RESERVOIR ROCK; ITS PROPERTIES, EXAMPLES AND APPLICATION IN PETROLEUM GEOLOGY

DEFINITIONS Reservoir: A subsurface body of rock having sufficient porosity and permeability to store and transmit fluids. Sedimentary rocks (sandstones and carbonates) are the most common reservoir rocks because they have more porosity than most igneous and metamorphic rocks and form under temperature conditions at which hydrocarbons can be preserved. Highly fractured igneous and metamorphic rocks have been known to produce hydrocarbons, albeit on a much smaller scale. A reservoir is a critical component of a complete petroleum system. Porosity: The percentage of pore volume or void space, or that volume within rock that can contain fluids. It can be classified into two: i. ii. Primary porosity: The porosity preserved from deposition through lithification (the process by which unconsolidated sediments become sedimentary rock). Secondary porosity: The porosity created through alteration of rock, commonly by processes such as dolomitization (2CaCO3 (limestone) + Mg2+ CaMg(CO3)2(dolomite) + Ca2+), dissolution and fracturing. Fracture porosity is the porosity generated by the development of fractures Effective porosity is the interconnected pore volume in a rock that contributes to fluid flow in a reservoir. It excludes isolated pores. Total porosity is the total void space in the rock whether or not it contributes to fluid flow. Thus, effective porosity is typically less than total porosity. Shale gas reservoirs tend to have relatively high porosity, but the alignment of platy grains such as clays makes their permeability very low.

Permeability: The ability, or measurement of a rock's ability, to transmit fluids, typically measured in darcies or millidarcies. The term was basically defined by Henry Darcy, who showed that the common mathematics of heat transfer could be modified to adequately describe fluid flow in porous media. Formations that transmit fluids readily, such as sandstones, are described as permeable and tend to have many large, well-connected pores. Impermeable formations, such as shales and siltstones, tend to be finer grained or of a mixed grain size, with smaller, fewer, or less interconnected pores. Absolute permeability is the measurement of the permeability conducted when a single fluid, or phase, is present in the rock. Effective permeability is the ability to preferentially flow or transmit a particular fluid through a rock when other immiscible fluids are present in the reservoir (for example, effective permeability of gas in a gas-water reservoir). The relative saturations of the fluids as well as the nature of the reservoir affect the effective permeability. Relative permeability is the ratio of effective permeability of a particular fluid at a particular saturation to absolute permeability of that fluid at total saturation. If a single fluid is present in a rock, its relative permeability is 1.0. Calculation of relative permeability allows for comparison of

the different abilities of fluids to flow in the presence of each other, since the presence of more than one fluid generally inhibits flow. Porosity Determination The best way of determining porosity is to carry out experiments on core extracted from the well. These techniques will be examined in detail in the Formation Evaluation course later in the MSc. However, the basic techniques will be described here. It should be noted that core determined porosities have a much higher degree of accuracy than porosities determined from down-hole tools, but suffer from sampling problems. Taken together core and borehole determined porosities optimize accuracy and high resolution sampling. There are at least 4 common methods of measuring the porosity of a core. These are: Buoyancy Helium porisimetry Fluid saturation Mercury porosimetry

Saturation Method This method only measures the effective (connected) porosity of the rock as it depends on the saturation of the rock with a fluid. o Clean and dry the rock. o Weigh the rock in its dry state to give the dry weight, Wdry. o Fully saturate the rock in a wetting fluid. Conventionally toluene or dichloroethene were used, but now it is more common to saturate the rock with a brine that has been made to mimic that in the reservoir, i.e., contain the same concentrations of major dissolved salts (a synthetic brine). o Weigh the saturated sample after drying any excess fluid from its surface to give its saturated weight, Wsat. o Determine the bulk volume of the rock, Vbulk. This can be done using measuring calipers and assuming the core to be cylindrical, but is prone to large errors even if the core is almost cylindrical. Another method is to immerse the sample in mercury, which is a non-wetting fluid and will not enter the pores of a rock at atmospheric pressure, and measure the volume of the mercury displaced. This method used to be common, but the sample can then no longer be used for experiments and must be safely disposed of. Archimedes method is preferred, which will be described in the Formation Evaluation course. o Determine the density fluid of the saturating fluid by weighing a known volume of it.

