Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University of
kitab Petroleum Engineering
Department

Second year

Structural and petroleum geology

Reservoir rock

Professor: Dr. Aboosh Alhadidy

BY: dawod sulyman ali

fractured rock
Reservoir formations.
rock Petroleum reservoirs
are broadly classified
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas as conventional and
reservoir is a subsurface pool of unconventional
hydrocarbons contained in porous or reservoirs. In
conventional reservoirs, the naturally
occurring hydrocarbons, such as crude
oil or natural gas, are trapped by
overlying rock formations with lower
permeability, while in unconventional
reservoirs, the rocks have high porosity
and low permeability, which keeps the
hydrocarbons trapped in place, therefore
not requiring a cap rock. Reservoirs are
found using hydrocarbon exploration
methods.

A structure map, looking

downward, generated by
contour map software for an
8,500-ft-deep gas and oil
reservoir in the Erath field,
Erath, Louisiana. The left-to-
right gap near the top indicates
a fault line between the blue
and green contour lines and
the purple, red, and yellow
lines. The thin red circular line
in the middle indicates the top
of the oil reservoir. Because
gas rises above oil, this latter
line marks the gas-and-oil
contact zone.
 O furnace.

il Thus, the typical oil field

resembles a small, self-
fi contained town in the midst of
e a landscape dotted with
l drilling rigs or the pump jacks,
which are known as "nodding
d donkeys" because of their
bobbing arm. Several
An oil field is a pool of oil under the surface of the earth, companies, such as Hill
trapped in a sealed hollow of impermeable rock. As International, Bechtel, Esso,
actually used in practice, the term implies the possibility Weatherford International,
of sufficient economic benefit worthy of commercial
Schlumberger Limited, Baker
attention. Secondarily, the area on the surface above
Hughes and Halliburton, have
where oil lies trapped underground, is also called an oil
organizations that specialize in
field.[1][2] the large-scale construction of
Because oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, the infrastructure and
possibly several hundred km across, full exploitation providing specialized services
entails multiple wells scattered across the area. In required to operate a field
addition, there may be exploratory wells probing the profitably.
edges, pipelines to transport the oil elsewhere, and support
facilities. More than 40,000 oil fields are
scattered around the globe, on
Because an oil field may be remote from civilization, land and offshore. The largest
establishing a field is often an extremely complicated are the Ghawar Field in Saudi
exercise in logistics. This goes beyond requirements for Arabia and the Burgan Field
drilling, to include associated infrastructure. For instance, in Kuwait, with more than 60
workers require housing to allow them to work onsite for billion barrels (9.5×109 m3)
months or years. In turn, housing and equipment require estimated in each. Most oil
electricity and water. In cold regions, pipelines may need fields are much smaller.
to be heated. Also, excess natural gas may be burned off According to the US
if there is no way to make use of it—which requires a Department of Energy
furnace, chimney and pipes to carry it from the well to the (Energy Information
Administration), as of 2003 the US alone had over 30,000
oil fields.

In the modern age, the location of oil fields with proven

oil reserves is a key underlying factor in many
geopolitical conflicts.[3]

The term "oilfield" is also used as a shorthand to refer to

An oil field with dozens of
the entire petroleum industry. However, it is more wells. This is the Summerland
accurate to divide the oil industry into three sectors: Oil Field, near Santa Barbara,
upstream (crude production from wells and separation of California, before 1906
water from oil), midstream (pipeline and tanker transport
of crude) and downstream (refining, marketing of refined
products and transportation to Oil stations).

Oil Field Mittelplate in the North

Sea

Eagle Ford Shale flares

visible from space (green and
infrared wavelengths), in the
arc between "1" and "2", amid
cities in southeast Texas in
2012.
 GAS Filed
Natural gas originates by the same geological thermal cracking
process that converts kerogen to petroleum. As a consequence, oil
and natural gas are often found together In common usage,
deposits rich in oil are known as oil fields, and deposits rich in
natural gas are called natural gas fields.

and natural gas are lighter than water, they tend to rise from their
sources until they either seep to the surface or are trapped by a non-
permeable stratigraphic trap. They can be extracted from the trap
by drilling.

The largest natural gas field is South Pars/Asalouyeh gas field,

which is shared between Iran and Qatar. The second largest natural
gas field is the Urengoy gas field, and the third largest is the
Yamburg gas field, both in Russia.

