ARMA 17-167

A rock mechanics laboratory characterization of Vaca Muerta formation

Varela, R.A.
YPF S.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hasbani, J.G.
YPF S.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina
Copyright 2017 ARMA, American Rock Mechanics Association
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 51st US Rock Mechanics / Geomechanics Symposium held in San Francisco, California, USA, 25-28 June
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ABSTRACT: The Vaca Muerta formation has been under study as a potential shale reservoir since approximately 2007; however, the first
well, targeting this formation, was drilled in 2010. During the last few years, many works showing different discoveries about Vaca Muerta
mechanical rock properties have been published. All of them are an invaluable piece of work; nevertheless, they do not give a full
characterization of Vaca Muerta mechanical rock properties. Until today, many meters of core samples were recovered from Vaca Muerta
formation and a complete set of rock mechanics laboratory tests have been performed on core plugs to accurately characterize all the
parameters that governs the mechanical behavior of the rock. In addition, to further understand the variability in the mechanical response of
the rock, changes in the setting up of the laboratory tests were done in similar plugs on a same core sample (sister samples). It is the aim of
this paper to present an overview of recent Vaca Muerta research works which include mechanical laboratory characterization of the rock
and discuss about how different laboratory test parameters such as temperature, confining pressure, time, and fluid saturation among others
affects the mechanical response of the rock. To complete the understanding of the Vaca Muerta formation mechanical behavior, special
laboratory studies like Biot´s coefficient and creep test were performed in some core shale gas samples; nevertheless, in this work, the
quality and validity of these results are left as an open discussion. The most important conclusion of the analysis done in this work is that
some elastic properties are not mainly controlled by the “rock families or facies”. As a result, a unique correlation between many elastic
properties has been found and a simple workflow to fully characterize the rock mechanical properties of Vaca Muerta formation is proposed.

