URTeC: 2879229

Water Saturation Interpretation Model for Organic-Rich Shale

Reservoir: A Case Study of North Sumatra Basin
Muhammad Nur Ali Akbar*1, Junita Trivianty Musu 1; Benmadi Milad2
1. LEMIGAS-Indonesia Research and Development Centre for Oil and Gas Technology
2. University of Oklahoma, USA
Copyright 2018, Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC) DOI 10.15530/urtec-2018-2879229

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference held in Houston, Texas, USA, 23-25 July 2018.

The URTeC Technical Program Committee accepted this presentation on the basis of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). The contents of this paper have
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Abstract

Water saturation in organic-rich mudstones is a crucial parameter for characterizing and evaluating reservoir
hydrocarbon in-place. The presence of organic matter and complex shale pore system create difficulty for wireline
log-based water saturation interpretation. Many practitioners use conventional methods that are inappropriately
applied due to the presence of organic matter. This paper offers a method for evaluating organic-rich shale water
saturation and applied it to a case study of North Sumatra Basin.

In general, the interpretations were conducted by integrating the conventional and NMR logs, special and routine core
analysis, petrography analysis, and geochemical analysis. We started to determine the total and effective porosities
and also the total porosity considering the presence of kerogen. These parameters were estimated by using the
conventional and NMR log and validated by core data. Then, the water saturation equation of Indonesia model was
modified by involving the effect of total organic carbon (TOC). TOC was estimated in advance by averaging three
results from the correlation of TOC-Density, Passey’s ∆logR and modified Carbolog methods. The modified Carbolog
method is a technique for measuring TOC by using a resistivity and acoustic log crossplot. Equally important, we used
saturation exponent (n), cementation factor (m), and the tortuosity factor (a) which were obtained from laboratory
measurement of formation resistivity factor and resistivity index (FFRI).

Finally, the interpretation result of water saturation under this developed method was made. We compared results to
other interpretation methods (the revised water saturation-TOC and some conventional water saturation methods). In
conclusion, the water saturation from the proposed method gives a reasonable fluid saturation distribution result for
both free gas and absorbed gas while the conventional methods only consider to the free gas filled in the fracture
and/or matrix pore spaces.

This study demonstrates how to integrate and maximize the petrophysical, geological and geochemical data in order
to solve problems in estimating water saturation of unconventional organic mudstone. This analysis improves
understanding of water saturation for better interpretation in organic-rich shale reservoirs.

Introduction

Lower Baong, Belumai, and Bampo Formations through extensive outcrop research by Musu et al., (2015) and
integrated study of geology and geophysics by Bahesti et al. (2013) are organic-rich shale formations in the North
Sumatra Basin (NSB). These formations were expected as the main source rocks responsible for large oil and gas
deposits around this basin. However, the availability data of these shales were limited and mostly gathered from the
outcrop. Therefore, in 2016, a dedicated well for collecting data of these shale formations had been drilled and were
evaluated through laboratory analysis.
URTeC 2879229 2

Several effective methods were developed to estimate Sw through well-logging data for many cases of conventional
reservoir properties, such as Archie formula, which was originally designed for clean sand formation (Archie, 1942),
Simandoux model (Simandoux, 1963) and its modified models (Bardon and Pied, 1969; Fertl and Hammack, 1971),
and Indonesian model (Poupon and Leveaux, 1971) were developed for shale-bearing sandstone (shaly-sand)
reservoir. Moreover, these models were modified in more detail for several kinds of clay types, effects and
distributions such as dispersed clay model (Schlumberger, 1989), Waxman-Smits-Thomas (WST) method (Waxman
and Smits, 1968; Waxman and Thomas, 1974), and dual-water model (Clavier et al, 1984). The application of rock
typing and saturation height function derived from capillary pressure data is also effective to solve the problem the
water saturation estimation in the low contrast resistivity reservoir (Akbar and Permadi, 2016). Unfortunately, these
models were not always appropriately used for evaluating Sw in the unconventional organic-rich shale reservoirs.

