Introduction

Porosity
Permeability
Saturation
Wettability
Surface and Interfacial tension
Capillary pressure
Rock Compressibility

Reservoir rock properties

 Oil created by the source rock won’t be useful unless it
winds up being stored in an easily accessible container, a
rock that has room to “suck it up”
A reservoir rock is a place that oil migrates to and is held
underground.
Reservoir rocks are dominantly sedimentary (sandstones,
carbonates); however, highly fractured igneous and
metamorphic rocks have been known to produce
hydrocarbons, but on a much smaller scale.

Reservoir rock properties

Reservoir rock properties
A good reservoir rock must have porosity Another characteristics of reservoir
in which petroleum can exist. rock is that it must be permeable.

Other properties include:

Fluid Saturation, Saturation, Wettability, Surface and Interfacial tension, Capillary pressure
Rock Compressibility, Overburden pressure etc.

Reservoir rock properties

Reservoir rock properties
Even though a reservoir rock looks solid to the naked
eye, a microscopic examination reveals the existence
of tiny openings in the rock, called pores. These spaces
or voids are the one in which reservoir fluids are present.

Porosity(φ) : Porosity is the capability of a rock to hold

fluids in pore. It is the ratio of the pore volume in a rock
to the bulk volume of that rock. Expressed in per cent.

Mathematical form is:

φ = Vp/Vb
Reservoir rock properties
Porosity is a measure of the void space in
rock, hence, measures how much HC in rock
Porosity φ = V p/Vb = (Vb-Vm)/Vb; V b = Vp + Vm
◦ theoretically, φ varies from 0% - 47.6%
◦ In practice, φ varies between 3% and 37%

Porosity is a function of particle size distribution:

Rock matrix
◦ Framework materials (sandstone) – high φ
Water
◦ Interstitial materials (shaly-sand) – low φ
Oil and/or gas

Reservoir rock properties

Porosity can be classified into;

1. Original porosity
2. Induced porosity
Original porosity (primary) is formed during the deposition
of rock materials, e.g. porosity between granular in sandstone,
porosity among crystal and oolitic in limestone
Induced porosity (secondary) is developed by some geological
process on the deposited rock material.
E.g; Fractures, or vugs cavity usual occur in limestone
(chemical reaction b/w CaCO 3 and MgCl2)

Reservoir rock properties

 Sand grain

Cement
material

Effective / connected
porosity (25%)

Ineffective
Porosity (5%)

Total Porosity (30%)

Reservoir rock properties

PRIMARY
• Particle sphericity and angularity
• Packing
• Sorting (variable grain sizes)
SECONDARY (DIAGENETIC)
• Cementing materials
• Overburden stress (compaction)
• Vugs, dissolution, and fractures

Reservoir rock properties

 Spherical size variation
influences type & volume
of solid porosity

Porosity Porosity
36% 20%
cubic packing of Rhombohedral
spheres resulting packing of
in a least-compact spheres resulting
arrangement with in a most- Effect of cement material
a porosity of compact
47.64% arrangement with
a porosity of 26%

Reservoir rock properties

Reservoir rock properties
Permeability is a property of the porous medium that
measures the ability of the formation to transmit fluids. It’s
the a measure of the ease with which the rock will permit
the passage of fluids.

Unlike porosity, permeability cannot be defined apart from

fluid flow. For a rock to be Permeable, it must contain
inter-connected pores

Reservoir permeability is usually quoted in millidarcies,

(md).

Reservoir rock properties

Absolute permeability - the permeability of a porous
medium with only one fluid present (single-phase flow).

When two or more fluids are present permeability of the

rock to a flowing fluid is called effective permeability
(ko, kg, kw).

Relative permeability is the ratio of absolute and effective

permeabilities kro=ko/k, krg=kg/k, krw=kw/k.

Reservoir rock properties

Darcy’s law helps us to measure the degree of permeability.
dp
Q =− KA
dL
Darcy’s “K” was determined to be a combination of
◦ k, permeability of the sand pack (porous medium,
e.g. reservoir rock)
◦ K is a constant of proportionality
◦ , viscosity of the liquid
◦ dp, Pressure gradient

K = k
K constant may be written as; μ
Reservoir rock properties
 The unit of permeability in the empirical equation is the Darcy
and the dimension is (L2). It is usually too large to be convenient
in hydrocarbon reservoirs. The millidarcy (10 -3 Darcy) is
therefore used.