1. INTRODUCTION temperature, confining pressure and time, affect the

During the exploration, delineation and development of the
principal shale oil and gas reservoirs in Argentina, several
studies like petrophysics, geochemistry, biostratigraphy and
geomechanics haves been done. In order to calibrate the
parameters of different models many meters of core has been
recovered from the Vaca Muerta formation in the Neuquén
basin, Argentina. This core acquisition was fundamental for
the correct characterization of the mechanical rock properties.
These properties play a fundamental role in every stage in the
life of a well i.e. drilling process (wellbore stability),
fracturing process and finally production forecasting.
In spite of the several amount of publications studying Vaca
Muerta’s rock properties, until today, not normalize and
conclusive correlations have been found. It is also well known
that Vaca Muerta shale rock is intrinsically anisotropic
regarding elastic and rock strength properties.
Several works about physical shale properties and the effects
of different parameters that impact on shale behavior like
shale composition, pore pressure, organic content, and
confining pressure among others have been done in order to
better understand the behavior of shale rocks.
The aim of this work is to present some conclusive results
about the mechanical behavior of Vaca Muerta formation
which are supported with mathematical correlations obtained
by performing different kind of laboratory experiments.
It is also the purpose of this work to analyze how some
control variables related to rock behavior, such as
mechanical response of Vaca Muerta shale rock.
This paper is divided in three main parts; the first part is
intended to be a literature review about rock mechanics
laboratory characterization of different shale oil and gas
formations around the world, and also of Vaca Muerta
formation.
In the second part, the most important one, rock mechanical
correlations that can be applied in the entire basin for Vaca
Muerta formation are proposed. These correlations
demonstrate the vertical and horizontal variability and no
need of a per facies correlation.
The workflow presented in this paper is based on several
correlations all depending on simple wireline logs like
gamma ray (GR) and vertical compressional sonic slowness
(DTCv) and also how this wireline logs are related to
laboratory measurements.
The third part aboard a discussion about how many external
effects such as temperature (ambient to reservoir) confining
pressure, matrix-fluid interaction (Biot´s coefficient) and
rheological response (creep measurements), affects the
mechanical behavior of the Vaca Muerta formation.
In order to achieve this goal a rock mechanics data base was
built and the resultant correlations are presented in this work,
but for confidential reasons, most of the graphics presented in
this paper does not shows the values in the x and y axes, and
also no geomechanics data tables will be available.
2. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS PAPERS
In this section, the most relevant published works about rock
mechanics laboratory experiments performed in oil and gas
shale rocks are reviewed. Firstly, a review of the rock
mechanics experiments accomplished in different shales
around the world is exposed. Finally, a review of the different
rock mechanics experiments performed in the Vaca Muerta
shale rock is also discussed.
The Vaca Muerta formation is the main shale oil and gas
reservoir in Argentina (Lanusse et al., 2012). It is mainly
composed of organic rich calcareous shales, marls and
limestones, deposited in a distal ramp (Sagasti et al., 2014).
Mineralogy is principally dominated by calcite, quartz, micas,
pyrite, and clays. The total organic matter is around 2 to 10%
in the richest zones (Askenazi et al., 2013).
2.1 Rock mechanics test on worldwide shale rocks
In the literature there are many publications explaining
different kind of experiments done on shale rocks to
characterize strength, rheological behavior, elasticity and
poroelasticity parameters.
Chandong et al., 2005 compile the rock strength and physical
properties in sedimentary rocks around the world and they
analyzed the applicability of these mathematical equations
and concluded that a few of the empirical relations depending
on rock properties are directly applicable.
Dewhurst et al., 2008 performed ultrasonic tests to evaluate
the elastic tensor on single shale core plugs and some
correlations between physical and geomechanical properties
of shale are also given. They also make reference to several
works which explain that the rock behavior is affected by
different features like factors affecting acoustic velocity and
intrinsic anisotropy as the stress state, clay content, organic
content and interactions between fluids.
Suarez and Fjaer, 2012 study the importance of the
poroelastic effect to completion design on tight shales. They
perform laboratory measurements of the Biot’s coefficient on
two different shales in the United States. They proposed a
methodology for Biot coefficient measurement and also Biot
anisotropy characterization.
Rassouli and Zoback, 2015 performed creep laboratory tests
on high clay content shales and they characterize the long
term viscoplastic effect for the Haynesville formation in east
Texas.
Rassoulli and Zoback, 2016 conducted a series of creep
experiments on clay and carbonate-rich shale samples from
