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Reservoir Geology
A petroleum reservoir is a subsurface formation containing gas, oil, and
water in varying proportions. These fluids are contained in the pore spaces of
rock formations, among the grains of sandstones or in cavities of carbonates.
The pore spaces are interconnected so the fluids can move through the
reservoir.
These porous formations have to be sealed in such a way so that the only
method of escape for the fluids is through the wellbore.
Theoretically, any rock may act as a reservoir for oil and gas. In practice, the
sandstones and carbonates contain the major reserves, although fields do
occur in shales and diverse igneous and metamorphic rocks. For a rock to act
as a reservoir it must possess two essential properties: it must have pores to
contain the oil or gas, and there must be good permeability. Remember that
porous rock is not necessary permeable. To be permeable, rock must have
pores that interconnect, allowing fluids to flow from one pore to another.
Physical Characteristics of a Reservoir
Physical characteristics of a reservoir include:
1. type of reservoir (sandstone or carbonate)
2. depth
3. area and thickness
4. porosity
5. permeability and,
6. capillary pressure

1.Type of Reservoir

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Most Common Types of Reservoir Rocks

1. Sandstone 60%
2. Carbonates 39%
These lithologies host almost all of the worlds oil reserves.

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2.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
3.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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4.Porosity
Pore spaces, or voids, within a rock are generally filled with connate water, but
contain oil or gas within a reservoir. Porosity is either expressed as the void ratio,
which is the ratio of voids to solid rock, or, more frequently, as a percentage:

Porosity ( ) =

volume of voids
100
total volume of rock

Porous sandstone

Porosity is conventionally given the symbol for phi (). Pores are of three types;
catenary, cul-de-sac, and closed.

Catenary pores are those that have open links to other pores. Cul-de-sac, or dead
end, pores have only one passage connecting with another pore. Closed pores have
no openings to other pores.
Catenary and cul-de-sac pores constitute effective porosity, in that hydrocarbons
can emerge from them. In catenary pores hydrocarbons can be flushed out by a
natural or artificial water drive. Cul-de-sac pores are unaffected by flushing, but
may yield some oil or gas by expansion as reservoir pressure drops. Closed pores
are unable to yield hydrocarbons, such as hydrocarbon having invaded an open
pore that closed by compaction or cementation. The ratio of total to effective
porosity is extremely important, being directly related to the permeability of a rock.
Primary Porosity
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Primary porosity may be divided into two types: interparticle and intraparticle.
Interparticle porosity is initially present in all sediments. They are often quickly lost
in clays and carbonate sands due to the effects of compaction and cementation.
Much of the porosity found in sandstone reservoirs is preserved primary
interparticle porosity. Intraparticle pores are generally found within the skeletal
grains of carbonate sands and are often cul-de-sac pores.

Secondary Porosity
Secondary pores are often caused by solution. Many minerals may be leached out of
a rock, but carbonate solution is the most significant. Thus solution-induced porosity
is more common in carbonate reservoirs than in sandstone reservoirs. Vugs are a
type of secondary porosity where the pores cross cut grains, matrix, and cement.
Vugs tend to be larger than most other types of pores. With increasing size vuggy
porosity changes into cavernous porosity. Cavernous pores are those large enough
to cause the drill string to drop by half a meter. Examples of cavernous porosity are
known from the Arab D Jurassic limestone of the Abqaiq field of Saudi Arabia and
from the Fusselman limestone of the Dollarhide field of Texas, both having
cavernous pores up to 5m high.
Fracture Porosity
Fracture porosity is extremely important not just because it increases the storage
capacity of a reservoir but because of the degree to which it may enhance
permeability. A few microfractures can increase permeability by many orders of
magnitude. Fractures are rare in unconsolidated, loosely cemented sediments,
which respond to stress by plastic flow. They may occur in any brittle rock, not only
sandstones and limestones but also shales and igneous and metamorphic rocks.
The two basic types of fractures include natural tectonically related fractures and
hydraulically induced fractures. Hydraulic fracturing is a method of stimulating
production by inducing fractures and fissures in the formation by injecting fluids into
the reservoir rock at pressures which exceed the strength of the rock. Hydraulic
fracturing can tremendously increase the effective porosity and permeability of a
formation

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Maximum Porosity vs. Realistic Porosity Porosity can approach, in very well
sorted uncompacted sand, a theoretical maximum of 47.6%. In sandstone, this
value is typically much lower due to cementation and compaction. In a carbonate, it
is possible to greatly exceed the theoretical maximum porosity. This may be
achieved if the carbonate is highly fractured along with vuggy porosity.
Controls on Porosity
In sandstone, porosity is largely controlled by sorting. Sorting is a process by
which the agents of transportation, especially running water, naturally separate
sedimentary particles that have some particular characteristic (such as size, shape
or specific gravity) from associated but dissimilar particles. Other important
controlling factors include grain packing, compaction, and cementation.

