Petrophysical Evaluation of Nubian Sandstone Reservoir

Sarir Field - Southeast Sirt Basin.

Reema .O. Mohammed1
1
Department of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, Ajdabiya university, Libya.
Remaomar17@gmail.com

Abstract
‫يعاد البحث للباحث لالسباب االتية‬
%1 ‫ وان ال يتجاوز االستالل من اي مصدر‬%20 ‫ استالل عالي يجب ان يخفظ الى ما دون‬-1
‫ لم يطلع الباحث على تعليمات النشر وا واضح الن بحثة ال يطابق التعليمات وال يمكن استالمه ما لم يكون مطابق تماما‬- 2
‫للتعليمات‬
‫ عدد المصادر المستعملة ضئيا جدا وهذه حالة غير مقبولة‬-3
 ‫ كثير من الفقرات ماخوذة من مصادر لم يشار الى مصادرها والبحث بحاجة الى تطعيم بمصادر حديثة من مجالت عالمية‬- 4
‫ مصدر ويفضل استخدام مصادر مجلتنا كونها تخدم موضوع البحث وحيثة ومتوفرة مجانا على‬15 ‫يفضل استخدام ما ال يقل عن‬
‫الموقع‬
‫ طريقة كتابة المقدمة غير مقبولة اذ يجب ان تتضمن مشكلة واهمية البحث والدراسات السابقة ويثبت هدف البح كاخر فقرة‬- 4
‫في المقدمة وليس بموضوع منفصل‬
‫ كل الجداول ليس ضمن السياق‬-5
‫ بعض االشكال غير واضحة‬-5
‫ تكتب الخالصة كمقطوعة واحدة تكون عناوين البحث حروف كبيرة وبال ترقيم‬-6
‫بالتوفيق وال يستلم البحث ما لم تنفذ الشروط اعاله‬
‫رئيس هيئة التحرير‬

The work was carried out to evaluate the petrophysical characteristics of Nubian sandstone in
Sarir field. The data used in this study were mainly wire-line logs from three wells (D11-BLK9,
D13-BLK9 and D14-BLK9).
The aim of this study is to do the formation evaluation using petrophysical parameters from
wire-line logs in order to determine lithology, porosity, permeability and fluid saturation and to
understand the importance of the analysis and distribution of petrophysical properties on
reservoir and predict oil recovery.
In this work, Interactive Petrophysics (V3.4) software was used to perform a solid computation
of petrophysical properties and then give summaries of the results.
It is important to identify properly the lithology and the reservoir to allow an accurate
petrophysical calculation of porosity, water saturation and permeability.
The determination of lithology based on cross-plot neutron versus density log was important
step to come up with the reservoir petrophysical properties. The quality of the reservoir is
determined by set the cut-off values of the petrophysical properties and describe the change in
lithologies.
It worth to mention that, the presence of shale in the entire reservoir influenced negatively in
the quality of the reservoir and net pay values. The petrophysical properties of the reservoir in
Sarir oil field are good enough to permit hydrocarbon production.

Keywords: Nubian sandstone ; formation evaluation; conventional log; petrophysical

parameters; oil recovery.
1. INTRODUCTION

In the oil industry, formation evaluation is used for many reasons, such as a base to understand
the geology of the wellbore at high resolution and to estimate the producible hydrocarbon
reservoir. One of the most useful ways to perform a formation evaluation is by using well logs.
This is because they contain key information about the formation sampled by different
petrophysical measurements.
The aim of this process is to economically evaluate the reservoirs. For that reason, aspects such
as analysis of reservoir properties measurement are needed in order to understand and quantify
potential risks, that could impact in our hydrocarbon presence and consequently in wrong
decisions being made.
In this present work Interactive Petrophysics software (IP) was used to performed formation
evaluation using well data in order to determine and analyze the petrophysical properties and
calculates the hydrocarbon presence in the Nubian reservoir of the study area in Sarir field in the
eastern Sirt basin.

1.1 Study Objectives

This research is aimed at evaluating the petroleum resources within the sandstone units of
Cretaceous age in the Sarir Field, utilizing the broad expertise of qualitative and quantitative
interpretation of wire-line logs.

 Lithology interpretation aims to determine the reservoir rock type and the under petrophysical
analysis through the shape of the wireline log curves.
 Petrophysical evaluation aims at calculating the physical properties of reservoir rocks and
their fluids content. It consists of formation evaluation and application of predefined cut-off
values to selected reference parameters, which will lead to the identification of net pay zones.
Furthermore, the strategic aims of this research are:
 To correlate the studied logs, for better understanding of sandstone units distribution.

 To present comprehensive net-pay zones of the selected reservoir sands from petrophysical
analysis.

To map the resultant petrophysical parameters and asses their distribution.

