Department of Petroleum Engineering

PETE 590: Special Topics in Petroleum Engineering

Advanced Petrophysics
Instructor:
Office:

Phone:
Email:
Class Time
Office hours:

Dr. Hamoud A. Al-Anazi

None
013874-7835
Hamoud.anazi. l @aramco.com
UT 1700 - 1815
TBA

Course Description: (Credits: 3) Reservoir rocks properties, Interaction of rocks with

reservoir fluids, Porosity and permeability, Theories of capillary
pressure and wettability, Relative permeability affect on
production, Application of Darcys law, Laboratory procedures for
determination of rock and fluid properties, Hydrodynamic
dispersion in porous media, Drainage and imbibitions, Pore size
distribution, Three-phase relative permeability, Surface and
interfacial tension, Capillary pressure hysteresis

Djebbar Tiab and Erie C. Donaldson: Petrophysics: Theory and

Practice of Measuring Reservoir Rock and Fluid Transport
Properties , Third Edition, 2012. Link to Textbook through KFUPM

Textbook:

Library: http://www.sciencedirect.com /science/book/9780123838483

Goals:

To enable the student to understand the main factors affecting the

petrophysical properties of a reservoir and select or derive the
proper correlations/models needed to assess and predict the
reservoir petrophysics.

Prerequisite:

Graduate Standing

Topics:

1.

Mineral Composition of Reservoir Rocks

- Sandstone
b - Carbonate
C - Clay Minerals

2.

Porosity
- Types of Porosity
- Classification of Porosity
Factors Affecting Sandstone and Carbonate Porosity

3.

Permeability
Laboratory Determination of Permeability (conventional and pressure
pulse decay techniques, advantages and disadvantages of each
technique)

Field Determination of Permeability (Other than well testing

techniques)
Measurement of Directional Permeability Using Whole Cores
(conventional and pressure pulse decay techniques, advantages and
disadvantages of each technique)
Laboratory Determination of Non Darcy Flow Coefficient
Factors Affecting Permeability
Permeability Porosity and other Well Log Parameters Correlations
Empirical Correlation for Permeability and Hydraulic Conductivity
Permeability Distribution

4.

Wettability
- Concept of Wettability
Determination of Wettability Using Contact Angle, Amott, USBM, and
NMR
- Classification of Wettability of Petroleum Reservoirs
- Effect of Wettability on Rock/Fluid Interactions and Recovery
- Restoration of Original Wettability
Wettability Alteration

5.

Capillarity and Capillary Pressure

Concept of Capillarity and Capillary Pressure
Surface and Interfacial Tensions
Measurements of surface and Interfacial Tensions
- Drainage and Imbibition
- Factors Affecting Capillary Pressure Curve
- Capillary Pressure Measurements using Porous Plate and Centrifuge
methods
- Conversions of Laboratory Capillary Pressure Data to Reservoir
Conditions
Averaging Capillary Pressure Data
Capillary Pressure Hysteresis
- Capillary Imbibition
Pore Size Distribution from Mercury Capillary Pressure
Estimation of Permeability from Mercury Capillary Pressure
- Pore Size Distribution from NMR
- Capillary Pressure Evaluation using Pore Scale Modeling
Capillary Pressure for Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

6.

Relative Permeabilities
Concepts of Effective and Relative Permeabilities
Laboratory Measurement of Two-Phase Relative Permeabilities by
Steady State Method
Laboratory Measurement of Two-Phase Relative Permeabilities by
Unsteady State Method
- Analysis of Steady State and Unsteady State Relative Permeability Data
including Capillary Pressure and Capillarity Pressure End Effects
Factors Affecting Relative Permeabilities
Relative Permeability Models
- Modeling Primary Drainage Relative Permeability for Rock Types

Measure of Reservoir Heterogeneity

- Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient
- Lorenz Coefficient)
Hydraulic Flow Unit

8.

Hydrodynamic Dispersion in Porous Media

- Concept of Dispersion
- Mechanical Dispersion
Molecular Diffusion
- Convection Dispersion Equation (Miscible Displacement Equation)
- Determination of Dispersion Coefficient
- Longitudinal Dispersion Coefficient
- Longitudinal Dispersivity
- Transverse Dispersion Coefficient
- Transverse Dispersivity
- Factors Affecting Dispersion Coefficients
- Dimensional Analysis of Dispersion in Porous Media

Natural Fractured Reservoirs

- Definition and Classification
- Physical Characteristics of Fractures and Fracture Patterns
Double and triple porosity A Triple Porosity Model for Petrophysical
Analysis of Naturally Fractured Reservoirs
- Evaluation of Matrix -Fracture Imbibition Transfer Functions

Computer Usage:
Prepared by:

MS Excel and Word.

Dr. Hamoud A. Al-Anazi

Additional Remarks:

Term Project: A term project will be given and focusing on writing a report that
describes/calculates the essential petrophysical properties of such reservoirs using
some actual core data/lab measurements.
Grading:

Homework Assignments
Attendance and participation
Mid-Term Exam
Term Project
Final Exam

10%
5%
30%
15%
40%

Class Rules:

Attendance is mandatory.
No make-up exams.
Assignments will be given on weekly basis and will be due the
following week.
Assignments will be graded for effort and correctness.