Making a Fluid Model

The Make fluid model process allows you to generate black oil fluid models. These
models are defined by specifying several properties such as viscosity, density and volume
formation factors for each of the fluid phases. These properties are normally entered as
tables that only depend on pressure. The most reliable way to obtain this information is
from a reservoir fluid study using bottomhole or reconstituted fluid samples. If such data
is not available, correlations can be used to estimate the oil, water and gas properties as
well as the gas/oil relationships. Note that this process does not offer any support for
creating ECLIPSE 300 compositional fluid models.
The Make fluid model process gives you access to a wide range of correlations. A best
correlation is automatically selected based on the input parameters you choose.
Alternatively, you may choose correlations manually.
Data for initial reservoir conditions must also be entered in the Make fluid model process.
Together with the fluid properties and saturation functions, this allows determination of
the initial fluid distribution in the reservoir. Rock compressibility data is now entered
using the Make rock physics functions process.
Make fluid model process steps
In Petrel you can add new fluid models, and update or delete existing fluid models. Once
created the fluid model will appear in the Fluids folder on the Input pane. See Fluid
model (Settings) for details of the settings page.
How to make a fluid model from correlations
To create a new fluid model by using correlations:
1. In the Processes pane, open Simulation and select Make fluid model. This opens the
Make fluid model dialog.
2. Select Create new fluid model and enter the name for the new fluid model into the
adjacent field.
3. Most of the fields on the dialog can be filled in with default values by selecting an
option from the Use defaults list.
4. Select the phases required by clicking on the appropriate checkboxes.
5. If you know the values for the model parameters, enter them into the appropriate fields.
6. If you wish to use particular correlations rather than the defaults, select the correlations
in the Correlations tab.

7. To specify the initial reservoir conditions for the model, you can either drop in a
contact set (in which case the initial conditions will be derived from it and a region grid
property will be created that maps the initial conditions to grid blocks) or you can enter a
table of contact depths and pressures.
8. Click on OK or Apply to create the new fluid model.
How to make a fluid model from ECLIPSE keywords
You can create a new fluid model from a file containing ECLIPSE PVT keywords:
1. Petrel assumes that the units in the keywords file are the same as the simulation unit
system (as specified in the Project | Project settings | Units and coordinates). Make
sure that the units are set correctly (you can change the simulation units system back
again afterwards, if necessary).
2. If you do not have already a Fluids folder in the Input pane, create one by selecting
Insert | New fluid folder.
3. Right-click on the Fluids folder and select Import (on selection)
4. Select your ECLIPSE keywords file from the Import file dialog and click on Open.
5. A number of fluid models that correspond to the keywords in the file will be created
under the Fluids folder.
How to make a fluid model from tables
If you have fluid pressure tables and other fluid data, you can enter them directly in
Petrel:
1. If you do not already have a Fluids folder in the Input pane, create one by selecting
Insert | New fluid folder.
2. Right-click on the Fluids folder and select Insert a new black oil model.
3. Right-click on the Black oil model, from the context menu you can insert a gas, oil or
water phase, as appropriate, and you can insert any number of initial conditions.
4. Double-click on any of the gas, oil or water phases to open the Settings dialog. In the
Fluid tab you can set the surface densities and water properties (for a water phase).
5. Right-click on the gas or oil phases and select Spreadsheet from the context menu.
You can enter a table of formation volume factor and viscosity against pressure and
solution gas-oil ratio (for oil) or vaporized oil-gas ratio (for gas).
6. Double-click on an initial condition to open the Settings dialog. In the Settings tab you
can enter the reference pressure, reference depth, contact depths and capillary pressures.