The complexity of organic-rich shale reservoir for its pore system and organic presence complicates water saturation
estimation using wireline log data. Many practitioners only used the conventional methods for determining the Sw.
For instance, the Archie formula was used by Wu and Aguilera (2012) in the case study of Barnett shale based on
experimental observation. However, the simple Archie method may be deemed too simple and questionable to be
appropriately applied in the complex system of unconventional reservoir (Luffel and Guidry, 1992; Sondergeld et al.,
2010; Glorioso and Rattia, 2012). Another example is the application of Simandoux model, which was recommended
by Glorisso and Rattia (2012). This method may be useful if laboratory data exist to determine a, m and n, and water
resistivity (Rw); otherwise those parameters are selected by trial and error. This model had been used previously by
Boyce and Carr (2009) in the Marcellus Shale while Akbar and Musu (2017) applied it to the Baong Shale in the North
Sumatra Basin. Some modified models have been made as well; for example, Vincent and Wladyslaw (2015)
considered the presence of the clay and silt bound water within the overall reservoir resistivity, and Amiri et al. (2015)
proposed a calibration coefficient to reduce the predictive uncertainty of water saturation by using conventional
methods.

Furthermore, Xu et al. (2017) mentioned that water saturation methods for considering the conductivity of shale-
bearing sand and clay are not always feasible in organic-rich shale reservoirs, especially in those with low resistivity.
Therefore they established an effective method which known as the revised water saturation-TOC method and water
saturation difference method. The results of these method were good either in the lab observation or in the case study.
However, the limited data and the absence of water saturation measurement in our core data cannot generate the
correlation between total organic carbon content (TOC) and Sw for determining the constant of its equation. Therefore,
in order to solve Sw estimation appropriately in the case of gas shale in the North Sumatra Basin, this paper offers a
model of Sw considering to the presence of organic-rich content and the complexity of the pore system by integrating
and maximizing the used of petrophysical, engineering, geological and geochemical data. Results are compared to the
revised water saturation-TOC and some conventional water saturation methods.

Theory and Method

In order to determine water saturation in the case study of organic-rich shale reservoir, many parameters must be
considered because organic-rich reservoir has a different model of storage capacity and pore system compared to
conventional reservoir rocks. It is not only contained by simple matrix porosity, but also the presence of organic matter
(kerogen) and complex pore structure must be involved for better petrophysical evaluation. In this offered method,
three main important parameters must be considered before calculating the water saturation: clay volume, TOC
prediction, and porosity model considering TOC.

Porosity Model – In general, the architecture of matrix and pore system of shale gas reservoir can be explained through
Figure 1. Conceptually, the matrices consist of both organic and inorganic matter (dry clay and non-clay minerals).
The matrix tends to be lithologically complex and contains minerals such as quartz, carbonate, clay, feldspar among
others. These effect log responses and make the petrophysical evaluation more difficult. Moreover, the porosity is not
only consisted by clay and non-clay matrix, but also the kerogen has its porosity as well either in the free condition
and/or in the adsorbing system (Figure 2). Therefore, the porosity model for gas shale reservoir must be considered
the presence of organic content. Sondergeld et al., (2010) has modified the equation for calculating the porosity
including the presence of organic by adding the TOC component. This model is demonstrated in Equation 1 to
Equation 3.
URTeC 2879229 3

𝝆𝒃 = 𝝆𝒎𝒂 (𝟏 − 𝝓𝑻 − 𝑽𝑻𝑶𝑪 ) + 𝝆𝒇 𝝓𝑻 + 𝝆𝑻𝑶𝑪 𝑽𝑻𝑶𝑪 (1)

In general, TOC term is provided as a weight fraction (WTOC), therefore the TOC volume (VTOC) is converted to a weight fraction:

𝑾𝑻𝑶𝑪
𝑽𝑻𝑶𝑪 = 𝝆𝒃 (2)
𝝆𝑻𝑶𝑪

Then, re-arrangement of the Equation 1 can be written as follows:

