Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-Initially-In-Place, and Recovery Factor

• In an oil reservoir, total amount of oil initially contained in subsurface rock is known as oil-
initially-in-place (OIIP)
• This quantity is also called oil-originally-in-place (OOIP)
• Another acronym used for total amount of oil in reservoir is STOIIP, which stands for stock
tank oil-initially-in-place
• OIIP is typically denoted by N
• OIIP is typically quantified in the unit of STB in standard conditions
• In oil reservoirs, oil contains significant amount of dissolved gas in it
• Dissolved gas is not a part of the OIIP term
Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-Initially-In-
Place, and Recovery Factor

• Additionally, in some oil reservoirs, there exists a free gas zone

on top
• of oil zone
• Free gas on top of oil zone is also not included in OIIP term
• Estimation of OIIP is one of major tasks for reservoir engineers
• With today’s technology, only some fraction of OIIP may be
produced
• Amount of oil produced at surface is known as cumulative oil
• production
Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-
Initially-In-Place, and
Recovery Factor

• Cumulative oil production is measured as a function of time

at surface conditions in unit of STB
• Cumulative oil production increases with production time
• Cumulative oil production is denoted by Np
• Production life of an oil reservoir may vary from several
years to 50 years
• Average production life of oil reservoirs is in the order of 30
years
• However, some old and large oil reservoirs may produce for
70-80 years or even longer
Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-Initially-In-Place, and
Recovery Factor

• When production from oilfield is stopped, it is termed as abandonment

• Economics plays a major role in abandonment time
• Cumulative oil production at abandonment is denoted by Npa
• Only some fraction of OIIP may be produced
• For example, in solution-gas drive oil reservoirs, only less than 10 % of
• OIIP may be produced and significant amount of OOIP remains in
subsurface rock
Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-Initially-In-Place, and
Recovery Factor

• Ratio of cumulative oil production to OIIP is called as recovery factor

• In terms of notation above, recovery factor is defined as follows
• 𝑅𝐹 = 𝑁𝑝 /𝑁
• RF = recovery factor, fraction
• N = oil-initially-in-place, STB
• Np = cumulative oil production, STB
Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-Initially-In-Place, and
Recovery Factor
• Recovery factor is influenced by many parameters
• Initial reservoir pressure and temperature
• Heterogeneous rock properties
• Fractures, interwell connectivity, shale streaks and barriers
• Permeability distribution, relative permeabilities
• Gas cap size, water aquifer size
• Number of wells, well types, and well completion
• Fluid properties; oil viscosity, solution GOR, FVFs
• In general, recovery factor correlates with reservoir drive mechanisms
• Table 1 gives recovery factors for different oil reservoir types
Recovery Factors in Oil Reservoirs
Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-Initially-In-Place, and
Recovery Factor
• Similarly, in a gas reservoir, total amount of gas initially contained in
• subsurface reservoir rock is called as gas-initially-in-place (GIIP)
• This quantity is also called gas-originally-in-place (GOIP)
• GIIP is typically denoted by G
• GIIP is typically quantified in unit of scf in standard conditions
• Amount of gas produced at surface is known as cumulative gas production
• Cumulative gas production is measured as a function of time at surface
• conditions in the unit of scf
Oil-Initially-In-Place, Gas-Initially-In-Place, and
Recovery Factor
• Cumulative gas production increases with production time
• Cumulative gas production is denoted by Gp
• In case of gas reservoirs, recovery factor is defined as follows
• 𝑅𝐹 = 𝐺𝑝 /𝐺
• G = gas-initially-in-place, scf
• Gp = cumulative gas production, scf
• In gas reservoirs, recovery factors are typically high
• Table 2 reports the recovery factors for different gas reservoirs
Recovery Factors in Gas Reservoirs

• Recovery factor in water drive gas reservoirs may be somewhat lower

• Reason for lower recovery is entrapment of residual gas at high
pressures in water invaded reservoir rock
Recoverable Oil and Gas Reserve

• Oil reserve is not the same as OIIP

• Oil reserve is amount of oil that can be produced under current technical and economical
conditions
• Recoverable oil reserve is defined as follows
• 𝑅𝑂𝑅 = 𝑁(𝑅𝐹)𝑡𝑒
• ROR = recoverable oil reserve, STB
• N = oil-initially-in-place, STB
• (RF)te = recovery factor under current technical and economical conditions, fraction
Recoverable Oil and Gas Reserve