7. If you have a gas and oil phase, you can right-click on an initial condition and select
Spreadsheet from the context menu. You can then enter a table of solution gas-oil ratio
and/or vaporized oil-gas ratio against depth.
How to update an existing fluid model
If you have a fluid model that was created by correlations in the Make fluid model
process:
1. In the Processes pane, open Simulation and select Make fluid model. This opens the
Make fluid model dialog.
2. Select Edit existing fluid model and choose the model from the drop-down list.
3. Change the model parameters as required.
4. Click on OK or Apply to update the fluid model.
If you have a fluid model that was imported or entered directly in tables, you can edit the
data directly as described above in How to make a fluid model from tables.
Make fluid model dialog settings
The Make fluid model process allows you to enter the parameters required to create a
black oil fluid model based on correlations.
An area at the top of the process dialog gives you the option to create a new model or edit
an existing model. It also allows you to select the phases that are present in your
reservoir.
The following options are available:
Create new fluid model: Choose this if you want to make a new fluid model.
Edit existing fluid model: Choose this if you want to modify a fluid model. You can
then select the model from the drop-down list.
Phases: Select the phases for the fluid model by clicking on the appropriate checkboxes.
Use defaults: You can fill the dialog with default settings by selecting one of the predefined fluid models. These are Dead oil, Heavy oil+gas, Light oil+gas and Dry gas.
There are four tabs within the dialog, used to define fluid properties, correlations and
initial conditions:
General: In this tab you enter the most basic information about the fluids and about
reservoir and separator conditions. The information is needed as input to compute
correlations.

Composition: Here you can enter gas composition information, to generate a more
accurate model of the gas phase.
Correlations: Here you choose the correlations that are used to generate the fluid tables.
Initial conditions: This allows you to define the initial reservoir conditions (pressures
and contact depths).

General

In this tab you enter the basic fluid properties for the model. In addition, temperature and
pressure conditions, in both the reservoir and the separator, are specified here. The
following options are available:
Gas gravity: Enter the specific gravity of the gas relative to air.
Oil gravity: Enter the API gravity of the oil present. This option is available only if an oil
phase has been selected for the model.
Solution gas/oil ratio: If you know the ratio of dissolved gas in oil for the model (in
standard cubic meters per standard cubic meter), select this option and enter the value.
Alternatively, you can enter the bubble point pressure of the oil.
Bubble point pressure: If you know the pressure at which bubbles of gas will form
within the oil at the ambient temperature for the model, select this option and enter the
pressure. Alternatively, you can enter the solution gas/oil ratio.
Salinity: Enter the salinity of water present for the model. This is in grams of solids per
million grams of liquid (ppm). This option is available only if a water phase has been
selected for the model.

Minimum and Maximum pressure: Enter the lowest and highest pressure likely to be
encountered during simulation. If the simulation pressure goes outside this range then the
simulator will have to extrapolate the pressure tables, which may cause inaccurate results
or convergence problems.
Temperature: Enter the average reservoir temperature.
Known separator conditions: If you know the temperature and pressure in the separator,
select this checkbox and enter the values into appropriate fields. Some of the correlation
methods use separator conditions as input. Providing this information will therefore give
you more correlation methods to choose from.
Note that the units displayed in the Make fluid model process follow that set for the
project. Changing the units is done in the Project | Project settings | Units and
coordinates menu.

Composition

The Composition tab allows you to enter gas composition details to produce a more
accurate model of the gas phase. The gas impurities and component fractions up to
hexanes (C6) can be entered, along with a pseudo-component (C7+) fraction and
characterization. Note that this information is only used by the correlation methods to
produce a better gas phase in a black oil model. Compositional fluid models cannot be
defined using the Make fluid model process.
The options in this tab are available only if a gas phase has been selected for the model.

The following information categories are available:

Known impurities: If you know the levels of impurities in gas, select this checkbox and
enter the fractional value concentrations of hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide and
nitrogen for the mixture. A value of 1 represents 100%. The total fraction of gas currently
allocated to impurities is included in the Total components value shown in the Known
gas composition category.
Known gas composition: If you know the composition of the gas, select this checkbox
and enter the fractional value concentrations of each component up to a carbon chain
length of six. You can also enter a value for all components with a chain length of seven
or higher. A value of 1 represents 100%. The Total components value shows the total
fraction of gas, including impurities, currently allocated; this value should be equal to 1
when all components have been entered.
Pseudo-component characterization: Enter the molecular weight and specific gravity
for the C7+ pseudo-component.

