Sulaimani Polytechnic University

Reservoir Rock Properties

Introduction to
Reservoir properties
Lecturer: Aram Rafiq Mohammed
E-Mail: aram.rafiq@spu.edu.krd
aram.rafiq@yahoo.com
Year: 2020 – 2021 1
 Course Syllabus
• Introduction to reservoir rock properties.
• Basic concepts and definitions.
• Porosity.
• Permeability.
• Permeability + Wettability.
• Capillary pressure.
• Capillary pressure.
• Relative permeability.
• Relative permeability + Compressibility of reservoir rock.
• Compressibility of reservoir rock.
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 Lecture – 1
Introduction to reservoir rock properties
• What is a Petroleum Reservoir
• Physical Characteristics of a Reservoir
• General Requirements of a Reservoir
• Reservoir Heterogeneity and Anisotropy
• Reservoir Compartmentalization
• Reservoir Modeling

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 What is a Petroleum Reservoir

A reservoir is a subsurface volume of porous and permeable rock that has both
storage capacity and the ability to allow fluids to flow through it.

Hydrocarbons migrate upward through porous and permeable rock formations

until they either reach the surface as seepage or become trapped below the
surface by a non-permeable cap rock which allows them to accumulate in place in
the reservoir.

Porosity and permeability are influenced by the depositional pore geometries of

the reservoir sediments and the post-depositional diagenetic changes that take
place.

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 Two major Groups of Reservoir Rocks:
1. Sandstone Reservoirs are generally created by the accumulation of large
amounts of clastic sediments which is characteristic of depositional environments
such as river channels, deltas, beaches, lakes and submarine fans.

Sandstone reservoirs have a depositional porosity and permeability controlled by

grain size, sorting, and packing of the sediments.

Diagenetic changes may include precipitation of clay minerals in the pore space,
occlusion of pores by mineral cements, or even creation of additional pores by
dissolution of some sediment.

Sandstone reservoirs are generally 25 meters thick, are lenticular and linear
spatially, and less than 250 km2 in area.
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 Two major Groups of Reservoir Rocks:
2. Carbonate Reservoirs are created in marine sedimentary environments with
little or no clastic material input. Porosity types of carbonate reservoirs include:
vuggy (pores larger than grains), intergranular (between grains), intragranular or
cellular (within grains), and chalky.
Diagenetic changes such as dolomitization, fracturing, dissolution, and rarely
recrystallization are extremely important because they have the ability to create
very effective secondary porosity. Cementation, another type of diagenesis,
generally reduces porosity and permeability. Many carbonate reservoirs will not
yield their oil and gas at all unless they are artificially fractured.
It is important to note that carbonate reservoirs produce almost twice the amount
of hydrocarbons than sandstone reservoirs. The dominant fluids in hydrocarbon
regions are hydrocarbon gas, hydrocarbon liquids, and salt water. Since
hydrocarbons are the less dense of these fluids, they will tend to migrate upward,
displacing the heavier salt water down elevation.
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 Combination drive mechanism
Operative when both free gas above the oil zone and water below are
present.

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 Physical Characteristics of a Reservoir
Physical characteristics of a reservoir include original deposition and subsequent
changes : depth, area, thickness, porosity, permeability, and capillary pressure.
1) Depth
The physical characteristics of a reservoir are greatly affected by the depth at
which they occur.
Shallow reservoir created by the folding of relatively thick, moderately
compacted reservoir rock with accumulation under an anticline or some trap. The
hydrocarbons would generally be better separated as a result of lower internal
reservoir pressures, less gas in solution and oil of increased viscosity, resulting
from lower temperatures.
Deep reservoir typically created by severe faulting. The hydrocarbons would be
less separated with more gas in solution and oil of reduced viscosity because of
higher temperatures. There is often a reduction in porosity and permeability due
to increased compaction.
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 Physical Characteristics of a Reservoir
2) Area and Thickness
The total area of a reservoir and its thickness are of considerable importance in
determining if a reservoir is a commercial one or not. The greater the area and
thickness of the reservoir, the greater the potential for large accumulations of oil
and gas. However, there are reservoirs that produce substantial amounts of
hydrocarbons that are not of considerable size.

