University of Technology

Oil and Gas Engineering Department

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 Introduction
Structural data is essential for the first step in building 3D
geological model. Generally, 3D geological modeling starts with
spatial points, lines or surfaces interpreted from available
observations and measurements. The data used in geo-modeling
is very heterogeneous and includes direct observations of rocks
and indirect

The reliability of this information essentially depends on the

distance to actual observations and on the interpreter’s skills,
which are rarely objectively documented. In practice, 3-D
visualization and modeling can help improving these
interpretations by allowing the interpreter to consistently map in
space.

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 Structure contour maps
A structure contour map is one of the most important tools for
3D structural interpretation because it represents the full 3D
form of a map horizon. Structure contour maps are basically the
surface being mapped is some geologic surface, often in the
subsurface. Geologic surfaces commonly mapped in this way are:
• A stratigraphic horizon.
• A fault surface.
• top of the ground water table.
• A seismic reflection surface.

Basically, structure contour map can be used for:

1-Define formation structure and depth from sea level
2-Estimation reservoir extension and bulk volume

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An example of structure contour map
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The standard components of structure contour map include:
1- Date: when the map was made.
2- Orientation: direction (north arrow or compass rose) is used to
indicate the direction of North.
3- Grid: lines that cross to form squares.
4- Scale: map distance.
5- Title.
6- Author: who made the map.
7- Index: the part of the grid where specific information can be
located.
8- Legend: what the symbols mean.
9- Sources: who provided information for the map.

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Notes:
A-To make accurate work, we must make calibrate to the image
of contour map before any work of digitizing in the software.

B-To make accurate work, it is essential to digitize all contour

line that’s we need accurately.

C- To make accurate work, it is useful to save our work in

applicable formula for exporting files to any industry standard
format for other software.

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 Petrophysical properties
Petrophysical data is very essential for building 3D geological
model. Generally, the petrophysical evaluation for an oil or gas
field was based mainly on well logs and core data (if available)
from the wells drilled in the field and penetrate the target
formations.

Well logging is alternative and very effective approach to obtain

porosity, lithology, hydrocarbons and other rock properties of
interest to the geologist which help him to define and locate the
oil and gas accumulations area.

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Well logs present a concise, detailed plot of formation parameters
versus depth. From these plots, interpreters can identify
lithologies, differentiate between porous and nonporous rock and
quickly recognize pay zones in subsurface formations. The ability
to interpret a log lies in recognizing the significance of each
measurement.

Log interpretation is one of the most useful and important tools

available to petroleum geologist. Logs help define physical rock
characteristics such as lithology, porosity, pore geometry and
permeability, also used to identify productive zone to determine
depth and thickness of zones, to distinguish between oil, gas or
water in reservoir, and to estimate hydrocarbon reserve.

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 Environmental Correction

Log data are adversely influenced by down-hole conditions such

as borehole size, pressure, salinity, drilling mud, filter cake, etc.
The effects of these environment conditions on the log data may
be eliminated though environment correction software.
After Well log curves were checked and calibrated to the depth
by using GR log as a reference curve, all environment corrections
were carried out by using log interpretation software which
provide an environment correction module uses the algorithms
produced by Schlumberger.
Gamma ray, Density, Neutron, and Resistivity logs were
corrected for borehole size, salinity, drilling mud, and filter cake
effects.
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 Computer Processing Interpretation (CPI)
CPI is a set of logs for the results of porosity, saturation, fluid &
matrix analysis tracks and other parameters of interpretation.
CPI of geophysical well logs data was carried out with the aid of
a commercial log interpretation software.

It gives a continuous reading of lithology, porosity, fluid

saturation and other petrophysical properties. The benefit of CPI
is to estimate the OIIP by property modeling in the static model.
By digitizing (converting the images to digital data) the CPI
images we have get the porosity log and water saturation with
depth.

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 The main objective to make this working to get numerical
values of SW and phi with its depth from CPI logs and that to
export these data into Petrel to make property modeling of
static model.
 The error sources in working is the lack of clarity of logs
image and will make some of results inaccurate.
 Sometimes we got SW more than 100% and phi in negative
values, that according to bad calibration or to bad digitizing
process.
 To get good results you must working accurate calibration to
log and move slowly in many dots where work the digitizing
process.

