Istanbul Technical University / Model Building with CMG Tutorial - Part 1

Defining Reservoir Characteristics and Initialization

1) STARTING

Starting CMG Launcher

1. Start the CMG Launcher by using the icon on your desktop, or by going through the Start
menu and selecting CMG>Launcher
2. Go to your project directory (It’s useful to create a specific directory for your modeling study
and work in that directory all the time. You should copy your files that contain input data to the
same directory. This would help you to be organized throughout your study.)

Opening Builder
3. Open Builder by double clicking on the Builder icon in the Launcher.

4. Select the new model file icon (or Ctrl+N) which will create a new model file.

5. On the window that popped up, Choose: IMEX Simulator, Field Units, Single Porosity
Starting date 2011-01-01 Click OK twice (the warning appeared tells you that you cannot
change these fundamental features of your model later on)

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2) BUILDING THE STRUCTURE AND DEFINING STATIC PROPERTIES OF THE

RESERVOIR

2.1 Loading Well Trajectories

The first step in importing the well markers is to load the well trajectories. The tops and the well logs will
be loaded at a later step.

1. In the main menu, select Well > Well Trajectories > Well Trajectories (or from the Wells &
Recurrent tab). This will open the Import well trajectory wizard.

2. Select Table Format for the file type and navigate to the dataset folder to open the provided
table file “WellTrajectories.wdb”. The units will automatically be set to “ft”. Please check the
format and convention used in this file.

As you can see, TVDSS (Total Vertical Depth Subsea) is input as negative, and DEPTH-MD
(Measured Depth) is input as positive. These depths show the trajectory of the well in terms of
latitude, longitude, TVDSS and MD. A simple, perfectly drilled vertical well with an initial depth
of sea level can be represented with two points (0 ft sea level and the final depth). In reality,
TVDSS and DEPTH-MD would not be the same due to the fluctuations during a drilling
operation. For a horizontal well, TVDSS would remain almost constant in the horizontal section,
while the MD is increasing.

UWID DATE X-COORD Y-COORD TVDSS DEPTH-MD

**Unit: ft

"Well-1" 20110101 1556.74 1862.6 0.00000 0.00000

"Well-1" 20110101 1556.74 1862.6 -3696.04508 3696.04508

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3. Click the Next button two times and the Finish button to close the dialog and load the wells in
Builder’s view.

2.2 Importing Top Data

4. In Builder, select Well > Well Trajectories > Import Formation Top File. The Import Formation
Tops dialog will appear:

5. Select the provided file “TopTable.tdb” which contains the top values in Measured Depth for
each well. These values represent the depth that the well entered into the formation for the first
time during drilling. In other words, they represent the top of the formation for the well location.
Click OK to close the dialog.
6. The well tops will automatically be displayed as small red disks on each well. Sometimes the
disks are too small for good visualization. The size of the disks can be increased by selecting

the Property Sheet icon on the tool bar. The Builder Properties dialog will open and the
disk size and their color can be changed by selecting the Well Trajectory Tops category as
shown below.

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7. Click OK to close the Builder Properties dialog. The disks will appear bigger as shown below.

We can now proceed with the interpolation of the well tops by using Inverse Distance method.

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2.3 Creating a Top Map

Maps can be created by selecting File > Create Map File option.This will bring up the Create Map
dialog. This dialog is used to create maps according to different interpolation and simulation methods
available on the Methods tab of that same dialog. We will select a interpolation method later. First, we
need to import the top values into the spreadsheet control of the dialog (Points tab).
1. Select menu item Tools > Import tops from trajectories.
2. This will open the Select Trajectory Top dialog as shown below.
3. Click OK to close the dialog and select the top values in the Create Map dialog.
4. Change the file name at the top of the Create Map dialog. You can type the new name directly or
navigate the folders by clicking the ellipses button . Give a name like “TOP.msh” save to an
appropriate local folder. We are going to create a mesh file (extension “.msh”) for the top of the
reservoir. The Create Map dialog should now look similar to this:

The data has been imported and we are now ready to select an interpolation/modeling method.

Inverse Distance Estimation Method

8. Select the Methods tab and from the Calculation method pull-down list, select the Inverse
Distance Estimation option. For cases where we only have few data points (less than 30),
inverse distance estimation would be the best option. When there are sufficient number of data
points, geostatistical methods such as kriging can be used. The dialog now looks like this:

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9. Make sure the Assign data to cells option is checked.

10. Click the Update File button of the Create Map dialog to actually perform the interpolation with
Inverse Distance Estimation and save the results as a mesh file. The Estimated map will be
shown in the Builder main view after the calculations are done (may look a little different). The
picture below shows the map in an IJ-2D Areal view.

Please note that the map has been automatically meshed in using the default parameters from the Mesh
tab of the Create Map dialog. These parameters can be changed to refine or coarsen the meshing. Keep
in mind that the interpolated map should be consistent with the same area of the model grid system
which we will be create later.
2.4 Creating a Thickness/Porosity/Permeability Maps

To complete the reservoir geometry, we need to estimate its thickness below the top surface. Similarly
to the reservoir top, the thickness too can be estimated. We need to import the thickness data into
Builder. The next few steps are very similar to those we went through for estimating the reservoir top.
At this point, you may find it useful to save the dataset, close it, and reopen it. This will clear the
variogram data values retained from the previous reservoir top data.

