from function bar
2. Pick a node (yellow) and move by depressing the left

mouse button
3. Depending on the Move options in function bar (A), you can

move along the Line tangent (B) only, in Vertical plane (C)
only or Free movement 1
3B 3C
3A
2
Edit well path

1. Move tangent – select cylinder part of widget (turns
yellow) and move up or down. Pressing CTRL shifts direction
2. Active the Z-value selector icon and enter a depth for the
node (press =); moves along tangent vertically
2
3. Move vector arrow (turns yellow). This will not move the
node but changes the curvature (A)
1 3 3A

Exercises – Import well data and design well
paths
In this exercise, we will import a deviation file which contains a
multi-lateral well. We will also make a vertical well and digitize a
horizontal well trajectory. We will use the Reference project tool to
transfer a well between projects.
Exercise Workflow
• Import well deviation
• Make vertical well
• Make a horizontal/deviated well and edit the proposed
trajectory
• Reference project tool.
Exercise Data
In this exercise, you will continue on the project you have been working
on in the previous modules and exercises.
If you do not have X,
Y data (well head
X-coordinate, well head Import well data
Y-coordinate) in your
deviation file (.dev), you must Exercise steps - Import the well path deviation
first import well header (file 1. Right-click the Wells folder and select Import (on selection)
of type: Well heads (*.*))
from the drop-down menu. Use the file of type: Multiple well
paths/deviations(*.*).
2. Select the file ImportData > Well_Engineering >
You can also import ImportWells.dev and click Open.
directly into sub folders
instead of having to move 3. In the Import multiple well paths dialog that opens, select
the well after import. X,Y,TVD as Column input data.
4. Look at the file capture at the bottom of the import dialog and
enter the correct column number for X, Y, and TVD.
5. Under Other settings, select the button Name as part of
header.
6. In the Name prefix field, enter the characters that precede
the well name in the file you are importing.
7. In the Data format field, enter a N for all columns containing

a number and an S for all columns containing a text string.
8. Click OK to do the import.

9. Add a new sub-folder to the Wells folder and name it
Imported.
10. Move the imported wells P07 and P07%P08 into the Imported
folder that you just added.
11. Select to display the new well in a 3D window.

Make a vertical well
Exercise steps
1. Right-click the Wells folder and select New well. In the
dialog that opens, give the new well the name P09, and place
it at (x,y)=(4500, 11500) m.
2. Select an appropriate well symbol.
3. Select the check box Specify vertical trace, then enter a
bottom MD of 2900 m.
4. Click OK to make the well.
5. Drag and drop the new well into the Producers folder.
.
Setting up the 3D window
This exercise will walk you through how to display relevant data when
digitizing wells, such as oil saturation at the end of history. Also, it is Be aware of vertical
useful to display the other wells and the faults so you can see the exaggeration, which by
default is set to 5. You may
proximity and avoid hitting them when designing the well. want to change Z-scale to 2
Exercise steps from Petrel Tool bar.
1. Open a 3D window.
2. Go to the Cases pane and select the Aquifer case.
3. On the Results pane, expand the Dynamic folder under
Simulation grid results, and select to visualize Oil
saturation (SOIL).
4. Display the last time step 2009-02-01, using time player at the
bottom.
5. Right-click the Oil saturation (SOIL) property and select
Create 1D filter.
6. Select to filter out all values below 50% of oil saturation. Click
Apply.

7. Expand the Filter folder on the Input pane. Then, expand the
User sub-folder in which your new filter is stored. Select the
check box in front of it to turn it on or off.
8. Next, click once on the Define simulation case in the
Simulation folder in the Processes pane making it the active
process. This enables the property function toolbar to the right
of the 3D window which we will use.
9. Use the Display the cells with same K button and the
If you do not have any property player buttons to move through the grid in K layers. In
properties to move along, this way, when you digitize on the grid, you can move through
you may also use a surface
or horizon. Shift the surface the reservoir. You can also use the I- and J-direction filters
up and down a short interval
using the Operation tab in
10. Turn on all existing wells from the Input pane, to avoid
the settings for the surface. collisions.
Then you can digitize on that
surface to trace the well.
This is one way out of many to set up the 3D window ready for
digitizing new well trajectories.
Exercise steps
1. Alternatively, you can use a General intersection as a target
when digitizing the well trajectory in combination with the
saturation property.
2. Go to the Input pane and turn off the User filter for saturation
you have made in the previous exercise Oil saturation (SOIL)
1 - Aquifer. Deselect filtering along K-direction as well.
3. Insert a new General intersection by right-clicking the
Intersection folder located in the Models pane under
Upscaled grid. Next, select Insert general intersection
4. Use the Manipulate plane button and the general

intersection player toolbar to move the general intersection
into the location you want to digitize the well.

5. When the general intersection is in the position you want, turn
off the Oil saturation (SOIL) property from Simulation grid
Open the settings for
results in the Results pane. the General intersection
plane and set the
6. Toggle on Visualization on plane and then select to transparency very high
display a property on the plane, for example, Oil saturation (90%). Also, from the
function toolbar, select to
(SOIL) property. The property will now be displayed only on Make the point size bigger
the intersection. so that the well points are
more easily seen.
From the General

intersection player toolbar,
use either the Clip in front
of plane or the Clip behind
plane buttons
to filter out
the cells that covers the
plane.

Well path design
Best practice: Now that the 3D window has been set up to start
digitizing a well path, be cautious. Start off simple and only add more
complexity if it is necessary. Using the digitizer and the widget
functionality in Petrel is tempting, but you can easily compromise a well
with a well point that is off.
Exercise steps
1. Activate the Well path design process found in the Well
engineering folder on the Processes pane by clicking it
once. This enables the well path design function toolbar that
we will be using.
2. Use the Add new points button in the well path design
function toolbar and start to digitize (click) on the general
intersection plane.

3. To move a well point interactively in the 3D window, use the
Select/pick mode and click on the well point. The well
point turns into a widget that can be moved around. Petrel will
observe the dog leg severity constraints at all times and give
you a warning if it is exceeded.
The new well will automatically be named Proposed 1 and will be

saved in a new Proposed wells folder under the Wells folder in the It is often easier to
delete a well point, or the
Input pane. Right-click on the well and open its settings. Now, you can entire well, and start the
define if the well should be a simple well, a standalone well, or a side well design again, than to
track well that tie into one of the existing wells in the project. spend time adjusting and
fixing.
4. For our project, we will state that the well is a standalone. We
need to specify a well header location and a kick-off measured
depth. Enter some reasonable values that will not break the
dog leg severity for the well.
To resize, select or
move the well design points
you will have to either turn
off the general intersection
plane or move the plane
slightly.

5. Remember to change the well symbol for the well, and to
rename the well into something in accordance with the other
wells (P10). The well will be stored in the Proposed wells
folder.

Reference project tool
This exercise will show you how to use the Reference project tool,
which is useful when sharing data with others.
Exercise steps
1. Go to the File menu and select the Reference project tool.
2. Click the Open project button in the Background

project part of the dialog that opens.
3. In the file browser that opens, select the RE_

Reference_2010.pet file, then click Open.
4. Expand the Wells folder for this project and select the check
box in front of the P08 well.
5. Click the left arrow to copy the well into your project.
6. Close the Reference project tool, and save your project.
7. Display the well you just copied.
Lesson 2(Optional) – Automatic well placement
This lesson shows an automatic way of creating wells using the Well
path design process :
Best fit method
1. Open Well path design.
2. Select method.
This method will place the well in the

geological body defined by the user.
Create best fit well

The Best fit well method will place a well in the discrete 3D property
defined by the user.
The well spacing, length, and orientation are controlled by the property
that is used as input.

Best fit method
1. Define the target
area for the new well.
2. Drop it into the

process.
3. Give the new well a

name.
3. Select wellhead or
attach to an existing
well.
In the process
settings, you can turn
on the active filter to
be applied together
with the target body.
Best fit method

Advanced well placement considerations
Shifting offset
a) Multilaterals
b) Limiting surfaces as constrain Click Make run before you close
the dialog.
c) Collision detection

The algorithm will place a well through the target body, honoring the
constraint given by the user. The topology of the selected target area
(body) can lead to multilateral solution. On the process dialog, you can
allow for laterals and also limit their lengths.
You can select to constrain the well(s) target points between an upper
and a lower surface. Notice that you cannot use a horizon from the 3D
grid, only surfaces from the Input pane are accepted as input. If the
same surface is inserted for both Upper and Lower, Petrel will shift
the well target points to that surface. Alternatively, you can enter the
maximum and the minimum depth where you want the well path to be
placed in between.
It is possible to shift the wells in the X and Y direction relative to the
input target by entering the desired offset. Notice that by doing so, the
resulting wells may not hit the input target.
If you turn on Collision detection , you have to specify a well or a
If a collision is group of wells that the new well should avoid.
detected, a warning message
will be logged.
Laterals design
Laterals design

The process allows you to create complex multilateral trajectories
based on existing well(s). There are two types of laterals: Fishbone and
Fork laterals.
Laterals design
You need to supply the depth (reference MD) that the first new lateral
should branch off from the mother bore. Either drop in a surface, in
which case the reference MD is calculated as the intersection of the
main well with that surface. Or else, enter the depth (in TVD).

Laterals design
On the Laterals template tab, you can select the laterals type : Fork or
Fishbone. There are several settings for both templates:
Offset MD – This value will define the starting point MD of the
first lateral and is an offset to the reference MD provided on
the general tab.
Spacing – specify the distance (MD) between the starting points
of two consecutive laterals.
Relative azimuth – is the angle between the first target point of
the lateral and the starting point of the main well. In cases
where there are more then one lateral, the first will use the
relative azimuth, the second will use the opposite of the
relative azimuth and so on.
Use the Advanced settings if you want to use different settings for
different laterals to the same main well.

Laterals design
You can constrain the well target points (computed by algorithm)

between two surfaces. If the same is used for upper and lower Petrel
will place well target points directly onto that surface.
Exercises – Automatic well placement - optional

Exercise Workflow
• Convert simulation results to grid property
• Use grid calculator to define a discrete property
• Well path design - Create best fit well
• Laterals design
In this exercise, we will place a well in the target geobody.

