Chapter Three Reservoir Rock Properties

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CHAPTER THREE

RESERVOIR ROCK
PROPERTIES
CHAPTER THREE RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

3.1. Porosity

Porosity determines reservoir storage capacity. It is defined as the ratio of void


space, commonly called pore volume, to bulk volume and is reported either as a
fraction or a percentage. Almost all hydrocarbon reservoirs are composed of
sedimentary rocks in which porosity values generally vary from 10 to 40% in
sandstones and from 5 to 25% in carbonates

Figure (3.1): sandstone porosity system showing four basic pore types

Porosity can be determined by measuring two of three variables: pore volume


(Vp), bulk volume (Vb), or grain volume (Vg). Equations 1, 2, or 3 are then used
to compute porosity:

Porosity can also be determined by adding (using summation of fluids) the


individual ratios of gas volume to bulk volume (Gb), oil volume to bulk volume
(Ob), and water volume to bulk volume (Wb) (Equation 4). Thus,

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CHAPTER THREE RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

3.1.1. The Importance of Porosity

Porosity is an element in the equation that is used to calculate the OOIP. This is
important because governments set budgets against estimation of petroleum
reserves, sometimes done by consulting an oil and gas firm or company. This is
also important because a process in evaluating an oil and gas companies' total
net worth is determining it's currently owned petroleum reserves. Sometimes,
companies set aside investments to tackle large development projects. If the
porosity increases or decreases even slightly (i.e. sometimes on the order of
0.05%) it will have a negative impact on the project or calculation outcome
(because some fields discovered have millions, even billions, of barrels of oil
and/or cubic feet of natural gas).

3.2. Permeability

Permeability is the capacity of a rock layer to transmit water or other fluids, such
as oil. The standard unit for permeability is the Darcy (d) or, more commonly,
the millidarcy (md). Relative permeability is a dimensionless ratio that reflects
the capability of oil, water, or gas to move through a formation compared with
that of a single-phase fluid, commonly water. If a single fluid moves through
rock, its relative permeability is 1.0. Two or more fluids generally inhigit flow
through rock compared with that of a single phase of each component.

3.2.1. Permeability Measurement

Water or oil permeabilities are determined on core samples after first obtaining
the permeabilities to gas on the extracted dry samples. The sample is saturated
with the test fluid, it is placed in a Hassler cell, and pressure is applied to the
sleeve. Filtered, gas-free liquid is flowed through the sample, and the rates and
pressure drops are measured. Permeability to liquid is calculated as follows:

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CHAPTER THREE RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

Where:

 k1 = liquid permeability, md
 L = length, cm
 μ1 = liquid viscosity, cP
 q1 = gas flow rate at atmospheric pressure, cm3/sec
 A = cross-sectional area, cm2
 Δp = pressure drop, atm

As a quality control device, absolute permeability calculated for water or oil


should agree with the k^ calculated for gas permeability.

3.2.2. Importance of Permeability

Permeability is important in analyzing and studying Reservoir Simulation


models. These help in understanding reservoir drainage characteristics and
production mechanisms and methods. If we applied the principles of Reservoir
Simulation to a sponge, it would help us understand the movement of fluid out
of the sponge upon squeezing it, how much fluid has been ejected from the
sponge, and the area the act of squeezing has drained. The area that has been
drained of the required reservoir fluids during the production stage of well life is
known as drainage area, and permeability applied in Reservoir Simulation
models helps us to extrapolate and understand this reservoir attribute.

3.3. Wettability

Wettability significantly affects a variety of measurements critical to describing


oil reservoirs, from residual saturations to resistivity indices. In spite of the
importance attributed to wettability, no standardized technique exists that
completely and adequately characterizes the phenomenon.

