PgDip/MSc Energy Programme / Subsurface Pressure Gradients

Pressure Gradients and Fluid Contacts

Fluid Saturations
The saturations of the various fluids (oil, gas and water) present in the
reservoir pore space are expressed as the fraction (or percentage) of the
pore volume occupied by the fluid concerned.

Water saturation, Sw = water volume / pore volume

Oil saturation, So = oil volume / pore volume

Gas saturation, Sg = gas volume / pore volume

Clearly, Sw + So + Sg = 1

Two principal laboratory methods are available for determining fluid

saturations in core samples. These are:

a) the retort method, in which the rock sample is heated to a high

temperature (around 550°C) in a retort; this vaporises the water
and oil present, expelling them almost completely from the sample,
after which they are condensed, collected and measured.

b) The extraction method, in which a solvent is used to extract the

water and oil from the sample for measurement.

In both cases, the porosity of the sample must also be determined to

evaluate the saturations.

Reservoir Pressures
The total pressure at any depth is that required to support the weight of
rock and fluids lying above the level concerned – this is called the
overburden pressure.

In equilibrium conditions, the overburden pressure is balanced by two

counteracting pressures; these are:

1) the fluid pressure (or pore pressure or reservoir pressure) – i.e. the
pressure in the fluid (oil, gas or water) occupying the pores in the
formation;

2) the grain pressure or matrix pressure – i.e. the pressure acting

between grains of rock in contact.

The overburden pressure = fluid pressure + grain pressure

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As hydrocarbons are produced from the reservoir, the fluid pressure will
fall, in general. Since the overburden pressure at a given level remains
practically constant, the grain pressure will increase, leading to
compaction of the reservoir and a reduction in the pore volume.

The overburden pressure increases approximately linearly with depth

below the surface – at a rate of typically around 1 psi/ft. The fluid
pressure at a given level in the reservoir is in many cases roughly
equivalent to that in a column of water extending from that level up to
surface. For pure water, this would correspond to a pressure gradient of
0.434 psi/ft; however, in most cases the water will be saline, and the
salinity may vary with depth – pressure gradients of 0.45 psi/ft are
typical.

In such a case, therefore, the fluid pressure (psi gauge) in the reservoir
will be equal to 0.45 x depth below surface (ft). This is termed a normally-
pressured reservoir. Reservoirs in which the fluid pressure is markedly
greater or less than the value given by this relation are called over-
pressured or under-pressured respectively. In a particular field it is
frequently found that while wells of shallow and medium depth are
normally-pressured, deeper wells are over-pressured.

Typical pressure gradients for oil and gas zones of reservoirs are:

Oil 0.35 psi/ft

Gas 0.08 psi/ft

It is important to obtain accurate data on the pressure distribution in a

new oil reservoir, since this will help to locate the gas-oil contract (GOC)
and oil-water contact (OWC), as shown in Fig. 1. This information is
needed to estimate the oil in place.

Depth
Gas Zone
GOC
Oil Zone
OWC

Free Water

Pressure

Fig. 1 Pressure distribution in an oil reservoir

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As a reservoir is produced, it is often found that there is a roughly

exponential relation between the reservoir pressure (i.e. the fluid pressure
measured at a selected datum level) and the cumulative oil production
from the reservoir (Fig. 2).

Log (Reservoir
Pressure)

Cumulative Oil
Production

Fig. 2 Reservoir pressure versus oil production

Reservoir Temperature
Before drilling, the reservoir temperature can be estimated from the value
of the geothermal temperature gradient, gT:-

t = ts + gTh

where t = reservoir temperature at depth h below surface

ts = surface temperature

h is usually given in hundreds of feet.

Maps of gT values are available for different geographical area. These
maps usually assume a mean value of ts – e.g. for the South Central USA,
ts is taken as 74ºF, and in a typical case gT might be 1.6 deg F/100ft.
Then at a depth of 10,000 ft;

10000
t = 74 + 1.6
100

= 234ºF

After a well has been completed, temperature surveys will be carried out
using temperature recording gauges, and permanent downhole
temperature gauges may be installed. Reservoir temperatures normally
remain constant throughout the production history of the reservoir, hence

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most reservoir processes can be considered isothermal. Exceptions arise

in cases where steam injection or in-situ combustion is used to stimulate
production in heavy oil reservoirs.

Water Distribution in Reservoirs

Water present in the reservoir is classified as either:
1) connate (or interstitial) water;
2) free water.