Exercise steps - Make a well target
1. Display the Oil saturation (SOIL) property from the Results
pane. Use the Aquifer case from Cases pane. Set the time
player to display the last report step.
2. Expand the Grid filter under Simulation grid results in the
Results pane and deselect all segments except Segment 4.
3. The part of the reservoir that has high oil saturation and only
one producer is now displayed.
4. Right-click Oil saturation (SOIL) and select Convert
simulation results to grid properties. Click OK in the dialog
that opens up.
5. Go to the Models pane. Under the Upscaled grid you will
find the AQUIFER folder (name of the case/ run from which
the property originated).
6. Expand the AQUIFER folder and find the SOIL[0] [Feb
01.2009] property. Right-click and select Calculator.
7. In the Calculator window, select to Use filter. The filter that
is applied is the same as the ones applied in the active 3D
window, hence, in this case, we will only compute a property
for Segment 4.
8. Use the Attach new to template drop-down menu to select
the General discrete template.
9. Enter P11_target=, then left-click the SOIL property in the
Select property variable pane to obtain the expression as
shown in the illustration below.

10. Click ENTER in the calculator dialog.
11. The new property is stored in the Properties folder of the
upscaled grid. Display it in the 3D window.
Exercise steps - Create best fit wells

1. Open the Well path design process from the Processes
pane.
2. Select method the Create best fit well.
3. Drop the new P11_target property into the process window
using the blue arrow.
4. To specify the well head location, there is a pre-made
Wellhead P11 point set stored in the Input pane. Drop it in to
the process dialog.
5. Change the maximum length of the new well to bee 4000 m.
6. Leave the other settings default.

7. Click Make run. Find the new Optimized wells folder in the
Input pane and visualize the new wells in your 3D window.
Exercise steps – Laterals design

In this exercise, we will make a multilateral well using the Laterals
The reference MD is design process. We will use the horizontal well we digitized in the 3D
the MD value of the input window as the input main well. We will add laterals using the Fork
well that corresponds to the
TVD given as input to the
type. .
process. You can left-click
the main well in a 3D
window at which point Exercise steps
where you want the first
lateral to branch off. The
1. Display well P10 from the Input pane.
depth value is then reported 2. Open the Laterals design process from the Processes pane.
in the status bar. 3. On the General, tab drop in well P10 as a main well. As
Reference MD, enter a positive number. This is the point (in
total vertical depth) where the first lateral branches off P10.
Leave the DLS settings default.
4. On the Laterals template tab, select Laterals type: Fork.
Set the Number of laterals to 2 and enter Laterals length :
3000 m.

5. Click OK. The new Laterals folder is added to the Wells You can adjust
folder in the Input pane. Display the new laterals together different parameters
including DLS to obtain a
with P10.  suitable laterals.
Lesson 3 – Results, reports and quality checking

Well manager
Well manager is a tool

that displays and
allows to edit well data
in a spreadsheet
Well attributes:
• Default attributes
• User attributes
• Check shots
• Well log
• Well completions
The Well manager gives you an overview of all wells in your project. It
allows you to sort and filter on well names.

The well paths can be viewed and edited in a spreadsheet. To access
the spreadsheet, right-click the well and select Spreadsheet from the
drop-down menu.

Intersection with Horizons
Report
From the Settings dialog of a well, you can select to create a well
report that can be handed over to the driller. You can either create a
report that tells you all the exits and entries of every zone, or you could
enter the spreadsheet for the well and get a listing of the well points,
with different types of attributes.

Intersection with Horizons
Make well tops
Also on the Settings dialog for the wells, you can select to add
synthetic well tops to the active well tops folder at the positions where
your new wells intersects the horizons of your 3D grid. Those can be
useful later when placing completion items.

There are many options in Petrel to quality check and report the
resulting well path. Both the dog leg severity and the error propagation
cone can be displayed along the well path. It is also possible to make
synthetic logs from grid properties and to view properties on a vertical
well section along the well path. The designed wells can be reviewed
and edited in a spreadsheet.

Display the Dog leg severity
Click the button to display the DLS.
Synthetic logs
1. Open the Make logs tab in the settings for
the new well and select a property.
Click the Make logs button.
1
2. Click the Make logs button.
3. Open the Style settings for the property

from the Global well log, and select the
Draw log as 3D pipe option.
2

Synthetic log curves - can be created from the properties in the
active 3D grid or from the zones in the 3D grid. Synthetic logs can be
displayed in 2D or in 3D as a cylinder along the well path where the
thickness of the cylinder represents the value of the log.
To quality check a new well, you can create a vertical well intersection
and display different types of data on it. Also, it is possible to create
synthetic logs along the well path, based on input from the 3D grid. This
could be synthetic property logs (Phi, Perm, Sw, etc) or zone logs. The
synthetic logs can be displayed in the well section window like any
other type of log.
Vertical well intersection – right-click on the new well to insert
a vertical well intersection. The blue button allows you to display
data on the intersection. The data available for display will show a
blue check box. Examples are seismic, properties, horizons, faults,
and polygons.
Vertical well intersection
1. Right-click the well and select

Create vertical well
intersection.
2. Use the “blue” button (A)

to display on the plane (B)
2B
1
2A

Exercises – Results, reports and quality checking
In this exercise, we will quality check and report resulting well
trajectories.
Exercise Workflow
• Well manager
• Well tops and well report
Well manager and saved searches You can view the

completion items in the 3D
The Well manager gives an overview of all wells with their attributes, window. Click in the Global
completions folder in the
well logs and completion items. It also allows you to edit and change Input pane to view the
the well data. completions for the wells.
Exercise steps
1. Right-click on the Wells folder in the Input pane and select
Well manager from the drop-down menu. The well manager
window opens.

2. Hover the mouse pointer over the icons at the top toolbar to
Do not delete any get a tool tip for what functionality they provide. Try a few of
wells from your project, them. Warning: .
there is no undo! For some
functions, you need to select 3. Click on the Show button to get a drop-down
a well first (click on the row
number in front of the well menu with attributes that you can view. Deselect the default
names) attributes and select to show Well completions.
4. Next to the Show button is a Filter button . This filters
the Well manager based on any saved searches defined in
Saved searches let your project. See the tip for more information.
you display and access wells 5. Show the default attributes again in the well manager, and
based on specific search
criteria. This helps organizing click on the Edit points button at the bottom
well data into place holders
without the need for of the well manager window. Select to edit the total depth TD
duplication. Several types of (MD), and notice that the column now has a white background
search criteria can be
applied. Each search can be
and the values can now be edited.
used in isolation or in
combination with other
searches. Well tops and well report
Petrel has all the information required to make a detailed well report
and well tops for our new well.
Exercise steps
1. Drag-and-drop well P08 into the Imported folder.
2. Open the settings for the well P08 and go to the Report tab
3. Select the options Make well report and Iconize points as
Horizon in active well tops.
4. Make sure the upscaled grid is active, then click the Insert
active 3D grid (in Petrel explorer) button.
5. Click the Run button to generate the report and to make well
tops where the new well penetrates one of the horizons in the
grid.

6. A well report will open in a spreadsheet, and well tops have
been added to the Well tops folder on the Input pane. We
will use this information when we insert completion items.

Lesson 5 – Well completion design
Well completion design
The Well completion design process allows you to create or edit

well completion objects for the wells in your project. All completions
have their own settings panel that contain the physical properties of the
completion and the date at which the completion is introduced to
Petrel.
Most of the completion components can be utilized with both ECLIPSE
and FrontSim for simulation.
• Casing - The well is closed for the depth interval of the
casing.
• Liner - The well is closed for the depth interval of the liner.
• Perforation - The well is open to flow for the depth interval of
the perforation.
• Squeeze - The well is closed to flow.
• Stimulation - The transmissibility factor for the connection
between the well bore and the cells it penetrates is altered
according to the skin value the user selects.
• Plug - The well is closed at the position of the plug and
downwards.
• Well test - The well test completion items can all be used
with the standard well model.
• Hydraulic fracture-The well connection factor is altered
based on the settings of the hydraulic fracture.
Define well segmentation
There are two ways of computing the inflow to wells with ECLIPSE;
namely the standard and multi-segment well model. The multi-
segment well model is a special extension to ECLIPSE.
The following items are exported to ECLIPSE only if they are used with
multi-segmented wells settings - Inflow control devices (ICDs), Flow
control valves (FCVs), Gas lift valve, Gauges, and Pumps. The
Heater can only be used with ECLIPSE 300.
The standard well models treat the entire well bore as a single entity,
with constant or averaged fluid properties throughout the well. Such
models neglect pressure drops due to friction and inter-phase slip. This
is a reasonable approximation for vertical wells producing from only
one zone. However, in a horizontal well, friction is very important. When
you have one zone producing gas and another producing oil, the
difference in fluid properties (density and viscosity) is important.
The multi-segmented well model in Petrel and ECLIPSE divides the
entire well bore into segments, similar to how a reservoir is divided into
cells when making the grid. Petrel gives each well segment the physical
VFP (vertical flow
performance) tables give the properties of the casing or tubing that it contains, allowing ECLIPSE to
BHP as a function of the flow accurately model the fluid physics throughout the well bore.
rate, the THP, the water and
gas fractions. The Petrel Define well segmentation process allows you control of
VFP tables cannot be made the length of the segments, what angles they cross, and how the
in Petrel, but they can be
imported into the Input pane
perforated zones connect to them.
and used in the Define well
segmentation process.
Multi-segmented wells is not within the scope of this class.
FrontSim does not

support the segregated or
multi-segmented well
models. Multi-lateral or
horizontal wells, or wells
with large amounts of cross
flow, are likely to give
different results from
FrontSim than from ECLIPSE
100 or ECLIPSE 300. FrontSim
does have a simpler well
bore friction model for use
with horizontal wells, but
Petrel does not generate
data for this option.

Completion items
Input pane
Completions appear on the Input

pane in a folder for each well
Edit completion data:

• in the Well section window
• from the Completions manager
• on the Settings panel
• using the Operations tab on the
process dialog
Insert a completion item
Click the Add/edit a

perforation icon from the
function bar.
Left-click in the Completions

track panel to insert a new
perforation.
Enter a date for the perforation.

