CHAPTER 6

CARBONATE RESERVOIR
ROCKS
 Carbonates Reservoir
• Rock composed mainly of carbonate minerals.
• 3 most common carbonates
• minerals:
• – Calcite - CaCO3 (Rhombohedral)
• – Aragonite - CaCO3 (Orthorhombic)

• – Dolomite - CaMg(CO3)2
• (Rhombohedral).
• Accessory minerals: ankerite, siderite, clay
minerals.
 Textures: (3 primary textures)

A. Carbonate Grains -
• Silt size or larger particles of calcite:
• • clasts - rock fragments derived
• from weathering of limestones.

• • skeletal particles - microfossils

or fragments or macrofossils
• – zooplankton (foraminifera),
corals, molluscs.
 Textures: (3 primary textures)

• • ooids - coated carbonate grains

• with “seed” nucleus (ie., qtz grain, shell frag.)
that have a concentric or radial internal
structure.
• – mainly aragonite.
ooids

• • peloids - spherical aggregates of

microcrystalline calcite.
 Textures: (3 primary textures)

• B. Microcrystalline calcite - (micrite)

• Clay size or smaller particles of calcite:
• • mud - needle shaped
• aragonite crystals (1 - 5μm)

• • nannofossils (coccoliths)-
• calcareous phytoplankton
• (1 - 5μm)
 Textures: (3 primary textures)

• C. Sparry calcite (spar)

• • Large crystals of calcite (0.02 to
0.1 mm)
• – limestones/marbles
• • Primarily diagenetic in origin -
• 1. Precipitation of secondary
calcite in voids
Recrystallized
• 2. Recrystallization of fossil calcite mollusc
 Classification of Carbonates

• Divided into limestones (CaCO3 ) and dolomites

CaMg(CO3)2 .
• Two carbonate classification systems are in
common use today, one by R.L. Folk
(1959,1962) and the second by R.J. Dunham
(1962) .
• Dunham System: can be divided into
Mudstones, Wackestones, Packstones,
Grainstones and Boundstones according to the
limestones depositional textures.
Classification of carbonates by texture
(Dunham, 1962)
Classification of carbonates by texture
(Dunham, 1962)
Classification of carbonates by texture
(modified from Dunham, 1962)
Examples of boundstones
Examples of grainstones
 Examples of grainstones

Photomicrograph of limestone under ordinary light. This is a well-

sorted oolite grainstone from the Upper Jurassic Portland
Limestone, Dorset, UK
 Examples of dolomite

Photomicrograph of dolomite under ordinary light. This is a

coarsely crystalline variety from the Zechstein (Upper
Permian) of the UK North Sea. Some porosity (pale blue) is visible
 Classification of Carbonates

• Folk System using the allochem/interstitial

material system is very systematic and straight
forward. The allochem name is combined with
the interstitial name (micrite or spar).
• Allochemical rocks are those that contain
grains brought in from elsewhere (i.e. similar to
detrital grains in clastic rocks). Orthochemical
rocks are those in which the carbonate
crystallized in place.
 Classification of Carbonates

• Allochemical rocks have grains that may consist

of fossiliferous material, ooids, peloids, or
intraclasts. These are embedded in a matrix
consisting of microcrystalline carbonate (calcite
or dolomite), called micrite, or larger visible
crystals of carbonate, called sparite.
• Sparite is clear granular carbonate that has
formed through recrystallization of micrite, or by
crystallization within previously existing void
spaces during diagenesis.
Classification of Carbonates

Classification scheme developed by Folk

 Pore Morphology of Carbonate

• The porosity, permeability and pore space

distribution in carbonate reservoir rocks are
related to both the depositional environment
and the diagenesis of the sediment.
• They are most commonly of secondary
(diagenetic) origin although residual primary
pore space does occur.
• Carbonates have a large range of pore
structures. The pore structures (porosity) have
been classified by Choquette and Pray, 1970):
 Pore Morphology

• Fabric-selective porosity includes:

•Interparticle porosity.
•Intercrystalline porosity - typical of dolomites.
•Fenestral porosity - by solution along bedding
planes or joint surfaces.
•Skeletal, framework, molding, or shelter
porosity - selective solution of, within, or around
fossil material.
•Oomoldic porosity - selective solution of ooliths.
Depositional
origin