𝑾𝑻𝑶𝑪
(𝝆𝒎𝒂 − 𝝆𝒃 ) + 𝝆𝒃 (𝑾𝑻𝑶𝑪 − 𝝆𝒎𝒂 )
𝝆𝑻𝑶𝑪 (3)
𝝓𝑻 =
𝝆𝒎𝒂 − 𝝆𝒇

Where ϕT is the total density porosity, ρma is the solid matrix density, ρb is the bulk density, WTOC is TOC weight
fraction, ρTOC is kerogen density, and ρf is the fluid density.

Figure 2: SEM showing pores in the fine sandstone and organic matter.
This can be considered secondary porosity as it results after kerogen
maturity and the consequent expulsion of hydrocarbons (After Passey et
al., 2010 and Reed, R, Beg, 2008).

Figure 1: Schematic petrophysical model of the rock without

natural fractures. The term “inorganic matrix” is used to
differentiate kerogen from other non-organic components of
the matrix (Glorioso and Rattia, 2012) and nanoscale schematic
of gas molecule locations in the gas shale reservoirs (Rezaee,
2015)

According to the high heterogeneity of the gas shale reservoir, the ρma can be predicted with an accurate value by using
a mineralogy logging tool (e.g. LithoScanner Spectroscopy was used for this case study). Using the percentage of
mineralogy content from the mineralogy logging tool, the ρma can be computed by using this formula:
𝒏

𝝆𝒎𝒂 = (𝟏 − 𝑲) ∑(𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒊 × 𝝆𝒊 ) + (𝑲𝝆𝑲 ) (4)

𝒊=𝟏

or if we consider to the Figure 1, the Equation 4 can be simplified as follows:

𝝆𝒎𝒂 = (𝟏 − 𝑲)𝝆𝒏𝑲 + (𝑲𝝆𝑲 ) (5)

Where Mini and ρi are the volume percentage and density of mineral i, respectively. The ρnk is the non-kerogen density,
K and ρk are the volume percentage and density of kerogen, respectively.
URTeC 2879229 4

In addition, if there is not density of kerogen available, the density of kerogen can be estimated by using the vitrinite
reflectance (RO) (Ward, 2010):

𝝆𝑲 = 𝟎. 𝟑𝟒𝟐𝑹𝑶 + 𝟎. 𝟗𝟕𝟐 (6)

The default ρma 2.65 gr/cc for quartz can be used as long as most of the clay minerals have density close to 2.65 gr/cc.

Total Organic Carbon (TOC) – Refer to the porosity model considering organic content. The good prediction of in-
situ TOC will improve porosity estimation by considering organic content. In this case of study, we used three different
methods to estimate the TOC. First, the TOC is estimated by using ∆LogR method (Passey et al. 1990). This method
employs overlying of properly scaled acoustic and deep resistivity log and then calculating the separation between
these two curves by defining a baseline (Rezaee, 2015):

𝑹
∆𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑹 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝟏𝟎 ( ) + 𝟎. 𝟎𝟐 × (∆𝒕 − ∆𝒕𝑩𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 ) (7)
𝑹𝑩𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆

The baseline is determined when the sonic log (∆t) and the resistivity log (R) directly overlaid each other or they just
tracked each other. Then, the TOC can be calculated from the following equation by knowing level of maturity (LOM)
which gained from Equation 9 by using vitrinite reflectance parameter (RO).