To insert a new completion item, select one of the icons in the Function
bar (Perforation, Casing, Liner...), and left-click in the Completions
track of the well section window. You are prompted with a dialog in
which you need to specify the start date for the new item. Once you
have entered a date and closed the dialog box, the new item is added.
The completion items can be edited in the well section window. To do

so, hover the mouse pointer over a completion item.
• When the pointer looks like a hand, you can drag the item up
or down
• When the pointer looks like a double arrow you can stretch or
squeeze the item
You can also zoom and squeeze the well section display. To do so, hover
the cursor above the depth panel. When the cursor looks like a hand,
you can pane the view. When it looks like a double arrow, you can zoom
or squeeze.
Flow path display
Activate the Flow path

display icon to display the
flow.
If the well flows in both the

tubing and the annulus, it will
be modelled as two wells
when exported for simulation.
By clicking the Toggle flow path display button in the function bar,
you can turn on a flow path display.
Completions manager
Completions
You can edit completion items from

the Completions manager.

You can view and edit completion items in a tabular view. To do so,
either right-click the Global completions folder and select
Completions manager, or click the Open completions manager
button in the Well completion design process dialog. To sort the
data, simply left-click one of the column headings. To reverse the order,
click once more.
To organize the completions data in this tabular view, you have several
options. You can grab a column header and drag it into the position you
like. Alternatively, you can grab a column header into the dark grey area
to group data by that column. Use the Columns drop-down menu to
select which columns to display.

Completions manager
Equipment tab
Use this tab to define equipment.
The equipment defined here can be used by
one or more completion items.
On the Equipment tab, you can define the equipment settings that can
be used by several completion items in the project. For each equipment
type, you must assign a name, outer diameter (OD), inner diameter (ID),
inner roughness (IR), and outer roughness (OR). By clicking the
Columns tab, you can add additional columns to specify more settings,
such as drift diameter.

You can also edit the Completion data by opening the settings panel.
You can do so by either right-clicking the completion item in the Input
pane, or by right-clicking it in the well section window and then
selecting Settings from the drop-down menu.
On the settings panel for Casings, Tubings, Pumps, Chokes, Gas lift
valves, and Inflow valves, you can select which equipment setting you
want to assign.

Settings
Perforations
Give a depth
directly or relative
to a well
The connected
cells within the
Give a start date
perforation will
be reported as
single entry
Depth. If you want to place a completion item at the depth of a well

top, you must put the Well top into the Depth field and then enter the
number 0 into the box to the left of the drop field. This is because the
depth entered here is the offset to the well top.
Diameter. The diameter you enter here is in inches.

Depth interval
Place completions relative to well tops
Remember, for a designed well, you can make artificial well tops at the
position where the well penetrates one of the horizons in the 3D grid.
This is further explained in the “Well path design” lesson.

Event shifting
Global completion items
Allows you to give a default

direction of event shifting for
each completion type.

Open hole default values
Global completion settings
The default diameter for an open

hole well is 7.5 inches.
Change the number, or use a
Calliper log to give a new default
value.
Well completion design

Operations
You can use the Operations tab to

modify and make completion items.

You can use the Operations tab on the Well completions design
process dialog to edit existing items or to add new completions.
One way to modify existing items is by changing the radius. New items
can be added either for the whole well, or according to a well log.
Discrete well logs with the correct template must be used as input for
Petrel to understand which intervals to complete with which equipment.

Event data can be imported from file. Select between the formats Well
event data to import perforations, stimulations and work-overs, and
Well tubing data to import casings and tubings. You can also import
completion logs and then use the Operations tab on the Well
completion design process dialog to convert them into completion
items.

Notice that if you are only importing perforations, you should select the
check box Add casing to all wells with events. Otherwise, you will
add perforation to a well which is open hole by default, and it will then
be treated as open hole.

The previous slide shows the format of an events file with information
on which data is required. For instance, if the well has been perforated,
the event file should contain the top and bottom depth of the
perforation. Petrel will translate the depth of events into the I, J, and K
cell location, and the simulator will calculate the transmissibility
between the well and the cell.
Completion items
Time player
Use the Time player buttons to

see the completions change
through time.
Exercises – Well completion design

In this exercise, we will complete the well we imported earlier with a
casing and a perforation. We will use the Well completion design
process in Petrel. We will also import well completion items.
Exercise Workflow
• Use the completions manager to define new equipment
• Set up a well section window
• Insert casing
• Edit casing
• Insert perforation

Exercise Data
In this exercise, you will continue the project you have been working on
in the previous modules and exercises.
Exercise steps - Define equipment
1. Open the Completions manager dialog. You can access the
Completions manager by right-clicking on the Global
completions folder and selecting it from drop-down menu.
2. In the dialog that opens, go to the Equipment tab.

3. Click the Add a new row button , then select Casing and
enter 1 as the number of equipment to be created.
4. Give the casing the name New equipment. Then, specify an
outer diameter (OD) of 6.0 inches and an inner diameter (ID) of
5.5 inches.

5. Click Close to save the settings and to close the dialog.
Exercise steps – Insert casing

1. Insert a new well section window with the Window > New
well section window command.
2. Accept to create the new Well section template 2.
3. Now you see an empty well section window. Select the check
box in front of well P08 in the Input pane, to display it in the
window. This is the well we imported using the Reference
project tool. We will use the well section window and the
Well completion design process to create completion items
for P08.
4. At the top of the well section window, select to show the
depth track in measured depth (MD) and not in sub-sea true
vertical depth (SSTVD).

5. Go to the Input pane and then expand the Global
completions sub-folder located under the Wells folder.
Select to view Casing and Perforation.
6. Next, select the check box in front the Well tops folder to
display the well tops.
7. Activate the Well completion design process in the Well
engineering folder on the Processes pane by clicking it
once. The function toolbar appears with icons (tools) relevant
to the completion design process.
Click the Add/edit casing icon and click inside the Completions
track for well P08, Petrel will prompt you for a start date. Enter
2007-01-01.

Exercise steps – Edit casing
1. Hover the mouse pointer over the casing and see that it
changes shape into a double arrow when you cross the base of
the casing.
2. You can now click and drag the casing base up and down in
the well section window.
3. Right-click inside the casing in the completion track and select
Settings from the drop down menu. This opens the settings
window for the casing.
4. In the settings window, go to the Properties tab.
5. Use the Equipment name drop-down menu to assign the
New equipment to this well.
6. Select well P08 in the Input pane and drop it into the Bot.
MD(m) field of the Properties tab. Then, type 0 in the field to
the left to case the well all the way to the bottom. Click OK
and observe how the casing is extended all the way to the
bottom of the well.
Exercise steps – Insert perforation

1. From the well section window function toolbar, click the Add/
edit a perforation button . We will now insert a
perforation that runs from the top of the reservoir to the
bottom of the well.
2. Click in the well section track somewhere below the well top
representing the top of the reservoir. Petrel will ask for the
start date for the perforation – type in 2007-01-01 – and click
OK.
3. Display porosity from the upscaled grid along with the
completion track. Drag the perforation to a depth with good
porosity. You can also extend the perforation using the
up-and-down cursor when hovering over the perforation at the
very edge (top or bottom). 
4. We will place the perforation relative to the nearest well top.
Open up the Completions folder for the well P08 in the Input
pane, right-click Perforation and select Place completions
relative nearest top from the drop-down menu.
5. The perforation changes color to indicate that it is placed

relative to the depth of the well top.
6. Right-click the perforation and open the settings. Go to the
Depth / date tab and notice the top and bottom of the
perforation interval has been set relative to the nearest well
top.
7. In the Settings window, set the top interval depth to 0 to
place the perforation exactly at the well top position. Click OK.
Observe the change in the well section window.

8. Leave the well section window open.
Import well completion events

The Global completions folder contains all of the completion items
that exist for at least one of the wells, and is used as a filter when you
are working with completions in a well section window, or to quickly
see the types of completions that exist in the project.
Exercise steps
1. Right-click on the Global completions folder and select
Import (on selection). Set the file format to import to Well
event data (Ascii) (*.ev).
2. In the Import file dialog, select the file Dataset >

ImportData > Well_engineering > ImportWells.ev. This is
the well event data file for the P07 and the P07%P08 branch.
Click Open.
3. In the Import event data window, check that the Flow name
in file are set to match the Petrel well traces.

4. Go to the Import settings tab, and enable the options Add to
existing events and Add casing to all wells with events.
Now, the import will not overwrite any existing events and the
well will get a casing completion.
5. Select the Custom date format radio button, and specify the
date format that you find in the file you are importing.
6. Inspect the third tab, Unknown data, to verify that there is no

unknown data in the input file. Click OK to import the well
completions for P07 and P07%P08.
The completion items are added to the wells in a sub folder named
Completions. Expand this folder to see which completions exist for the
well.
Exercise steps - Examine the imported data:

You should now quality check that Petrel has imported the well
completions correctly. We will do this in a well section window.
1. In the active well section window, select to view the wells P07
and P07%P08 from the Input pane, deselect well P08.
At the bottom of the 2. Expand the Completions folder for both wells to see all of the
Petrel user interface there is completion items that were imported.
a Time player toolbar. Click
the First time step button to
3. Select to view the completion items by selecting the check box
go to the first date. in front of the Global completions folder.
Step forward in time to see 4. Go to the Windows pane and expand the folder for the Well
when each of the completion section window. Open the settings for the Well section
items are added.
window and under the Definition tab, set the Domain to
measured depth (MD).Click Apply.
5. Select to view porosity together with the completions items to
check that the perforations are in good porosity zones.
You can view the

completion items in the 3D
window. Click on the Global
completions folder in the
Input pane to view the
completions for the wells.

Make completions using the Operations tab
Exercise steps
1. Right-click the well P09, and select Import(on selection...).
2. Select to import a file of type Well logs (ASCII) .
3. Select to import the file Dataset>ImportData>WEll_
Engineering>P09perforation.txt.
4. In the import dialog that opens, make sure to match the
column numbers correctly, then click OK.
5. Go to the Global well logs folder and rename the new log to
Perf.
6. Open a well section window, accept to create a new well
section template 3.
7. From the Input pane, expand the Global completions folder
select Casing and Perforation. From the Global well logs
select to view Perf.

