An Interactive 5-Day Training Course
Upscaling & Simulation Grid Design
Building coarse simulation grids that preserve reservoir behaviour
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Duration
5 Days
Price
$ 4,000
Starting From
13 Sep 2027
Upscaling & Simulation Grid Design
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Upscaling & Simulation Grid Design - RE-USGD-PEA27
| Code | Date | Time | Duration | Location | Currency | Early Bird Fee Per Person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RE-USGD-PEA27 | 13 - 17 Sep 2027 | 10 AM CST | 4 Hours Per Day |
Online |
USD |
4000 |
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Upscaling & Simulation Grid Design
Description
A geological model may contain tens of millions of cells and a simulation model may need to run in hours, which means the properties must be coarsened. Upscaling is that coarsening, and it is not a neutral operation: averaging permeability changes flow behaviour, coarsening layers removes barriers, and grid orientation influences displacement direction. A coarse model that reproduces the fine model's volumes but not its flow behaviour will history match to the wrong parameters and predict incorrectly.
This training covers both upscaling and the gridding decisions bound up with it. The volume-variance relationship is developed first, establishing how averaging changes property distributions and why the mean is not the appropriate average for permeability. Single phase upscaling follows, covering arithmetic, harmonic and geometric averaging, power averaging, flow-based methods with their boundary condition choices, and the determination of full permeability tensors for models with cross-flow. Multiphase upscaling and pseudo relative permeability generation are then addressed, including dynamic pseudos, their derivation and their well documented limitations. Grid design is covered through grid type selection, layering schemes, orientation effects and grid orientation error, aspect ratio and numerical dispersion. Local grid refinement, near-well modelling, well index calculation and horizontal well representation follow. The training closes with validation, comparing coarse and fine model flow behaviour and diagnosing where upscaling has changed the answer.
Permeability does not average arithmetically, and the choice of average encodes an assumption about flow geometry. Flow parallel to layering sees the arithmetic mean; flow perpendicular to layering sees the harmonic mean; and these differ by orders of magnitude in a layered reservoir. A single upscaled permeability value cannot represent both, which is why directional upscaling and permeability tensors exist and why upscaling with a single averaging rule in all directions produces models whose vertical communication is wrong.
Layer coarsening is where thin barriers are lost. A one metre shale that provides vertical isolation across a reservoir disappears when averaged into a ten metre simulation layer, and with it goes the vertical flow restriction that controls coning, gravity segregation and sweep. Preserving barriers requires either honouring them in the layering scheme or representing them explicitly through transmissibility multipliers, and identifying which barriers matter enough to preserve is a reservoir engineering judgement rather than an automatic procedure.
Grid orientation error is a numerical artefact with physical consequences. In displacement processes with unfavourable mobility ratio, the calculated flood front advances preferentially along grid directions, so the same reservoir gridded at a different orientation produces different breakthrough times and different sweep. Nine-point schemes and unstructured grids reduce this, but recognising the effect and testing for it is necessary before its results are trusted.
Finally, pseudo relative permeability functions are powerful and dangerous. They can make a coarse model reproduce fine model behaviour for the conditions from which they were derived, and they are not valid outside those conditions. A pseudo derived under one rate, one well configuration and one displacement direction and then used to predict a different development is being applied outside its derivation, and the error is not visible in the model output.
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
- Explain the volume-variance relationship and its effect on property distributions during coarsening
- Select and apply appropriate averaging methods for porosity, permeability and net to gross
- Perform flow-based permeability upscaling and select appropriate boundary conditions
- Determine directional permeability and full tensors for models with significant cross-flow
- Preserve or explicitly represent flow barriers through the layering scheme and transmissibility multipliers
- Generate and apply pseudo relative permeability functions and state their validity limits
- Design simulation grids including type, layering, orientation and cell aspect ratio
- Assess and mitigate grid orientation effects and numerical dispersion
- Apply local grid refinement and near-well modelling including well index calculation
- Validate a coarse model against fine scale flow behaviour and diagnose upscaling error
Organisations sending participants to this training will:
- Produce simulation models that reproduce the geological model's flow behaviour rather than only its volumes
- Reduce history matching effort spent compensating for upscaling error
- Improve prediction reliability by ensuring coarse models behave correctly
- Reduce simulation runtime without losing the behaviour that matters
- Improve integration between static modelling and simulation teams
- Strengthen technical review of modelling workflows and their assumptions
Participants will:
- Upscale properties correctly for the flow behaviour being modelled
- Design grids that preserve the features controlling reservoir performance
- Recognise upscaling and gridding artefacts in simulation results
- Use pseudo functions appropriately and know when they are invalid
- Validate a coarse model against fine scale behaviour
- Build a capability that determines whether a simulation study is trustworthy
- Reservoir simulation engineers
- Reservoir engineers building or reviewing dynamic models
- Reservoir modellers and geologists producing static models
- Technical staff responsible for model quality assurance
- Development and evaluation engineers using simulation output
- Consultants and contractors delivering modelling studies
Module 1 - Scale, Support and the Upscaling Problem
- Scales of measurement: core, log, well test, seismic, simulation cell
- Support volume and the volume-variance relationship
- Effect of averaging on property distributions and extremes
- Why upscaling is not a neutral operation
- Objectives of upscaling: runtime, tractability, uncertainty workflows
- What must be preserved: volumes, connectivity, flow behaviour, barriers
- Upscaling workflow within the modelling chain