• Similarly, recoverable gas reserve may be defined as below

• 𝑅𝐺𝑅 = 𝐺(𝑅𝐹)𝑡𝑒
• RGR = recoverable gas reserve, scf
• G = gas-initially-in-place, scf
• Challenge in Eqs. 3 and 4 is estimation of the recovery factor under current
technical and economical conditions
Methods for Estimating OOIP and GIIP

• Methods developed to predict amount of hydrocarbon fluids stored in

subsurface rocks may be divided into five groups
• Volumetric method
• Material balance analysis
• Decline curve analysis
• Reservoir simulation
• Empirical/statistical/analog methods
Volumetric Method

• Volumetric method is the only method

that could be used at early stage of field
development
• It does not need historical production
data
• The method is based on static data
• The essence of the method is the
estimation of reservoir bulk volume
from isopach maps
Volumetric Method
Geological, geophysical data, core and log data
• Average areal extent of formation
• Average formation thickness
• Total reservoir bulk volume
• Average porosity
• Average connate water saturation
Production data; initial reservoir pressure and temperature
• PVT data
• Oil and gas formation volume factors at initial conditions; Boi and Bgi
Volumetric Method
• For oil reservoirs, the equation for the volumetric method is

• N = oil-initially-in-place (OIIP), STB

• = reservoir bulk volume,
• = average porosity, fraction
• = average connate saturation, fraction
• = initial oil formation volume factor
Volumetric Method

• If average area and thickness can be defined for reservoir rock then
• = 43,560 𝐴ℎ (6)
• A = average area of reservoir rock, acres
• h = average reservoir thickness, ft
• Substituting Eq. 6 into Eq. 5
Volumetric Method
• In case of gas reservoirs, GIIP is reported in unit of scf

• G = gas-initially-in-place (GIIP), scf

• = initial gas formation volume factor, cuft/scf
• Substituting Eq. 6 into Eq. 8,

• Most challenging aspect of volumetrics method is estimation of

reservoir bulk volume
Material Balance Equation (MBE)
• Material balance based methods could be used during intermediate
and late periods of field development
• This method is based on historical production data
• Method cannot be used at early stages of field development
• Based on conservation of mass
Decline Curve Analysis
Reservoir Simulation

• Most sophisticated
• Conservation of mass
• Multiphase flow in porous media
• Rigorous differential equations
• Reservoir is divided into many grid blocks
• Numerical methods
• Requires very accurate input data
• History matching all available production data and pressures
• OIIP and GIIP are predicted as a part of history matching
• It cannot be used at early time
Discretization of reservoir
rock for simulation
 Material Balance (MB)
Equation,
Applications of MB, Gas MB
Material Balance for Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

The material balance concept is based on the conservation of mass

The application of the mass conservation to hydrocarbon reservoirs yields
one of the fundamental techniques known as material balance equation
(MBE)
Two main applications of MBE
Estimating the amounts of oil, gas, and water in subsurface formations
Forecasting the reservoir performance in the future
Reservoir Drive
Mechanisms
• Expansion of oil phase
• Gas liberation out of the oil phase
• Reservoir rock compaction
• Expansion of connate water in reservoir rock
• Expansion of gas in gas cap
• Water influx from an underlying aquifer
• Pressure support and displacement by
injected gas
• Increased reservoir energy provided by
water injection
Undersaturated Oil Reservoirs

• These types of reservoirs are also known as depletion drive or solution-gas-drive