Correlations

In the Correlations tab you can specify the correlation methods that will be used to
generate the fluid model. By default, Petrel tries to select the best correlation for each
function, based on the input data you have supplied. If you enable the Report
correlations in log window option a report is sent to the Petrel log window detailing
exactly which correlations were used.

The Table entries field controls the size of the tables that are generated; this
approximately corresponds to the number of pressure points used.
The three tabs contain the options to select the correlations that will be used for the Gas,
Oil and Water phase respectively. You can either leave each setting as (default), in
which case the correlation selected automatically by Petrel, or choose a named correlation
from each drop-down list. Note that some combinations of correlations are not
compatible. If you choose non-compatible correlation methods, Petrel gives a warning
message and selects correlations that are compatible instead.
For more information about the correlations available, please see PVT Correlations.

Initial conditions

In this tab you can define the initial conditions in the reservoir that the simulator uses to
calculate the pressure and phase saturations in every grid block during initialization. Each
fluid region in the reservoir may contain a number of different, unconnected initial
condition regions. For each region you must specify a reference depth and 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, using:
1. Contact set: If you have an existing contact set, you can select the Define from
contact set option and drop in the contact set from the Petrel Models pane. There are two
ways of defining contact sets, either by typing in the contacts or by dropping in a contact
surface. For contact sets created from contact depths entered by the user, the Make fluid
model process creates an initial condition region for each distinct set of contacts in the
contact set. For contact sets created from surfaces, the Make fluid model process
discretizes the contact surfaces into regions with similar values and creates an initial
condition for each unique combination of contact depths. The datum depth and pressure
are defaulted, if it is not defined in the contact set, and a discrete grid property, named
after the contact set, is created that maps the initial conditions regions to the grid blocks.
Target number of initial conditions: Enter the target number of initial conditions that
you would like to represent the spatial variation in the contact surfaces. This parameter is
ignored if the contact set was created from user entered contact depths. If separate sloping
contacts are specified for different zones or segments, then this target is applies
separately to each. So for example, if the number of bins = 5, and there is a different
surface specified for the OWC in, say, zones Upper and Lower, then the process attempts
to create 5 equilibration regions for zone Upper and 5 equilibration regions for zone
Lower. Note this is a target number of bins; it may not be matched exactly.
Fill table from contact set: The calculation of contact values from multiple sloping
contact surfaces can take some time. Select this option to do the calculation now. The
calculated set of initial conditions (if less than 500) is displayed in the table; otherwise
the initial conditions and region property are calculated along with the fluid models when
you select Apply or OK in this dialog.
Surface elevation: This is zero, which is equal to mean sea level, by default. You can
enter a different value for your field and this is used in the calculation of pressure as a
function of depth (see Pressure and Datum depth below).
2. Table: If you select the Define in table option, you can enter the details of each initial
condition in a table.
The table consists of a column for each initial condition region; columns can be added or
removed using the usual Petrel table manipulation buttons. Each initial condition requires
the following information:
Name: Enter a name for the initial condition region.
Pressure: By default the pressure is calculated using a pressure gradient of 0.0981 bar/m
over the depth given by (surface elevation datum depth). To enter a specific pressure,
tick the box next to the pressure field.
Datum depth: By default the datum depth is set to the same depth as the first contact. To
enter a specific datum depth, tick the box next to the field. Note that if you choose a
datum depth that is not at the gas-oil contact (and you have a gas and oil phase) then you
will need to enter a table of solution gas-oil ratio or vaporized oil-gas ratio against depth

on the initial condition after the make fluid process has completed (How to make a fluid
model from tables).
Gas-oil contact: Enter the depth of the gas-oil contact (this is an elevation, so is normally
a negative value). This option is present only if both oil and gas phases are selected.
Water contact: Enter the depth of the gas-water or oil-water contact (this is an elevation,
so is normally a negative value). This option is present only if water and gas or oil phases
are selected.