Depositional
Diagenetic origin
Origin

Diagenetic
Origin

Choquette & Pray (1970)

 Pore Morphology

• Non fabric-selective porosity includes:

•Fracture porosity - by stress or shrinkage.
•Channel porosity - widening and coalescence
of fractures.
•Vuggy or cavernous porosity.
• Fabric selective or not:
•Bioturbation porosity - from boring and
burrowing.
•Breccia porosity - in some cases, really high
fracture porosity.
Mechanical Tectonic or solution
origin collapse origin

Biogenic
Diagenetic
origin

Diagenetic origin

Choquette & Pray (1970)

Oolite gnst: depositional Purely Diagenetic Porosity -
intergranular Intercrystalline Pores in
porosity Dolostone

Lower RE Higher RE
 Pore Morphology

• Lucia’s (1983) classification of carbonate pore types

into vuggy and interparticle categories.
• This scheme is especially important because it
emphasizes that interparticle (grains or crystals)
porosity and separate or touching vuggy porosity
have profound effects on such reservoir
petrophysical characteristics.
• Interparticle influence is reflected by the “Pd” values
in psia, which indicate the mercury displacement
pressure required to enter the pore systems.
Pore Morphology

Lucia (1983) Classification

 A New Classification (Wayne M. Ahr, 2008) - Helps
identify, correlate, & map readily traceable rock/stratigraphic
attributes that covary with genetic .
A New Classification (Wayne M. Ahr, 2008) - Helps identify,
correlate, & map readily traceable rock/stratigraphic
attributes that covary with genetic .
 A New Classification (Wayne M. Ahr, 2008)

Why Add Another Classification?

Two main reasons:
1. Methods for correlating & mapping pore types
and related ‘flow units’ at reservoir scale is not
addressed in previous schemes. “How do I predict
spatial distribution of these pore types?”
2. Ways to assess contribution of genetic pore
types to reservoir performance (petrophysical rock
typing) has not been adequately developed and
tested.
 Example 1: Depositional Porosity

Oolite gnst; depositional

intergranular porosity
N Haynesville Smackover field, LA
Example 2: Purely Diagenetic Porosity -
Intercrystalline Pores in Dolostone
Example 3: Fracture Systems

Corbett et al., (1991)

 Carbonate Depositional
Environments
• Carbonates are predominantly shallow water
(depths <10-20 m) deposits.
• Carbonate deposition in general only occurs in
environments where there is a lack of siliciclastic
input into the water.
• Most carbonate deposition also requires
relatively warm waters which also enhance the
abundance of carbonate secreting organisms and
decrease the solubility of calcium carbonate in
seawater.
 Carbonate Depositional
Environments

• The principal carbonate depositional

environments are as follows:
 Carbonate Platforms and Shelves.
 Warm shallow seas attached the continents, are
ideal places for carbonate deposition.
 Tidal Flats.
 Tidal flats are areas that flood during high tides
and are exposed during low tides.
 Carbonate Depositional
Environments

Deep Ocean.
 Carbonate deposition can only occur in the
shallower parts of the deep ocean unless organic
productivity is so high that the remains of
organisms are quickly buried.
 Non-marine Lakes.
 Carbonate deposition can occur in non-marine
lakes as a result of evaporation.
 Carbonate Depositional
Environments

 Hot Springs.
 When hot water saturated with calcium
carbonate reaches the surface of the Earth at hot
springs.
 Diagenesis and Porosity of
Carbonates
• Carbonate diagenesis begins at deposition and
continues during burial and uplift.
• Carbonates undergo cementation, leaching and
diagenesis (mineral alteration, mineral
inversion, neomorphism).
• When carbonates are brought into contact with
waters of varying chemical composition, they
have a great susceptibility to mineralogical and
textural change, cementation and dissolution.
 Diagenesis and Porosity of
Carbonates
• During uplift, fracturing, additional cementation
and leaching may occur.
• The diagenesis of carbonates can take place in
many settings: the marine environment during
deposition of the sediment, near the sediment
surface where fresh waters penetrate the
sediments, or in brines of the deeper
subsurface.
Diagenesis and Porosity of
Carbonates