8. Select to display well P09. You will see the Perf log that you
just imported. Go to the Models pane and select to view
porosity from the upscaled grid.
9. Open the Well completion design process, select the
operation Create simple completions.
10. Drop the P09 well into the Wells field.
11. Change the date to 01/01/2012.
12. Select the options Create casing and Whole well.
13. Select the option Create perforation and From log. Drop in
the Perf log you imported.
14. Deselect the options Create liner and Create completion
string.
15. Click Apply to create the completions. Observe the new
completion items in the well section window.

Summary
In this section you learned how to add and import wells to the project.
You first inserted a simple, vertical well, then looked into the process of
digitizing well traces. Finally you learned how to place well into targets
given as a discrete grid property automatically. Once the wells are in
place in the project, they need to be completed. You learned how to use
Petrel to add completions to the simulation case. We also looked into
how to edit and manage different completion items both using the Well
section window and the Completions manager.

Module 9 - Prediction
strategies
Introduction
In this module, how to make prediction development strategies will be
covered. It is also demonstrated how to use the Keyword editor to
include features of ECLIPSE that are not yet available through the Petrel
user interface.
Prerequisites
Learning Objectives
In this module you will learn how to:
• Use the development strategy process
• Insert and modify rules to an existing development strategy
• Make a prediction strategy
• Use restart runs to continue a simulation
• Use the Keyword editor to modify cases
Reservoir Engineering Prediction Strategies • 335

Lesson 1 - Prediction development strategy
In this lesson, you will make a prediction development strategy.
Furthermore, you will define a simulation case, using the end results
after the history case, as your starting conditions.
History-Prediction
History:
• Done to validate the
model against history
• Use observed rates as
well control data
• Use historic events;
dates for perforations
Prediction:
• Used to predict future
behavior
• Gives the rates or
pressures that the wells
should be operated at
forward in time
Make a strategy
Use the toolbar to:
Add times
Add wells
Add rules
336 • Prediction Strategies Reservoir Engineering

Default strategies
The Use presets drop-down menu offers four template strategies.
Note that these are intended as starting points for creating a strategy,
and in most cases they require further editing in order to work.
• History strategy: Utilizes the first observed data set that is
listed in the Global observed data folder. All wells in the
project are added to the strategy. In many cases, no further
editing is required to make a strategy for reproducing reservoir
volume rates for all wells with observed data.
• Empty prediction strategy: This will give you a blank
strategy, the same as when the process is opened for the first
time.
• Prediction depletion strategy: This sets up a field for
production with no injection. All wells are added to the
strategy and placed under production group control. You must
set field group production target, and start and end dates. It is
recommended to set the minimum bottom hole pressure, and
optionally, the maximum rate limits.
• Prediction water flood strategy: This sets up a field for
production with water injection. Group and well rules are
setup for group production control and full voidage
replacement. Petrel cannot detect which wells are producers
and which are injectors. Therefore, you must drag producers to
the PROD folder, and injectors to the INJ folder. In addition,
you must set the field group production target and start and
end dates. It is recommended to set bottom hole pressure
limits, and optionally, maximum rate limits on both producers
and injectors.

Add times
Add times if you want to

specify different settings
for different time periods.
You can add new times to the strategy, and then add new wells or new
rules to existing wells from that time.
Add wells
You add a new well to the project by selecting it on the Input pane and
clicking the blue arrow in the Make development strategy process
dialog. Similarly, you can add a folder of wells.
Add wells
Linked folders
If you drop in a folder

of wells from the Input
pane, changes to that
folder is going to take
effect in the strategy.
Folders of wells are used to apply the same rule to numerous wells at a
time. There are two types of folders:
1. Linked folders – are added by dropping a wells folder from
the Input pane into the process dialog. The content is When you add wells
synchronized with the Input pane – you cannot edit those to the strategy tree, their
flow path is analyzed. If the
folders within the Make development strategy process, only well cannot flow at all – that
delete the whole folder. This means that if you add a well to is it is cased but has no
the folder on the Input pane, it will be included the next time perforations – it will not be
added. If the well flows up
the development strategy is exported to the simulator, without both the tubing and the
you having to rerun the process. annulus, two well flows are
2. User folders – are added by clicking on the Add a new user added to the strategy tree.
defined folder button on the tool bar, and wells are added to
the folders by dropping in the well from the Input pane, or by
copy/paste or drag/drop within the strategy tree in the process
window.
To delete a well or a user folder of wells from the strategy tree, simply
select it in the strategy tree and click the Delete key.

Add new rules

Rules provide the simulator control parameters, and can generate one
or more keywords.
You can add rules with the Open ‘Add rules’ dialog button from the
toolbar. This opens the rule selector dialog in which you can select one
or more rules from a folder, adding them to the strategy tree. Right-click
on the “rules folder” in the rule selector dialog to select alternative
categorizations of the rules selector tree.
The rule selector only shows rules valid for the current strategy type
– history or prediction – and the currently enabled simulator(s). These
choices are made by using the options at the top of the Make For more information
development strategy process dialog. Once a rule is added to the on rules or rule validation,
please refer to the Help
strategy, select it and it appears in the rule table. Enter numeric values, Manual
and select between the choices from the drop-down menus. Note that
there are two types of blue arrows for dropping in. The conventional
arrow is used just like the normal Petrel drop arrows and drop in data
from the Input pane – observed data, well flow performance (VFP)
tables, etc. The other arrow is used to drop items from within the
strategy tree, such as wells, well folders and groups.
Tabular rules

Sometimes, you need to set a parameter individually for several wells.
For example, when you add a Well pressure production control, you may
want to specify a different pressure for some of the wells.
Start by creating a rule as usual, and drop in a folder containing all the
wells into that rule. Enter all of the parameters. These will be the same
for all the wells in the folder. Now right-click the rule and select
Convert to tabular rule from the context menu.
The tabular rule will show up as a folder of rules on the strategy tree.
When you have selected the tabular rule, it will show one column per
well in the rule table, allowing you to set individual values for each
well.
Rules
Validation
Rules can be valid, invalid, partially valid, unsupported, or inactive.

• A valid rule has all required parameters set.
• A valid rule (with warning) is valid for all selected simulator
but has at least one parameter set that is not supported for
one of the simulators. Those are shown in blue on the strategy
tree.
• An invalid rule has one or more required parameters missing.
These are shown with a cross overlaid on their icon in the
strategy tree. Inactive or invalid
• A partially valid rule has all of its required parameters set, but rules will not be written to
the simulation dataset when
is not supported by all enabled simulators. These are shown a case is exported.
with an exclamation mark over their icon in the strategy tree.
• Inactive rules are either not supported by any of the enabled
simulators or the user has de-activated the rule by using the
right-click menu. These are shown grayed out in the strategy
tree.
The validation status and the icons are updated when you click Apply
or OK, or for the active rule when you click Validate active rule.
Move the mouse over
Select the report validation check box to have all validation messages the rule’s icon in the strategy
copied to the Petrel message log once Apply or OK have been clicked. tree to see a pop-up with its
validation report.
Note that a valid rule will not necessarily create a valid simulation. For
example, many rules have several optional parameters and the
simulator requires at least one of these to be set, but Petrel does not
enforce this. Future versions of Petrel will enhance the validation logic.

Group control
• Right-click the Groups folder to

add new group.
• Drag and drop wells between the
groups.
Groups are used to tell the simulator how to control several wells at a
time. Often, a group will correspond to a physical structure in the field,
The group structure like a platform or a manifold – but it might as well just be a logical
can be changed at a later grouping – for example, all the wells producing from Zone 2.
date – for example, to move
a well from the producers Petrel automatically adds wells to the default (first) group when they
group to the injectors group. are added to the development strategy. You can then add groups using
Simply add the new control
date, copy the groups folder the Add new group button, and organize wells into groups by dragging
to the new date, and edit the and dropping between groups.
group structure accordingly.
To rename a group, select the group, right-click it and select Rename.
It is important to distinguish between well folders and groups:
• Well folders can be dropped in Wells parameters of rules.
When exporting to the simulator, Petrel exports the rule to the
simulator for every well in the folder. For example: set each
well in a folder to produce 1,000 bbl/day.
• Groups can be dropped in Groups parameters of rules. Upon
exporting to the simulator, Petrel exports the rule to the
simulator once for the group. The simulator works out how to
apportion the rule to the members of the group. For example,
make the field produce 10,000 bbl/day from 10 wells – but it is
up to the simulator to determine how much each well should
contribute to the field target.
Groups
Membership changing with time
• Add a new time

• Add two groups
• Add a group control rule for both
time intervals
• Assign the rule to one of the
groups in each time interval

Edit and use
• The strategy is stored on the Input pane.

