MBDCI

Different Rock Types

Mechanical Behavior and Engineering
Challenges
5-A Different Rock Types

Maurice Dusseault
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Lithotypes Rock Types

(Igneous metamorphic) sedimentary

Clastics (particulate deposition)
 Sandstones (friable, competent, fractured)
 Shales (smectitic quartz-illite others)

 Carbonates (shell beds, oolites)

 Coal, diatomite, North Sea Chalk

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Chemical or Precipitates
 Halite
+ associated strange minerals (bischofite)
 Gypsum (shallow) and anhydrite (deep)

 Carbonates (precipitates)
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Sandstone Weak Sandstones

= 30% in situ, 35% in the core lab

damage

3
5-A Different Rock Types

Shaley zone,
sheared
a
Oil sand,
r intact

1
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Sandstone Diagenesis

Dense grain packing

Many long contacts

Concavo-convex grain
contacts

SiO2 precipitated in
interstitial regions
Only 1% solution at
5-A Different Rock Types

contacts = 8% loss in
volume

-A stable interpenetrative Fine-grained
fabric, high stiffness unconsolidated
sandstone
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Dense but Permeable Quartzite

Xal overgrowths, interpenetrative structure!

5-A Different Rock Types
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Reservoirs are heterogeneous & aniso-

tropic at all scales (microns to kilometers)
5-A Different Rock Types

Even sandstone reservoirs show 70am of Athabasca

great variability,Oilsands,
especially
= 30%,
vertically, and properties can change over = 0.8, > as
So distances small ascP
1,000,000 a
North ofare
few millimeters. Clearly, simplifications Fort McMurray,
needed Alta
for analysis.
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Conglomerates are Clastics

But, the grain size is larger. A

problem for testing, but in the
reservoir a pebble or a 100 micron
grain are the same (in a sense).
5-A Different Rock Types
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5-A Different Rock Types This is a Sandstone with Coal

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Unusual Materials (Diatomite)

Diatomites are formed from the skeletons
and spicules of Diatoms. They are
collapsing materials.

v
Source: Bruno and Bovberg, 1992
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h = 0

h = 0
cylindrical
specimen

SPE75230, Barenblatt et al, 2002

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5-A Different Rock Types Grosmont Formation, Alberta

Courtesy : Alberta Geological Survey via Dr. Jose Alvarez

5-A Different Rock Types Are Fractures Open or Closed?

Source: N. Barton and A. Makurat

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5-A Different Rock Types Heterogeneous Evaporites

Salts and anhydrites are not reservoir rocks, but they are seals, or
else containment rocks for gas storage (salt). Also, we have to
drill through 500 2000 m of salt occasionally!

Original specimen - Post-test appearance

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Different Rock Types

Different characteristics stiffsoft,
strongweak, permeableimpermeable, etc

Different stratigraphic sequences in the ground
(salt domes, clastic interbeds, evaporates, etc.)

Different responses to factors such as depletion,
EOR, thermal processes
5-A Different Rock Types

Different chemical interactions (shale, salt)

Knowledge of different lithotypes allows us to
develop a general picture of what to expect

leading to better engineering, interpretation