1.2. Geology of study area

Sarir oil Field is one of the largest oil fields in Libya located in Sirt Basin south of Cyrenaica.
The Sarir oil field lies in south Sarir trough (Figure: 1).
The study area represents apportion of C-Main of sarir field, the total area is around 9 km2 and it
has three wells (D11-BLK9, D13-BLK9, D14-BLK9) (Figure: 2).
The Nubian Formation or called Sarir sandstone in SE Sirt Basin is composed of four members,
which can be correlated regionally using a lithostratigraphic framework. Within the Sarir
Sandstone there are two sandstone-dominated members, each reflecting a rapid drop in base
level, which are important oil reservoirs in the study area. Between these sandstones there are
thick shales of continental origin, which define the architecture of the reservoir units. This four-
fold lithostratigraphic subdivision of the Sarir Sandstone contrasts with previous schemes, which
generally only recognized three members. The sandstones below the top Sarir unconformity host
in excess of 20 billion barrels of oil in-place. The dominant traps are structural (e.g. Sarir C
field), stratigraphic (e.g. Messla field), hanging-wall fault plays (e.g. UU1-65 field) and horst-
block plays (e.g. Calanscio field).[2]

A good evaluation of this formation will lead to getting the best results of reservoir parameters
and calculate the accumulation of oil and gas more precisely.

According to the petroleum system, the source rock was Sirt-Rachmat shale sequence. The total
organic carbon (TOC) of this sequence ranges from 0.5% to 8%. Trap types for Sarir reservoirs
are horsts, tilted fault blocks, up-dip unconformity truncations, and up-dip terminations against
basement or Cambrian-Ordovician quartzite Figure(3). The lower and upper sandstone members
of the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Nubian Formation are clearly the primary reservoir
targets for the area Depth to the top Nubian ranges from 12,000 to 18,000 ft. Despite these
depths, it is expected that average porosities will be 12–13%, with maximum porosity exceeding
20%. Etel shale and anhydrite at the Sirt unconformity provide an effective seal for the Nubian
sandstone throughout most of the area.

Table (1): Classification of Sarir oil field

Criteria Description
Basin Sirt
Basin Type Rifted Basin
Reservoir Rock Type Sandstone
Environment Of Deposition Deltaic
Reservoir Age Cretaceous
Petroleum Type Oil
Trap Type Horst Block

Fig1. General location of Sarir Oil Field among the main basin in Libya.
 Fig2. Base map of well location distribution in the study area.

Fig3. Cross section of Sarir trough and the trapping Mechanism of the Reservoir.

2. MATERIALS AND METHOD

The Interactive petrophysical software (IP) was used to integrate all the available wellbore data in
order to interpret and compute the input of the different petrophysical properties to deliver
formation evaluation. From the petrophysical study of wells. Analysis of the petrophysical log
data is to estimate target parameters that are important to calculate oil in place.

The approach adopted for analysis of the petrophysical log data is to estimate target parameters
that is interested to calculate oil in place.
 The gamma ray and spontaneous potential log was used in IP to delineate the sand zones
by using single indicator methods. The gamma ray and spontaneous log is also employed
 in establishing the volume of shale for each of the gross sand zones delineated. This is
achieved by first calculating the gamma ray index to evaluate the volume of shale.
 The porosity logs (density, sonic and neutron) was used to estimate the porosity for all the
gross sand zones. The porosities are averaged over the sand zones to generate a more
representative porosity. The effective porosity is determined from the corrected porosity
by adjusting the calculated porosity for volume of shale present.
 The resistivity as well as density and neutron logs are used in IP log-view to obtain zones
of hydrocarbons and delineate Oil Water Contact (OWC). These logs are used to establish
the zones of hydrocarbons - the net pay zone.
The zones with hydrocarbons are recognized due to their higher resistivities. This is
especially so when the deep resistivity log reading is relatively higher than the shallow
resistivity reading.

 The permeability within the gross sand zone is calculated from Timur equations. The
permeability is used to establish net pay cutoff.
 The cutoffs are established as deterministic cutoff that is fixed at one value and the
probabilistic cutoff, which ranges from a lower limit to an upper limit.
 2.1. Available Data
 In this study, several data must be available for the purposes of petrophysical evaluation,
these data are provided by AGOCO, and these data are:
 Well logs data
Table (2): Types of log data for each well.

Log type
Caliper Gamma Self Shallow Deep
Density Neutron Sonic
Well Ray Potential Resistivity Resistivity
Name
D11-
BLK9 Ö c Ö c c Ö (MSFL) Ö

D13-
BLK9 Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö

D14-
BLK9 Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö c (LLS) Ö

 Base map
  D11-BLK9 locates at 3054631 north & 653032.5 east
 D13-BLK9 locates at 3055462.7 north & 651144.65 east
 D14-BLK9 locates at 3056601.6 north & 653176 at east direction (Figure: 2).