Data Importing

11. Open the Create Map dialog by selecting File > Create Map File option, if not already open.

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12. Change the file name at the top of the Create Map dialog. You can type the new name directly
or navigate the folders by clicking the ellipses button . Give a name like “thick.msh” and an
appropriate path where to save it. We are going to create a mesh file (extension “.msh”) for the
reservoir thickness.
13. Clear the spreadsheet of the Create Map dialog if it is not already empty. You can do it by
clicking the gray cell at the very top left corner of the spreadsheet. This will select all the cells
which can then be cleared by depressing the Delete key on the keyboard.
14. Open the file “Properties.xls” in Excel if not already open. The file has 59 records with the well
name, well (x,y) coordinates, and reservoir thickness for each record. We are going to paste
that data into the Create Map dialog.
Select the range of thickness values in Excel and copy them to the Values column in Create Map
window.
15. Click on the window frame of the Create Map dialog to make sure it has the input focus. Also,
make sure that the Points tab is selected.
16. Paste the data into the Create Map dialog with Ctrl-V (on the keyboard).
17. Select the Methods tab and from the Calculation method pull-down list, select the Inverse
Distance Estimation option. Again, make sure the Assign data to cells option is checked.
Click the Update File button of the Create Map dialog to actually perform the interpolation with
Inverse Distance Estimation and save the results as a mesh file. The estimated map will be
shown in the Builder main view after the calculations are done (may look a little different).
18. Repeat the same procedure for POROSITY and PERMEABILITY. You can now close the
Create Map dialog since we have completed all the maps.

The picture below shows both all maps in an IJ-2D Areal view.

2.5 Building the Simulation Grid

Defining thickness and top maps permits us to define the reservoir structure in 3D. Builder allows us to
combine the information from these two maps for the creation of the 3D reservoir geometry. First, we
need to define the grid-system in the Builder. We want the grid to cover the same area covered by our
existing maps.

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Grid Definition

19. If no maps are currently displayed in Builder’s main view, select File > Open Map File,. Select
the Top or the Thickness map previously created. This will help to correctly position the
simulation grid.
20. Select Reservoir > Create Grid > Cartesian.
21. The Create Cartesian Grid dialog will appear and let you define the number of grid blocks and
their dimensions. For an exact match with the maps created, we can use the grid definition
actually found in the tick marks of the maps. The view shows that the map extends to a size of
4000 ft in the x-direction, and 2200 ft in the y-direction. If we consider 100 ft as a reasonable
grid-block size, we can specify the grid as: Number of grid blocks: I direction: 40, J direction:
22, K direction: 3, Block widths: I direction: 40*100; J direction: 22*100. (Generally a grid block
size between 100 and 500 ft is reasonable which can be adjusted based on the degree of
heterogeneity in the reservoir). 3 grids in the k-direction allows for vertical layering and can help
to visualize vertical flow. If there is only 1 block in the z-direction, then the vertical flow cannot
be modeled and the model would be a 2D model with only flow in the x and y directions.
22. Click OK to construct a grid with 40 grid blocks in the I direction, 22 in the J direction, and
3 in the K direction with 100 ft for the grid block size in I and J. The size of the grid blocks
in the K-direction will be controlled by the thickness map as we will see later. The horizontal
simulator grid will appear in Builder’s main view.

23. Click on the Probe icon to get out of the grid editing mode.

Calculating Reservoir Properties for each Grid Block

24. Click the Specify Property button of the View Control tool bar. This will bring up the General
Property Specification spreadsheet dialog.
25. Select cell at row Layer 1 and column Grid Top. Right click and select Geological Map from
the context menu. This will bring up the Property Specification dialog.
26. On the Property Specification dialog, click the Values in file1 button and navigate to and select
the “Top.msh” file previously created.

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27. Click OK to close the dialog.

28. Select the cell at row Layer 1 and column Grid Thickness. Right click and select Geological
map from the context menu. This will bring up the Property Specification dialog.
29. On the Property Specification dialog, click the Values in file1 button and navigate to and select
the “Thick.msh” file previously created.
30. To almost equally distribute the net pay thickness to each layer, input 0.34 for Layer 1, 0.33 for
Layer 2 and 3.

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31. Repeat the same procedure for Porosity, Permeability (in i,j,k directions) for all layers using the
same maps, since we don’t know vertical variations for these properties in this case.
32. For permeability k, we must consider the k v/kh ratio, which is generally less than 1. If we don’t
have data, we can input 0.1 multplier to mimic lower vertical permeability.

33. Click OK to close the dialog

34. Click OK to close the dialog and click OK to the next dialog to actually compute the properties.
The picture below shows the resulting reservoir geometry in a 3D view with the thickness
contour map floating above the grid (Go into Properties > Maps to change to this setting). You
can select the view properties and the location of the contour maps with respect to the grid by
going to the set/modify properties window and select maps.

