The Difference between Net Pay and

Net Reservoir, how to pick them

and their Application to Reservoir Modelling

Steve Cuddy

27th September 2017

Outline

• Definitions of Net Pay and Net Reservoir

• How to determine Net Pay and Net Reservoir from

Core and Electrical Logs

• How to correctly upscale Net reservoir properties for

the 3D reservoir model
Common ideas about Net Cut-offs
?
High Sw
What is Net?
• Net Reservoir
– The portion of reservoir rock which is capable of storing
hydrocarbon
– Required for upscaling and reservoir modelling
– Relatively easy to pick

• Net Pay
– “The portion of reservoir rock which will produce commercial
quantities of hydrocarbon” - SPWLA
– The portion of reservoir rock which will produce or help
support production of hydrocarbon over field development
timescales
– Required to select intervals to be perforated?
– More difficult to pick
How can Net Pay be Determined?
• Microlog => mudcake
• Sxo > Sw => moveable HC
• Mud losses – esp. for fractures
• Formation pressure
• NMR
• Borehole gas chromatography
• Production logs
• DST
 Net Pay
• Usually defined using a permeability and/or Sw cut-off
• But what about?
– Kh/Kv
– Shape of the transition zone
– Standoff distance from the FWL
– Water cut
– Fractures
– Gas and water drive
– Draw down
• All the hydrocarbon above the FWL is potentially producible
• Is Net Pay therefore a function of the oil price?
• Net Pay is difficult to define
Why we need a Net Reservoir cutoff
 Net Reservoir
• Net Reservoir is much easier to define
– The portion of reservoir rock which is capable of storing
hydrocarbon

• Knowledge of Net Reservoir is essential

– For upscaling
– For reservoir averaging, 3D geomodelling
– Reservoir modelling – transmissibilities
Net Reservoir from Core
• Better vertical resolution
compared to electrical logs
• Net from core analysis
– Lithology analysis
– Useful if there are sharp
boundaries
• Net from U/V fluorescence
– Only useful for oil
– Only gives the upper limit
 Net Reservoir from Core
• Define net and not-net reservoir from
U/V photos
• Porosity histogram is used to define
porosity cut-off

Porosities with Porosities with

no fluorescence fluorescence
0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30
 Net Reservoir from Logs
• Fast Xplot technique 0.200

20
0.180

• Sw vs. Porosity above the 0.160

FWL

Porosity (p.u)
0.140

• Shows “the portion of

0.120

0.100

reservoir rock which is 0.080

storing hydrocarbon” 0.060

Porosity cutoff
• Assumes net reservoir
0.040

0.020

above and below the FWL

0
0.000

0.00

0.14

0.29

0.43

0.57

0.71

0.86

1.00
are similar 0 Water Saturation (%) 100
Net Reservoir Sensitivity
Shows hydrocarbon pore height as a function of net cutoff
Net sand sensitivity to Porosity
% change in HCPH 100

0.9
Porosity cutoff?
0.8
% change in HCPH

0.7
0.6

0.5
0.4

0.3
0.2
0.1
0

0
HCPH0 = (1-Sw)
5
* Porosity
10
* Net15 20 25 30 35
0 Porosity (p.u)
Porosity Cut-off
35
Net Reservoir from Water Saturation
Log derived Sw Porosity
Sand
Reservoir high above the FWL has 100 su 0 25 pu 0 Shale
Gas
low saturations of capillary bound
water and hydrocarbon enters
Net
the smaller pores

Reservoir just above the FWL,

with higher porosities, contains
high saturations of capillary
bound water and there is a no
room available for hydrocarbons

Consequently, the Net Reservoir

cut-off varies as a function of the FWL

height above the FWL

Net Reservoir from Bulk Volume of Water
Sand
Log derived Sw Porosity Shale
The Net Reservoir cut-off varies 100 su 0 25 pu 0 Gas

as a function of the height

above the FWL Net

Sw varies as a function of
porosity

BVW varies only as a function of

height above the FWL

FWL
Bulk Volume of Water
Bulk Volume of Water = Porosity x Water Saturation

B V W = % volume of water in a unit volume of reservoir

This is what is measured by electrical logs by core analysis

Net from the Saturation Height Function
Tells us how water saturation varies as a function of the
height above the Free Water Level (FWL)

Tells us how the formation porosity is split between

hydrocarbon and water
Tells us the shape of the transition

Height above FWL (Feet)

zone

Used to initialize the 3D reservoir

Hydrocarbon
model

Tells us how net varies as a Water

function of height FWL >
0 Water Saturation (%) 100
Fractals throughout Nature
Himalayas Cauliflower

Snowflake Cosmic microwave background

What are Fractals?
A fractal is a never-ending pattern

Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that look the

same at every scale

They are created by simple repeating process

Benoit B. Mandelbrot set ->

Other names for fractals are

- Self-similarity
- Scale invariance
Why fractals are useful
Fractals are objects where their parts are similar to the
whole except for scale

A simple repeating
process can create a
complex object

Many complex objects

can be described by
fractals

Mathematically simple
Coastline Fractals
Coastlines show move detail
the closer you zoom in
The length Great Britain’s
coastline (N) depends on the
length of your ruler (r)

20
fractalfoundation.org
Coastline Fractals
As the ruler shrinks the measured
coastline increases.
If the coastline is fractal the
relationship between r and N is
linear when plotted using log scales
D = fractal dimension
Fractals in reservoir rocks
Thin sections of reservoir rocks are imaged with a scanning
electron microscope (SEM )
For different magnifications the number of pixel units
representing porosity are counted
Berea sandstone