Like oil, natural gas is often found underwater in offshore gas

fields such as the North Sea, Corrib Gas Field off Ireland, and near
location of Gas Fields of Iran
Sable Island. The technology to extract and transport offshore
natural gas is different from land-based fields. It uses a few, very
large offshore drilling rigs, due to the cost and logistical difficulties
in working over water.

Rising gas prices in the early 21st century encouraged drillers to

revisit fields that previously were not considered economically
viable. For example, in 2008, McMoran Exploration passed a
drilling depth of over 32,000 feet (9754 m) (the deepest test well in
the history of gas production) at the Blackbeard site in the Gulf of
Mexico.[4] Exxon Mobil's drill rig there had reached 30,000 feet by
2006, without finding gas, before it abandoned the site.
Vučkovec Gas Field facility, Croatia

Formation
Crude oil is found in all oil reservoirs formed in the Earth's crust
from the remains of once-living things. Evidence indicates that
millions of years of heat and pressure changed the remains of
microscopic plant and animal into oil and natural gas.

Roy Nurmi, an interpretation adviser for Schlumberger oil field

services company, described the process as follows:

The drillship Discoverer Enterprise is

Plankton and algae, proteins and the life that's floating
in the sea, as it dies, falls to the bottom, and these
organisms are going to be the source of our oil and
gas. When they're buried with the accumulating
sediment and reach an adequate temperature,
something above 50 to 70 °C they start to cook. This
transformation, this change, changes them into the
liquid hydrocarbons that move and migrate, will
become our oil and gas reservoir.[5]
shown in the background, at work
during exploratory phase of a new
offshore field. The Offshore Support
Vessel Toisa Perseus is shown in the
foreground, illustrating part of the
complex logistics of offshore oil and
gas exploration and production.
In addition to the aquatic environment, which is usually a sea but might also be a river, lake, coral reef, or
algal mat, the formation of an oil or gas reservoir also requires a sedimentary basin that passes through four
steps:[6]

Deep burial under sand and mud. Pressure

cookinHydrocarbon migration from the source to the
reservoir rock Trapping by impermeable rock.

Timing is also an important consideration; it is suggested that the Ohio River Valley could have had as much
oil as the Middle East at one time, but that it escaped due to a lack of traps.[6] The North Sea, on the other
hand, endured millions of years of sea level changes that successfully resulted in the formation of more than
150 oilfields.[7]

Although the process is generally the same, various environmental factors lead to the creation of a wide
variety of reservoirs. Reservoirs exist anywhere from the land surface to 30,000 ft (9,000 m) below the
surface and are a variety of shapes, sizes, and ages. [8] In recent years, igneous reservoirs have become an
important new field of oil exploration, especially in trachyte and basalt formations. These two types of
reservoirs differ in oil content and physical properties like fracture connectivity, pore connectivity, and rock
porosity.[9]

g.
 Traps
A trap forms when the buoyancy forces driving the upward migration of hydrocarbons through a permeable
rock cannot overcome the capillary forces of a sealing medium. The timing of trap formation relative to that
of petroleum generation and migration is crucial to ensuring a reservoir can form.[10]

Petroleum geologists broadly classify traps into three categories that are based on their geological
characteristics: the structural trap, the stratigraphic trap and the far less common hydrodynamic trap.[11] The
trapping mechanisms for many petroleum reservoirs have characteristics from several categories and can be
known as a combination trap. Traps are described as structural traps (in deformed strata such as folds and
faults) or stratigraphic traps (in areas where rock types change, such as unconformities, pinch-outs and
reefs). A trap is an essential component of a petroleum system.

Structural traps
Structural traps are formed as a result of changes in the structure of the subsurface due to processes such as
folding and faulting, leading to the formation of domes, anticlines, and folds.[12] Examples of this kind of
trap are an anticline trap,[13] a fault trap and a salt dome trap. (see salt dome)

They are more easily delineated and more prospective than their stratigraphic counterparts, with the majority
of the world's petroleum reserves being found in structural traps.

Structural traps; blue: source rock, yellow: reservoir rock, green: seal rock, red:
hydrocarbons

Structural trap within Structural trap along Structural-

an Anticline a fault plane stratigraphic trap in
a tilted block draped
by mudstones
 Stratigraphic traps
Stratigraphic traps are formed as a result of lateral and vertical variations in the thickness, texture, porosity,
or lithology of the reservoir rock. Examples of this type of trap are an unconformity trap, a lens trap and a reef
trap.