unconventional gas and oil reservoirs, the samples where
mainly from Haynesville and Eagle Ford formations. In this
work the authors expose a methodology for characterizing the
viscoplastic behavior of shale rocks from relatively short-term
creep experiments.
2.2 Rock Mechanical Test on Vaca Muerta Formation
Andrew Dietrich, 2015 submitted a thesis to the Faculty and
the Board of Trustees of the Colorado School of Mines. This
thesis was based on a geomechanical description of Vaca
Muerta formation based on wireline logs and core data from 2
wells located in an east area of the Neuquén basin. This thesis
tries to correlate the rock stiffness to the total organic content
(TOC) based on the assumption that kerogen and bitumen are
materials not as stiff as mineral components of the rock, so
the increase in volume of TOC or decrease on the stiffer
components should affect the rock behavior. He presented a
correlation between Young modulus and TOC with only six
rock mechanics test.
Ambrose et al., 2014 studied the issue regarding the failure
type on shale during triaxial compressive test, and the failure
analysis models for Vaca Muerta formation and Bossier Shale
rock.
Varela et al., 2016 developed a workflow for the rock
mechanical characterization of the Vaca Muerta formation
with the problematic of low quantity of core analysis data and
improving this data using facies analysis.
3. ROCK MECHANICS CHARACTERIZACION
In this section, the dynamic and static elastic characterization
and the rock strength characterization of the Vaca Muerta
formation is exposed. Correlations, which have been found
with the more than 500 core measurements, are proposed.
3.1 Elastic Properties Correlations
3.1.1 Dynamic Relationships
Dynamic elastic properties characterization are based on
acoustic compressional and shear velocity measurements
done on seismic, logs or core samples (plugs) during the
triaxial test, and also with bulk density measurements. It is
important to understand the scale issues of these kinds of
measurements.
During wireline acoustic and density logs acquisition, the
vertical resolution is about 2 ft (0.6m) to 6 ft (1.82m) for a
horizontal resolution of 6 inch (15.24cm), and the acoustic
acquisition frequency is in the order to 0 to 15 kHz.
Ultrasonic measurements done on plugs during laboratory
testing had a frequency range of 1 MHz.
In order to apply correlations that properly model the rock
mechanical properties, a relationship between laboratory
measurements and wireline log acquisition needs to be found.
Figure 1 presents laboratory correlations found between
horizontal compressional ultrasonic slowness (UVCh) and
vertical compressional ultrasonic slowness (UVCv) (having
measured values between 50 to 100 µs/ft) and horizontal
(UVSh) from vertical shear ultrasonic slowness (UVSv)
(having measured values between 80 to 160 µs/ft) measured
during triaxial test (Eq. 1 and Eq. 2). These correlations have
high confidence (R2>0.75) and can be used for dynamic
anisotropy characterization (Colin Sayers, 2010).
𝑈𝑉𝐶ℎ [µs/ft] = 0.6116 𝑈𝑉𝐶𝑣 + 20.131 (1)
𝑈𝑉𝑆ℎ [µs/ft] = 0.6246 𝑈𝑉𝑆𝑣 + 34.479 (2)
A linear correlation from bulk density (BDens) (measured in
lab as received, 1.95 to 2.95 gr/cc) and vertical compressional
ultrasonic velocity (50 to 100 us/ft) measurement during
triaxial test (Figure 2) is also presented with a high quality
correlation (Eq.3).
𝐵𝐷𝑒𝑛𝑠[gr/cc] = −0.009 𝑈𝑉𝐶𝑣 + 3.1425 (3)
Fig. 1. Ultrasonic compressional and shear horizontal slowness
from ultrasonic compressional and shear vertical slowness.
Fig. 2. Bulk density measured as received in lab from vertical
ultrasonic compressional slowness measured in lab.
Figure 3 presents an excellent correlation (R2>0.8) between
vertical static Young modulus (EVsta) and vertical
compressional ultrasonic slowness (UVCv) from laboratory
measurement (Eq. 4).
𝐸𝑉𝑠𝑡𝑎[Mpsi] = 324453 𝑈𝑉𝐶𝑣 −2.696 (4)
As was explained before, this correlation has the issue that if
it is applied directly in wireline log it will not calibrate due to
the ultrasonic velocity to wireline sonic log difference as can
be observed in Figure 4, laboratory and wireline acoustic
velocity relationships are clearly not one to one and most of
these effects are mainly due to the scale effect and
frequency differences during the acoustic acquisition.
A correlation between wireline compressional sonic slowness
(DTCv) from Gamma Ray log (GR) is also presented (Figure
5). This correlation should be used only in the case of
compressional sonic waveform absence (Eq. 5).
𝐷𝑇𝐶𝑣 [µs/ft] = 0.2436 𝐺𝑅 + 57.249 (5)
Fig. 3. Static vertical Young modulus from vertical compressional
ultrasonic slowness.
Fig. 4. Laboratory to wireline acoustic measurement relationship.
The difference is principally due to scale and frequency effect.
Dashed line is the one to one relationship.
3.1.2. Static Relationships
For the horizontal principal stress estimation and rock
mechanic behavior characterization the static elastic
properties are needed. Figure 6 presents a good correlation
(R2>0.6) of vertical static Young modulus (EVsta) and
acoustic compressional slowness (DTCv) from wireline logs
(Eq. 6). The main advantage of this correlation is that only an
acquisition of an acoustic wireline log is needed to
completely characterize the elastic properties of Vaca Muerta
formation.
𝐸𝑉𝑠𝑡𝑎[Mpsi] = 69845 𝐷𝑇𝐶𝑣 −2.28 (6)
 between vertical UCS with acoustic compressional wireline
log.