𝑻𝑶𝑪 = ∆𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑹 × 𝟏𝟎(𝟐.𝟐𝟗𝟕−𝟎.𝟏𝟔𝟖𝟖×𝑳𝑶𝑴) (8)

and

𝑳𝑶𝑴 = 𝟏. 𝟎𝟎𝟓𝟕𝑹𝑶 𝟑 + 𝟏. 𝟎𝟎𝟓𝟕𝑹𝑶 𝟐 + 𝟏. 𝟎𝟎𝟓𝟕𝑹𝑶 + 𝟑. 𝟎𝟎𝟓𝟔 (9)

The second applied method was the Modified CARBOLOG. The CARBOLOG method was firstly initiated by
Carpentier et al. (1991) for predicting TOC by using the crossplot of acoustic and resistivity logs. CARBOLOG
technique needs to know at least three client-side materials and the chart is easy to understand but difficult to calculate
TOC (Akbar and Musu, 2017). Therefore, Liu et al. (2008) modified this method and it is formulated as follows:

𝑻𝑶𝑪 = 𝒂∆𝒕 + 𝒃𝑹−𝟏/𝟐 + 𝒄 (9)

where a, b, and c are non-linear regression coefficients.

The last applied method is the linear regression between the bulk density log and the weight percent of TOC.
Correlation of core and cutting TOC values to density log data leads to useful relationships for specific reservoirs.
Schmoker and Hester, (1983) proposed the correlation between weight percent of TOC and density log in their case
study in the very organic rich Upper and Lower Bakken Shales, North Dakota and Montana. This method was used
as well in the case study of Sichuan Basin, China, by Huang, (2015).

The final TOC is assigned from averaging of all results of three TOC calculations. This is proposed to decrease the
uncertainty of TOC estimation (Akbar and Musu, 2017). Then, the weight percent of TOC measurement data from
the geochemical laboratory (cutting and core) is used in validating the TOC estimation from log interpretation.

Water Saturation Model – After TOC and porosity considering organic content of gas shale are well-determined in
the log interval, the water saturation can be computed by using the Indonesia model with a modification on its porosity.
The applied porosity in this model is the porosity which calculated from Equation 3. Here the following general
equation for applied water saturation model for Lower Baong, Belumai, and Bampo Formations in the North Sumatra
Basin, Indonesia:
URTeC 2879229 5

𝟏 𝝓𝑻 𝒎 𝑽𝒄𝒍 ((𝟏−𝑽𝒄𝒍)/𝟐)
= (√ + ) × 𝑺𝒘 𝒏/𝟐 (10)
√𝑹𝒕 𝒂 × 𝑹 𝒘 √𝑹𝒄𝒍

where Rt, Rw, and Rcl represents true resistivity from deep investigation, formation water resistivity, and clay resistivity,
respectively. Vcl is volume clay fraction and ɸT is the porosity considering organic content. Parameters a, m, and n are
commonly known in Archie model as tortuosity, cementation, and saturation exponents, respectively. In addition, the
volume of clay in this study was predicted by using Larionov formula (Equation 11) for young rock and its result was
validated by measured clay volume from x-ray diffraction analysis.

𝑽𝒄𝒍 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟖𝟑𝟑𝟔 × (𝟐𝟑.𝟕𝒊𝜸 − 𝟏) (11)

and iγ is the gamma-ray index which formulated as follows:

𝑮𝑹 − 𝑮𝑹𝒎𝒊𝒏
𝒊𝜸 = (12)
𝑮𝑹𝒎𝒂𝒙 − 𝑮𝑹𝒎𝒊𝒏

GR is an abbreviation of measured gamma-ray from well log. Then, GRmin is the minimum gamma-ray recorded in the sand
or carbonate (clean formation) and GRmax is the maximum value of gamma-ray in the clay zone interval.

Data Used

Logging Data • In general, all of the data were collected from a dedicated data well for organic-rich shale exploration
in the North Sumatra Basin (NSB). The expected formations for this shale were Baong, Belumai, and Bampo
Formations. The main used data were conventional logging data and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data. The
main conventional logging data consisted of gamma ray, resistivity, neutron, density, sonic (compressional and shear),
and PEF. The used NMR log interpretation results were free fluid index (FFI) and total bulk fluid volume (TBFV)
with 3.5 ms as a T2 cutoff. Unfortunately, the availability of NMR data is limited to specific intervals, therefore, the
use of conventional log data was maximized for better petrophysical evaluation.