Stratigraphic traps; blue: source rock, yellow: reservoir rock, green: seal rock, red:
hydrocarbons

Stratigraphic trap Stratigraphic trap in Stratigraphic trap

under an a fossilised coral around an evaporite
unconformity reef (yellow) (pink) salt dome
sealed by
mudstones
(green)

Hydrodynamic traps

Hydrodynamic traps are a far less common type of trap.[15] They are caused by the differences in water
pressure, that are associated with water flow, creating a tilt of the hydrocarbon-water contact.

Seal/ cap rock

The seal is a fundamental part of the trap that prevents hydrocarbons from further upward migration.

A capillary seal is formed when the capillary pressure across the pore throats is greater than or equal to the
buoyancy pressure of the migrating hydrocarbons. They do not allow fluids to migrate across them until
their integrity is disrupted, causing them to leak. There are two types of capillary seal [16] whose
classifications are based on the preferential mechanism of leaking: the hydraulic seal and the membrane seal.

The membrane seal will leak whenever the pressure differential across the seal exceeds the threshold
displacement pressure, allowing fluids to migrate through the pore spaces in the seal. It will leak just enough
to bring the pressure differential below that of the displacement pressure and will reseal.[17]

The hydraulic seal occurs in rocks that have a significantly higher displacement pressure such that the
pressure required for tension fracturing is actually lower than the pressure required for fluid displacement –
for example, in evaporites or very tight shales. The rock will fracture when the pore pressure is greater than
both its minimum stress and its tensile strength then reseal when the pressure reduces and the fractures close.
 Estimating reserves
After the discovery of a reservoir, a petroleum engineer will seek to build a better picture of the
accumulation. In a simple textbook example of a uniform reservoir, the first stage is to conduct a seismic
survey to determine the possible size of the trap. Appraisal wells can be used to determine the location of
oil–water contact and with it the height of the oil bearing sands. Often coupled with seismic data, it is
possible to estimate the volume of an oil-bearing reservoir.

The next step is to use information from appraisal wells to estimate the porosity of the rock. The porosity, or
the percentage of the total volume that contains fluids rather than solid rock, is 20–35% or less. It can give
information on the actual capacity. Laboratory testing can determine the characteristics of the reservoir
fluids, particularly the expansion factor of the oil, or how much the oil expands when brought from the high
pressure and high temperature of the reservoir to a "stock tank" at the surface.

With such information, it is possible to estimate how many "stock tank" barrels of oil are located in the
reservoir. Such oil is called the stock tank oil initially in place (STOIIP). As a result of studying factors such
as the permeability of the rock (how easily fluids can flow through the rock) and possible drive mechanisms,
it is possible to estimate the recovery factor, or what proportion of oil in place can be reasonably expected to
be produced. The recovery factor is commonly 30–35%, giving a value for the recoverable resources.

The difficulty is that reservoirs are not uniform. They have variable porosities and permeabilities and may be
compartmentalised, with fractures and faults breaking them up and complicating fluid flow. For this reason,
computer modeling of economically viable reservoirs is often carried out. Geologists, geophysicists, and
reservoir engineers work together to build a model that allows simulation of the flow of fluids in the reservoir,
leading to an improved estimate of the recoverable resources.

Reserves are only the part of those recoverable resources that will be developed through identified and
approved development projects. Because the evaluation of "Reserves" has a direct impact on the company or
the asset value, it usually follows a strict set of rules or guidelines (even though loopholes are commonly
used by companies to inflate their own share price). The most common guidelines are the SPE PRMS
guidelines, the SEC Rules, or the COGE Handbook. Government may also have their own systems, making
it more complicated for investors to compare one company with another.

Production
To obtain the contents of the oil reservoir, it is usually necessary to drill into the Earth's crust, although surface oil seeps
exist in some parts of the world, such as the La Brea tar pits in California and numerous seeps in Trinidad
.

Drive mechanisms
A virgin reservoir may be under sufficient pressure to push hydrocarbons to the surface. As the fluids are
produced, the pressure will often decline, and production will falter. The reservoir may respond to the
withdrawal of fluid in a way that tends to maintain the pressure. Artificial drive methods may be necessary.

