Department Petroleum Engineering

Conventional Reservoir
Properties

Department of Petroleum Engineering

Mathias Mitschanek/17.08.2015

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GOAL

Understand basics of elementary rock properties and fluid

flow in the subsurface

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AGENDA

Porous medium/media
Porosity, inhomogeneity, heterogeneity
Pore types/classification
Pore size distribution
Compaction
Compressibility of porous media
Representative elementary volume
Darcys law
Recovery factor
Phase envelope

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POROUS MEDIUM

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POROUS MEDIUM
A solid that includes void space.

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POROUS MEDIUM
A measure of the storage capacity (pore volume) that is
capable of holding fluids. Porosity is the ratio of pore volume
to total volume (bulk volume):

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POROSITY
The porosity of a sedimentary clastic rock is primarily
controlled by shape, size and size distribution and
arrangement (packing) of the rock grains.

is affected by rock mechanical processes (such as compaction, deformation,

fracture evolution) and geochemical processes (e.g. dissolution, precipitation,
mineralogical changes).
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EFFECTIVE POROSITY
Total or absolute porosity: represents the total void space
of the medium.
Effective porosity: amount of the void space that
contributes to the flow of fluids.

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POROSITY TYPES: INTERGRANULAR

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POROSITY TYPES: FRACTURES

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POROSITY TYPES: INTRAGRANULAR

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POROUS MEDIUM

Soils, sand, gravel, sedimentary rocks and fractured rocks in general all contain
void space and therefore classify as porous media. If this space is continuous, in
however a tortuous a fashion, it is possible for a fluid that occupies the voids to
flow through the system the material is said to be permeable. Soil, sand and
gravel consist of small solid particles packed together.
Consolidated rock, where the individual particles have fused together, is
normally found deep underground. Igneous rocks that do not naturally contain
any void space can still be permeable if they contain a continuous pathway of
fractures.
The porosity, is the fraction of the volume of the porous medium that is
occupied by void space (f= Vp / Vt). Void space can be classified as:
intragranular
intergranular
fracture

The void space (total porosity) is either interconnected (effective porosity) or

isolated
How much fluid can be stored in a rock depends on effective porosity
With decreasing porosity less and less voids are interconnected

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POROSITY
Primary = due to depositional process and grainsize
distribution
Secondary = byproduct of diagenesis and chemical
reactions, e.g., dolomitisation
Fabric-selective: controlled by sedimentary layering and
or compositional banding
Secondary non-selective: vuggy / moldic cross-cutting
pre-existing structures
Fracture porosity
Cavernous porosity

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COMPACTION

Sandstone: In general, porosities tend

to be lower in deeper and older rocks.
This decrease in porosity is primarily
due to overburden stresses on the
rock, and cementation.
Carbonates: porosity is more a
function of depositional environment
and secondary processes, both
unrelated to depth of burial.

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COMPACTION AND PRESSURE SOLUTION

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POROSITY & GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTION

Real rocks exhibit a complex structure and a substantial
variation in grain sizes and their packing. This results in
variations of porosity and other important reservoir
properties, often associated with the heterogeneity of
porous medium.

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PORE THROAT DISTRIBUTION

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PORE THROAT DISTRIBUTION

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POROSITY VALUES
Typical values are:
5-10% Limestone
10-40% Vuggy Limestone
10-30% Dolomite
5-50% Chalk
5-15% Strong (compact low
permeability) Sandstone
15-35% Consolidated Reservoir
Sandstone
35-45% Unconsolidated (young)
Sand
1-15% Conglomerate
9-45% Clay and Shale
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REPRESENTATIVE ELEMENTARY VOLUME

At a sample size greater than ~50 pores, porosity
measurements begin to converge. A separation of scale is
possible and the parameter porosity becomes meaningful.

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PERMEABILITY
Property of porous medium which allows a fluid to flow through it
The permeability is the macroscopic proportionality constant that
relates the flow response of a specific rock type to the applied
pressure forcing.
Since its magnitude varies as a function of direction, k is a tensorial
property, so k actually is k:
It is a symmetric tensor with 3 Eigen values.

if ks principal axes are aligned with the coordinate system the offdiagonal terms are zero, else these terms record the rotation of the
tensor.

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PERMEABILITY
The permeability k is a property of the geometry of the porous
medium. It has the dimensions of a length squared (m2). Except for
high speed-gas flow, k is not dependent on flow rate or fluid
properties. Conventionally, k is measured in units of Darcy (D):
Definition: If a pressure drop of 1 atmosphere ( 105Pa) applied
across a cube of rock with 1 cm edge length, induces a flow of 1
cm3s1 of a fluid with a viscosity of 103 kgm2s (10-3 Pa s) such
as water, the permeability of this sample is 1 Darcy. One D is
equivalent to 10-12 m2.
Although the Darcy is not an SI unit, it is a convenient measure of
permeability. For consolidated rock, the mD (milli-Darcy) unit is often
used. 1,000 mD = 1 D.
In reservoir engineering, mD is the commonly used permeability
measure.
Reservoir permeability typically ranges between 1 mD to 1D.
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PERMEABILITY

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PERMEABILITY-POROSITY CORRELATION

Sandstone: permeability is extremely well controlled by the porosity

(although usually there is more scatter than in this figure).
Carbonate: permeability has a more diffuse cloud indicating that porosity has
an influence, but there are other major factors controlling the permeability.
There can exist high porosities that do not give rise to high permeabilities
because the connectivity of the vugs that make up the pore spaces are
poorly connected.
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TYPICAL PERMEABILITY VALUES

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GRAINSIZE AND PERM RELATIONSHIP

Decreasing k with decreasing grainsize (e.g. KozenyCarmen relationship)

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NOTATION

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DERIVATIVES

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INTEGRATION

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FLOW RATE IN PORE SPACE

Single-phase laminar flow through the pore space is described by the
Reynolds lubrication equation:

Boundary conditions: no slip at the grain boundaries externally

imposed pressure differential. Result: velocity profile is parabolic (3D
paraboloid).