• Copy/Paste on the Input pane.
• Drop into the Strategies tab of the
Define simulation case process.
You can copy and paste a development strategy on the Input pane and
then open the copy in the Make development strategy process to
quickly recreate a similar strategy.
Restart runs
Cell
Use the solution at the end of a Saturations &
history case as start condition Pressures
Field Production Rate
for a prediction run. recorded
History Period Prediction Period

Saves time as you do not
recalculate pressure and
saturation for the history period.
(Restart Run)
(Base Run)
Time

Restart runs
1. Right-click on case that 2. In the Define simulation
has been run, and select case, select the restart
Insert restart case. case for edit.
Exercises – Prediction strategies

In these exercises, we will create prediction development strategies
using the Make development strategy process in Petrel.
Exercise Workflow
• Use a default strategy
• Add a new rule to an existing strategy
• Define a prediction case
• View simulation results
Exercise Data
In the following exercise, we will continue on the project we created in
the previously. Or you can use backup project Mod_8_Completed.pet.
Use a default strategy

Exercise steps
2. Select Create new development strategy.
3. Click the Use presets button, and select Prediction water
flood strategy.
4. In the strategy tree of the process window, drag the producers
into the PROD FOLDER and the injectors into the INJ folder.
5. At the top of the left panel, you find the start date. Double-
click it and change the start date to 2009-02-01
.
6. Similarly, at the bottom of the left panel, there is a date
subject. Double-click it to edit and select to run the simulation
case for 5 years.
7. Click on the Group rate production control item in the Rules
folder. Enter a Reservoir volume rate of 150000 m3/d, then
use the drop-down menu to specify this rate as a target.
8. Click on the Group voidage replacement injection rule,

and enter a Voidage replacement fraction of 1.
9. Next, click on the Well rate production control rule. Make
sure that the PROD FOLDER is dropped in as Wells, and that
the control mode is Group control. Leave the remaining fields
blank.
10. Click on the Well pressure production control. Again, the
PROD FOLDER should be dropped in at the Wells field. Select
Limits as Control mode from the drop-down menu. Specify a
Bottom hole pressure limit of 100 bar. Leave the remaining
fields blank.
11. Click on the Well water injection control rule. Check that
the INJ FOLDER is dropped into the Wells field and that
Control mode is set to Group control. Also, enter a Bottom
hole pressure limit of 400 bar.
12. Finally, click on the Reporting frequency rule and select to
report every sixth month.
13. Click Apply to save the development strategy.
Add a new rule to an existing strategy

Exercise steps
1. If closed, open the Make development strategy process,
and select Edit existing.
2. Select the water flood strategy you made in the previous
exercise from the drop down list.
3. Click the Open ‘Add rules’ dialog button .
4. In the dialog that opens, left-click on the Well water cut rule
located in the Wells folder. Click the Add rule button. Click
Close.
5. In the new water cut rule, drop the PROD FOLDER into the
Wells field.
6. Type in a Water cut limit of 0.9.
7. Select Close well as Water cut action by using the drop-
down menu.
8. Click the Validate active rule button to check the validity of
your new rule.
9. Click OK to save your development strategy and to close down
the process dialog.
Define a prediction case

Exercise steps
1. Go to the Cases tab. Right-click the Aquifer case, and select
Insert restart case.
2. Open the Define simulation case process from the
Processes pane.
3. Select Edit existing case, and then select your restart case
from the drop-down menu. Note that the settings under the
Grid, Functions, Strategies tabs were preserved and that
these settings are not editable.
4. Go to the Strategies tab.
5. Add a row to the table by clicking the Append item in the
table button .
6. Select the Prediction waterflood strategy 1 on the Input
pane, and drop it into the table by pressing the blue arrow .
7. Select 1st of February 2009 as Restart date.
8. Click Apply to save your case, then click Run to run the
simulation.

View simulation results
Exercise steps
2. Go to the Cases pane and select both the aquifer case that
you used to restart from and your new prediction case.
3. Go to the Results pane and select to view Pressure for the
Field.
4. Use the same function window and deselect to view Pressure

and select Oil production rate. If you want P09 to
5. Deselect Filed identifier and select to view the Wells P05 and start producing when the
perforations open for this
P09. well in 2012. Go to Event
6. Notice how P09 starts to produce between 2011 and 2012. shifting under the Settings
This is the reason of small pressure draw down in the previous for Perforations>Depth/date
tab>select Even
plot. shifting>Specify Date.

Make a strategy with a tabular rule - Optional
Exercise steps
2. Select the radio button Create new development strategy.
3. Select Empty prediction strategy from the Use presets
drop-down menu.
4. Give the new strategy a name, for instance “Tabular rule”.
5. Double-click on the start date and change it to 2009-02-01.
6. Double-click on the end-date and change it to 2014-02-01.
7. Click on the Report frequency rule, and select a Report
frequency of 6 months.
8. Insert the Injectors, the Producers, and the Imported folder
of wells from the Input pane.
9. Right-click the Wells folder inside the process dialog, and
select Add new user folder.
10. Name the new folder All producers, then drag and drop the
Producers and the Imported folders into it.
11. Right-click on both the Producers and the Imported folder

(you can select both by pressing down CTRL) and select the
Merge with parent folder.
12. Click the Add rules button to open the rules dialog.
13. Select to add a Group voidage replacement injection, a
Well water injection control, a Well rate production
control, and a Well pressure production control rule.
Close the Add rules dialog.
14. Left-click on the Group voidage replacement injection rule
and drop the group Field into the rule and select a Voidage
replacement fraction of 1.
15. Left-click the Well water injection control rule and drop the
Injectors folder into the Wells drop-field. Select Group
control as control mode.
16. Left-click on the Well rate production control rule. Drop in the
All producers folder into the Wells drop-field, select
Reservoir rate as the Control mode, then type in a oil rate
of 10000 m3/d.
17. Right-click the new Well rate production control rule in the
Rules folder and select Convert to tabular rule from the
drop-down menu.

18. In the tabular rule, change the Reservoir volume rate for
wells P02, P05, P08, and P09 to 20000 m3/d.
19. Left-click on the Well pressure production control rule, and

then drop in the All producers folder in the Wells field, then
select Limit as the Control mode.
20. Enter a Bottom hole pressure limit of 100 bar.
21. Click OK to save the new strategy.
Exercise steps
1. Go to the Cases tab. Right-click the aquifer case , and select
Insert restart case. A new case, Aquifer_RESTART_1,
appears on the Cases pane.
2. Open the Define simulation case process and select to edit
the restart case you just created.
3. Go to the Strategies tab.
4. Add a row to the table by clicking the Append item in the
table button .
5. On the Strategies tab, drop in your new strategy Tabular
rule.
6. Click Apply to save the case, and Run to run it.

7. Open a function window, and examine the results. In particular,
notice the rates of the producers.
Lesson 2 – Keyword editor
Keyword editor
Some functionality is
not yet available from
the Petrel user
interface and must
be accessed by
manually inserting
keywords.
In some cases,
Petrel generates a
keyword but the
user want to do
manual editing, e.g.,
conversion of
ECLIPSE to Petrel
project.
There are still some ECLIPSE and FRONTSIM functionalities that cannot
be accessed through the Petrel user interface and hence the required
keywords are not exported by Petrel. In such case, it is possible to add
and edit the keyword as user keyword via the Editor.
Keyword editor
Examples are:
• Thermal simulations
• Simulator tuning
• Output additional summary
vectors
As an example, you can use the Keyword editor to report the elapsed
time of a simulation run.
Keyword editor
The Keyword editor is accessed from:
• Advanced tab of the Define simulation
case process, or
• Cases pane. Right click a case and
select Editor…

Keyword editor
Sort by section
Sort by section:
Keywords listed to the right
belong to the
ECLIPSE/FrontSim section
selected to the left
When Sort by section is selected, the keyword editor shows:

• Left: All keywords in the simulation deck sorted by section
• Right: All available keywords. When a section heading is
selected, the list is filtered so that only keywords belonging to
that section are listed.
Keyword editor
Sort by include file
Sort by include files:

the list on the left side
shows the include files
that can be edited
Expand by using the +

besides the file name to
list the keywords
contained in the file.
When Sort by include files is selected, the left side of the Keyword
editor shows the include files that can be edited. Double-click a file to
open it in an editor.
Keyword editor
Inserting keywords
The list on the right hand

side contains all keywords
for the highlighted section
Keywords can be inserted

or removed using the Insert
and Remove buttons.
To insert a new keyword:

• Highlight the section where you want to insert the keyword
• Select the keyword from the list to the right
• Click Insert
• Edit the new keyword in the editor that opens up
• Move the keywords into the correct position in the section by
clicking the Up or Down buttons.

Keyword editor
Editing keywords
Right mouse select any

keyword and select Edit to open
the keyword in an editor.
Double-clicking a keyword will

also bring up that keyword in an
editor.
You can either double-click or right-click a keyword and select Edit to

open it in your default editor.
Keyword editor
Preserving keyword edits
User keywords (black) Edits to

these keywords are preserved.
Petrel keywords (blue) Petrel is

allowed to overwrite. Can be
made into user keywords.
Petrel keywords (red) Cannot

be made into user keywords.

Petrel tags keywords and files to indicate how the keyword was
created. The keywords are displayed in red, blue or black:
• Blue: a Petrel generated keyword which is part of a file that
can be edited by the user.
• Black: a keyword that has been edited/inserted by the user.
Petrel is not allowed to overwrite it, even if the settings are
changed from the Petrel user interface.
• Red: a file which is generated by Petrel that cannot be edited
by the user. Petrel will overwrite the contents of this file
regardless of whether the keywords contained in the file are
marked as black or blue. In addition, section head keywords
are shown in red.
When Petrel creates a keyword it adds the following comment
“ -- Generated : Petrel ”
This indicates that Petrel will overwrite this file and not preserve
any changes made by the user. If you remove this comment, Petrel
will not do any changes to the keyword it contains even if new
input is given from the Petrel user interface.
“--!!! Generated file. Any edits to this file will be lost on next export
from Petrel.”
This indicates that Petrel will overwrite this file and not preserve any
changes made by the user. If you remove this comment, Petrel will not
do any changes to the keyword it contains even if new input is given
from the Petrel user interface.

Keyword editor
To make a Petrel keyword into a

user keyword, blue to black:
• Right-click the keyword and
select User keyword
OR,
• Delete the comment line above
the keyword.

You will notice that if you make a new simulation case by opening an
existing case in the Define simulation case process and selecting
Create new case, then all keywords that were inserted manually are
lost. To make a new case containing all the new keywords, select the
case on the Cases pane and press CTRL and C/CTRL and V to copy/
paste it. The copy can then be opened in the Define simulation case
process for further edits.
Keyword documentation
Right-click any keyword in the

tree and select Documentation.
Right-click on any keyword in the Keyword editor and select

Documentation to open the Eclipse/FrontSim manual for that
keyword.

Import existing simulation case
Import a case - Select file
Right-click in the Cases pane
and select Import (on tree)…
1. Set Files of type to be

ECLIPSE/FrontSim data
and results.
2. Select .DATA, or .EGRID etc.
and Petrel will locate the
other files, if available.
A simulation data file, with or without results, can be loaded to Petrel

in the Cases tab.
Import a case - Selection of files
The Simulator is auto selected

based on the data file.
Make sure it is correct as it
cannot be changed after import.
Petrel will locate all necessary

files, if available. You can also
make your own selection.