Solution-gas drive

This mechanism (also known as depletion drive) depends on the associated gas of the oil. The virgin
reservoir may be entirely semi-liquid but will be expected to have gaseous hydrocarbons in solution due to
the pressure. As the reservoir depletes, the pressure falls below the bubble point and the gas comes out of
solution to form a gas cap at the top. This gas cap pushes down on the liquid helping to maintain pressure.

This occurs when the natural gas is in a cap below the oil. When the well is drilled the lowered pressure
above means that the oil expands. As the pressure is reduced it reaches bubble point and subsequently the
gas bubbles drive the oil to the surface. The bubbles then reach critical saturation and flow together as a
single gas phase. Beyond this point and below this pressure the gas phase flows out more rapidly than the oil
because of its lowered viscosity. More free gas is produced and eventually the energy source is depleted. In
some cases depending on the geology the gas may migrate to the top of the oil and form a secondary gas
cap.

Some energy may be supplied by water, gas in water, or compressed rock. These are usually minor
contributions with respect to hydrocarbon expansion.

By properly managing the production rates, greater benefits can be had from solution-gas drives. Secondary
recovery involves the injection of gas or water to maintain reservoir pressure. The gas/oil ratio and the oil
production rate are stable until the reservoir pressure drops below the bubble point when critical gas
saturation is reached. When the gas is exhausted, the gas/oil ratio and the oil rate drops, the reservoir
pressure has been reduced, and the reservoir energy exhausted.

Gas cap drive

In reservoirs already having a gas cap (the virgin pressure is already below bubble point), the gas cap
expands with the depletion of the reservoir, pushing down on the liquid sections applying extra pressure.

This is present in the reservoir if there is more gas than can be dissolved in the reservoir. The gas will often
migrate to the crest of the structure. It is compressed on top of the oil reserve, as the oil is produced the cap
helps to push the oil out. Over time the gas cap moves down and infiltrates the oil and eventually the well
will begin to produce more and more gas until it produces only gas. It is best to manage the gas cap
effectively, that is, placing the oil wells such that the gas cap will not reach them until the maximum amount
of oil is produced. Also a high production rate may cause the gas to migrate downward into the production
interval. In this case, over time, the reservoir pressure depletion is not as steep as in the case of solution-
based gas drive. In this case, the oil rate will not decline as steeply but will depend also on the placement of
the well with respect to the gas cap.

As with other drive mechanisms, water or gas injection can be used to maintain reservoir pressure. When a
gas cap is coupled with water influx the recovery mechanism can be highly efficient.
Aquifer (water) drive

Water (usually salty) may be present below the hydrocarbons. Water, as with all liquids, is compressible to a
small degree. As the hydrocarbons are depleted, the reduction in pressure in the reservoir allows the water to
expand slightly. Although this unit expansion is minute, if the aquifer is large enough this will translate into
a large increase in volume, which will push up on the hydrocarbons, maintaining pressure.

With a water-drive reservoir, the decline in reservoir pressure is very slight; in some cases, the reservoir
pressure may remain unchanged. The gas/oil ratio also remains stable. The oil rate will remain fairly stable
until the water reaches the well. In time, the water cut will increase and the well will be watered out.[18]

The water may be present in an aquifer (but rarely one replenished with surface water). This water gradually
replaces the volume of oil and gas that is produced out of the well, given that the production rate is
equivalent to the aquifer activity. That is, the aquifer is being replenished from some natural water influx. If
the water begins to be produced along with the oil, the recovery rate may become uneconomical owing to
the higher lifting and water disposal costs.

Water and gas injection

If the natural drives are insufficient, as they very often are, then the pressure can be artificially maintained
by injecting water into the aquifer or gas into the gas cap.

Gravity drainage

The force of gravity will cause the oil to move downward of the gas and upward of the water. If vertical
permeability exists then recovery rates may be even better.

Gas and gas condensate reservoirs

These occur if the reservoir conditions allow the hydrocarbons to exist as a gas. Retrieval is a matter of gas
expansion. Recovery from a closed reservoir (i.e., no water drive) is very good, especially if bottom hole
pressure is reduced to a minimum (usually done with compressors at the wellhead). Any produced liquids
are light coloured to colourless, with a gravity higher than 45 API. Gas cycling is the process where dry gas
is injected and produced along with condensed liquid.