Porosity (No. pixels)

PixelBerea sandstone
Size (smaller)
Fractals describe the rock pore network
The rock pore space can be described by the fractal formula

Where:
V Pore space in rock volume
r Radius of the rock capillaries
Df Fractal dimension (non-integer constant)

This reduces to

Where:
BVW Volume of capillary bound water in the rock
Height above the free water level
& constants
Water Saturation vs. Height Data
What do we see in the well data?
400

Height
Above
FWL
(feet)

0
0 Water Saturation (%) 100
Source – Southern North Sea Gas field
BVW is Independent of Rock Properties
The bulk volume of water is independent of rock properties
Can be verified by simply plotting facies-type, porosity or
permeability on the z-axis on the cross-plot

400

Height
Above
FWL
(feet)

0
0 Bulk Volume of Water (%) 15
Log and core data from Field Fluid Type Porosity Perm
(pu) (mD)

11 North Sea fields Gas

Permian
Fluvial 9 0.2
M. Jurassic
Oil Deltaic 13 3
Devonian
Field average data Oil Lacustrine 14 7
Permian
Gas Aeolian 14 0.9
Permeability (mD)

Palaeocene
Oil Turbidite 20 21
Permian
Gas Aeolian 20 341

Gas L. Cretaceous
Condensate Turbidite 24 847
U. Jurassic
Oil Turbidite 21 570
Palaeocene
Oil Turbidite 21 24
0 Porosity (pu) 35 Oil
Palaeocene
Turbidite 22 27
Palaeocene
Gas Turbidite 32 2207
Comparison between Log & Core SWHF
The Fractal Function is linear on log-log scales
Log and core functions are the same irrespective to
whether they were determined from logs or core data
This confirms the fractal distribution of reservoir capillaries
0.01

0.1

1
1000 1000

Log derived Core derived

Height above the FWL

SwH

Capillary Pressure
SwH
Functions
Height above the FW L (Feet)

100
Functions 100

10 10

1 1
0.1
0.01

Bulk Volume of Water Bulk Volume of Water

Bulk Volume of Water (V/V)
What BVW tells us
Bulk Volume of Water = Function (Height above the FWL)

• The BVW Swh function gives the net reservoir cutoff

• In this example: porosity > 9 porosity units
BVW vs. Height Fractal Swh Function

Where:
= Bulk Volume Water (Sw*Phi)
= Height above FWL
, = Constants
Free Water Level >
Bulk of Volume of Water
• Derived from the fractal nature of reservoir rocks
• Based on the bulk volume of water
• Independent of facies type, porosity and permeability
• Two parameters completely describe the reservoir
• The function is linear in log-log space
Net Reservoir Cut-off
The net reservoir cut-off varies
as a function of height above the
FWL

This is given by the fractal Swh

function
Free Water Level
The net cut-off is required for
averaging porosity, water Net reservoir porosity cut-off
saturation and permeability in
the reservoir model
Upscaling
From ½ foot to the cell size of the reservoir model

Net flag required

Sw-Height functions (SWHF) are used to initialize the

reservoir model. It is essential that the SWHF predicted
water saturations upscale accurately

This is done by integrating the Sw-Height function

Unlike other parameters, such as porosity, water

saturation must be pore volume averaged
Upscaling Water Saturations

Sw =
(Φ Sw + Φ Sw )
(Φ + Φ )
1 1 2 2

1 2

Sw = average water saturation

Φ = average porosity
ΦSw = average bulk volume of water

“A function that predicts BVW from height is

especially appropriate to this application” Paul
Worthington
Upscaling Permeability
Log and core permeabilities represent typically 2 feet
To be used in a reservoir model the predicted
permeabilities must upscale correctly
They must have the same dynamic range as the core data

0.01 (mD) 1000 0.01 (mD) 1000

Core Permeability Predicted Permeability

Least squares regresses towards the mean

Fuzzy logic predictions preserves the dynamic range
 Core permeability upscaling
Core distribution Linear Regression Fuzzy logic
prediction
0.14 0.12 0.14

0.12 0.12
0.10

0.10 0.10
0.08

0.08 0.08
0.06

0.06 0.06

0.04
0.04 0.04

0.02
0.02 0.02

0.00 0.00 0.00

0.001

1000

0.001

1000
1

1
10
0.1

10
100

0.1
0.01

100
0.001

1000

0.01
1

10
0.1

100
0.01

0.001 mD 1000
North Sea field case study
Permeability frequency plots
- Colour represents data from 15 cored wells
Regression permeability techniques are poor at the
extremes and therefore will be incorrect when upscaled
Fuzzy logic predicted permeability matches the core
distribution
 Conclusions
• Net Pay
– Is difficult, if not impossible, to define
– Depends on the oil price
• Net Reservoir is rock capable of holding hydrocarbon
• Net Reservoir can be determined using
– Using core, logs and Sw-height functions
– Net reservoir depends on the height above the FWL
• Upscaling requires:
– Net reservoir cut-off for porosity, Sw and permeability
– Correct upscaling for the 3D reservoir model is essential
What’s Benoit B. Mandelbrot middle name?

Benoit B. Mandelbrot
What’s Benoit B. Mandelbrot middle name?

Benoit B. Mandelbrot

Benoit B. Mandelbrot

Benoit B. Mandelbrot