Purely diagenetic " in vadose-phreatic caves

 Diagenesis and Porosity of
Carbonates
• Porosity: the original primary porosity in
carbonates may be totally destroyed during
diagenesis and significant new secondary
porosity may be created.
• The types of porosities encountered are quite
varied. Interparticle, intraparticle, growth-
framework, shelter and fenestral porosities are
depositional porosities.
• Depositional porosity is a function of rock
texture, grain sorting and shape.
 Diagenesis and Porosity of
Carbonates
• Porosity formed during diagenesis may be
moldic, channel, inter-crystalline, fracture or
vuggy porosity.
• The relationship between porosity and
diagenesis is complex and variable.
• The major diagenetic processes affecting
porosity are dissolution, cementation and
dolomitization.
Fractured reservoir
 Fractured reservoir

• Fractures are defined as naturally occurring

macroscopic planar discontinuities in rock due
to deformation or physical diagenesis (Nelson,
2001).
• Most fractured reservoirs, especially in
carbonates, are brittle fractures.
• In brittle behavior, different fracture types can
result depending on whether compression,
extension, or shear stresses caused failure.
 Fractured reservoir

• Conjugate shear fractures are produced at an

acute angle to the maximum principal stress σ1 ,
and a single extension fracture is oriented in a
plane parallel to σ2.
• Extension fractures are always oriented parallel
to σ1 and σ2 and perpendicular to σ3 and only
when principal stresses are compressive.
• Tension fractures have the same spatial
orientation but occur only when σ3 is negative.
 Fractured reservoir

• The typical orientation of conjugate shear and extension fractures with

respect to the axes of maximum principal stress. When the maximum
principal stress ( σ 1 ) is vertical, fractures typically occur in pairs called
conjugate shear sets.
Fractured reservoir
 Fractured reservoir

• The typical orientation of conjugate shear and extension fractures with

respect to the axes of maximum principal stress. When the maximum
principal stress ( σ1 ) is vertical, fractures typically occur in pairs called
conjugate shear sets.
 Fractured reservoir – Genetic
classification
• Nelson’s (2001) genetic classification of natural
fractures identifies (1) tectonic fractures,
(2)regional fractures, (3) contractional fractures,
and (4) surface – related fractures.
• Stearns and Friedman (1972) focused attention
on the fracture sets associated with folds that
are important for exploration and development
models. They pointed out that two main sets of
fractures are typical on anticlinal folds.
Fractured reservoir

(From Stearns and Friedman (1972)

 Fractured reservoir

• A. A set of conjugate shear fractures and an extension

fracture indicating that σ1 is oriented in the dip direction
of the bedding on the fold limb, σ1 and σ3 are in the
plane of bedding, and σ2 is normal to bedding.
• B. The other fractures consist of a conjugate set of
shear fractures and an extension fracture, but the
principal stresses are oriented differently.
• In this case, σ1 is parallel to the strike of bedding and σ3
is oriented in the dip direction of bedding on the fold
limb.
 Fractured reservoir

• Corbett et al. (1991) classification:

• Tectonic fractures commonly occur in
predictable patterns determined by the
geometry of the associated faults or folds.
• The four structural types included anticlinal
folds, monoclinal flexures, listric normal faults,
and graben-in-graben normal faults.
Fractured reservoir

(Corbett et al., 1991)

 Fractured reservoir

• A fracture system may contain all of the pore

volume for the reservoir as well as controlling
the permeability, or provide permeability for a
porous but otherwise low-permeability reservoir.
• Open fractures can enhance the permeability of
an already permeable reservoir.
• Conversely, closed fractures and faults with clay
smear or nonreservoir-to-reservoir juxtaposition
will increase the compartmentalization in a
reservoir.
Zagros Mountain – Upper beds of Asmari Limestone showing the bedding
plane distribution and related variations in fracture density
• Assignment No. 3
• Title : DIAGENESIS AND
POROSITY OF CARBONATE
RESERVOIRS