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 Porosity
In the field of formation evaluation, porosity is one of the key
measurements to quantify oil and gas reserves. Porosity found
from a combination of two logs neutron and density, and then
calculate the effective porosity after correcting the logs from the
presence of clay.

The combination of the density and neutron logs provides a good

source of porosity data, especially in formations of complex
lithology. Better estimates of porosity are possible with the
combination than using either tool or sonic separately because
inferences about lithology and fluid content can be made.

Effective porosity is the total porosity less the fraction of the pore
space occupied by clay. In very clean sands, total porosity is
equal to effective porosity. 14
 Porosity log
• Neutron porosity: Neutron log is a porosity log respond
primarily to the amount of hydrogen in the formation. Thus,
in clean formations whose pores are filled with water or oil,
the neutron log reflects the amount of liquid-filled porosity.

• The density log The density log is a continuous record of

formations bulk density. This is the overall density of a rock
including solid matrix and the fluid enclosed in the pore.
Density is measured in gm/cm3 or (kg/m3). Two separate
density values are used by density log; the bulk density (ρb or
RHOB) and matrix density (ρma) as measured by logging tool.
The bulk density is the density value of the entire formation
(solid and fluid part)

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 Fluid Saturation
• Fluid saturation are among the most important reservoir
properties used in the reserve estimation of oil and gas. Since a
complete coring and core analysis of the entire pay zone is
impractical, well logging appears to be the most plausible
mean to obtain such information. To achieve this task,
different logs are recorded in the well and well log
interpretation is used to obtain the required properties .

• Fluid saturation is estimated from resistivity measurement by

the Archie equation which relates the resistivity of the
information to the porosity, water saturation, and resistivity of
the formation water.

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 Preparation of petrophysical data

 Digitizing CPI for all available wells to get effective porosity

log and water saturation log with depth for each well.

 Make a cross plot between core porosity vs. log porosity and
between core permeability vs. core porosity for each layer in
reservoir.

 Estimate porosity cut off and water saturation cut off for each
layer in reservoir.

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 Fluid Contacts

• Oil Water Contact (OWC) is the lowest level of producible

oil, where water and oil are co-produced above this level
up to the water relative permeability becomes exceedingly
low and oil will move only.

• In petroleum reservoir study and management, an

accurate description and estimation of the fluid contacts is
essential in quantifying the resources (OIIP) and
undoubtedly selection of production techniques, rates and
overall management of the reservoir at very low risk of
reserve underestimation.

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Reservoir Section
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 Permeability

• Permeability is a key parameter that controls strategies of well

completion, production, reservoir management; and thus it
affects the economy of the development and operation of a
field.
• Permeability is a function of effective porosity and irreducible
water saturation. Thus, in many cases, estimates of
permeability are obtained from porosity values. The most
reliable local permeability values may be obtained from core
analysis.
• In general, core data are available only from some wells in the
field, and for some intervals in each cored well.

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 Permeability Estimation
• To obtain more reliable permeability values, attempts have been
made over the years to estimate permeability by different
techniques.
• One of the comparatively inexpensive and readily available
sources of inferring permeability is from well logs results
(indirect).
• In current work, permeability will be estimated by IP software
(Three models) based on porosity and Swi.
• The predicted permeability values should be compared with
available core data for validating results, and choosing the
closed value to the K-core.

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 3D Geological Model (Static model)
In heterogeneous formations, the crucial step before reservoir
simulation model is constructing a high-resolution 3D geological
model. The main benefits of this model are:

1. To build a shape or structure for reservoir

2. To know and determine the location of fault and fracture if
exist.
3. To calculate initial oil or gas in place of the reservoir by
volumetric method, it means by using structural, stratigraphical,
and petrophysical data.
4. This model is the base for reservoir simulation model.

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 Petrel software
• The construction of 3D geological model achieves by Petrel-
software.
• Petrel is a Schlumberger owned software platform that provides
an integrated solution from exploration to production and
development.
• Petrel addresses the need for a single application able to support
the "seismic-to-simulation" workflow, reducing the need for a
multitude of highly specialized tools.
• By bringing the whole workflow into a single, risk and
uncertainty can be assessed throughout the life of the field.

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 Model Design

• A data base was created within petrel, clearly delineating the

different information and data needed to complete the study.

• The geological, geophysical, petrophysical, and well

engineering data have been introduced to the software
through the main data base.