Assuming all the files have a common root name and are in the same
directory, Petrel will identify them for loading.
Import a case - Units issues
You will receive a warning

if the project you import does
not match the unit system of your
current project.
Click on Change if your current

project is empty.
The units cannot be changed after

import.
Petrel will, by default, assume that the imported files have the unit
system selected in the project settings. If you attempt to load a
simulation case with data from another unit system, Petrel will warn
you and ask whether you want to change the project units to match the
incoming data. If you select to change the unit system, data that is
already in the project will not be converted. Hence, it is only when you
are importing a case into a new, empty project that you should select to
change the unit system. Note that Petrel cannot do unit conversion after
import.
If you click on Continue, then:
• The grid geometry and 3D properties imported into Petrel will
be converted into project units
• Summary line graphs imported into Petrel will be displayed in
project units
• The keyword data will remain in the original units

Customize units
If you run the ECLIPSE case again from Petrel and load its results, the
results will be converted to project units.
Similarly, if you are creating cases within Petrel, you can customize the
units in the Project > Project Settings > Units to be different in the
simulator to the project units. Working in this mode will cause Petrel to CAUTION: These
settings only apply on import
convert keyword data on export, and results on load, between the and export. Changing the
simulator and the project units. You should be careful when you are units in the templates or in
the Project Settings after you
working in a mixed unit mode! It is very easy to get confused and make
have imported the data have
mistakes. no effect on the numbers, it
simply changes the display
label.
Import a case – Petrel objects
Well data from the

RESTART files in the
Input pane.
Summary data and 3D

Grid and properties in
the Results pane.
Simulation case added

to the Cases pane.

Import a case - Convert to Petrel case
You can convert the imported

case to a Petrel case. Right-click
the case and select Convert to
Petrel case.
Most items are converted

including:
• Fluid model
• Rock physics functions
• 3D grid properties
The development strategies are

NOT converted.
The SCHEDULE data is not converted to a development strategy in

Petrel. You can still run the case from Petrel by right-clicking on the
case in the Cases pane and select a Simulation run only. The
SCHEDULE data will then be read from the file.

Examples of use of the Keyword editor
Keyword editor
Summary vectors
Select the SUMMARY section.
Select the additional vectors you

want, for example connection oil
production for a well.
To report other summary vectors than the ones listed on the Report tab
of the Define simulation case process, you can use the Keyword
editor:
• Select the SUMMARY section in the left part of the Keyword
editor
• Select the vector you want to report in the list on the right side
• Check the syntax of the keyword in the manual if necessary
• Click the Insert button and edit the keyword in the editor that
opens

Keyword editor
Tuning the simulator
Insert the TUNING keyword

into the SCHEDULE section.
Default tuning is usually good

enough for ECLIPSE.
Use with caution.
If you need to make changes to the ECLIPSE time stepping or the

convergence criteria, you must use the Keyword editor. In FrontSim
there are several options for setting the tuning parameters for the
simulator from the Advanced tab of the Define simulation case
process.
Exercises –Keyword editor - import a case

These exercises shows you how to use the Keyword editor to access
the ECLIPSE/FrontSim keywords.
Exercise Workflow
• Import a simulation case
• Edit the case using the Keyword editor
• Convert to Petrel case
Exercise Data
In this exercise, you will open a new Petrel project and import an
existing case from the folder ImportData>KeywordEditor.

Load a simulation case
Exercise steps
1. Open Petrel, or start a new project if Petrel is already open.
2. Go to the Cases pane.
3. Right-click and select Import (on tree).
4. Ensure Files of type is set to ECLIPSE/FrontSim data and
results (*.*)
5. Navigate to the folder ImportData > KeywordEditor containing
BRILLIG.DATA.
6. Click on BRILLIG.DATA then click Open. This opens the Import
ECLIPSE / FrontSim run dialog.
7. As there are no results, the only file to load is the .DATA file.
Ensure the Simulator is set to ECLIPSE 100.
8. At the bottom of the Import ECLIPSE / FrontSim run dialog,

deselect the Automate handling of import settings option.
Click the Advanced button.
9. In the window that opens, select Global coordinate system.
In the Remove cells part of the dialog, deselect to use Flat
cells with no volume and pillars with equal z-values.
10. Click OK. You will be prompted with a question asking whether
you want to change the project coordinate system to match the
import data. Click Change. The ECLIPSE file is loaded into
Petrel.
11. Select to use NULL as coordinate system if prompted.
12. Save the project to the folder containing the BRILLIG data.
Edit the case

Exercise steps
1. Right-click the BRILLIG case on the Cases pane and select
The list of keywords Editor to open the Keyword editor.
on the right side is sensitive 2. Expand the GRID section. Locate the NOGGF keyword. Right-
to the section selected on
the left. For example, click on
click it and select Documentation to get an explanation of
GRID to see only the relevant the keyword and any associated parameters.
keywords on the right hand 3. Close the documentation and remove the keyword from the
side.
case by selecting it and clicking the Remove button.
4. Click on Apply to save the changes.
5. Select Sort by include files in the Keyword editor.
6. In the Keyword editor, scroll down the left hand side and
highlight a keyword inside the SCHEDULE file (BRILLIG_SCH.
INC).
7. Select the INCLUDE keyword from the right hand side and
insert it in the left hand side by clicking Insert.
8. Enter the VFPI.TXT file in the INCLUDE file. The file contains
VFP tables for your wells. Save and close the text file.
9. Click on OK to save the changes and to close the Keyword
editor.
Run the simulation case

Exercise steps
1. Right-click on the ECLIPSE 100 case again and select
Simulation run only.
2. Browse the Input, Models, and Results panes. Expand the
Simulation grid results folder in the Results pane, locate
your case in the Cases pane and display the simulated
properties in a 3D window (Dynamic folder).
3. Open a function window from the Window menu, expand the
Dynamic results data folder in the Results pane. Ensure
BRILLIG is selected for view on the Cases pane.
4. Review some of the summary data vectors. You may need to
use the View all in viewport icon to see the entire data
range.

Convert to Petrel case
Exercise steps
1. Right-click on BRILLIG in the Cases pane and select Convert
to Petrel case.
2. A message log will give you information on the keywords that
could not be converted to Petrel objects.
3. Inspect the Input and the Models pane. A fluid model and
rock physics functions has been added to the Input pane, and
a new model containing 3D grid properties is added to the
Models pane.

Summary
How to set up prediction development strategies in Petrel has been
covered in this module. How to add additional rules and organizing the
wells into groups or folders of wells was covered. We have also
covered the use of the Keyword editor to enable options that are not
yet available inside the graphical user interface in Petrel.

Appendix 1 - Advanced
Workflows
Dual
Dual porosity
porosity – Dual permeability
– Dual permeability
Fluids exist in two

interconnected systems.
Simulator approximation
Reality
In a dual porosity reservoir, fluids exist in two interconnected systems:

• The rock matrix, which usually provides the bulk of the
reservoir volume
• The highly permeable rock fractures.
If the matrix blocks are linked only through the fracture system, this
Dual porosity dual
would conventionally be regarded as a dual porosity single permeability permeability runs are
system, since fluid flow through the reservoir takes place only in the computationally more
fracture network with the matrix blocks acting as sources. If there is the expensive than dual porosity
single permeability runs.
possibility of flow directly between neighboring matrix blocks, this is
normally considered to be a dual porosity dual permeability system.
Reservoir Engineering Appendix 1- Advanced Workflows • 375

To model such systems, Petrel will generate two grids – one
representing the matrix and the other representing the fracture volumes
of the cell. The porosity, permeability, depth (etc) properties of both
grids may be independently defined. A matrix-fracture coupling
transmissibility is constructed automatically to simulate flow between
the two systems due to fluid expansion, gravity drainage, capillary
pressure, etc. In a dual porosity run, the number of layers in the
Z-direction should be doubled. The simulator associates the first half of
the grid with the matrix blocks, and the second half with the fractures.
Dual porosity – Dual permeability

Create fracture network model using the
Create discrete fracture network
process
Scale up fracture network properties:

porosity, permeability (3 or 6 tensors),
sigma
The Scale up fracture network process converts the discrete fracture

network (with its defined properties) into the properties that are
essential for running a dual porosity, or dual permeability simulation, in
ECLIPSE or any other simulator. These are fracture porosity, fracture
permeability (3 or 6 tensors) and sigma factor (the connectivity between
the fractures and the matrix).
376 • Appendix 1- Advanced Workflows Reservoir Engineering

Dual porosity – Dual permeability
Add fracture system to simulation: 3. Add relative permeability curves for the
Fracture system
1. Select simulation type
4. Set Advanced dual porosity settings (no
2. Drop in fracture properties and DP multiplier and Gravity drainage)
the dual porosity matrix-fracture
coupling transmissibility
3
4
2
Sector modeling
Sector modeling allows you to simulate a portion of a reservoir - the
region of interest - using boundary conditions extracted from a
(previously run) full field model. This is useful when planning an infill
drill well, designing a complex completion or matching a well’s
performance to observed behavior. The sector model simulation will run
much faster than the full field model.
There are two distinct workflows for sector modeling. The main
difference is whether the regions used to identify the region of interest
are defined before or after the full field run is performed.
Regions defined before running the full field model allow the boundary
conditions to be captured by the simulator at every time step during the
full field run, and results in a more accurate sector model simulation.

To define a region, you can use the Geometrical modeling tool. In this
example, a region around well P03 is created.

The previous illustration shows where to insert the region of interest in
the Define simulation case process dialog in order to capture the
boundary conditions for a well region during a full field run.
Sector modeling
Insert a sector model
Once the full field model has run,

the boundary condition for the
region is stored on the Models
pane.
Right-click the full field case in the

Cases pane and select Insert
sector model.
Once the simulation has run and the results are loaded, a new folder is
added to the Models pane. This folder is named Sector modeling and
contains the boundary condition that was captured at the boundary of
the region that was used as input.
To insert a sector model, right-click on the full field model in the Cases
pane and select Insert sector model. A new case is then added to the
Cases pane. You can open the case in the Define simulation case
process to supply the boundary condition.