Fig. 5. Wireline acoustic log (DTCv) vs wireline GR log.

Figure 7 shows a correlation (R2>0.7) between the horizontal

(EHsta) and the vertical static Young Modulus (EVsta) (Eq. Fig. 7. Static horizontal Young modulus from static vertical Young
7), were EVsta can be calculated previously with the Eq. 6. modulus.

𝐸𝐻𝑠𝑡𝑎[Mpsi] = 2.4396 𝐸𝑉𝑠𝑡𝑎0.6052 (7)

It is also presented a correlation between EVsta and GR

(Figure 8). Besides the poor relationship between them, this
correlation is useful when the only available data is a GR
wireline log.

Fig. 8. Vertical static Young modulus from wireline gamma ray.

Fig. 6. Vertical static Young modulus measured in lab vs vertical

compressional sonic slowness.

Figure 9 presented a poor correlation between vertical

static Poisson´s ratio and vertical acoustic from log.
Despite the poor correlation, there is a general trend that
Poisson´s Ratio decreases as DTCv increase.
Fig. 9. Vertical static Poisson´s Ratio from DTCv.
3.2 Rock Strength Correlations

Rock strength parameters characterization is mainly done for 𝑈𝐶𝑆𝑣[psi] = 40000000 𝐷𝑇𝐶𝑣 −1.779 (8)
wellbore stability purposes. Unconfined compressive strength
(UCS) tests were done on more than 300 samples distributed Rock strength anisotropy was also characterized and in figure
in the entire basin; these samples include vertical and 11 the relationship between horizontal UCS and vertical UCS
horizontal test. The UCS test consists on applying a constant (Eq. 9) is shown. In this plot it is observed that horizontal
strain rate until failure without any kind of confining pressure. UCS presents lower values, which will affect wellbore
stability.
The correlation that is presented in this work has an R2>0.52
which could be considered a good correlation index for this 𝑈𝐶𝑆ℎ[psi] = 0.7635 𝑈𝐶𝑆𝑣 (9)
type of measurement (Eq.8). Figure 10 shows the correlation
The vertical and horizontal friction angle values are derived shrink-fit impermeable membrane. During the test, the
using the UCS measurement and two different confinements ultrasonic velocity is measured, with the end-caps containing
in triaxial test (Mohr Coulomb) (Figure 12). 1 MHz transducers which were used to measure P and S wave
A correlation between vertical friction angle and acoustic travel times. In the samples, strain-gauged cantilevers (radial
wireline log DTCv (Figure 13) is presented, despite this deformation) are mounted and a load cell is installed in the
correlation has a R2<0.3, too poor, it is observed that the axial sample stack (axial deformation).
friction angle increases while wireline log DTCv decreases.
Chandong et al. (2005) explained in their work, that it is
difficult obtain a strong correlation for this property since
there exists a dependency of the friction angle with
micromechanical features such as stiffness, cementation and
porosity. They also explain that the friction angle depends on
the confining stress range over which data is fitted.

Fig. 12. Mohr Coulomb diagram for friction angle estimation.

There is also a second triaxial test performed with higher

Fig. 10. Vertical unconfined compressive strength (UCS) from
vertical DTC.
Fig. 11. Horizontal UCS from vertical UCS, has a good correlation.
Dashed line is the one to one relationship.
confining pressure, this measurement is used for friction
angle estimation and for understanding the stiffness of the
rock variation with confining pressure. The nominal strain
rate is 1x10-5/s.
For the UCS test, a nominal 1 x 2 inch plug was used and it
was performed at ambient temperature conditions, without
confining pressure and it was drained to atmospheric
conditions. The test is initiated with an axial loading strain
rate of 1x10-5/s until failure.
For the tensile strength measurement, the Brazilian test
method is used. A plug (disk shaped) of 1.5 x 0.5 inch is
selected, and then the test is done under vertical compression
across a diameter between flat surfaces until failure (Varela et
al, 2016).
A critical validation of the data was performed for each of the
exposed experiments. This is done through a standard process
that involves pre and post computed tomography (CT) and
core photos, in order to observe the failure mode and quality
of the rock previous to the test.