 Drilling parameters

Table (3): Drilling parameters.

Well Name Rm (W.m) Rmf (W.m) Rmc (W.m) Rw (W.m) BHT(F) Zone KB

34 440
D13-BLK9 0.55 @ 64 F 0.57 @ 64 F 0.43 @ 64 F 0.016 @189 196
34 431
D14-BLK9 0.67 @ 85 F 0.60 @ 78 F - 0.016 @189 195
34 442
D11-BLK9 2.06 @ 70 F 2.00 @ 65 F 2.25 @ 65 F 0.016 @189 183

 Cut-off Selection

Table(4):cut-off parameters
Parameter Cut-off Value

Shale volume 35%

Porosity 10%

Water Saturation 50%

 Original Oil in Place Calculation

Table (5): parameters to calculate OOIP
Area (A) Formation Volume Factor (Bo) Recovery Factor (RF)
2224 acre 1.14 53 %

3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Evaluation and identifying reservoir zone is based on the ability of the interpreter to make use of
available data in interpreting various parameters and the ability to displays these parameters on
2D and 3D maps to identify the best location to drilling new development wells.

The results of the interpreted well logs revealed that the hydrocarbon interval in the area occur in
zone [5,6] between the depth range of 8642.5ft to 8700ft for well D13-BLK9, 8658.5ft to 8728ft
for well D14-BLK9, 8620.5 ft to 8679.5ft for well D11-BLK9 ,for zone[5] while for zone [6]
occur in depth range of 8700ft to 8857ft for well D13-BLK9, 8728ft to 8974ft for well D14-
BLK9, 8679 ft to 8787ft.

The gamma ray and resistivity logs show that the reservoir is of good quality. According to cut-
off parameters two targets were identified along each well. The first reservoir zone[5] for well
D13-BLK9, has net pay 13.25ft, shale volume about 8.8%, porosity around 23.4% and water
saturation about 15%. The second reservoir zone [6], has 94.75ft net pay, shale volume about
9.7%,

porosity is 19% and water saturation about 29.4 %.). In well D14-BLK9 ,the first reservoir
zone[5], has net pay 24.25ft, shale volume about 15%, porosity is 22.6% and water saturation is
21.7%. Second reservoir zone [6], has net pay about 90%, shale volume is 6.4%, porosity around
18.7%and water saturation is 28.3 % . In well D11-BLK9 , The first reservoir zone[5], has net
pay about 9.75ft , shale volume is 25.2%, porosity about 14.4%and water saturation is 30.1%.
From the well logs used, (Figure 4 – 14) and the results obtained (Table 6,8) reflects the
reservoir zones and the Petrophysical parameters obtained from the well logs, from the well logs
data it was noted that the reservoirs are separated by shales as these shales servers as transitional
zone.

The volumetric calculation of the OOIP as well as oil reserve from both zones were obtained to
be 192.3*106 MSTB and 101.9*106 MSTB respectively,(Table8).

Different types of maps such as; [net- pay thickness, porosity, shale volume and water saturation]
were constructed to show the uneven distribution of reservoir property through the area. This
mainly due to the variety in depositional system that control the area.
Two hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs zone [5,6] were identified and correlated across three wells
(D13-BLK9, D14-BLk9,D11-Blk9).The selected logs for the correlation were electrical type (SP
& ILD). The depth of 8200 ft TVDSS was used as a datum level for the correlation. According to
the qualitative interpretation, Nubian sandstone which is the reservoir interval in this study was
subdivided into two main zones, upper zones where extend from zone [1] to zone [4] where the
main lithology was shale, the lower zone which extends from zone [5] to zone [8] dominated
mainly with sandstone lithology. These zones were correlated between wells according to change
of log response.

The correlation shows that, there is perfect match between the log responses in the three wells
and the different zone are laterally continuous almost with same thickness except at zone [6]
where the thickness decreases toward well D11-BLK9 from both sides. On the other hand, with
these homogeneity of the correlation there is a slight difference in lithology distribution between
the three wells, in which the percentage of siltstone and shales are varies specially around well
D11-BLK9. Also due to the shallow TD of well D1-BLK9 it was difficult to correlate zone [8].

The reservoir intervals A & B of both zones [5] and [6] seemed to be connected throughout the
area with high quality toward well D13-BLK9.

According to well correlation it can be interpreted that, the studied section was deposition in two
different level of energy; high-energy environment with sands dominated and low energy
environment with shale dominated. Moreover, there were abrupt changes in the same section due
to the sudden change in the depositional system.

