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GEOLOGIC SETTING
0 80 ft
0 20 m
Vertical position (m)
10
Match line
0
100 East
Match line
Vertical position (m)
10
Dutton et al.
0
200 Horizontal position (m) 300
Figure 2. Dip-oriented outcrop wall of the Frewens sandstone that was used to quantify concretion size and distribution (modified from Willis and White, 2000). Concretions
2011
are the darker areas on the photomosaic within the light-colored sandstone. A graphic overlay made from the photomosaic shows distribution of facies and concretions.
(A) (B)
99.99 99.99
99.9 99.9
99 99
Cumulative percent
Cumulative percent
95 95
90 90
80 80
70 70
50 50
30 30
20 20
10 10
5 5
Mean = 0.6 Mean = 7.4
1 Median = 0.6 1 Median = 4.2
.1 St. Dev. = 0.4 .1 St. Dev. = 8.9
.01 .01
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 10 20 30 40 50
Thickness (m) Length (m)
(C) (D) 1:1 2.5:1
99.99 2.5
99.9
99 2
Cumulative percent
95
90
Thickness (m)
80 1.5
70
50
30
20 1
10
5
Mean = 11.1 0.5
1
Median = 5.3
.1 St. Dev. = 15.2
.01 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 10 20 30 40 50
Width (m) Length (m)
Figure 3. Plots of (A) concretion thickness, (B) length, and (C) width vs. cumulative percent and (D) crossplot of length and thickness.
McBride et al. (1995) described concretions with aspect ratios greater than 2.5:1 (T/L ⬍ 0.4) as elongate. According to that definition,
most Frewens concretions are elongate.
0.3
Horizontal profile
0.25
0.2
Cemented fraction
5
COVARIANCE MODELS FOR CEMENT
DISTRIBUTION
20
Figure 6. Plot showing the
Outcrop height (m)
5 5
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 5 10 15
Outcrop length (m) Frequency
cyclicity (or a so-called hole effect) with a wavelength Distributing Cement in Reservoir Models
of approximately 3.3 m. This cyclicity is seen in the
decrease of the semivariogram at approximately 6.6 m Many deltaic sandstone reservoirs have evidence from
and the excursion above the semivariogram sill at ap- cores or geophysical logs (particularly density and neu-
proximately 10 m (Figure 10). tron logs [Walderhaug et al., 1989; Worden and Ma-
Cement distribution is clearly anisotropic; that is, tray, 1998]) that calcite concretions are present (for
its pattern of spatial variability changes with direction. example, Ambrose et al., 1995). To be realistic, a res-
The direction of greatest continuity is inclined 2.5⬚ ervoir simulation should attempt to capture the dia-
downward to the right, following depositional dip. The genetic permeability overprint, as well as facies-con-
direction of least continuity is nearly vertical. The trolled permeability trends. Reservoir-specific data
anisotropy factor for the cement, defined as the ratio from logs and core could be used to condition the mod-
of the range in the greatest and least continuity direc-
tions (Kupfersberger and Deutsch, 1999), is approxi-
mately 12. Because the horizontal and vertical semi- 20
variogram sills are not equal, the anisotropy is zonal
rather than geometric (Deutsch and Journel, 1998, p.
27–30). This feature can be modeled by using nested
structures; the horizontal range of the additional vari- 15
ance component (needed to model the zonal aniso-
Outcrop height (m)
10
50
20
10
Poisson Model, λ = 0.014/m2 0
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0 1 2 3 4
Number of concretions in bin Area in dip wall (m2)
Figure 8. The frequency of concretions observed on the out- Figure 9. Plot of concretion area vs. height in the outcrop wall
crops is matched adequately by a Poisson model with k ⳱ shows an upward increase in the size of concretions. This up-
0.014 mⳮ2. In the vertical and horizontal directions, the Poisson ward increase in concretion size, not an increase in the number
models cannot be rejected at the 90% confidence level using of concretions, is the reason that cemented fraction increases
v2 tests. vertically (Figure 5).
ft m
10
30
Cement No cement
150 ft
0
0 50 m
Vertical exaggeration = 5x
displacing oil. The water is injected into the left side steady-state flow equation for the permeability distri-
of the simulation models, and oil and water are pro- bution with and without concretions. The presence of
duced from the right side. The distribution of oil and the concretions decreases the upscaled permeability of
water are shown after one-half of the pore volume of the modeled area by about 45% compared with a sand-
the model has been injected (Figure 12). stone having the same shale-bed and facies distribution
The effect of concretions on flow can be seen by but no concretions (from 1220 to 667 md). Concre-
comparing reservoir models with and without concre- tions have a large impact on upscaled permeability be-
tions. Concretions make flow paths more tortuous and cause the cement occurs within the most permeable
cause breakthrough to occur lower in the section. part of the sandstone body. A model based on depo-
Without concretions, breakthrough occurs first in the sitional facies alone would significantly overestimate
coarse facies 5 interval at the top of the section (Figure upscaled permeability, thus demonstrating the impor-
12B). With concretions, breakthrough occurs lower in tance of including diagenetic permeability modifica-
the section (in facies 3 and 4) because flow is retarded tion in detailed reservoir models.
by the abundance of cement near the top of the sand- The upscaled permeability derived from the
stone body (Figure 12C). By preferentially reducing steady-state flow solution was compared to the geo-
permeability of the coarsest grained facies, concretions metric and arithmetic mean permeabilities. The geo-
may actually improve the vertical sweep efficiency of metric mean is kg ⳱ k fcck¯ ss
1ⳮfc
, where kg is the overall
displacements. geometric mean, kc is the concretion permeability, and
Concretions significantly reduce upscaled perme- kss is the upscaled permeability of the unaltered sand-
ability compared with uncemented sandstones. The stone. The concretion fraction is fc. The heterogeneous
upscaled permeability of this two-dimensional panel of sandstone permeability was upscaled using a steady-
Frewens sandstone was calculated by solving the state flow solution to estimate kss. The geometric mean
(B)
Outlet
Inlet
(C)
Outlet
Inlet
0
Permeability (md) 2500
0 200 ft
0 50 m 0 1
Vertical exaggeration x 3 Water saturation (fraction)
Figure 12. Reservoir simulation was used to examine the influence that concretions would have on fluid flow in a reservoir. Willis
and White (2000) described preparation of the outcrop data for flow simulation. (A) Distribution of shale beds and concretions in
the dip-parallel outcrop wall that was modeled in two dimensions. (B) Simulation including shales but not concretions (modified from
Willis and White, 2000). Low-permeability, inclined shales have a pronounced effect, shunting flow along the dip of the clinoform
beds. (C) Simulation including both shales and concretions (modified from Willis and White, 2000). Cemented regions make the flow
path more tortuous and reduce effective permeability by about one-half. Concretions cause breakthrough to occur earlier and lower
in the section because they retard flow most in high-permeability facies near the top of the sandstone body.
(A)
(B)