Reservoir Properties

• Petroleum reservoirs contain gas and water, or oil and water, with the
petroleum usually in the central parts of the pores and the water in
pendular rings around the grain contacts. This water is apparently
immobile, and the irreducible water saturation is commonly 20-40%
of the pore volume.
• Pressures in the petroleum are higher than normal hydrostatic water
pressures because of its smaller weight density.
• Porosity is an important rock property because it is a measure of the
potential storage volume for hydrocarbons. Porosity in carbonate
reservoirs ranges from 1 to 35% and, in the United States, averages
10% in dolomite reservoirs and 12% in limestone reservoirs.
Traps and Seal
• Sub-salt or salt-wall closures are also fairly easy to recognize.
• It requires accurate seismic data with special processing and depth
conversion to image properly, a process that can be difficult and expensive.
• Traps related to complex salt domes and detached salt nappes also hold
very large, ‘stacked pay’ reserves.
• Evaporites form outstanding seals and can hold very long column heights.
• Column height is defined as the true vertical height that any trap can hold.
If the trap is filled completely, it is termed ‘filled to spill’.
• Column height can be an indirect measure of seal capacity.
Typical fault traps. As in stratigraphic traps, multiple seals are needed to
trap hydrocarbons.
Biddle and Weilchowsky (1994).
Rift Basin
• Drainage Area
• This is the areal extent of the reservoir. It is most often determined
from geological information about the formation/region, but can also
be estimated from performance studies such as material balance,
interference analysis, and simulation studies.
• Expected Ultimate Recovery (EUR)
• The expected ultimate recovery (EUR) is the amount of oil or gas that
can be economically recovered from a reservoir under current
operating and economic conditions.
• Permeability is the property of rocks that is an indication of the ability for
fluids (gas or liquid) to flow through rocks.
• High permeability will allow fluids to move rapidly through rocks.
• Permeability is affected by the pressure in a rock. The unit of measure is
called the darcy.
• Sandstones may vary in permeability from less than one to over 50,000
millidarcys (md).
• Permeabilities are more commonly in the range of tens to hundreds of
millidarcies.
• A rock with 25% porosity and a permeability of 1 md will not yield a
significant flow of water. Such “tight” rocks are usually artificially
stimulated (fractured or acidized) to create permeability and yield a flow.
Rift Basin
 Basin Types
1. Passive Margins and Rift Basin
2. Transform Basin
3. Foreland Basin
4. Forearc Basin
5. Intra-continental Basin