Sector modeling
Run a sector model
Open the Sector modeling in the
Define simulation case model,
and drop in the boundary
condition captured during the full
field run.
Hysteresis
Hysteresis
Hysteresis: When the curve used to determine the rock properties is a function of the
history of the rock and a function of the direction of the change in the saturation.
Hysteresis enables you to specify different saturation functions for

drainage (decreasing wetting phase saturation) and imbibition
(increasing wetting phase saturation) processes for the simulation case.
A typical pair of relative permeability curves for a non-wetting phase is
shown in the figure. The curve 1 to 2 represents the user supplied
drainage relative permeability table, and the curve 2 to 3 represents the
user supplied imbibition relative permeability table. (Note that non-
wetting phase saturation increases from right to left in this diagram).
The critical saturation of the imbibition curve (Sncri) is greater than that
of the drainage curve (Sncrd). The two curves must meet at the maximum
saturation value (Snmax).
The primary drainage curve is for a process which starts at the
maximum possible wetting phase saturation (Swmaxd). If the wetting
phase saturation decreases to (Swmin), this primary drainage curve is
used. In a similar way, if the initial saturation is (Swmin), and the wetting
phase saturation increases to (Swmaxi), the imbibition table data will be
used.
If the drainage or imbibition process is reversed at some point, the data
used does not simply run back over its previous values but runs along a
scanning curve.
Hysteresis
Select drainage relative

permeability curves and imbibitions
relative permeability curves in the
Functions tab.
Drop in saturation functions from

the Input pane.
For cases with the water saturation increasing: Imbibition curves should
be used.
When (in a grid block) the saturation of water increases and then the
saturation of gas increases – Hysteresis should be used.
You supply two saturation function tables for the simulation case.
These provide respectively the primary drainage and pendular
imbibition curves.
Case management
Remote job submission
It is possible to submit jobs

from Petrel to a Linux/Unix
computer.
To do so you must:
• Install support for remote
simulation
• Configure Petrel for remote
job submission
• Define queues in Petrel
Remote job submission

Petrel can run simulations in ECLIPSE and FrontSim either on your local
PC, or on a remote server. In either case, you must have an installation
of ECLIPSE Simulators on your PC, version 2006.1 or newer: this
includes an application called eclrun.exe which is used by Petrel to
submit simulation runs.
If you wish to submit runs to a remote machine, you need to configure
both Petrel and the server.
See the Online Help for more information.

Index B
Based on input data, 155
Base surface, 52
Binary
grid data, 118
Symbols Bitlock, 40
3D grid Black oil models, 67
skeleton grid, defined, 49
defined, 14 by manual settings, 72
3D viewing, 123 dead oil, 72
1D filters, 124 default models, 72
creating intersection window, 128 dry gas, 72
how to apply filters, 129 gas properties, 73
how to make filters using a Histogram window, 131 heavy oil+gas, 72
how to use I, J, and K filters, 131 how to plot, 83
how to view data on an intersection plane, 133 importing a keyword fluid model, 83
inserting intersections, 128 importing fluid models, 81
multi-value probe, 134 initial conditions, 75
results viewing, 129 light oil+gas, 72
ternary property, make contacts, 77
user filters, 126 making a table with initial conditions, 76
well filters, 126 oil properties, 74
+/- Sign, 27 separator conditions, 72
specifying fluid phase, 72
A using a spreadsheet to model the variation with depth, 78
Active item, 26
Bold Item, 26
Advanced tab
Boundary
selecting formats, 118
Algorithms in pillar gridding, defined, 141
for discrete properties, 168 Boundary for the Pillar grid
in scale up properties, 166 defined, 14
Aquifers, 195. See also Make aquifers; Branching wells

importing, 266
adding, 203 Bubble plots
Averaging (cell count) for observed data, development strategies and simulation
in scale up properties, 166 data, 234
Averaging methods Bubble point line, 68
in scale up properties, 167
Bubble point pressure, 78
Averaging (volume-weighted)
in scale up properties, 166
Reservoir Engineering Course Index • 383

C D
Capillary pressure, 95 Dead oil, 72
Cartesian Dx, Dy, Dz, 183 Define simulation case, 108
Cartesian Gradual Dx, Dy, Dz, 183 advanced tab, 118
Cartesian Gradual Nx, Ny, Nz, 183 selecting grid type, 118
Cartesian Nx, Ny, Nz, 183 Depth

placing completion items at depth, 315
Cases pane, 26, 27
Development strategies, 208
defined, 14 adding a rule to limit the production pressures, 222
Casing, 306 averaging data, 216
bubble plots, 234
Cell
combining view-ports in one plot window, 238
defined, 14 default strategies, 212
Cell angles, 157 defining a history case, 217
defining and running simulation cases using history
cell inside-out, 158
development strategy, 223
Colors exporting simulation results, 231
specifying line styles for simulation results, development filtering results tree, 230
strategies and observed data, 227 history match, 208
Comments tab, 34 history strategies, 209
how to change the line style in function windows, 236
Compaction
how to create a history strategy, 213
rock compaction function, 89 how to import observed data, 217
how to make a history development strategy, 217
Completions. See Well completion design
how to visualize the observed data, 219
Components tab importing observed data, 210
adding new, 70 line styles, 227
Compositional fluid model, 67 plotting, 215
making, 70 plotting data, 226
Conditions prediction mode, 209
initial conditions for black oil models, 75 selecting, 108
Contact level, 78 viewing observed data in a function window, 212
defined, 14 view the history development strategy data, 221
Contact set, 75 water cut, 244
Corey correlations Deviation file

importing, 265
in make rock physics functions, 92 Dew point, 78
Corner point grid Dew point line, 68
defined, 14
Digitizing
Correlation library, 66
fault, 56
Create a STOIIP map from volume calculation,
well paths, 272
Critical point, 68
384 • Index Reservoir Engineering
Directional averaging
in scale up permeability, 167 how to use I, J, and K filters for 3D viewing, 131
Directions how to use value filter, 162
defined, 14 making from function and histogram windows, 126
Discontinuous surface, 52 streamlines, , 235
well filters for 3D viewing, 126
Dongle, 40
zone filter, 53
Dry gas, 72
Flow-based upscaling
Dual porosity dual permeability systems, 375 in scale up permability, 167
E Flow paths
turning on display, 311
Eclipse
Fluid models ; See also Make fluid model
importing keyword files, 81 assigning separate to regions, 112
remote job submission, 382 compositional model, 70
Empty prediction strategy making, 69
defined, 337 Fluids
Endwell filter, 236 specifying fluids phase in black oil models, 72
Equality+/-, 251 Follow base, 54
Equilibration, 113 Follow top, 54
Equipment tab Formats

defining settings, 313 for exporting grid data from models pane, 118
Erosional surfaces, 52 Fractions, 54
Event data FrontSim
importing perforations, stimulations and work-overs, 320 remote job submissions, 382
Explorer panes, 25 Function bar, , 28
defined, 15
F
Function window
Fault defined, 15
defined, 14
G
Fault filter Gas properties, 73
defined, 53
General intersections
Faults
assigning transmissibility multiplier, 58 creating intersection window, 128
excluding in pillar gridding, 146 inserting, 128
how to insert into grid, 57 viewing data on an intersection plane, 133
how to make a simulation fault, 61 General surface, 52
in pillar gridding, defined, 141
General tab
inserting into grid, 56
Filters used in black oil models, 72
defined, 14 Grayed-out area, 28
fault filter, 53
how to make filters using a Histogram window, 131
Reservoir Engineering Index • 385
Grids Horizons. See also Make horizons
creatings grids without faults, 48 base surface, 52
how to make a simple grid, 48, 59 defined, 15
Skeleton grid, defined, 49 discontinuous surface, 52
Grid separate zones erosional surfaces, 52
in local grid refinements, 184 general surface, 52
inserting into simple grid, 50
H
make horizons process, 51, 52
Heavy oil+gas, 72
types of, 52
Help manual. See Online help manual Horizontal wells, 308
Histogram window Hysteresis, 380
defined, 15
History matching, 208 I
crossplotting two vectors, 254 Icons
how to compare cases in a map window, 260 used in this manual, 13
how to run history match analysis, 256 Importing
how to view match data in a function window, 259 a polygon, 190
how to view match data in a map window, 257 branching wells, 266
match values in map window, 252 fluid models, 81
normalization, 248 rock physics functions, 97
results viewing, 248 well header, 264
sampling, 246 well path deviation, , 276
settings, 245 well path / deviation file, 265
setting threshold and equality, 251 Info tab, 34
single vector versus case number, 255
Initial conditions tab, 75
statistics settings, 254
viewing data in a function window, 249 Initializing the model
viewing data in a map window, 249 3D initial properties, 116
zero data filtering, 248 by equilibration, 113
History strategies, 209 methods for, 110
adding a rule to limit the production pressures, 222 model, 108
defined, , 337 with fluid and rock physics functions, 120
defining a history case, 217 Input pane, 25, 26
defining and running simulation cases, 223 defined, 15
editing default rules, 215 Insert horizons, 50
how to create, 213
Interface, 41
how to import observed data, 217
how to make a history development strategy, 217 Intersection
how to visualize the observed data, 219 defined, 15
plotting data, 226 Intersection window
viewing the development strategy data, 221 defined, 15
History tab, 34 Irreducible saturations, 94

K
grid to well connections, 185
Key Pillars, 140
methods, 183
Keyword editor, 355 scaling up a property onto the local grid set, 187
defined, 15 setting different parameters for different sources, 185
documentation, 362 setting source parameters, 184
how to convert to Petrel case, 372 specifying host cells from sources, 182
how to edit the simulation case, 370 upscaling a property, 193
how to load a simulation case, 369 use active filter, 184
how to run the simulation case, 371 zone filter, 184
inserting a new keyword:, 358 Local grid set
preserving keyword edits, 362 how to make, 190
setting the tuning parameters for simulator, 368 inspecting, 192
sorting by include files, 357
M
sorting by section, 357
Make aquifers, 195
summary vectors, 367
tagging keywords, 360 adding an aquifer, 203
creating new or edit existing, 196
L
drive direction and vertical extent, 198
Layering, 51
properties tab, 202
follow base, 54 specifying the model to use, 197
follow top, 54 Make contacts, 77
fractions, 54 procedure, 77
process, 54 Make fluid model, 66
proportional, 54 importing a keyword fluid model, 83
settings for scale up structure, 155 Make Horizons, 51
Layers process defined, 51
defined, 15 Make rock physics functions, 88
LGR capillary pressure, 95
defined, 15 corey correlations, 92
Licenses, 40 how to make, 100
how to make a saturation function, 98
Light oil+gas, 72
importing, 97
Liner, 306 irreducible saturations, 94
Line styles plotting, 97
settings for dynamic data, 227 Reviewing the data, 102
Local grid refinement rock compaction function, 89
defined, 15 saturation function, 91
Local grid refinements, 47, 180, 195 spreadsheets, 95
defined by polygons, 181 Make simple grid, 48
defined by surfaces, 181
Make zones
defined by wells, 181
extending host cell along I, J, K, 184 process defined, 51
grid separate zones, 184
Map window
defined, 15 windows pane, 26, 29
Menu bar, workflows pane, 25, 29
defined, 15 Perforation, 306
Model Permeabilities
defined, 16
directional averaging methods, 169
Models pane, 25, 26 Phase diagrams, 68