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CHAPTER THREE RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

Figure (3.2): Wettability in two phase

Physically, wettability represents a balance of forces that occur at the interface


between three phases, one of which is a solid. Young first developed the equation
describing this balance in 1805. For an oil, water, and solid system, the equation
would be

Where:

 σos = interfacial energy between oil and solid


 σws = interfacial energy between water and solid
 σow, = interfacial tension between oil and water
 θC = contact angle

3.3.1. The importance of wettability

Wettability of the pore surface is one of the important factors influencing the
distribution and transport of various fluid phases and therefore the extent of
formation damage in petroleum-bearing formations. Because the wettability of
rocks is altered by the rock and fluid interactions and variations of the reservoir
fluid conditions, prediction of its effects on formation damage is a highly

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CHAPTER THREE RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

complicated issue. Although mineral matters forming the reservoir rocks are
generally water-wet, deposition of heavy organic matter, such as asphaltenes and
paraffins, over a long reservoir lifetime may render them mixed-wet or oil-wet,
depending on the composition of the oil and reservoir conditions.

3.4. Capillary Pressure

Capillary pressure is the pressure between two immiscible fluids in a thin tube,
resulting from the interactions of forces between the fluids and solid walls of the
tube. Capillary pressure can serve as both an opposing or driving force for fluid
transport and is a significant property for research and industrial purposes

Capillary pressure can be calculated as follows:

Where:

 ρw = density of the wetting nonwetting fluid


 ρnw = density of the nonwetting fluid
 g = gravitational constant
 h = height above the free surface
 σ = interfacial tension
 θ = contact angle between the fluids and the capillary tube
 rc = radius of the capillary

These equations show that capillary pressure increases with greater height above
the free surface and with smaller capillary size.

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3.4.1. The importance of capillary pressure

Many reservoir rocks can be approximated by a bundle of capillaries, with


formation water being the wetting phase and hydrocarbons the non-wetting
phase. As hydrocarbons begin to migrate into a rock, displacing the pore water,
the hydrocarbons first enter the pores with the largest pore throats (capillaries),
leaving the wetting phase (water) in the pores with smaller throats or in small
nooks and crannies (surface roughness). As the hydrocarbon column increases,
the height above the surface where Pc = 0, called the free surface or free water
level (FWL), becomes greater and the capillary pressure increases, allowing
hydrocarbons to enter pores with smaller and smaller throats. This process
continues until one of several things occurs:

1. Generation or migration ends,


2. The trap reaches its spill point, or
3. Capillary pressure is sufficient to force hydrocarbons into the seal
(displacement pressure is exceeded), allowing the seal to leak.

3.5. Saturation

In most oil formation, it is believed that the formation was fully saturated with
water prior to the oil migration and trapping in the formation. The less dense
hydrocarbons are considered to migrate to positions of hydrostatic and dynamic
equilibrium by displacing the initial water. The oil will not displace all the water
originally occupied these pores. Thus reservoir rocks normally contain both
hydrocarbon and water (frequently referred to as connate water or interstitial
water). Saturation is defined as that fraction, or percent, of the pore volume
occupied by a particular fluid (oil, gas, or water). This property is expressed
mathematically by the following relationship

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CHAPTER THREE RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

All saturations are based on pore volume not gross volume of the reservoir. The
saturation of each individual phase ranges between zero to 100 percent. By
definition, the sum of the saturations is 100%, therefore

So + Sw + Sg

Connate (interstitial) water saturation Swc is important primarily because it


reduces the amount of space available between oil and gas. It is generally not
uniformly distributed throughout the reservoir but varies with permeability,
lithology, and height above the free water table. Another particular phase
saturation of interest is called the critical saturation and it is associated with each
reservoir fluid.

Figure (3.3): Fluid Saturation in Rock

3.6. Reservoir Thickness


Reservoir thickness is particularly important because it has a pronounced
effect on the fraction of the introduced heat that remains in the reservoir a
quantity known as the heat efficiency. For a given reservoir (which has a fixed

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CHAPTER THREE RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

thickness), the only way to increase the heat efficiency is to reduce the
time t required to produce the oil from the zone between an injector and a
producer. This generally can be done by increasing the injection rate (one also
must be able to recover the oil at an increased rate) or by reducing the spacing.
Each of these alternatives would cost money to implement but may be attractive
compared with a slowly expanding steam front that results in low oil production
rates and a long operating life.

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