In order to characterize the rock tensile strength, Brazilian

tests were performed. These tests were done in more than 200
samples perpendicular and parallel-to-bedding. This kind of
test is an indirect tensile strength measurement. For this type
of measurement not a good correlation could be found,
nevertheless a percentage of UCS is normally used for tensile
strength estimation and, in this case, is around 7% of UCS.

3.3 Standard set up for rock mechanic test

Triaxial test are made preferably on nominal plugs of 1 x 2

inches. For this test, a reservoir confining pressure is defined Fig. 13. Vertical friction angle from wireline acoustic log.
and used during the experiment. The samples are jacketed in a
4. SET UP VARIATION OF PROPERTIES
Beyond the standard rock mechanics characterization of this
formation, specialized experiments were performed to get a
better insight on the full characterization of Vaca Muerta
formation. It is very important to remark that many types of
shale around the world have high clay content; however, this
is not the case for Vaca Muerta formation (see Table 1).
Table 1. Mineralogy of two samples.
Calcite Clay Quartz TOC
Sample
[%] [%] [%] [%]
S1 27 19 28 5.59
S2 21 17 36 8.32

Among many extrinsic variables that could affect the

measurement of mechanical properties in a laboratory, the
most relevant are: confinement pressure, temperature, time
length of load application and compressibility of the rock.

Fig. 14. Vertical static Young modulus correlation, in the y axes the
4.1 Confining Pressure triaxial test with higher confining pressure (dual confining pressure
The previous results presented in this work are based on at least) and in the x axis, vertical static Young modulus with
single plug triaxial test, vertical and horizontal samples. reservoir confining pressure. Dashed line is the one to one
These samples were tested with reservoir confining pressure correlation.
estimated based on pore pressure, horizontal and vertical
stress quantification.
As it was mention before, triaxial tests with a higher
confinement pressure was done for vertical friction angle
estimation and to quantify the effect of confining pressure in
the rock behavior. Figure 14 shows the elastic response
(EVsta, vertical Young modulus) sensitivity to different
confining pressures (reservoir confinement vs “dual”
confinement). It is clear that the relationship between vertical
Young modulus has a good one to one correlation (red dashed
line), observing that at higher Young modulus values start to
lose the relationship, but if it is observed the black trend line
(R2>0.95) is parallel to the dashed line. This means that no
matter what the confining pressure is, the elastic response
does not change very much.
Fig. 15. Vertical Young modulus tested in 17 samples along a core.
As well as figure 14, it was observed in 16 samples tested in
One sample (#2) fails during plugging. The remaining samples were
one core along the Vaca Muerta, that for 3 different confining tested without confinement, reservoir confinement and higher
pressures (Unconfined, Reservoir confinement and Dual confinement. The variation as was shown before is similar and low
Confining pressures) that exists a small variation of stiffness variations is notice between confinements, and the highest
observing the highest variation at higher Young modulus variations are observed at higher stiffness.
values (Figure 15). So for stiffer rocks, comparisons at higher
confining pressure have higher Young modulus variation In figure 17, a relationship between UVCv Slowness and
related to reservoir confinement and no confining pressure. temperature is presented. The study was developed with 3
samples families, vertical and horizontal and this sister
4.2 Temperature samples that were tested at room and reservoir temperature. It
Triaxial test are usually done at room temperature. This is could be observed that in the sister samples at reservoir
clearly not the reservoir temperature in Vaca Muerta temperature, the ultrasonic velocity slowness measurement
formation, which is around 100°C to 135°C (215°F-275°F). increases from room to reservoir temperature. It can also be
For this reason, some tests were done on two sister samples, observed a sample (Sample #2) which is out of the typical
one of them at room temperature and the other one at value trend, this sample is composed of a stiffer mineral
reservoir temperature. Figure 16 illustrates the vertical component which has a differential diagenesis and also lower
ultrasonic velocity measurement for reservoir temperature acoustic slowness values (in the range of 55 us/ft).
(120°C) against room temperature (25°C), and could be
observed that the trend line start to deviate as slowness
increases.
 The experiment was done at a constant confining pressure of
3000 psi and was performed in five stages: a hydrostatic stage
and four axial load increments; each axial load increment was
hold in order to capture creep response of the sample. The
first sample was loaded incrementally for 140 hours while the
second sample was loaded for 161 hours.
In figure 18 the axial strain and radial strain response is
shown. The radial strain response is practically the same for
both samples and a noticeable creep effect is observed up to
the second load step. The axial strain response exhibits a low
creep effect from the first load step and the same response
remains for the subsequent load step (second load step). Only
during the last two load steps the axial strain is increased.
Fig. 16. Relationship between vertical ultrasonic compressional
slowness at reservoir temperature (120°C) (y axes) and vertical
ultrasonic compressional slowness at room temperature (25°C).