reservoirs
• In such reservoirs, the initial reservoir pressure is higher than the bubble point pressure
of reservoir oil
• Initially, all the hydrocarbon components are in liquid phase
• All the available gas is dissolved in oil
• In other words, there is only single phase oil in the reservoir
• At this stage, we will neglect the influences of rock compaction, connate water saturation,
and water influx and water production
Undersaturated Oil Reservoirs
The production from a solution-gas-drive oil reservoir takes place in
two periods
• Production above bubble point pressure; p ≥ pbp
• Production below bubble point pressure ; p < pbp
MBE during Production above Bubble Point
• equations for initial and current production conditions
• = =𝑁
• = = = (𝑁 −
• We neglected the effect of rock compaction, = 0
• Consequently, the current reservoir pore volume is equal to initial reservoir pore volume
• =
Combining all three equations
• 𝑁𝐵𝑜𝑖 = (𝑁 −
• Rearranging
• 𝐵𝑜 = 𝑁( −
MBE during Production above Bubble Point
• 𝑁𝑝𝐵𝑜 = 𝑁(𝐵𝑜 – 𝐵𝑜𝑖)
• MBE for undersaturated oil reservoirs producing above their bubble point pressure
• NpBo term on LHS is called reservoir voidage or reservoir withdrawal

• Notice that NpBo term has a unit of RB

• The term 𝑁(𝐵𝑜 – 𝐵𝑜𝑖) on RHS represents the expansion of liquid oil phase
• The oil MBE may be rearranged for oil-in-place as below
• 𝑁 = 𝑁𝑝𝐵𝑜 / (𝐵𝑜 – 𝐵𝑜𝑖

• The data for Bo and 𝐵𝑜𝑖 come from PVT study of reservoir oil sample

• Np comes from production data

• The recovery factor is the ratio of cumulative oil production to oil-in-place 𝑅𝐹 = 𝑁𝑝/𝑁 = 1 − 𝐵𝑜𝑖 /𝐵𝑜
MBE during Production above Bubble Point
– Example 1
MBE during Production above Bubble Point – Example 1
MBE during Production above Bubble Point – Example 1
MBE – Undersaturated Oil – Gas Liberation
(Production below Bubble Point)

In the production interval of p < pbp, the oil production is due to simultaneous
effects of:
 oil expansion
 expansion of gas phase evolving from oil
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
• At any stage of production below pbp, the following events take place
• 𝑁𝑝 amount of oil is produced
• Reservoir pressure is reduced below bubble point pressure; p < pbp
• Per 1 STB of oil in surface conditions, amount of gas is evaporated
• In conjunction with oil production, Gp amount of gas is produced
• Some part of the produced gas comes from the free gas phase in the
reservoir
• A portion of the produced gas is transported to surface as a dissolved phase
in produced oil
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
• Volume of produced gas is typically quantified in terms of cumulative gas-
oil ratio Rp = Gp / 𝑁𝑝
• Free gas volume in reservoir conditions is Vg
• If this gas is brought to surface, it would occupy a surface volume of Gfr
• The oil-initially-in-place remaining in reservoir declines to Nr = N - Np
• Reservoir oil volume may be related to the remaining oil-initially-in-place
• Vo=NrBo
• Volume of the gas remaining dissolved in oil is Gdr = Nr Rs
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
• MB for the initial condition is as follows
• 𝑉𝑝𝑖 = 𝑉𝑜𝑖

• 𝑉𝑜𝑖 = 𝑁𝐵𝑜𝑖

• 𝑉𝑝𝑖 = 𝑉𝑜𝑖 = 𝑁𝐵𝑜𝑖

• Eqs. above are the same as those for p ≥

• The current pore volume below pbp is the sum of the volumes occupied by oil and free
gas phases

• 𝑉𝑝=𝑉𝑜 + 𝑉𝑔
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
MBE during Production below Bubble Point
Influence of Rock Compressibility
Influence of Rock Compressibility
Influence of Water Influx - Example 5
Influence of Water Influx - Example 5
Saturated Oil Reservoirs – Effect of Gas Cap
• Two phases of hydrocarbons to start with
 an oil phase with dissolved gas in it
 a free gas phase
• This type of reservoirs is called saturated oil reservoirs
• The free gas phase is accumulated at the top of oil zone
• This type of reservoirs is also called gas cap reservoirs
• We neglect the effects of rock compaction, connate water
expansion, and water influx
MBE – Saturated Oil (Gas Cap)
Saturated Oil Reservoirs – Example 7
General MBE for Oil Reservoirs

• In this section, we formulate the general MBE for oil reservoirs under
the combined influences of
 oil expansion
 gas liberation and expansion
 rock compaction
 connate water expansion
 gas cap expansion
 water influx and production
General MBE