Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Reservoir Development
Reservoir Modelling and the Application of Outcrop Analogues (Utah, USA)
Format and Duration:
5 days
Next Event
Location: Utah, USA
Date:
29 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2025
Start Time:
09:00 MDT
Event Code: N576a25F
Fee From: USD $13,230
(exc. Tax)
In clastic reservoirs, the facies architecture is typically the most important control on the distribution of reservoir properties. Robust reservoir modelling depends upon the ability to visualise and capture the distribution of the architectural elements. This is based upon a conceptual model which is commonly derived from studies of outcrops and modern analogues. During this mixed classroom/field course we will explore a range of clastic depositional environments, understand the depositional processes and how it impacts the resultant architectural elements. We will consider the importance of stratigraphic reservoir zonation and explores different facies modelling strategies for different depositional environments. A key aspect will be understanding the sedimentological heterogeneities that impact flow and the different scales at which they occur.
The course will use outcrop analogues from eastern Utah to describe workflows for better, facies-based reservoir modelling and illustrate why this matters with subsurface case studies. The course will visit classic outcrop sections, many of which have well logs and cores behind the cliffs allowing us to close the gap between outcrop and subsurface data. The concepts will be illustrated with reservoir models built from the outcrops. Virtual outcrops will also be available to enhance the understanding and integrate modern analogues.
Schedule
Event Code: N576a25F
Duration: 5 days
Instructors: John Howell
Dates:
29 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2025
Start Time:
09:00 MDT
Location: Utah, USA
Fee From
USD $13,230
(exc. Tax)
Good Availability
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Duration and Training Method
A five-day course with a mixture of field-based work and classroom teaching (60/40). Teaching will involve a series of short exercises to illustrate and emphasises key points.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Apply the principals of reservoir model design including the importance of the “conceptual geological models” and the role of analogues.
- Given a set of petrophysical and facies data, determine which elements need to be captured in the static and dynamic models.
- Design a modelling grid based upon interpretation of the depositional environment and associated key heterogeneities.
- Create a stratigraphic based reservoir zonation scheme.
- Determine the appropriate facies modelling strategy (object modelling, pixel-based modelling, MPS).
- Given a fluvial reservoir, select the key model inputs and modelling methodology
- Given a shallow marine reservoir, recognize the role of depositional process in controlling reservoir architecture in shallow marine systems and how to model them.
- Given an aeolian system, determine how to zone and model the reservoir, with special reference to wet vs dry interdunes, dune trough geometries and other heterogeneities.
Course Content
Day 0
- Arrive Salt Lake City, then drive to Price, UT
Day 1
- Introduction to shallow marine systems. Shorefaces vs Deltas. (Panther Tongue, Spring Canyon)
- Night in Price, UT
Day 2.
- Fluvial systems – Non-marine Blackhawk and Price River Formation
- Night in Price, UT
Day 3
- Tidal Estuarine systems. (Woodside Canyon)
- Night in Green River, UT
Day 4
- Correlation and clinoforms in shoreface systems (Green River Embayment)
- Night in Green River, UT
Day 5
- Arid depositional systems – aeolian and fluvial deposits. Bartlett Wash and Hwy 7
- Night in Moab, UT
Day 6
- Drive to Salt Lake City for return flights
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This course is multi-disciplinary. It is designed for geoscientists, petroleum engineers and petrophysicists involved in designing, building and assessing reservoir models.
Instructors
John Howell
Background
John Howell is Chair in Virtual Geosciences at the University of Aberdeen, where he has been a professor since 2012. In the past 25 years, he has worked on outcrops from all over the World with special focus on the western USA. He currently runs the SAFARI project, a collaboration between University of Aberdeen and Uni Bergen, supported by 13 companies.
John read for a PhD in reservoir sedimentology at the University of Birmingham (1992). He proceeded to the University of Liverpool where he spent 10 years working as a researcher and lecturer. During that time he participated in numerous oil industry funded projects, collaborating with virtually all the major oil companies, primarily in the fields of sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and latterly reservoir modelling. In 2002 he took a professorship at the University of Bergen to further his applied research interests in analogue reservoir modelling. In 2005 he was one of the founders of Rocksource, a Norwegian Independent E&P Company. He worked there in the senior management until end 2011 initially as the Production Manager and latterly the CTO.
John has worked in a diverse range of basins on six continents, supervised over 50 PhD students, published more than a 150 papers, and edited 7 books. He was an AAPG distinguished lecturer in 2009. His current research focuses on virtual geosciences, including the improved use of analogues for understanding reservoirs. Over the past 15 years he has pioneered the use of Virtual Outcrops, collected using lidar and more recently UAVs (drones), in the geosciences. He is passionate about outreach in the geosciences. He was a co-host on "The Big Monster Dig", a TV series on geology and palaeontology for C4 and Discovery. He also has numerous other TV and radio credits as a scientific expert.
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD University of Birmingham - Reservoir Sedimentology
BA University of Cardiff - Geology
Fellow of the Geological Society of London
IAS, SEPM, AAPG, PESGB
Courses Taught
N106: Advanced Reservoir Modelling (Elgin, UK)
N155: Introduction to Clastic Depositional Systems: A Petroleum Perspective
N298: Reservoir Analogues for the Southwestern Barents Sea: Outcrop Examples from Svalbard (Norway)
N335: Modelling Clastic Reservoirs (Pyrenees, Spain)
N532: Aeolian and Dryland Fluvial Reservoirs: Field and Virtual Outcrop (Elgin, UK)
N550: North Sea Multiphase Rift Evolution: Outcrop to Subsurface Perspectives on Stratigraphy, Sedimentology & Petroleum Systems (East Coast, UK)
N576: Reservoir Modelling and the Application of Outcrop Analogues (Utah, USA)
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 4 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 40 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.