Generally the permeability is termed as :

Poor if; k<1,
Fair if; 1<k<10,
Moderate if; 10<k<50,
Good if; 50<k<250,
Very good if; k>250.

Reservoir rock properties

 Permeability is a very important rock property because it controls the
directional movement and flowrate of the reservoir fluid in the
formation.

The factors affecting the magnitude of Permeability are:

Shape and size of grain sizes,

cementation
overburden pressure
fracturing and Dissolution

Reservoir rock properties

Saturation is defined as that fraction, or percent, of the pore volume
occupied by a particular fluid (oil, gas, or water). This property is
expressed mathematically by the following relationship:

Applying the above mathematical concept of saturation to each reservoir

fluid gives

Reservoir rock properties

Where
So = Oil saturation
Sg = Gas saturation
Sw = Water saturation
The saturation of each individual phase range from 0-100%.

By definition, the sum of saturation is 100% therefore,

Sg+So+Sw=1.0

Reservoir rock properties

The major saturation types of interest in a Reservoir
are;
Critical Oil saturation, Soc
Movable oil saturation, Som
Residual Oil Saturation, Sor
Connate water Saturation, Swc

Reservoir rock properties

This is the tendency of a fluid to spread on or adhere to a solid
surface in the presence of other immiscible fluid. The angles made
by the fluid with the surface with which it is in contact is known as
the “contact angle”.

Depending on the type of fluid in contact with a solid surface, a

reservoir could be; water-wet or oil-wet. Because of the attractive
force, the wetting phase tends to occupy the smaller pores of the
rock and the nonwetting phase occupies the more channels.

Reservoir rock properties

Knowledge of the wettability of reservoir rocks is essential
in determining the appropriate drive mechanism for a
particular reservoir. It is an important control on the
amount of recovery.
Hydrocarbon wet system retard hydrocarbon mobility while
water wet systems promotes hydrocarbon mobility.

Reservoir rock properties

Petroleum reservoirs commonly have 2 – 3 fluids (multiphase
systems)

It is necessary to consider the effect of the forces at the

interface when two immiscible fluids are in contact.
When these two fluids are liquid and gas, the term surface
tension is used to describe the forces acting at the interface.
When the interface is between two liquids, the acting forces are
called interfacial tension.

When 2 or more fluids are present, there are at least 3 sets of

forces acting on the fluids and affecting HC recovery

Reservoir rock properties

Immiscible fluids: when you bring them into contact they do not mix
Two fluids are separated by an interface
The molecules are attracted more to their own kind

Rock

water
Oil

Reservoir rock properties

When two immiscible fluids are in contact, a discontinuity in
pressure exits between the two fluids, which depends upon
the curvature of the interface separating the fluids. We call
this pressure difference the capillary pressure, Pc.

Similarly, it can be defined as the pressure differential

between two immiscible fluid phases occupying the same
pores caused by interfacial tension between the two phases
that must be overcome to initiate flow.

Reservoir rock properties

Reservoir rocks are subjected to the internal stress exerted by fluids
contained in the pores, and to external stress which is in part exerted
by the overlying rocks.

The weight of the overburden simply applies a compressive force to

the reservoir rock. Compressibility typically decreases with increasing
porosity and effective overburden pressure.

Porosity is a function of compaction. It is generally reduced by

increase in compaction. Compaction is a function of depth of burial.

Reservoir rock properties

 Rock compressibility is the fractional change in Volume per unit change in
pressure
Expressed as
1 v
cp =
V p P
Three types of compressibility
Rock- matrix (grain) compressibility, C s
Rock-bulk compressibility, Cb
Pore-volume compressibility, Cp

Formation Compressibility is important to Reservoir engineers. It plays a role

in depletion of fluid from pore spaces, internal rock stress changes which
results in change in Vp, Vm, Vb

Reservoir rock properties

Knowledge of reservoir rock properties is very essential to
evaluating Reservoir Performance and understanding reservoir
behavior.
The aforementioned rock properties are essential for reservoir
engineering calculations as they directly affect both the
quantity and the distribution of hydrocarbons and, when
combined with fluid properties, control the flow of the existing
phases (i.e., gas, oil and water) within the reservoir.

Reservoir rock properties

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