Fig. 18. Axial Differential Stress vs Radial strain (to the left) and
Axial strain (to the right). Sample #1 (Blue) and Sample #2 (Red)

In figure 19 and figure 20 the axial strain over time is shown

for sample #1 and sample #2 respectively. It can be observed
Fig. 17. Change in UVCv Slowness with increasing effective mean that, in sample #1, beyond the hydrostatic stage, the three
pressure and also sister samples vertical and horizontal with room
and reservoir temperature. Color arrows indicate that sister samples following load steps exhibit the same amount of differential
tested at reservoir temperature has higher slowness, but the axial strain (approximately an increment of 9.5 % in each
temperature does not affect the reducing slowness behavior. load step). However the highest axial stress increment
happens in the last load stage (11.2%).
4.3 Creep Measurements (“Time”)
The response of the sample #2 is a little different in terms of
In Sone and Zoback (2014), Rassouli and Zoback (2015) and
axial strain. The axial differential strain increases in every
Rassoulli and Zoback (2016) a characterization and a
load step being the higher one at the last load step (12.91%).
methodology to quantify the viscoplastic response of different
Comparing the response of the two samples it is observed that
shale rocks in U.S. was presented.
sample 2 shows the highest amount of axial strain at the end
A creep experiment on two Vaca Muerta shale gas samples
of the experiment; however, this result is not conclusive since
was done in order to study their viscoplastic response.
this sample was submitted to incremental load for a longer
The first sample was taken at an approximately depth of 2800
period of time. Nevertheless, for both samples it can be seen
m, while the second sample was taken at an approximately
certain rheological behavior under a short-term load
depth of 2840 m, being this sample the one with the highest
application. Further tests needs to be done in order to
organic content. For both samples, the load was applied
understand if this effect stabilizes or increases in the long-
normal to the beddings. Table 1 summarizes the mineral
term period.
composition of both samples, it can be seen that sample 2 has
a higher quartz and TOC content than sample 1; however,
sample 1 has the highest clay content.
 performing Biot’s coefficient tests. Special focus is made in
the results obtained with the latter sample.
Figure 21 shows the Biot’s coefficient measurement using the
RSR method. The results obtained with this methodology did
not pass the quality standards for the test. For this reason,
finally, the traditional method was adopted.

Fig. 19. Axial strain over Time. It is show the strain steps behavior.
Sample #1.

Fig. 21. Biot´s coefficient estimation based on RSR method.