• The work flow design is utilized for the study and wide range
of functional tools in the software such as 3D visualization,
well correlation, 3D mapping, and 3D grid design for geology
simulation, well log up scaling, petrophysical modeling, data
analysis, and volume calculation, etc.

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 Import Data
The input data is imported from files - one file for each data
object. All input data and generated models are organized in the
Petrel Explorer.
The data that we needed to import in Petrel are:
- Well head
- Well tops
-Well logs: included the CPI data after digitizing porosity, water
saturation, and permeability estimated log curves are imported
as log values along the well path and attached to the path.
- Underground structure contour map of top reservoir.

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 Stratigraphical modeling
The development of the stratigraphic model is, without doubt,
one of the most traditional tasks of the reservoir geologist, who
must perform a well-to-well correlation with the aim of defining
the stratigraphic horizons bounding the main geological
sequences within the hydrocarbon formation.

Well Correlation:
• Well correlation concepts may shed light of the distribution of
petrophysical properties and extents and thickness of different
lithological units in reservoirs.

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• Well correlation has been applied as a relatively easy method to
give an idea and allow simple visualization of the changes in the
thickness within formation units and the change of
petrophysical properties (i. e. Changes in permeability and
porosity).

• This will enable a space evaluation of petrophysical properties

of the various units by making vertical and horizontal sectional
correlation across the field.

• The Well Section Window in Petrel allows displaying well logs

in a specified order, with the logs and well tops.

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Geological Surface Generation:

• Before building a 3D grid model, 2D geological top

surfaces for all formation must be constructed.
• These surfaces are generated based on the well tops
and depth structural map of formation top.

• Additional surfaces for other units were generated

based on well tops data and structural map of top unit

• The last top surface should generated in order to use as

a reference surface only for the bottom of unit

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An example of 2D Geologic surface of formation top in X field
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 Structural modeling
Structural model accuracy and consistency is needed to the
proper distribution of petrophysical properties into the geological
model. Structural model will constructed by the following steps:
1. Grid Construction:
 Generating 3D grid is the initial step in building the 3D
structural model to divide the reservoir into volumetric units
to increase distribution efficiency and average values become
more actual.
 After inserted the required data to software we made surface
and 3D simple grid with increments, and we take reasonable
values of x and y to easy and speed run in computer with
sufficient representation of formation heterogeneity.

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 When the number of grids increase, the model become more
accurate, but will have large area from computer memory.

 According to the number of grids, the program will find each

property in each grid, so if the number of grids are large the
process of finding of properties will late.

 By the present work, the 3D grid system of by using the 3D

simple grid system with the lateral grid size of (250m *250m
)in the x-axis and y-axis, with reasonable vertical grid size to
characterize the heterogeneity along vertical direction.

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An example of the grid system
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2. Make Horizons

• The process of making horizons is very important to fill the free

area between units so we will can finding each property in these
areas.

• This represented a true 3D approach in the generation of 2D

surfaces, which were gridded in the same process, taking the
relationships between the surfaces into account.

• Many horizons should be built for all geological surfaces that

have been generated , Also, the horizon must be created based
on top surface.

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• Make sure your input horizons are sorted in the correct
stratigraphic order in the Petrel Explorer respectively.

The correct stratigraphic sequence displayed in X field 39

Horizons displayed in a 3D window with their Edges 40
3. Make Zones

The Make Zones process is the next step in defining the

vertical resolution of the 3D grid. The Make Zones process is
used when geological zonation is available, and this process
step may be skipped when no zonation is given. The process
creates zones between each horizon that previously generated
( the no. of zones = no. of horizons -1).