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STATISTICS OF PORE VELOCITY

It is commonly assumed that the pore velocity (interstitial velocity, m
s-1) obeys a Gaussian, i. e. normal distribution...
This property is exploited for the purpose of upscaling to REV scale

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CROSS-SECTIONAL REV FLOW

To upscale we integrate the flow speed q over the crosssectional area and find the permeability from:

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DARCYS LAW
expresses the proportionality between flow rate and
applied pressure differential found through
experimentation by French engineer Henry Darcy in Dijon
(Darcy, 1858).

where k, the permeability, is the proportionality constant

and and are the density and viscosity of the fluid,
respectively.
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DARCY S EXPERIMENT
Dupuit (1854) suggested
proportionality between flow
rate and pressure differential
Darcy (1856) verified this
experimentally
In 1933, the Darcy unit was
defined defined at the 1st
World Oil Congress:
q=1 cm3, A=1cm2, L=1cm,
dp=1 bar

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STEADY STATE SYSTEM

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1D PRESSURE/PERM CALCULATIONS
In the absence of sources or sinks the flow in 1D is constant / single
valued
Pressure gradient is proportionality to 1/k, i.e. small in high-k layers
and large in low-k ones
Pressure is a monotonic function
Pressure drops are greatest across low-k layers
In steady flow (no dependence on time), the pressure profile can only
be curved where there are sources or sinks
Possible calculations
Local pressure from permeability-thickness product and total
pressure differential
Flux from pressure gradient and permeability
Permeability from pressure gradient and flux.
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CONSERVATION OF MASS & DARCY

The insertion of Darcys law into the basic conservation law
leads to a partial differential equation which when
integrated using some fixed local pressures as integration
constant can be used to compute the steady-state (timeinvariant) fluid pressure distribution in a porous medium:

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PRESSURE DIFFUSION
If permeability, fluid density, and fluid viscosity are constant, a
simpler, more familiar form of the pressure equation, including the
Laplacian operator,2 is arrived at:

This is the well known diffusion equation which also describes heat
conduction (Fouriers law), electrical conduction (Ohms law), and
chemical diffusion (Ficks law)
This equation implies a 1/L scaling relationship between pressure
gradient and mass flux and it can be solved for p by integration
By analogy to Ohms law / Kirchhofs law the steady-state pressure
distribution in a domain can be found if we know boundary pressures
and permeabilities.
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TRANSIENT FLOW

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TRANSIENT VS. STEADY STATE

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RESERVOIR ANALOGUE

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FRACTURE FLOW IN POROUS MEDIUM

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FRACTURE AND MATRIX INTERACTION

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Reservoir Characterization and

Analysis

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HYDROCARBON VOLUME

Oil volume at reservoir condition is defined by:

= (1wi)
wi)
= net bulk volume of the reservoir rock
= porosity, or volume fraction of the rock which is porous
wi
wi = irreducible or connate water saturation and is
expressed as a fraction of the pore volume

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Oil volume at standard (stock tank or surface) condition is

defined by:

standard (stock tank or surface) condition:

SI units: 101325 [Pa] and 15 [C]
Field units: 14.7 [psia] and 60 [F]
oi
oi = initial oil formation volume factor, [m3/sm3]or [rb/stb]
is obtained from geological modeling and fluid pressure analysis
and wi
wi are normally determined by petrophysical analysis of the different
rock types making up the reservoir.
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The interface that separates fluids

of different densities in a reservoir
Why fluid contacts level are important?
Not always possible to determine contact
by logging since only the oil zone is
penetrated.
Fluid pressure regimes can help to
determine exact fluid contacts.
Fluid densities from formation samples
Capillary pressure data from core samples
Seismic survey (acoustic-impedance) is
using to identify fluid contacts in the
reservoir.

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SPILL POINT

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Ultimate Recovery (UR) is defined as how much of the

STOIIP is going to be produced until the reservoir is finally
abandoned depends on the production strategy. It is
calculated by:

where RF is the Recovery Factor which is a number

between 0 and 1 representing the fraction of recoverable
oil.

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RECOVERY FACTOR
Primary Recovery
Volume of hydrocarbons which can be produced by the natural energy available
in the reservoir and its adjacent aquifer. e.g. fluid expansion, ...
Primary=5-20% recovery

Supplementary Recovery
Volume of hydrocarbons which can be produced by adding supplementary
energy to the reservoir-fluid system
Secondary Recovery
Artificial Drive: ESP and Gas Lift
Water Flooding: Water Injection
Immiscible Gas Injection
Primary + Secondary = 20%-35% recovery

Tertiary (Enhanced) Oil Recovery

Miscible Gas Injection, Chemical Flooding, Thermal Recovery
Primary + Secondary +Tertiary = 30%-50% recovery
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TOTAL PRODUCTION

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PHASE ENVELOPE

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FURTHER IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

Capillary pressure fringe

Drive mechanisms
Material balance
Flow regimes
Fluid properties
Multi phase flow
Compressibility (rock, fluid)
Displacement efficiency

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