Rock Properties

Basic Rock Parameters Used in Reservoir Engineering

(Porosity, Permeability, Saturations, Compressibility)

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved

 What is Porosity (f)? And why is it important?

 Total Porosity
– Total Porosity is the
ratio of the ‘void’ space
to the total rock volume
 Effective Porosity
– Effective Porosity is the
ratio of the
interconnected ‘void’
space to the total rock
volume

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 2

 Cubic Packing of Spheres

Porosity = 48%

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 3

 Rhombic Packing of Spheres

Porosity = 27 %

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 4

 Packing of Two Sizes of Spheres

Porosity = 14%

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 5

 Intergranular Porosity

rombohedrally packed grain sorting, silt, clay and

spheres:  = 26% cementation affect porosity

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 6

 Porosity in a Sandstone

Pore
Throat Pores Provide the
Volume to Contain
Hydrocarbon Fluids

Pore Throats Restrict

Fluid Flow

Scanning Electron Micrograph

Norphlet Formation, Offshore Alabama, USA

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 7

 Sandstone Composition Framework Grains

KF = Potassium
Feldspar

PRF = Rock Fragment

PRF KF P = Pore
CEMENT Potassium Feldspar is
Stained Yellow With a
Chemical Dye
P
Pores are Impregnated
With Blue-Dyed Epoxy
Norphlet Sandstone, Offshore Alabama, USA
Grains are About =< 0.25 mm in Diameter/Length

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 8

 Permeability (k)

qL kAp
k q
Ap or L
Permeability is the measure of capacity of rock to transmit fluid.
Symbol :k
Units : Darcy or milliDarcy (D or mD)
Source : Well tests, core analysis
Range : 0.001 mD - 10,000 mD

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 9

 Definition of 1 Darcy

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 10

 Darcy

Darcy is a unit of Area

1 mm2 = 1,013,250 Darcy

1 Darcy = 0.986923 m2

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 11

 Effect of Grain Size in Permeability

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 12

 Relative Permeability (Krw, Kro)

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 13

 Pore Compressibility (Cf)

1   ln 
cf  
 p p

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 14

 Net Pay Thickness

Shale
h1 Sand

h2

h3

hnet = h1 + h2 + h3
Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 15
 Saturations (Sw, So, Sg)
H2O

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 16

 Archie’s Equation

a Rw where:
Swn  m
 Rt Sw: water saturation
a: constant
: porosity
( sandstone )
m: cementation factor
2 0.62 Rw Rw: formation water resistivity
Sw  2.15
 Rt Rt: true resistivity (measured by
(lim estone ) deep resistivity measurement)
2 1 Rw
Sw  2
 Rt
Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 17
 Open Hole Logs to determine Saturation

 Resistivity log
– Induction tools
– Laterolog tools
 Porosity log
– Neutron tools
– Density tools
– Sonic tools
– Magnetic resonance tools

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 18

 Exercise

Calculate oil saturation in the following case

 Rock type: sandstone
 Rw: 0.0912 (at bottom hole temperature)
 : 0.2
 Rt: 20 ohm meter

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 19

 Solution

2 0.62 0.0912
Sw  2.15
0 .2 20
0.62 0.0912
Sw  2.15
0 .2 20
Sw  0.3
 S o  0 .7

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 20

 Total Compressibility (Ct)

c t  c f  S o c o  S w c w  S gc g
Typically,
Cw : 3E-6
Co : 3E-6 (Black oil)
Cg : 1/pressure
Cf : 4E-6

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 21

 Exercise

Calculate total compressibility in the following case

cf : 3.6E-06
co : 1.158E-05 So : 0.83
cw : 2.277E-06 Sw : 0.17
cg : 6.023E-05 Sg : 0

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 22

 Solution

Ct = 1.36 x 10-5 psi-1

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 23

 Exercise

Calculate total compressibility in the following case

cf : 3.6E-06
co : 1.158E-05 So : 0.73
cw : 2.277E-06 Sw : 0.17
cg : 6.023E-05 Sg : 0.1

Compare solution with previous Example

Copyright 2007, , All rights reserved 24