Formation Properties

Lithology
Porosity
Permeability
Saturation

1-2 UTC
 Lithology
Simple / “Clean”

Shale
“Dirty”

Complex

1-3 UTC
 Lithology Identification
• The lithology can be obtained in several ways:
– From the cuttings (beware of depth offsets / problems).
– From local knowledge (good during development).
– From the known depositional environment (good in general
basis).
– From a log Quicklook (good starting point).
– From individual log readings (difficult if there are no areas of
zero porosity).
– From crossplots (works well for simple lithology).

1-4 UTC
 Tools to determine Lithology
• Most tools react in some way to lithology - usually
in conjunction with the porosity.
• Major lithology tools are:
– Neutron: reacts to fluid and matrix
– Density: reacts to matrix and fluid
– GR: reacts mainly to matrix
– Sonic: reacts to fluid and matrix, complicated by responding
mainly to primary porosity

1-5 UTC 5
 Porosity Good Porosity = Lots of Space for Petroleum

VP
=
VB Pore-Filling Cement Reduces Porosity
Quartz grain

Calcite cement
 Pore-Space Classification

Total Pore Space

•Total porosity, t =
Bulk Volume

•Effective porosity, e = Interconne cted Pore Space

Bulk Volume

1-7 UTC
 Porosity and Grain Size

• A rock can be made up of small grains or large grains

Porosity depends on grain packing and sorting, NOT grain size

1-8 UTC
 Porosity-related Terms & Definitions
• Primary: The initial porosity at deposition
• Secondary: Occurs some time after deposition (Vugs, Fractures)
• Total: Primary plus Secondary porosity
• Effective: Connected porosity that can contribute to production
• Free Fluid: Effective porosity from which fluids can be produced
• Irreducible: Trapped fluid that does not flow during production
• Capillary Bound: Irreducible water trapped in the smallest pore
volumes by surface tension.

1-9 UTC
 Comparison of Total and Effective
Porosities
• Very clean sandstones : t = e

• Poorly to moderately well -cemented intergranular

materials: t  e

• Highly cemented materials and most carbonates: e < t

1 - 10 UTC
Practice Analysis

1 - 11 UTC
 Tools to determine Porosity
• The main porosity tools are:
– Density: reacts to matrix and fluid
– Neutron: reacts to fluid and matrix
– NMR: reacts to fluid
– Sonic: reacts to a mixture of matrix and fluid, complicated by
responding mainly to primary porosity.

1 - 12 UTC 12
 Lithology and Porosity
• What is the difference between primary and
secondary porosity?

• Does grain size affect porosity?

• What is the difference between a “clean”

formation and a “dirty” formation?

1 - 13 UTC
 Permeability (k)
• A measure of the ease at which a fluid can flow through a
rock

• The connectivity, allowing productivity, that exists between

the pore spaces of the rock matrix influences the
permeability

1 - 14 UTC
Definition of the Darcy Unit
One Darcy is defined as the permeability that will permit a fluid of one
centipoise viscosity to flow at a rate of one cubic centimetre per second
through a cross sectional area of one square centimetre when the
pressure gradient is one atmosphere per centimetre. (Henri Darcy, 1856)

•K = permeability,Darcies
•Q = flow rate, cm/s
•µ = viscocity, cp
•A = surface area, cm2
•L = length, cm
•P1, P2 = pressures, bars

1 - 15 UTC
Porosity and Permeability

Low Permeability Sandstone Clastic Reservoir

100

Core permeability (md)

10

0.1

0.01

0.001
0 5 10 15 20 25

Core porosity (%)

Good correlation

1 - 16 UTC
Porosity and Permeability

Vuggy Carbonate
100,000

10,000

1,000

Core permeability- (mD)

100

10

0.1

0.01

0.001
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Core porosity (%)

Poor correlation

1 - 17 UTC
Permeability: relationship to rock
texture

1 - 18 UTC
Porosity and Permeability

1 - 19 UTC
 Saturation
Definition: The relative amount of water, oil and gas in the pores of a rock,
usually as a percentage of volume

 * (1-Sw)
 * Sw
Hydrocarbon
Water

(1-)
Matrix

 * Sw=amount of water per unit volume

 * (1-Sw)=amount of hydrocarbon per unit volume

1 - 20 UTC
 Saturation (Sw)

Water Saturation – Sw
– The fraction of (total, effective, irreducible etc.) pore space occupied with water.
– Volume of Water = Sw * f
– Hydrocarbon Saturation (Sh) = 1 – Sw
Hydrocarbon
– Volume of Hydrocarbon = (1 – Sw) f
Water
Water

Sw = 100% Sw = 70%
– Resistivity responds to fluids in the pore spaces.
“Porosity” measurements are a “response” to the pore volume.
Water saturation is a function of the combination of these measurements.

1 - 21 UTC
Saturation (Sw)
Archie’s Equation

Empirical constant
(usually near unity) Resistivity of
a Rw formation water,

Sw  n
-m

f

Water
saturation,
m Cementation
exponent
fraction
Saturation
exponent
R t
(usually near 2)

(also usually Resistivity of

near 2) Porosity, uninvaded
fraction formation, -m

1 - 22 UTC
Archie’s Equation

1 - 23 UTC
 Saturation Equations
• There are large number of saturation equations,
such as: 1 1
Sw  *  V cl 
1 
V cl

2 
e Rt
– Indonesia Equation 
R cl Rw

2
1  V 1 .4
 e  n
m
2

   cl
 S w
– Nigeria Equation Rt  R cl aR w 

1 S w2 BQ v S w
– Waxman-Smiths Equation  * 
Rt F Rw F*

Ct 
– Dual-Water Equation
 m
t S n
wt 
Cw 
S wb
C wb  Cw 

a 
 S wt 


– All reduce to Archie’s equation

1 -when
24 there is no shale UTC
 Permeability and Saturation
• Which formation is likely to have higher permeability?
– coarse grained, or fine-grained
• Which measurement type do we most often use to determine
saturation?

• Which reservoir will probably be a better candidate?

1. Porosity 25 %, permeability 0.1 md
2. Porosity 10%, permeability 100 md

1 - 25 UTC
 To be continued to next sessions ……
(Tool Theory and Interpretation)

asp-16/04/2011 1 - 26 UTC