Phase pressures
defined, 16
Multiple drop, 52 computing, 114
Multi-value probe, 134 Pillar gridding

boundary, defined, 141
N cell size, 144
Nodes changing the grid orientation, 151
defined, 16 coarsening the grid, 148
Notes concept, 140
comments tab, 34 defined, 16
excluding faults, 146
O
faults, defined, 141
Objects
geometry and formats, 147
history, 34 results, 147
renaming, 34 segments, defined, 141
settings, 33 settings, 142
Observed data throughput problems,
bubble plots, 234 trends, defined, 141
change the line style in function windows, 236 Pillars
importing, 210 defined, 16
viewing in a function window, 212 Plotting
Oil properties, 74 fluid model, 83
observed data versus the development strategy, 215
Online Help Manual, 41
rock physics functions, 97
Opening
Plot window
projects, 39 combining view-ports in one plot window, 238
OPF (Open Petrel Format) format, 118 Plug, 307
P Polygons
Panes defined, 16
cases pane, 26, 27 importing, 190
input pane, 25, 26 in local grid refinements, 181
models pane, 25, 26 in make aquifer, 197
processes pane, 25, 28 Pore volume
results pane, 25, 27 setting minimum, 119
templates pane, 25
Prediction depletion strategy R
defined, 337
Reference project tool
Prediction development strategy how to use, 285
adding new rules, 341 Relative permeability
adding new times, 338 curve for oil-water, 94
adding new wells, 338 Remote job submission, 382
converting to tabular rule, 342
Reservoir conditions
copy and paste a development strategy, 346
group control, 344 in black oil models, 72
how to add a new rule to an existing Results
strategy, 349 3D initial properties, 116
how to create by using a default strategy, 347 Results pane, 25, 27
how to define a prediction case, 350 defined, 16
how to make a strategy with a tabular rule, 351 exporting simulation results, 231
how to view simulation results, 350 filter results tree, 230
linked folders, 339 Results viewing, 129
making a strategy, 336
Rock compaction function, 89
rule validation, 342
user folders, 339 how to make, 100
Prediction mode, 209 settings, 90
Prediction water flood strategy Rock physics functions. See Make rock physics functions
defined, 337 Rules
Pressure converting to tabular rule, 342

entering at separator conditions, 72 for the prediction development strategy, 341
Processes pane, 25, 28 validation, 342
defined, 16
S
Project settings, 31 Saturation
Properties
by equilibration, 115
entering for gas, 73 Saturation function, 91
for gas, 73 how to make, 98
for oil, 74 Saving
multi-value probe, 134 projects, 39
Scaling up, 163
Scale up. See also Upscaling
Proportional layering, 54
Scale up fracture network, 376
Q Scale up properties
Qualitative mode, 250 algorithms for discrete properties, 168
Quality checking applying different methods, 173
in scale up structure, 160 averaging methods, 167
of the coarse grid, 156 how to sample properties from fine grid into coarse grid, 170
Quantitative mode, 250 process, 163
reviewing in a 3D window, 175
Simulators
reviewing the upscaled properties, 174 selecting, 108
selecting algorithm, 166 Skeleton
Scale up structure, defined, 17
grid quality check, 160 Skeleton grid, 147
layering, 159
Spreadsheet
two methods for, 155
Sector modeling, 377 for wells, 297
capturing boundary conditions for a region, 378 Spreadsheets
inserting a sector model, 379 for rock physics functions, 95
Segment filter to model variation with depth in black oil models, 78
used in local grid refinements, 184 Squeeze, 306
Segments Startwell filter, , 236
in pillar gridding, defined, 141
Statistics tab, 35
Segments (Regions)
defined, 16 Status bar
Select/pick mode, 37 defined, 17
Sensitivity runs, 209 Stimulation, 306
Separator conditions, 72 Strategies
Settings when initializing model, 116

for layering in zones, 155 Streamlines, 235
for objects, 33
Style tab, 33
for pillar gridding, 142
for project, 31 Summation
for rock compaction function, 90 in scale up properties, 166
style tab, 33 Surfaces. See also Horizons
Simulation case defined, 17
define simulation case, 108 in local grid refinements, 181
importing an existing case, 363
T
managing, 366
Table
remote job submission, 382
results viewing, 129 setting up for initial conditions, 76
units, 364 Temperature
Simulation grid entering at separator conditions, 72
defined, 17 Templates
making, 139 changing, 34
Simulations defined, 17
bubble plots for simulation data, 234 Templates pane, 25
change the line style for simulated data in function windows, defined, 17
236 Terminology
development strategies, 208 used in this manual, 13
viewing data on streamlines, 241 Threshold, 251

Time units, 32 W
Title bar Water cut
defined, 17 defined, 244
Toolbar Water rates, 244
defined, 17
Weighting
Trajectories, 270
defined, 17
Transmissibilities tab, 119
Well bore history, 209
Transmissibility multiplier
Well completion design, 306
assigning to fault, 58
defined, 17 editing completion data, 314
Trends editing completion items, 310
defined, 17 editing existing and adding new completions, 319
in pillar gridding, defined, 141 how to define equipment, 323
Tuning runs, 209 how to edit casing, 326
how to import well completion events, 328
U how to insert casing, 324
Uncertainty workflow editor, 29 how to insert perforation, 326
Units how to make completions using the operations tab, 331
for time in Petrel, 32 importing event data, 320
Upscaling, 153 inserting a new completion item, 310
organizing data, 312
Use active filter
placing items at depth, 315
in local grid refinements, 184 quality check, 330
User interface, 24, 41 Well data
how to import, 276
V importing a well header, 264
Value filter importing well path / deviation file, 265
how to use, 162 Well filters, 126
Vertical coarsening Well header
upscaling, 153
Vertical subdivision, 51 importing, 264
two methods for simulation grid, 155 Well manager, 267, 303
Vertical well Well path
how to make, 278
Vertical well intersection digitizing, 272
inserting, 302 importing, 265
View Mode, 37 Well path design, 267, 286
editing, 275
Visualization
inserting vertical well intersection, 302
windows for, 29 intersection with horizons, 303
Visualization windows, 36 making a new vertical well, 268
process, 269
synthetic log curves, 302
trajectory, 270
Well path deviation
how to import, 276
Well region property
defining a region, 378
Well report
how to make, 304
Wells
in local grid refinements, 181
Well section window
defined, 18
Wells spreadsheet, 297
Well tops
defined, 18
Well trajectories
defined, 18
Windows pane, 26, 29
defined, 18
Workflow
for Petrel reservoir engineering, 21
Workflow diagram, 19
Workflow editor, 29
Workflows pane, 25, 29
defined, 18
Z
Zonation, 155
Zone filter
defined, 53
in local grid refinements, 184
Zones
defined, 18
make zones process, 51

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Reservoir Engineering

Module 2 - The Petrel User Interface...................................23

Module 4 - Initialize the Model and View 3D

Module 6 - Local grid refinements and Aquifers..............179

Module 7 - History development strategies......................207

Module 8 - Well Engineering...............................................263

Module 9 - Prediction strategies.........................................335

Appendix 1 - Advanced Workflows....................................375

Reservoir Engineering Table of Contents • 9

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the reservoir

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 11

12 • Introduction  Reservoir Engineering

Tips Notes Best Practices

This icon identifies any

Prerequisites Learning Objectives What you will need

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 13

16 • Introduction  Reservoir Engineering

18 • Introduction  Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 19

20 • Introduction  Reservoir Engineering

The engineer used to depend on a number of software products in order

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 21

22 • Introduction  Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 23

24 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Status bar Object information

The Petrel user interface

Input and Model panes

26 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Cases and Results panes

Cases and Results panes

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 27

Only one process can be

Processes pane and Function bar

28 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Petrel offers the possibility to do

With 2010, only some data

Select Null to disable this

30 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Note: There is NO unit conversion inside

1. Every object has a

32 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Most objects have a Style

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 33

1. Rename objects by entering a

4. The History tab keeps track

34 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

The content of each item can be checked

One or all lists can be copied to an output

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 35

Maneuvering from Function bar Visualization from Tool bar

Move – Left mouse button

View all displayed data

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 37

Gray, square boxes – select the

Gray, radio buttons –only ONE object

Yellow, square boxes – Filters. Used

38 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

2. Save Project As:

Petrel File Management

The .pet file contains the

Note: When making a backup or sending your project to support,

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 39

Reservoir Engineering Table of Contents • 9

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 11

12 • Introduction Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 13

16 • Introduction Reservoir Engineering

18 • Introduction Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 19

20 • Introduction Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering Introduction • 21

22 • Introduction Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 23

24 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

26 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 27

28 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

30 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

32 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 33

34 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 35

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 37

38 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 39

44 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 45

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 47

48 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 49

50 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 53

54 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 55

56 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 57

58 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 59

Reservoir Engineering The Petrel User Interface • 63

64 • The Petrel User Interface Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering Functions • 65

Reservoir Engineering Functions • 67

68 • Functions Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering Functions • 69

70 • Functions Reservoir Engineering

Reservoir Engineering Functions • 71

Reservoir Engineering Functions • 73

74 • Functions Reservoir Engineering

76 • Functions Reservoir Engineering