- Common upscaling errors and their symptoms in simulation
Module 2 - Static Property Upscaling
- Porosity upscaling by volume weighted averaging
- Net to gross upscaling and its interaction with porosity
- Saturation upscaling and pore volume weighting
- Facies upscaling and dominant facies assignment
- Preserving in-place volumes through upscaling
- Handling inactive cells and pinch-outs
- Property consistency checking after upscaling
- Verifying volumetric preservation
Module 3 - Permeability Upscaling Methods
- Why permeability does not average arithmetically
- Arithmetic, harmonic and geometric averaging and the flow geometry each represents
- Power averaging and exponent determination
- Bounds on effective permeability
- Flow-based upscaling: principle and procedure
- Boundary conditions: sealed, periodic, linear pressure, and their effects
- Local, extended local and global upscaling approaches
- Directional permeability and diagonal tensors
- Full permeability tensors and off-diagonal terms
- Selecting a method against reservoir heterogeneity and available effort
- Worked upscaling calculations and comparison of methods
Module 4 - Barriers, Baffles and Transmissibility
- Identifying flow barriers in the fine scale model
- Consequence of losing thin barriers during coarsening
- Layering schemes that honour barriers
- Transmissibility calculation between cells
- Transmissibility multipliers for barriers and faults
- Fault transmissibility and juxtaposition analysis
- Shale drape and baffle representation
- Vertical communication and its control on sweep and coning
- Validating vertical communication in the coarse model
Module 5 - Multiphase Upscaling and Pseudo Functions
- Why single phase upscaling is insufficient for displacement processes
- Sub-grid heterogeneity effects on flow functions
- Pseudo relative permeability concept
- Dynamic pseudo generation methods
- Kyte and Berry, Stone and other pseudo methods
- Capillary pressure upscaling and equilibrium assumptions
- Validity limits of pseudo functions
- Rate, direction and configuration dependence of pseudos
- Risks of applying pseudos outside their derivation conditions
- Alternatives to pseudos: finer gridding, explicit heterogeneity, streamline methods
Module 6 - Grid Types and Design
- Cartesian, corner point and unstructured grids
- Grid type selection against structural complexity
- Areal cell size selection and its drivers
- Layering scheme design: proportional, thickness-based, geological
- Number of layers and its effect on vertical resolution
- Cell aspect ratio and its numerical consequences
- Grid conformance to structure, faults and pinch-outs
- Handling faults, unconformities and complex geometry
- Grid quality checking: non-orthogonality, negative volumes, distortion
- Balancing grid resolution against runtime
Module 7 - Numerical Effects and Grid Orientation
- Numerical dispersion and its effect on displacement fronts
- Grid orientation error mechanism
- Five-point and nine-point discretisation schemes
- Testing for grid orientation sensitivity
- Effect of mobility ratio on orientation error severity
- Time step control and its interaction with grid resolution
- Convergence and stability considerations
- Recognising numerical artefacts in simulation results
- Mitigation strategies for numerical error
Module 8 - Near-Well Modelling and Local Refinement
- Well index calculation and the Peaceman formulation
- Assumptions behind standard well index and where they fail
- Skin representation in the well model
- Local grid refinement: application and implementation
- Radial local refinement for coning studies
- Horizontal and multilateral well representation
- Hydraulically fractured well representation in coarse grids
- Near-well upscaling and its particular difficulties
- Perforation intervals, completion representation and layer allocation
- Validating near-well behaviour against well test and production data
Module 9 - Validation and Workflow Practice
- Comparing fine and coarse model flow behaviour
- Validation metrics: production profiles, breakthrough, sweep, recovery
- Streamline comparison between fine and coarse models
- Diagnosing where and why upscaling changed the answer
- Iterating the upscaling and gridding to correct discrepancies
- Preserving uncertainty through the upscaling step
- Upscaling multiple realisations consistently
- Documenting upscaling and gridding decisions
- Quality assurance checklist for a simulation grid
- Reviewing a model built by others
Upon successful completion of this training course, delegates will be awarded an official Certificate of Completion issued by the Petroleum Engineers Association (PEA), an ISO 9001:2015 certified training organization. The certificate carries 10 Credits and formally records the total learning hours completed.
Each certificate is signed by the Course Facilitator and the CEO of the Petroleum Engineers Association, and serves as verifiable proof of professional training that delegates can present to employers and professional bodies worldwide.
Your expert course leader is a senior petroleum engineering consultant, certified trainer and university lecturer with more than 25 years of experience, specialising in upscaling and simulation grid design.
His technical expertise covers the volume-variance problem, single and multiphase upscaling methods, permeability tensor and directional upscaling, relative permeability and pseudo-function generation, grid design and orientation, local refinement, near-well modelling and the validation of coarse models against fine scale behaviour.
Over the course of his career, he has provided consulting and project support to international operators and national oil companies across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas, working on simulation grid design studies, upscaling workflow development and full-field model construction projects across a range of reservoir types.
He has designed and delivered technical training programmes on upscaling and simulation grid design for engineers and technical teams, conducting these sessions both onsite and online across the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe.
Frequently Asked Questions
All course bookings made through PEA are strictly non-refundable. By registering for a course, you acknowledge and accept that all fees are payable in full and are not subject to refund under any circumstances, including changes in personal or professional commitments or partial attendance.
PEA reserves the right to make reasonable adjustments to course content, trainers, or schedules where necessary, without entitling delegates to a refund. Comprehensive details of each course — including objectives, target audience, and content — are clearly outlined before enrolment, and it is the responsibility of the delegate to ensure the course's suitability prior to booking.
For any inquiries related to cancellations or bookings, please contact our support team, who will be happy to assist you.
