Field Trip: Fluvial and Deltaic Architecture and Advanced Modeling using Petrel - Utah / Colorado, USA

This field and classroom-based reservoir geology and modeling course covers applied techniques for reservoir geocellular modeling. The course focuses on teaching participants novel and practical methods to build realistic models of fluvial and deltaic sediment body architecture, demonstrated using Petrel software. 

Petrel is used by participants to integrate core and well log data in a series of deterministic model exercises. The results are compared with other traditional Petrel modeling techniques and each is then evaluated against outcrop reality in order to determine which techniques are the most suitable for analogous subsurface reservoir modeling studies. 

The course follows the typical workflow of a sub-surface 3-D modeling study and is aimed at making a series of realistic predictive models of reservoir geometry and architecture using detailed knowledge of sedimentology and sequence stratigraphic concepts. 

This course blends lectures, modeling exercises, and field trips to sites in Grand Junction, Colorado and Green River, Utah.

Note: Course fees include lodging, meals, and transportation upon arrival in Grand Junction.  Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation to and from Grand Junction, Colorado before and after the course.

• Agenda
• Topics Covered
• Audience
• Prerequisites

• Agenda

  Stop 1: Colorado National Monument – basin-scale stratigraphic overview

  Stop 2: Thompson Rest Halt - Book Cliffs overview

  Lecture: Cretaceous depositional environments & facies

  Stop 3: Tusher Canyon – a single shoreface parasequence

  Overnight in Green River, Utah

  Stop 4: WoodsideTrail Canyon – Kenilworth Mbr. exercise

  Stop 5: Beckwith Plateau – seismic scale overview

  Lectures: Petrel modeling methodologies; Correlation; Flooding Surfaces

  Exercise: Kenilworth Petrel* model

  Overnight in Green River, Utah

  Exercise: - Kenilworth Petrel* model (cont.)

  Syndicate presentations of Kenilworth Petrel* exercise

  Stop 6: Tusher Canyon overview – Kenilworth Mbr.

  Stop 7: Battleship Butte – Kenilworth Mbr.

  Lecture: Kenilworth model discussion & wrap-up

  Overnight in Green River, Utah

  Lecture: Cores, logs & Properties.

  Exercise: Desert/Castlegate core-log calibration.

  Stop 8: Tusher Canyon – Castlegate Sst

  Stop 9: Tusher Canyon – Desert Mbr.

  Stop 10: Tusher Canyon – Grassy Mbr.

  Exercise: Desert/Castlegate Petrel model

  Overnight in Green River, Utah

  Exercise: Desert/Castlegate Petrel* model (cont.)

  Stop 11: Blaze Canyon west – Desert/Castlegate

  Stop 12: Blaze Canyon – Desert/Castlegate

  Overnight in Green River, Utah

  Exercise: Desert/Castlegate Petrel model (cont.)

  Stop 13: Thompson Canyon – Desert/Castlegate

  Stop 14: Sagers Canyon – Desert/Castlegate

  Review of Desert/Castlegate Petrel* model

  Overnight in Green River, Utah

  Return travel to Grand Junction via:

  Visit to Arches N.P., Deadhorse Point State Park (Canyonlands N.P. overview)

  Colorado River Valley

  Evening course review & buffet

  Overnight in Grand Junction, Colorado

• Topics Covered

  • Diagnostic outcrop, core and log interpretation of fluviodeltaic environments and facies
  • Integration of core, log, and reservoir properties to define flow units
  • Building conceptual models and sequence stratigraphic framework for reservoir modelling
  • Correlation techniques from well data
  • Deterministic modelling techniques
  • Using hierarchy, zone logs and layering
  • Comparison of results from different modelling techniques and implications for static connectivity

• Audience

  Geologists and Reservoir Modelers

• Prerequisites

  Petrel Fundamentals or at least 3 months of application usage experience.

  The physical demands for this workshop are moderate. The field sites visited include national monuments, cliff line exposures and roadside stops in the high plains desert of western Colorado and eastern Utah at altitudes of 1500-2000m. In October the weather is generally sunny with early morning temperatures of 15°C and afternoon temperatures 30°C+, and relative humidity rarely exceeding 15%. The terrain is generally flat with one 2 km hike having a maximum elevation change of 100m. Transport is by vehicles on a variety of black-top and loose surface roads.