It appears that in most cases the reservoir rock was originally saturated
with water. Subsequently, hydrocarbons formed in sediments lying
beneath the source rock and migrated upwards, displacing some of the
water from the reservoir rock and accumulating there, since the
impermeable cap-rock prevented further upward movement.

However, displacement of the water is never complete – some water

remains in the oil and gas zones of the reservoir, in the smaller pores and
as a thin film on the surface of the grains (assuming that the rock is
water-wet, as is normally the case). This water is described as connate or
interstitial water. The connate water saturation, Swc, is the water
saturation existing in the oil and gas zones of the reservoir at discovery.
Usually (but not invariably) this saturation is so low that the water has
zero effective permeability, and therefore will not be produced with the
oil. In this case, the connate water saturation will be identical with the
irreducible water saturation, Swi.

Free water is that water lying below the oil zone in the region where water
completely fills the pores and no hydrocarbons are present.

Water saturation typically varies with depth in the reservoir as shown in

Fig. 3.

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Gas Cap
Depth
GOC

Oil
Transition Zone

OWC

0 Swc 100
Sw (%)
Free Water
Fig. 3 Variation of water saturation with depth

The value of the connate water saturation is strongly influenced by the

depositional environment – i.e. the conditions in which the formation was
laid down. In poorly-sorted clastics, for example, many fine particles are
packed between the larger grains, the porosity is often low and the
connate water saturation will be high – up to 30% or more. In well-sorted
clastics, however, the individual grains are mainly of comparable sizes,
and the connate water saturation may be quite low – down to 5% in some
examples. As a rough guide, therefore, connate water saturations are
generally high in low porosity sands, and low in high porosity sands.

An indication of the position of the gas-oil contact (GOC) and the water-oil
contact (OWC) may be obtained from plots of pressure versus depth.
Data from logging, core analysis, and sidewall fluid sampling (when
available) should also be used in determining the position of these
contacts.

Definitions of the contacts vary. Some engineers take the OWC as the
uppermost level at which 100% water saturation exists (as shown in Fig.
3). Others take the OWC as the uppermost level at which 100% water is
produced from the formation – this will be above the OWC corresponding
to the previous definition, since 100% water will be produced up to a level
at which the value of Sw will be (100 – Sor)% where Sor is the residual oil

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saturation (%). (Oil is present in the pores at this level, but is immobile
and will not be produced with the water).

The transition zone shown in Fig. 3 is that part of the oil zone in which the
water saturation Sw decreases from 100% to its minimum value of Swc,
the connate water saturation. The thickness of this zone may be a few
feet in high permeability reservoirs, but may be up to several hundred
feet in reservoirs with low permeabilities and heavy crudes.

A transition zone will also be present at the bottom of the gas zone as the
GOC is approached. In this transition zone the oil saturation increases
from 0% at the top to (100 – Swc)% at the bottom, as shown in Fig. 4. In
most oil reservoirs with gas caps, there will be a large difference in
density between the gas and the oil, and as a result the height of this
transition zone will be quite small.

Sw

Depth
Gas
So
Cap

GOC

Oil
Zone
0 Swc (100 – Swc) 100
Sw, So (%)

Fig. 4 Transition Zone at the Gas-Oil Contact

Accurate location of the gas-oil and oil-water contacts is obviously

important in estimating the quantities of hydrocarbons in place in the
reservoir.

The free water level (FWL) in a reservoir is defined as the level at which
the pressure in the oil phase is equal to the pressure in the water phase,
and may be thought of as the level at which the OWC would stand in a
pore of such large diameter that capillary effects would be negligible. In a
water-wet formation, the OWC will always be some height above the FWL

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as a result of the capillary action in the pores. This height will depend on
the properties of the oil and the rock. For a given oil, in general, this
height will be greater for a formation with small pores and smaller for a
formation with large pores.

Consider the case of a reservoir with four different sands all in contact
with a common aquifer. The FWL will then be the same for all four sands.
In general the sands will have differing porosity characteristics and as a
result the OWCs will be different for each sand, as shown in Fig. 5:-

WELL TRAJECTORY
SAND 1
SAND 2
SAND 3
OWC
SAND 4

OWC
OWC
OWC

FWL

Fig. 5 Well intersecting two oil-water contacts

As a result of the different OWC heights in the sands, a well drilled with
the trajectory shown in Fig. 5 will intersect two oil-water contacts, and in
some cases wells may show more than two contacts.

References
1) L P Dake, Fundamentals of Reservoir Engineering (Elsevier,
Amsterdam, 1978)

2) F Jahn, M Cook & M Graham, Hydrocarbon Exploration and

Production(Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1998)

WEM
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