Laboratory Data • Our laboratory data were gained from the different type of measurements. There was 50 plugged
core from conventional core samples and 12 samples were taken from sidewall core in the Baong and Belumai
Formations. While the samples from cuttings/chips were used as well for some laboratory analysis. The following list
presents the information and the results of each laboratory measurement of this study:

 Petrophysical Laboratory provided information on porosity and permeability from routine core analysis.
Formation factor – resistivity index (FFRI) and mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) were gained from
special core analysis. The measured porosity from this investigation only presented the effective porosity of
interconnected pores while the presence of microporosity in the organic content could not be measured properly
in our laboratory. The main general result about porosity-permeability from this measurement is presented in
Figure 3 and Table 1.

Core 1 and Core 2 were taken from Lower Baong Formation, while Core 3 came from Belumai Formation. Both
porosity and permeability values in Table 1 present the characteristics of ultra-tight shale with pore size
distributions are dominantly in the range of 0.01 to 0.1 µm (from MICP data). Then, these data were used for
correcting the petrophysical interpretation through well logs data.

Other crucial data for water saturation interpretation are formation resistivity factor (FF) and formation resistivity
index (RI). RI data does not mean the measured water saturation in the organic-rich shale interval, but the ratio
of the desaturated-rock resistivity to the 100% pore volume brine-saturated rock resistivity (Rt/R0). These
measurements present the parameter a, m and n for calculating Sw by using Equation 10 above. Through
laboratory examination which generally showed in Figure 4, parameters a, m, and n are 1, 0.97, and 4,
respectively.
URTeC 2879229 6

Table 1: Summary of routine core analysis for porosity, permeability

and grain density measurements.

Figure 3: Permeability - porosity cross-plot for organic-rich

shale Baong and Belumai Formations *Each core was taken separately from long interval

Figure 4: Formation Factor, FF (left) and Resistivity Index (right) from special core analysis investigation

 Petrography Laboratory presented thin section and scanning electron micrograph (SEM-EDX) in order to
assess the quality of organic-shale in the NSB such as the presence of micropores, microfractures, the main
distribution of grains compositions, etc. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data was available for supporting the
distributions of mineralogy contained in the organic-rich shale of Lower Baong and Belumai Formations. These
petrography examinations used 32 samples (22 sidewall cores and 10 core plugs) from Lower Baong Formation
while the Belumai Formation was represented with 2 sidewall cores and 5 core plugs. Through general
description, these samples are dominantly contained of fossiliferous siltstone and fossiliferous sandstone in the
Lower Baong Formation and some identified samples from Belumai Formation are composed of sandy and shaly
limestone. In addition, Figure 5 presents ternary diagrams that illustrate the distributions of mineralogy contained
in the organic-rich shale of Lower Baong Formation and Belumai Formation (Akbar and Musu, 2017). This figure
describes that organic-rich shale in the Lower Baong Formation dominantly consists of the quartz and clay
minerals association with the small amount of calcite. While in the Belumai formation, the dominant minerals are
composed of mixed quartz-calcite with small amounts of clay. The clay mineral types in these formations are
dominantly composed by kaolinite and chlorite; some intervals in the Lower Baong have small amounts of illite
and smectite clay minerals. Other components such as K-feldspar, pyrite, and siderite also appear with very small
contents in these samples. Furthermore, these analyses improve matrix density estimation for better porosity
interpretation and clay volume validation from well log interpretation.
URTeC 2879229 7