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 Physical Characteristics of a Reservoir
3) Porosity
Porosity is the ratio of void space in a rock to the total volume of rock, and reflects
the fluid storage capacity of the reservoir.

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 Physical Characteristics of a Reservoir
4) Permeability
Estimating permeability can aid in determining how much hydrocarbons can be
produced from a reservoir.

Permeability is a measure of the ease with which a formation permits a fluid to

flow through it. To be permeable, a formation must have interconnected porosity
(intergranular or intercrystalline porosity, interconnected vugs, or fractures).

To determine the permeability of a formation, several factors must be known: the

size and shape of the formation, its fluid properties, the pressure exerted on the
fluids, and the amount of fluid flow. The more pressure exerted on a fluid, the
higher the flow rate. The more viscous the fluid, the more difficult it is to push
through the rock.
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 Physical Characteristics of a Reservoir
5) Capillary Pressure
Capillary Pressure is the pressure difference across the interface between two
immiscible fluids arising from the capillary forces.

Reservoir rocks are composed of varying sizes of grains, pores, and capillaries
(channels between grains which connect pores together, sometimes called pore
throats). As the size of the pores and channels decrease, the surface tension of
fluids in the rock increases. When there are several fluids in the rock, each fluid
has a different surface tension and adhesion that causes a pressure variation
between those fluids. This pressure is called capillary pressure and is often
sufficient to prevent the flow of one fluid in the presence of another.

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 General Requirements of a Reservoir
In order to have a hydrocarbon producing reservoir, the following conditions must
exist:

1. There must be a body of rock having sufficient porosity (φ) to contain the
reservoir fluids and permeability (k) to permit their movement.

2. The rocks must contain hydrocarbons in commercial quantities.

3. There must be some natural driving force within the reservoir, usually gas or
water, to allow the fluids to move to the surface.

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 Reservoir Pressure
The fluids in the pores of the reservoir rock are under a certain degree of
pressure, generally called “reservoir pressure” or “formation pressure”.

A normal reservoir pressure at the oil-water contact approximates very closely the
hydrostatic pressure of a column of saltwater at that depth.

The hydrostatic pressure gradient varies somewhat, depending upon the amount
of dissolved salts in the formation water. The “normal”, fully marine water, has
about 55,000 ppm of dissolved salts, and a pressure gradient of approximately
0.446 psi/ft. Reservoirs can contain fluids under pressures as high as 1.00 psi/ft.

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 Reservoir Fluids
Petroleum reservoirs usually contain three main fluids; crude oil, natural gas and
water, with minor constituents being acid gases (carbon dioxide and hydrogen
sulfide) and hydrocarbon solids (bitumen, asphalt, etc.). These components will
vary considerably in combination and proportion within each reservoir. In
addition, each component's presence, quality, phase and quantity will vary from
reservoir to reservoir.

The hydrocarbons found in subsurface formations are made up of five important

elements (Table 1) and can be found in different states (Table 2 ). Oil can be heavy
and viscous (low API gravity), it can contain no dissolved gas or condensate, or it
can contain large amount of dissolved gas. In most reservoirs, the most common
fluid will be water, generally the connate, saline water.

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Reservoir Fluids

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 Reservoir Heterogeneity and Anisotropy
This is a CT Scan density image of an aeolian sandstone. It measure a few cm
across and about 20 cm in height. The darker layers are more porous (~20%),
while the brighter streaks are tighter (~5%). These differences are due to initial
sorting, differential packing and cementation.
Lateral and vertical changes in rock properties are called heterogeneities. The
resulting difference in physical properties in different directions is referred to as
anisotropy.

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 Reservoir Compartmentalization

is the segregation of a petroleum accumulation into a number of individual

fluid/pressure compartments – occurs when flow is prevented across ‘sealed’
boundaries in the reservoir. A reservoir is said to be compartmentalized if the
reservoir fluids cannot flow freely from one part of the reservoir to another over
production time-scales (typically years to tens of years).

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 Reservoir Modeling
Is characterizing the reservoir aspects to serve the development of the oil field
(geology, engineering and production aspects).

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