Petrophysical Properties of Reservoir Rocks

Prof. T. Kumar,
Dept of Petroleum Engg
IIT (ISM) Dhanbad 826004
Porosity:
Porosity is defined as the ratio of the void space or pore volume in a rock to
the bulk volume of that rock multiplied by 100 to express in per cent. It is a
measure of storage of petroleum hydrocarbon in the reservoir rock.
The formula for porosity is given below:

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Factors affecting Porosity:
The factors affecting the magnitude of intergranular porosity are as follows:
1. Grain size uniformity: The presence of small particles such as clay, silt,
etc. which may fit in the voids between larger grains greatly reduces the
porosity. Such rocks are called dirty or shaly rocks.

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2. Shape of grains or particles, Roundness and sphericity: Angular shape
particles contribute to higher porosity while round and spherical shape
particles tend to reduce porosity.
3. Grain size distribution (or Sorting of grains): Skewed distribution of
particles gives rise to lower porosity. Hence pore size distribution plays very
important role. Skewness is the statistical measure of the uniformity of the
distribution of the group of particles.
4. Degree of cementation: Cementing material deposited around grain
junctions reduces porosity.
5. Packing of grains: Loose packing exhibity higher porosity than the tight
packing. Geologically young rocks are often packed in an inefficient manner
and are, as a result, highly porous. Calculation of porosity for three types of
spherical sand grain packing is shown below. Cubic packing gives the highest
porosity with 47.6% compared to hexagonal packing with 39.5% and
rhombohedral packing with 25.9%.

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Bulk Volume measurement

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Gravimetric determination of bulk volume can be accomplished by
observing the loss in weight of the sample when immersed in a fluid
or by observing the change in weight of a pycnometer when filled
with mercury and the core sample. The example calculation
demonstrate the details of gravimetric determination of bulk volume.

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Measurement of Effective Grain volume by Steven’s Air
Expansion Porosimeter

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Measurement of Effective Pore Volume by Washburn-Bunting
Porosimeter

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Measurement of Effective porosity by saturation method

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