Log Property Mapping using the Petrel Geoscience Core Module

Log property mapping can be done in the early stages of evaluating a field to get a better idea of the trends of that
field prior to building a 3D model.

How to extract average log values by zone

Attributes are assigned to either a surface or a zone. For surfaces the attribute is a point relating to the well top
itself. Zone attributes apply to the geological zone between two well tops.
When creating a zone attribute, the user must decide at which level of the
hierarchy the attribute should be sampled.

Zone Hierarchy

In the Input tab, under the Well Tops Stratigraphy folder, a hierarchical
zone stratigraphy has been build with different levels. At level 1 is the
Overburden and the Reservoir. Sub-zones of the Reservoir main zone level
are the lem, aeo and wat zones. These fall at level 2 of the hierarchy. A
third tier of zones consists of the zones Z12, Z11, Z10 etc.

Well Tops folder The Zone

Highlight the Well Tops folder and press Ctrl C, Ctrl V to copy and paste the Hierarchy
well tops folder. You then have a new Well Tops folder that you can
rename and make changes to within the Input pane, rather than changing a
corporate set of well tops.

Creating a new zone attribute

In order to extract average log values per zone a new attribute can be
created. This is done from the Well Tops Attribute sub-folder. RCL
(Right click) on the Attribute folder and select ‘insert new attribute’. A
selection of attribute types will display. For the porosity log as an
example, you can select a continuous attribute.

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 The zone level
Next go to the ‘Attribute operations’ tab.

There are two options to update the attribute:

• To the Surfaces – the attribute is a point attribute

relating to the well top itself. Its value will be
sampled from one point in the well and it will be
displayed in the well tops spreadsheet.

• To the Zones – the attribute represents a region

between two well tops. Its value will be an averaged
value of all the well log values between the two well
tops and it will be displayed in the zone
spreadsheet.

In this next section I will only outline the workflow for

extracting zone attributes.

The zone level refers to the zone hierarchy for which you can
extract average log values. Next, select the log, the average
method and the depth scale and Run. The attribute is
populated under the Well Tops attribute sub-folder in the
Input pane.

Zone Spreadsheet

The Zone Spreadsheet is available by RCL on the Well Tops folder and selecting ‘View zone spreadsheet’ from the
drop down list. This is lower down the list than the Well Spreadsheet.

When the Zone Spreadsheet opens you will be able to see the extracted average log values for the wells in the
project. You can filter by wells and by zone level.
Extracted average PHIE and Sand
Thickness values at Zone level 3
filtered to display only for Well 34-2

Well Tops Spreadsheet

Zones Spreadsheet

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Filter options
Well Filter

The Well Filter can be used to filter out zones and wells that you would like excluded when extracting average log
values at the zone level. The yellow boxes are available when a 3D window is open.

Tick off yellow boxes

for zones and wells
which you do not
want to include in the
attribute calculation

Well Filter

Saved Search

If you had a very large field

and wanted to filter out a
specific subset of wells more
easily, a more efficient way to
do this is by using a saved
search. A saved search can be
created within the Input pane
by RCL on Saved Search under
the Wells main folder and
selecting to insert a new
saved search. For this
example a polygon has been
used to filter the wells within
a boundary.

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 In the Processes pane, select the ‘Make/edit polygons’ process under the Utilities folder. The polygon is drawn
around the Wells of interest in a 2D window. The polygon is stored under the input pane once created and then
can be dropped in as a boundary for the new search.

Polygon around wells

of interest Create new points

Make/Edit polygons

Next filter using the Saved Search option when extracting

your average log values.

Using a cutoff

You can use a cutoff to exclude porosities from the

calculation of your average log values. For example, if you
know that within the field the net pay is given by
porosities greater than 5%, then simply use a minimum
cutoff of 0.05 within the dialog window and choose do not
use to ensure values outside of this range are not included
in the calculation.
Cutoff

Saved Search filter

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Creating a pay log and calculating the thickness of pay at the zone level
Create a pay flag template within the Templates pane with two color codes defined for Pay and non Pay. Then RCL
on the Well main folder in the Input pane and select the Calculator from the drop down list. Enter an expression to
search for the pay. The option <> means ‘different to’. Here No Pay occurs where we have facies codes other than
‘0’, the sand and below the Gas Water Contact (gwc) which for this data set occurs at -3127m depth.

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A new log will then be available under the Global Well logs folder in the Input pane. This pay log is displayed in a
Well Section alongside the Porosity and Facies logs for Well 34-6 below.

Non pay below

gwc or where
there is silt or
shale

Gas Water Contact (gwc)

The water leg, below the gwc has been excluded as well as sections where there is silt or shale. You can now create
a new attribute to determine the thickness of pay at the zone level.

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Insert a new continuous attribute by RCL on the
Well Tops attribute sub-folder. You can now select
to create the zone attribute for the newly created
NetPay log for the Pay, the facies code of interest,
and the values will be output to the Zones
Spreadsheet.

Log Property Mapping

Log properties such as the net pay thickness and
average porosity can now be mapped. This is done
using the ‘Make/edit surface’ process found under
the Processes tab, Utilities folder. Select the zone
of interest as main input and the zone attribute
you want to map. Next insert a boundary as
needed, set the geometry and choose the
algorithm you require. Then select apply to map.
The resulting grid will be listed at the bottom of
the Input pane and can be displayed in a map
window.

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 Net Pay Thickness attribute for zone Z9 in a map window

Additional Input

A new option, an Additional Inputs tab, has been

added into Petrel for versions since Petrel 2009.1.
This new option has been added to support
workflows where the user wants to make surfaces
(2D grids) using multiple inputs. Any data type
that can be used as the main input in the
Make/Edit Surface process can also be used as
input under the Additional Inputs tab.

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Collocated Co-kriging

The collocated co-kriging is only available if the

Method is set to Kriging under the Algorithm tab of
the Make/edit surface window. Here you can input
an additional control parameter, such as a surface
which shows the regional porosity trend that you
want your porosity attribute map to follow. A
simple variogram can be set to apply some
anisotropy to the map that is generated. Again this
is a new option added into Petrel for versions since
Petrel 2009.1