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Packing strongly affects the bulk density of the rocks as well as their porosity and
permeability. The effects of packing on porosity can be illustrated by considering the
change in porosity that takes place when even-size spheres are rearranged from
open packing (cubic packing) to tightest or closed packing (rhombohedral packing).
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Cubic packing can yield a porosity of 47.6%. Rhombohedral packing yields

approximately 26.0%.

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5.Permeability
An essential requirement for a reservoir rock is permeability. Permeability is
ability of fluids to pass through a porous material. The unit of permeability is
Darcy, but because most reservoirs have permeabilities of less than one Darcy,
millidarcy (md) is used. Average permeabilities in reservoirs are commonly in
range of 5 to 500 md. Permeability is generally referred to by the letter K.

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Absolute permeability: ability to flow or transmit fluids through a rock, conducted

when a single fluid, or phase, is present in the rock.
Effective permeability: The ability to preferentially flow or transmit a particular
fluid when other immiscible fluids are present in the reservoir. If a single fluid is
present in a rock, its relative permeability is 1.0
Relative permeability: is the ratio of effective permeability of a particular fluid at
a particular saturation to absolute permeability of that fluid at total saturation.
Examples of variations in permeability and porosity
Some fine-grained sandstone can have large amounts of interconnected porosity;
however, the individual pores may be quite small. As a result, the pore throats
connecting individual pores may be quite restricted and tortuous; therefore, the
permeabilities of such fine-grained formations may be quite low.
Shales and clays which contain very fine-grained particles often exhibit very
high porosities. However, because the pores and pore throats within these
formations are so small, most shales and clays exhibit virtually no permeability.
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Some limestones may contain very little porosity, or isolated vuggy porosity that is
not interconnected. These types of formations will exhibit very little permeability.
However, if the formation is naturally fractured (or even hydraulically fractured),
permeability will be higher because the isolated pores are interconnected by the
fractures.
NOTE:
POROSITY IS NOT DEPENDENT ON GRAIN SIZE
PERMEABILITY IS DEPENDENT ON GRAIN SIZE

6.Capillary Pressure
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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Migration
Migration is the process of the oil and gas moving away from the source rock. This is
a slow process. Migration is caused by burial, compaction, and increase in volume
and separation of the source rock constituents.
There are three types of migration:
Primary migration: is the process of movement from source rock. As sediments
build up to greater thickness in sedimentary basins, fluids are squeezed out by the
weight of the overlying sediments. Fluids tend to move toward the lowest potential
energy. Initially this is upwards, but as compaction progresses; there is lateral as
well as vertical movement. Finally the mechanism that oil migrates is uncertain.
Secondary migration: is movement to or within the reservoir entrapment. Once
the water, oil and gas migrate into the trap, it separates according to density. Gas
being the lightest, goes to the top of the trap to form the free gas cap. Oil goes to
the middle and water that is always present, on the bottom.
Tertiary migration: movement from one reservoir to another (e. g. through faults).

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Fluid Distribution within a Reservoir

Petroleum reservoirs generally contain a combination of three fluids:
1). Natural Gas
2). Oil
3). Water
As hydrocarbons and water accumulate in a reservoir, vertical separation occurs as
a result of the difference in the specific gravity of the various fluids. Typically, the
lighter fluids, like gas, rise to the top of the reservoir. Below the lighter fluids is a
gas to oil transition zone. This transition zone is a relatively thin zone above the oil
accumulation.
The oil accumulation may be of primary importance because it contains crude oil
and possibly saturated gas. Below the oil accumulation in most reservoirs is an oilwater transition zone of varying thickness, which is partly filled with water and oil.
Finally, beneath the oil-water transition zone is that part of the formation completely
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saturated with water. It is important to note that all reservoirs may not contain
natural gas, oil, and water. Some formations may only contain water. However, any
formation that contains hydrocarbons will also contain some amount of water.

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