35. Input rock compressibility as 1e-6 1/psi and reference pressure to calculating the effect of rock
compressibility 14.7 psi

36. To modify the reservoir area, some grid blocks that are believed to be outside the reservoir’s
actual area may be inactivated. To do that, go back to 2D-Areal view, click on Edit Reservoir

Property (icon ) and select NULL Blocks from the drop-down menu of reservoir properties.

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Then select the grid-blocks to inactivate, click OK for the initial date, and set Modify Current
Value to 0. When the NULL Blocks property of a gridblock is 0, that block is inactive and is not
included in the simulation calculations. Select All Layers through Grid to fully exclude that
portion of the reservoir.

37. At this point, the structure of the reservoir and its’ main static properties are fully defined. Select
File > Save As and save the dataset in an appropriate folder with a different name.

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3. DEFINING THE FLUID MODEL, COUPLED ROCK/FLUID PROPERTIES AND

INITIALIZATION IN THE RESERVOIR

3.1 Defining Fluid Properties

1. Click on Components tab in the tree view and double click on Model

2. Check on Launch Dialog to Create a Quick BLACKOIL Model Using Correlations, and
then press the OK button.

3. Enter the following properties as an example in the Quick Blackoil Model box and Click OK
(pay attention to the options listed (2 nd Column) and change them if needed):

5200 psi

4. Double click on PVT Region:1 in the tree view and select the PVT Table tab to view the BLACKOIL
PVT data. For this example, the data shown in this table was generated using the information entered
in the Quick black oil model window. However, it is also possible to enter directly or edit values in the
PVT Table. These values can also be updated by using your mouse to select points on the plots
associated with the PVT Region, and dragging the points to the desired location. Please note that the
IMEX PVT Regions window has to be open while using your mouse to change the points on the plot.
5. Uncheck the Include Oil compressibility in PVT table box to use constant oil compressibility and
Click Apply.

6. Go to the General tab and input the value of 5e-06 1/psi for the Undersaturated Co (CO). Click on
Apply and OK.
7. The Component section should have a green check mark now.

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3.2 Defining Relative Permeability Tables

1. Click the Rock-Fluid button in the left-hand side menu.

2. Double click on Rock Fluid Types in the tree view. A window will open. Click on the button and
select New Rock Type.
3. Press the Tools button (on the Relative Permeability Tables tab) and select Generate Tables
Using Correlations.
4. Enter the following parameters for the analytical relative permeability curves generation.
SWCON 0.2
SWCRIT 0.2
SOIRW 0.4
SORW 0.4
SOIRG 0.2
SORG 0.2
SGCON 0.05
SGCRIT 0.05
KROCW 0.2
KRWIRO 0.8
KRGCL 0.8
KROGCG 0.2
Exponent for Krw 2.0
Exponent for Krow 4.0
Exponent for Krog 4.0
Exponent for Krgcl 4.0

5. Press Apply and then OK. Press OK again to get out of the Rock Types window. A graph
containing the relative permeability curves will appear.
6. The Rock Fluid section should have a green check mark. Save the file at this time. Note that, you
cannot be in the Rock-Fluid section to save, so move to another section to save the model.

3.3 Defining Initial Conditions

1. Click the Initial Conditions button on the tree view of Builder.

2. Double click on Initial Conditions.
3. Select Water, Oil as the initial fluid in the reservoir to perform a Gravity-Capillary Equilibrium
Calculation.
4. Type in the following values in the available fields to define the initial conditions (pressures at
reference depths, and water oil-contact):
3500 psi in the Reference Pressure (REFPRES) box
3000 ft in the Reference Depth (REFDEPTH) box
2740 ft in the Water-Oil Contact (DWOC) box
2,000 psi in Constant Bubble Point Pressure (PB) box

5.Leave the other boxes blank. Initial Conditions interface should look like this:

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3.4 Initializing the Reservoir Model

To quickly run the model, and to only see some key results, you can do this in Builder by Clicking on
IMEX button on the top part of Builder. Here, you have 4 options:
1) Validate: to check for possible errors in the data file
2) Run to view initialization: to run for 1 time step and to initialize the model to check if fluids in
place are reasonable (original oil-gas-water volumes in place)
3) Run normal immediately: to run the model fully until the last date record (runs immediately)
4) Run normal in batch: to run the model fully until the last date record (runs by submitting the
job to the job scheduler)

Recall that so far we have only defined our grid-block system, input some reservoir rock and fluid
properties and distributed those characteristics throughout the model. We haven’t defined any wells,
dates, completions or operating conditions. However, we have enough data in the model to initialize the
reservoir system. At this step, it is a good idea to VALIDATE our model, to make sure that there isn’t
any error or inconsistency. Also, we can run to view the INITIALIZATION to see how much fluids in place
are in the reservoir model. This could help us to validate the initialization parameters and we can
compare with our estimations of fluids in place.
1. Click IMEX to open the run

2. Select “Validate” and Run to confirm that there is no error in the model data:

==========SUMMARY (from subroutine: INWELL) ============

Simulation run terminated.
Checking of input data has been completed.
1 Warning messages. 0 Error messages.

3. Select “Run to view initialization” and Run to check the fluids in place:

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