An example of zones

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4. Layering
• The make sub zones (layering) processes are the last step
in defining the vertical resolution of the 3D grid. The
make sub zones process enables the user to define the final
vertical resolution of the grid by setting the cell thickness
or the number of desired cell layers.
• In layering process, each zone will have subdivided into
many fine layers reflecting the geological deposition of a
specific zone.
• The fine layers act the upper and base of the grid cells in
3D grid system. This process is vital issue for representing
the high vertical heterogeneity.
• When we increase the No. of layers in each unit we will get
accurate arithmetic mean near the mean value of input
data. It is important to keep in mind that the number of
cells increases when the layer thickness decreases, and
increasing the computing time , so you should not put in
more detail than necessary.
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Depending on the geology, you can choose to build the layers
from the top, the bottom or use proportional layering. In the
layering process, select the method to be used and specify the
cell thickness or the number of cells (layers). Making layers
may be done based on field geology as follows:
 Follow base: The layers will be truncated towards the top
horizon. The user defines the cell thickness.
 Follow Top: The layers will be truncated towards the base
horizon.
 Proportional: The sum of layers will be constant in the
entire zone independent of thickness of zone. The user
specifies the number of layers to insert.
 Fraction: This is actually a proportional way of building
the layers, but you can specify relative thickness between
layers. For instance: 1, 2, 1 will generate three layers and
the mid layer will be twice as thick as the top and base
layers.
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• In the current work, the proportional layers should be modeled
in all zones, and therefore, individual layer thickness will vary
based on the total thickness and properties heterogeneity of
each zone. Reasonable Layer thickness will reflect a
respectable vertical resolution of the model.

An example of layering in in X field

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An example of layering in in X field
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 3D property Modeling
In this step, the reservoir rock properties (porosity, permeability,
etc.) estimate away from the wellbore and through areas where
no data are available. Stochastic methods were applied to fill 3D
grid cells with property values. Petrophysical modeling can be
achieved by the following steps:
1. Scale up of Well Logs:

In the scale up process for well log data of each well, the
arithmetic averaging algorithm was applied for the porosity,
NGT, and water saturation scaling up. On the other hand, the
geometric averaging algorithm is used for permeability scaling
up. This geometric averaging is highly sensitive to small values of
reservoir permeability and provide proper results through 1D
averaging process.

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An example of scale up of well logs in X field 47
2. Statistical Analysis

 To ensure from the scale up process we find the statistics

information and from it we decide that log data will give us
right results and it refer to degree on closing between scales up
and inserted logs.

 The process of making scale up is very important in

distribution of reservoir properties and making compare
between the input value of properties such as porosity and
water saturation with mean of these properties.

 If the value of mean of input and output data approximately

equally, that main the works is good and process of making
layering is accurate.
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3. Petrophysical Property Modeling:

When the well logs have been scaled up to the resolution of the
cells in the 3D grid, the values for each cell along the well
trajectory can be interpolated between the wells in the 3D grid.
The result is a grid with Property values for each cell.

In the current work, Sequential Gaussian Simulation (SGS)

algorithm in Petrel will be used as a statistical method which fits
the amount of the available data to build 3D petrophysical
property modeling and interpolate data for porosity, water
saturation, NTG, and permeability. Moreover, the porosity values
should be used as a guide for the permeability and Sw
distribution throughout the field by applying co-kriging feature.

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An example of 3D water saturation distribution along X reservoir

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 Defining Fluid Contacts
After having built a Petrel 3D grid and prior to running the
volume calculation, the various contacts should be defined in the
Make Contacts process. Several sets of contacts can be defined and
each contact set can contain a number of different contact types.
All contact sets will be stored under a folder called Fluid Contacts
in the Petrel Explorer Models tab.

The contact set can be created based on a constant depth value or a

surface. If a surface is used as an input for the contact, it has to
exist in the Petrel Explorer window. Any type of surface can be
used as an input.

The user has the option of using the same contact for all zones and
segments, different contacts for each segment and/or different
contacts for each zone.
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 Volume Calculation
The Volume calculation process accurately calculates the volumes
in a 3D grid (bulk, pore and fluids) based on volumetric
calculation for each 3D grid. Volumes can be calculated exactly
within zones, segments and user defined boundaries (e.g. License
boundaries).
The Contacts defined in the previous process (Make Contact) are
used as input to the Volume Calculation process. Volume
calculations can be performed using several hypotheses in one
operation. Each hypothesis is called a run.
The user has the option to include an uncertainty range for the
contact level and create distribution functions based on this
uncertainty range. A report defined by the user will be created
after the process has been run, listing all the volumes per zone,
and per segment.

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During the process of modeling of the reservoir, several 3D grids
may create with different treatments of the faults and horizons.
Within those grids, there may be several versions of a property
model and contacts and there may be several representations of
the fluids within the model.
Mainly, estimating of OIIP by Petrel software based on fluid
contact levels, petrophysical properties (3D model or constant
values of Sw, Phi, and NTG), and average values of oil and gas
properties (Bo & Bg).

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