The first attempt for measuring the Biot’s coefficient using

the traditional method resulted in an over estimation of the
Biot’s coefficient (Figure 22). This overestimation may be
explained as an effect related with the loading rate (0.2
psi/sec in the first attempt). A second attempt was made with
a loading rate reduction to 0.05 psi/sec for the loading ramp
and 1 psi/sec in the unloading ramp (Figure 23). Despite
reducing the loading rate, Biot’s coefficient estimation
remains too high to the expected results. A comparison
Fig. 20. Axial strain over Time. It is show the strain steps behavior. between the two tests is shown in Figure 24.
Sample #2. Besides the effort invested in performing Biot’s tests, the
results are non-conclusive and there is no reliable value for
4.4 Biot Measurements this poroelastic parameter.
Suarez and Fjaer, 2012 have performed Biot’s coefficient
measurements for different shale rocks in the U.S. In their
work they argue that if the pore saturating fluid is more
compressible that the rock, the poroelastic effect is neglible;
otherwise, if the pore fluid is incompressible in relation to the
rock the poroelastic effect could be considerable. For this
reason, attempts to perform Biot’s coefficient measurements
have been done in four gas prone shale samples from Vaca
Muerta formation.
Two different methodologies were used to measure this
parameter: traditional Biot’s testing and RSR (Roberto Suarez
Rivera) Biot’s testing. All these methodologies are accurately
explained in Suarez and Fjaer, 2012.
Three parallel to bedding samples (two sister samples and a
solely sample were chosen). CT scanner readings were run in
all the samples.
Fig. 22. Biot´s Coefficient with traditional method.
Since CT reading in the first two horizontal samples showed
some high density steaks and a low density steak (soft), they
were replaced by a vertical sample. The other horizontal
sample CT analysis shows a fracture along a bedding which
could dominate the flow path; despite having some spare
samples, a suitable replacement could not been found.
Finally, the last vertical sample CT analysis verified the
quality of this sample and was declared suitable for

Fig. 23. Second attempt was made with a loading rate reduction to
0.05 psi/sec for the loading ramp and 1 psi/sec in the unloading
ramp.
Fig. 24. A comparison between the two loading rate tests.
5. CONCLUSIONS
A workflow for rock mechanical properties characterization
based on log to core correlations supported with more than
500 rock lab measurements is presented and proposed. This
workflow is intended to be dependent on wireline logs only,
simplifying and reducing the cost on the core data acquisition.
From the results presented in this work, it is a clear fact that
static to dynamic laboratory measurements present stronger
correlations than static (lab) to dynamic (log) correlations due
to the scale issue and type of the measurements.
Based on the founded correlations in this work, it could be
concluded that there is no need to develop many different
correlations per facies in the Vaca Muerta formation. As a
result, it is clear that most of the measurement follows a
correlations with this spread information.
As it was expected and remarked in other published works,
elastic parameters exhibit the strongest correlations whereas;
rock strength parameters show the weakest ones.
Regarding Young modulus values obtained for Vaca Muerta,
they do not seem to vary significantly with different
confining pressures. Nevertheless, higher variations were
noticed at higher Young modulus values.
Temperature variations affect the quantification of ultrasonic
velocity measurements during effective mean pressure
increments in triaxial tests. Therefore, an increasing slowness
for reservoir temperature was observed and, as a result, this
fact will affect the final elastic measurements.
Short-period creep testing results are consistent with those
published in the reference papers. Comparing the two testing
samples, it could be observed a slightly higher creep
deformation for the sample with higher organic content.
However, the total cumulative creep deformation in both
samples is in the same order of magnitude; this could be
interpreted as an independency of the creep deformation
response with the TOC. In addition, further studies need to be
done to understand the rheological anisotropic response of the
rock.
Biot´s coefficient measurements do not show the expected
results. Besides this issue, more samples need to be tested and
improvements in the testing methodology should also be
done. For Biot´s coefficient measurements, excellent plug
quality should be available and also complete plug saturation
should be assured.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank YPF S.A. for the permission
to publish these results.
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NOMENCLATURE

UVCv =Ultrasonic Compressional Velocity Vertical

UVCh =Ultrasonic Compressional Velocity Horizontal
UVSv =Ultrasonic Shear Velocity Vertical
UVSh =Ultrasonic Shear Velocity Horizontal
UCSv =Vertical Unconfined Compressive Strength
UCSh =Horizontal Unconfined Compressive Strength
BDens =Bulk Density
EVsta =Vertical Static Young modulus
EHsta =Horizontal Static Young modulus
DTCv =Wireline Vertical Compressional Sonic Slowness
GR =Wireline Gamma Ray