Buoyancy Method This method is somewhat similar to the saturation method, and also measures the effective (connected) porosity. o o o o Clean and dry the rock. Weigh the rock in its dry state to give the dry weight, Wdry. Fully saturate the rock in a wetting fluid as before. Weigh the saturated sample suspended in a bath of the same fluid with which it was saturated to give its suspended weight, Wsus. This is shown in Fig. 2.6. Note that a cradle is needed to suspend the sample in the fluid, and this has a weight Wcradle when in the fluid. So the actual measured weight when the sample and cradle are suspended in the fluid is (Wsus + Wcradle). The effect of the cradle must be taken away, hence the weight of the cradle when suspended in the fluid (up to the same level), Wcradle, must be taken account of in the final calculation Determine the bulk volume of the rock, Vbulk as above. Determine the density fluid of the saturating fluid by weighing a known volume of it.

o o

Helium Porisimetry This method relies on the expansion of helium gas, and also measures the effective porosity of the rock. However, since helium is a slippery little molecule, it can penetrate pores which are much smaller than those that the fluid used in the two previous methods can. Hence, this method provides slightly higher porosity measurements on any given rock sample. This method uses the apparatus shown in Fig. 2.7, together with the following procedure. o o o o o o Clean and dry the core sample. Obtain the bulk volume of the sample as in the previous methods. Ensure Valve 2 is closed. Gas is introduced into Chamber A of the apparatus using Valve 1 until a pressure Pi is reached, when Valve 1 is closed. This pressure is arbitrary and commonly about 100 psi. Insert the sample into Chamber B, which is at atmospheric pressure, Patm, and ensure Valve 3 is closed. Slowly open Valve 2 to let the gas equilibrate through the entirety of both chambers. The gas will penetrate into the pores of the rock sample. During this process the pressure will decrease to a new stable level, Pf.

The drop of pressure depends upon how much space there is in Chamber B, and that depends on how much of Chamber B is occupied by solid rock particles. The measured gas pressures Pi, Patm and Pf alone are not sufficient to obtain the volume of the sample rock matrix. However, we can calibrate the system by putting a range of metal cylinders of accurately known volume into Chamber B and repeating the experiment. When this is done, the calibration constant, and the pressures allow the volume of the rock matrix Vmatrix to be obtained. The porosity is then calculated using the porosity formula. Permeability Permeability is also a basic permeable medium property that, unlike porosity, cannot be defined apart from fluid flow. We use it most commonly to estimate production/injection rates from which come estimates of economic lives. Permeability is the proportionality constant between the fluid flow rate and an applied pressure or potential gradient. The figure on the right illustrates this for flow of a single incompressible fluid. The last line of this figure is one for of Darcys law, which for single-phase, one-dimensional flow constitutes a definition of permeability. The other terms in the equation are the superficial velocity (the flow rate) and the fluid viscosity (). Darcys law contains the superficial or Darcy velocity. This is the volumetric flow rate divided by the crosssectional area normal to flow (q/A).

The factors affecting the magnitude of permeability are: Shape and size of grain sizes, cementation, fracturing and solution. In order to develop flow equation, the following assumptions should be made: -Flow is horizontal, laminar and linear, -Isothermal conditions exist -Steady state flow conditions exist -The flowing fluid saturate the pore rock space

The physical concept of the Darcy is enhanced by a dimensional analysis of Darcys equation. This is accomplished by resolving the quantities into three basic dimension of mass (M), length (L) and time (t), and solving for the dimension of permeability (k). k = (q L) / (A DP) q = flow rate (cm3/sec), A = cross sectional area (cm2), DP = pressure difference across the sample (atm), = viscosity (cp), L = length of the sample (cm) and, k = permeability (Darcy). To illustrate some features of the permeability definition more clearly, write Darcys law as: q = flow rate (L3/t), A = cross sectional area (L2), DP = pressure difference across the sample (M/Lt2), = viscosity (M/Lt), L = length of the sample (L) and, k = permeability (L2). k = (q L) / (A DP) k = [ (L3/t) (M/Lt) L ] / [ (L2) (M/Lt2) ] k = L2 This simple form of Darcys law is as important for what it does not say as it is for what it does say. For example, if we increase the rate q, we find that the pressure drop AP increase; k is not a function of either flow rate or DP. Doubling (for example) the fluid viscosity is results in a doubling of DP and no change in k. Permeability is not a function of the fluid viscosity, nor, indeed, of the fluid identity. Increasing L for the same DP results in a decrease in q so that k is again unchanged. Permeability is not a function of the size of the sample. We say that k is an intrinsic function of the medium, or rather of the mediums properties. In truth, all of the above negations are only approximately true. k does depend on the fluid identity, water vs. oil, or fresh water vs. brine, in may cases. Similarly, k also depends on the scale of the measurement L. That is why we use the term absolute permeability with caution When k depends on rate or DP, the phenomena are referred to as non-Darcy effects. Such deviations are important in many cases, but we shall continue the exposition for the ideal case to focus on rock properties. The term absolute permeability is used when the porous rock is 100% saturated with a single fluid, such as oil, gas or water. When two or more fluids are present, the permeability is called effective permeability (ko, kg, kw) . Because fluids interfere each other during their movement, the sum of effective permeabilities will always be less than the absolute permeability. The ratio of effective permeability of one phase during multiphase flow to the absolute permeability is the relative permeability to that phase (kro, krg, krw). Petroleum reservoirs can have primary and secondary permeability. Primary permeability is originated at the time of deposition and lithification (hardening) of sedimentary rocks. Secondary one is resulted from the alteration of the rock matrix by compaction, cementation, fracturing and solution.