PETE 494

Fundamental Concepts

POROSITY
The porosity of a rock is a measure of the storage capacity (pore volume)
that is capable of holding fluids. Quantitatively, the porosity is the ratio of
the pore volume to the total volume (bulk volume).

Absolute porosity
The absolute porosity is defined as the ratio of the total pore space in the rock
to that of the bulk volume.
Effective porosity
The effective porosity is the percentage of interconnected pore space with respect
to the bulk volume

Example
A clean and dry core sample weighing 425 g was 100% saturated with a
1.07 specific gravity (g) brine. The new weight is 453 g. The core sample
is 12 cm long and 4 cm in diameter. Calculate the porosity of the rock
sample.
4 2
= (
) 12 = 150.83
2
453 425
() =
= 26.23
1.07

26.2
=
=
= 0.173
150.8

POROSITY

POROSITY

FLUID SATURATION

The porosity of a reservoir rock is important because it is a measure of the

ability of that rocks to store fluids (oil, gas, and water)
Saturation is defined as that fraction, or percent, of the pore volume occupied
by a particular fluid (oil, gas, or water).

or

FLUID SATURATION

Connate water is the water trapped in porous spaces of the sediments during
their deposition and lithification, long before the oil migrated in to the reservoir
rock.
A nearly constant irreducible connate water (Swc) exists above the transition
zone. The magnitude depends on the pore size and texture. High connate
water saturation are indicative of small pore sizes

APPLICATION

simplest methods of calculating reservoir oil content is called the volumetric

method.
(1 )
= 7758

Bo: oil formation volume factor, is in reservoir barrel per stock tank barrel
(bbl/STB)
Example: calculate the initial oil-in-place of an oil reservoir if A=1600 acres,
h=32 ft, f=22%, Swi=20%, and Boi=1.23 bbl/STB

PERMEABILITY
Permeability is a property of the porous medium that measures the
ability of the formation to conduct fluids
Darcy developed a fluid flow equation that has since become one of
the standard mathematical tools of the petroleum engineer

or

Absolute Permeability: if the rock if 100% saturated with a single fluid

such as oil, gas, or water.
Effective Permeability: in presence of more than one fluid, permeability
is called the effective permeability (ko, kg, or kw)
Relative Permeability: the ratio of effective permeability of any phase to
the absolute permeability of the rock (krg=kg/k).

Porosity-Permeability Relationships

One of the most fundamental and popular correlations expressing

permeability as a function of porosity.
Considering a porous rock sample of cross-section area, A, and length, L,
as being made up of a number, n, of straight capillary tubes in a parallel.
If the capillary tubes are all of the same radius r(cm) and length L (cm),
the flow rate q (cm3/s) through this bundle of tubes.

Darcys law as can also approximate the flow of fluids through these n
capillaries:

Combining above two equations, we have

Porosity can be estimated as:
Relationship between permeability and porosity:
Example: A core sample from uniform sandstone formation has a
permeability of 480 mD and a porosity of 0.17, estimate the average pore
throat radius of the core.

The derivation so far is based on the assumption that the porous rock can be
repented by a bundle of straight capillary tubes. However, the average path
length that a fluid particle must travel is actually greater than the length L of
the core sample.
The departure of a porous medium from being made up a bundle of straight
capillary tubes can be measured by the tortuosity coefficient, t

A more popular form of the Kozeny equation is

dp is grain diameter

Rs: The solution (or dissolved) gas oil ratio, which is the number of
standard cubic feet of gas which will dissolve in one stock tank barrel of oil
when both are taken down to the reservoir at the prevailing reservoir
pressure and temperature (units: scf. gas/stb oil).
The produced gas-oil ratio (GOR) at any particular time is the ratio of
the standard cubic feet of total gas being produced at any time to the
stock-tank barrels of oil being produced at that same instant.
The cumulative gas-oil ratio, Rp is defined as:

or

Bubble Point