Figure 5: Ternary diagram of shale mineralogy from XRD analysis

 Geochemical Laboratory measured the organic richness and maturation for both core and cutting samples
in term of source rock potential evaluation. As one of a crucial parameter, the weight percent of TOC has
been investigated by using rock-eval pyrolysis. The range of free hydrocarbon (S1) from the samples are 0.02
– 0.1 mgHC/g rock, while the amount of hydrocarbon generated by thermal cracking or residual hydrocarbon
potential (S2) has a range of 0.2 – 1.6 mgHC/g rock. The result of TOC measurement is presented in Figure
6. In general, the presence TOC is below 2%. This means that the quality of gas shale potential shows the
range of fair to good. Several samples from the Belumai Formation point to poor quality. Another
investigation based on S2 shows dominantly in the poor quality of shale becoming a source rock for both
formations. However, the calculated TOC in this laboratory results did not totally give valid amounts, because
the hesitancy while the samples were cleaned from oil-based mud (OBM) contaminated by using organic
solvent. In this case, the OBM and free hydrocarbon contained in the sediment have similar solubility to
organic solvent. Therefore, some of the weight carbon (mainly free hydrocarbon) in the rock samples were
cleaned too. Besides that, the amount of decreased free hydrocarbon was difficult to be predicted statistically
due to the OBM contaminant in each sample was not uniform. The retention time of cleaning also determined
the amount of dissolved OBM and free hydrocarbon by organic solvent. Consequently, the amounts of TOC
possibly give the lower value than the real reservoir condition (more pessimist). The TOC results were still
used to validate the TOC prediction by using well log interpretation. In Addition, Kerogen type was identified
via a modified van Krevelen diagram by using hydrogen-to-carbon and the oxygen-to-carbon ratio (Tissot
and Welte, 1984). Through this interpretation, both Lower Baong Formation and Belumai Formation are
dominated by the type III kerogen and mixed of type II and type III kerogen. These kerogen types are
potentially expected to generate the gas and/or high shrinkage oil hydrocarbons. Besides that, kerogen type
has an influence on the gas storage capacity as it is gas sorption capacities where it decreases in the following
order: type III > type II > type I (Zhang et al., 2012).
URTeC 2879229 8

Figure 6: Source rock potential and its quality distribution in the depth interval based on TOC and S2

Result and Discussion

The study for evaluating water saturation in the ultra-tight organic-rich shale in the North Sumatra Basin was
conducted by integrating and maximizing all mentioned data and methods above. The three main parameters results
of weight percent of TOC, porosity considering organic content, and water saturation are well-presented in this section.

Figure 7: Regression correlation of TOC - RhoB and TOC prediction results from three different methods

Weight Percent TOC Prediction • Based on Figure 7, three TOC methods have been implemented. Then, these
results are compared to the measured TOC from cuttings (black - small triangle points) and TOC from sidewall cores
(maroon – small rounded points). The first TOC estimation was predicted by using ∆LogR Passey method. This result
is showed in this figure at the log chart column number 6 with ∆LogR is presented in column 4. Another TOC results
of modified Carbolog and TOC-RhoB correlation are showed as well in column 7 and column 8, respectively. These
URTeC 2879229 9

predictions give good results to each other and the final TOC used in this case study for further analysis is the averaged
TOC which derived from these three results (column 9).

Porosity Considering Organic Content (PHI_TOC) • Prior to predicting porosity by using conventional log data,
the clay volume was predicted by using Larionov method for young rock (Equation 11) and it was validated as well
to the measured clay volume from XRD data (see Figure 8, column 4). This parameter significantly influenced the
prediction of effective porosity (PHIE) and further estimation of water saturation in the organic-rich shale from well
log interpretation. Then PHIE was predicted by using bulk density log (RhoB) considering to the multi-mineral
analysis to reduce the uncertainty of matrix density used for this calculation. In Figure 8, it can be seen that the PHIE
prediction gives very good results if compared to the measured porosity from routine core analysis. Moreover, the
comparison between PHIE from conventional log data and effective porosity derived from NMR log (NMR_FFI)
shows a good match (see column 8). However, this good quality measurement from NMR cannot be used for further
evaluation due to the limited interval of measured data available. In the other hand, the PHIE result from the
conventional log is particularly used for petrophysical evaluation in the whole interval of organic-rich shale in this
case study.