4. CONCLUSIONS

This study was aimed to petrophysical evaluation of Nubian sandstone reservoir in Sarir field to
get a good understanding of geology of the area and determination of petrophysical parameters
that is important in estimate OOIP that will lead to estimate the reserves.
The results of this study were carried out based on well logs interpretations, equations, and cross
plot technique. The lithological description of the studied wells that extend from 8200ft to 9310ft
show that, the main component are sandstone, shale, and siltstone. According to Cut-off values
 were utilized to detect the best porosity and water saturation in the reservoir zone. So that, the top
of zone [5] and the middle of zone [6] were selected as the best location of reservoir zones.
Through the comprehensive view of all the results, it is clear that good reservoir parameters were
found at location of well D13-BLK9 while in well D14-BLK9 these parameters were average and
at location of well D11-BLK9 were considered as poor reservoir parameter. Hence, the area
where the well D13-BLK9 located represent an area with good reservoir quality. Also for future
exploration and development planes, the area of well D13 and its surrounding toward the west
exhibits a high potential area to accommodate the oil in both reservoir zones.

For good reservoir analysis and reservoir evaluation of subsurface reservoir, Core data should be
taken for the reservoir intervals, in order to confirm the results and correct permeability values
and seismic data, to help in understanding the subsurface geology of the area and prediction of
environmental deposition.
APPENDIX

Table 6.summary of averaging reservoir parameters.

Well name Zone no H(ft) Gross Avg phi Avg Vsh Avg Sw K(md)
interval
D13-BLK9 Zone5 8642,5-8700 57 11.3 42.3 61.0 828.137
Zone6 8700-8857 157 17.9 14.5 52.2 84.605
D14-BLK9 Zone5 8658.5-8728 69.50 11.9 44.8 65.3 179.616
Zone6 8728-8974 246.0 16.2 18.1 63.1 54.215
D11-BLK9 Zone5 8620.5- 59.0 9.8 30.9 61.6 14.737
8679.5
Zone6 8697.5-8787 107.0 11.4 3.1 36.9 7.026

Table 7.cut-off parameters of interested zones.

Zone no H(ft) Gross Net pay Net/gross Avg phi Avg Sw Avg Vsh
Well name interval

D13-BLK9 Zone5 8642,5-8700 57 13.25 0.230 0.234 0.150 0.088

Zone6 8700-8857 157 94.75 0.604 0.190 0.294 0.097
D14-BLK9 Zone5 8658.5-8728 69.50 24.25 0.349 0.226 0.217 0.150
Zone6 8728-8974 246.0 90 0.366 0.187 0.283 0.064
D11-BLK9 Zone5 8620.58679. 59.0 9.75 0.144 0.144 0.291 1.40
5
Zone6 8697.5-8787 107.0 79.75 0.115 0.115 0.301 9.16

Table 8.OOIP calculation of reservoir zones.

 OOIP Calculation OOIP Oil Reserve
Zone Name (MSTB) (MSTB)

Zone - 5 OOIP = 7758 ∗ A ∗ h ∗ Ø ∗ (1-Sw) / Bo 37.4*106 19.8*106

Zone - 6 OOIP = 7758 ∗ A ∗ h ∗ Ø ∗ (1-Sw) / Bo 154.9*106 82.1*106

Fig 4. Petrophysical logs interpretation of well (D13-BLK9).

Fig5. Petrophysical logs interpretation of well (D11-BLK9)
Fig6. Petrophysical logs interpretation of well (D14-BLK9)
 Fig7. neutron-density cross plote of well D14-BLK9.

Fig8. neutron-density cross plote of well D13-BLK9.

Fig9. neutron-density cross plote of interested zones

Fig 10. Isopach map of average net pay of zone-5,6 (A- in 2D view & B- in 3D view.

Fig 11. Shale volume map zone-5,6 (A- in 2D view & B- in 3D view
 Fig12.porosity map zone-5,6 (A- in 2D view & B- in 3D view.

Fig13.saturation map zone-5,6 (A- in 2D view & B- in 3D view.

 Fig14. Correlation between three wells in the study area (D14, D11 & D13). The
correlation illustrate the lateral continuity of the drilled sections in each well, with
highlighting on the main targets (Reservoir A & B) and the oil zones in each reservoir.

Acknowledgment
I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to Dr. Ghaith Hamed & Mr. Ashraf El-
Ferjani, for giving me the opportunity to do research and providing invaluable guidance
throughout this research. Their dynamism, vision, sincerity and motivation have deeply inspired
me. They have taught me the methodology to carry out the research and to present the research
works as clearly as possible. It were a great privilege and honor to work an
d study under their guidance.
I am obliged to staff members of (AGOCO), for the valuable information provided by them in
their respective fields. I am grateful for their cooperation during the period of my assignment.
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Rusk, D. C. (1999). Libya: Petroleum Potential of the Under-Explored Basin Centers--A21st Century
Challenge. AAPG Bulletin, 83(12).

Sanford, R. M. (1970). Sarir oil field, Libya--desert surprise.-and now some keys to revisit of Libya.