Figure 8: Clay volume, effective porosity (PHIE), and porosity cosnidering organic content results

Beside the PHIE estimation, the porosity considering TOC was calculated by using Equation 3. The result of this
parameter is presented in column 9 of Figure 8. The shaded yellow describes the effect of organic content presence
on the effective porosity and it is equivalent to the gas storage in the absorbed state for gas shale which previously
illustrated in Figure 1. In the gas shale pore system model, natural gas can be stored in the two main ways: First, the
PHIE represents free gas in conventional pores and free gas in the fractures, while the difference value between
PHI_TOC and PHIE describes the condensed gas in a form of adsorbed gas on the surface of organic material and
clay minerals.

Water Saturation • Prediction of water saturation for organic-rich shale is strongly influenced by the presence of
organic content. As the prior description model of storage capacity in the gas shale for absorbed gas, this phenomenon
will affect the amount of gas saturation in the shale formation. Some studies suggest that 50% of the total gas storage
in the Devonian shale exists as a condensed adsorbed phase (Lu et al., 1995). Therefore, Equation 10 was developed
by considering pore space characteristics, organic matter characteristics, mineralogical composition, and geological
conditions. All of these parameters are included in the calculation of weight percent of TOC, effective porosity, and
porosity considering TOC.
URTeC 2879229 10

Figure 9: Water saturation interpretation and comparison from four diffent methods in the Lower Baong, Belumai, and Bampo Formations.

Please refer to the previous publication by Xu et al., 2017. Their developed method of the revised water-saturation-
TOC has presented a very good result on water saturation prediction in the Longmaxi-Wufeng shale, southeastern
Sichuan Basin, China. Because we do not have water saturation in core data to validate our water saturation
interpretation model in the North Sumatra Basin, we used this model as a comparison to our water saturation model.
The applied equation of the revised water-saturation-TOC is formulated as follows:

𝑻𝑶𝑪
𝑺𝑾 = 𝒂 × 𝑺𝑾𝒄𝒐𝒏 × (𝒃 − ) (13)
𝑻𝑶𝑪𝒎𝒂𝒙

where a and b are coefficients (a = 1 and b = 1); TOCmax is the maximum TOC, %; and SWcon is the conventional Archie
water saturation model.

According to Figure 9, four water saturation methods have been made in this study. Water saturation by simple Archie
and Indonesia methods present a very pessimistic result of gas saturation. This happens because these models do not
consider the presence of organic content. Meanwhile, water saturation by modified Indonesia model considering
organic content from Equation 10 shows a reasonable result in this study. Its result has similar distribution result of
the revised water-saturation-TOC method. The important finding in this investigation is that throughout depth interval
2100 – 2450 m, the water saturation based on revised water saturation-TOC method has high fluctuation value while
the changing of TOC and porosity values in this interval are relatively small. Therefore, water saturation from the
modified Indonesia considering TOC method presents more reasonable results as compared to the water saturation-
TOC method for the shale formations of North Sumatra Basin.

Through an extensive discussion above, the summary of petrophysical analysis results especially in evaluating TOC,
porosity and water saturation considering organic content in the organic-rich shale of Lower Baong, Belumai, and
Bampo formations are presented in Figure 10.
URTeC 2879229 11

Figure 10: Summary results of petrophysical analysis in this study

Conclusions

The followings are conclusions drawn from the present study.

1. Evaluation of water saturation in the organic-rich mudstone in the North Sumatra Basin has been demonstrated
by maximizing and integrating approaches and data from some disciplines of laboratory analysis and well log
analysis.
2. Kerogen content is the dominant parameter in this study required to evaluate porosity and water saturation
considering organic content.
3. This modified Indonesia water saturation model considering TOC can be used for estimating water saturation in
the organic-rich shale from the other fields.
4. This offered methodology can be used for further petrophysical evaluation either in the case of shale gas
exploration or shale gas development fields.
5. The study presents effective ways to model organic-rich shale water saturation.

Acknowledgements

High appreciation to LEMIGAS for providing the data and its permission to publish this work. An appreciation as
well to the Pertamina Hulu Energi – Migas Non-Konvensional (PHE-MNK) for supporting this study.

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