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Lecture 2

Learning Outcomes:

How Oil matures in the source rock

How Oil migrates to the reservoir rock

What are the sedimentary rocks and important rock properties

What are the different types of Petroleum Traps

Cooking of Oil

When source rock is buried with accumulating sediments and a certain temperature is reached, the
organic materials in the source rock form solid kerogen. With more burial and heating above 70C,
the kerogen starts to cook. This causes the solid kerogen to turn into liquid hydrocarbons and
natural gas that migrate, causing it to become oil and gas reservoir.

As oil starts to cook, it expands in volume. Kerogen is solid but oil is liquid. This expansion creates
micro fractures in the clay formation along which oil escapes.

Hence after maturation, oil expands hydrostatically and escape through micro fissures to
adjacent porous and permeable rock.

Oil can migrate until it hits a impermeable rock layer. The porous media now contains the oil
along with other native fluids (mostly water or brine). This porous media is the reservoir and
the impermeable layer on top of it is the seal.

Migration of oil within the reservoir rock is called secondary migration. The oil being light
replaces water and moves higher due to buoyancy until it hits a TRAP. A trap is a geometric
configuration involving the reservoir and the seal that confines the movement of oil. Oil
water and gas are immiscible and hence they eventually end up stratified in the trap

Migration of oil within the reservoir rock is called secondary migration. The oil being light
replaces water and moves higher due to buoyancy until it hits a TRAP. A trap is a geometric
configuration involving the reservoir and the seal that confines the movement of oil. Oil
water and gas are immiscible and hence they eventually end up stratified in the trap

Sedimentary rock properties


A. Well sorted sand
B. Fracture in granites
C. Caverns in limestone

Lithification
A process where Loose sediments are converted to sedimentary rocks. It has 2 processes:

i) Compaction mechanical pressure expels water out of the sediment


a. Mud (~20% water) forms Clay (~10% water), which then forms Shale (~5%
water).
b. Sandstones compact less than shale as the grains are mostly Quartz.
c. In Limestones, porosity decreases with burial depth.

ii) Cementation
a. The grains are bound together by the rock by a material called cement which
are chemical deposits by percolating groundwater

Porosity of rocks are dependent on the pressure of the overburden rocks. Porosity reduces
with depth for the same type of sediment. The composition of the sediments play an
important role in determining how porosity shall change with depth.

Porosity Changes

2 forces act in the underground:


1. Lithostatic pressure- the stress exerted on a body of rock by overburden and
surrounding rocks.
2. Hydrostatic/Pore Pressure- exerted by the fluids in the pore of the rock.

During compaction there are two negating forces that increase. One is the litho-stratigraphic
pressure that comes from top from the overburden rocks. The other is exerted radially out
from the pores in the sediment which contains the fluid (hydrostatic pressure). The balance
between this two pressure is important because if hydrostatic pressure exceeds litho-
stratigraphic pressure then the rock shall fracture.

If drilling shifts the balance in favor of hydrostatic pressure then it shall result in gushers and
blowouts.
How do we know whether oil has matured and migrated from a source rock?

Porosity & Permeability

Porosity = is a measure of the volume of voids in a rock as a fraction of the bulk volume. It
is presented as a fraction (01), or as a percentage between 0100%.

Permeability = measure of the ease at which fluid can flow through a rock. Connected pores
aid permeability

Different sedimentary rocks have different porosity & permeability. These properties define
the potential of a rock to be a good source, reservoir or seal.

Porosity is important form formations to contain fluid oil, gas, water


Permeability is critical for the fluid to flow in the formation

Source rocks are porous but not permeable


Reservoir rocks are both porous and permeable

Measuring Porosity
It is defined by the ratio: (phi) = VV/VT
where VV is the volume of void-space (such as fluids) and VT is the total or
bulk volume of material, including the solid and void components.
Ranges between 0 to 1
Measuring Methods
1. Core Analysis
2. Bulk-Volume Measurements
3. Grain-Volume Measurements
4. Pore-Volume Measurement
5. Fluid-Summation Method

Most methods try to saturate the pores with a fluid of known density and measure the weight of
the same after extracting it.

Measuring Permeability

Permeability is part of the proportionality constant in Darcy's law which relates discharge
(flow rate) and fluid physical properties (e.g. viscosity), to a pressure gradient applied to the
porous media:

Permeability is a measure of the ease of flow of a fluid in a medium. It depends on many


factors primary of which is interconnectivity of pores. Other factors depend on the viscosity
of the fluid and its wettability. Complexities increase when we have more than one type of
fluids in the medium. Permeability is measured by Darcys equation and the permeability of
oil reservoirs are in milli darcies
This is a chart that describes different sedimentary rocks and their permeability. Oil reservoir
rock ideally fall between 100 to 10000 milli darcies

Porosity and permeability vary with grain size of the sediments

Wettability
Wettability is an important property that governs fluid movement in a reservoir rock. In this
picture you see that the grains are water coated whereas the oil is free and mobile. This is
because the grains are not wetted by oil. Such reservoirs are good producers of oil.
Wettability refers to the interaction between fluid and solid phases. In a reservoir
rock the liquid phase can be water or oil or gas, and the solid phase is the rock mineral
assemblage.
Wettability is defined by the contact angle of the fluid with the solid phase.

Higher the angle of contact more is the wettability

A rock formation can be of 3 types


Water-wet
Mixed wet
Oil-wet

Relative Permeability
Relative permeability is a concept used to convey the reduction in flow capability due
to the presence of multiple mobile fluids.
It is dependent on
pore geometry,
wettability,
fluid distribution, and
fluid saturation history

As reservoirs mostly have oil plus water. With time the ratio of water and oil produced
changes. In a water wet rock the well will initially produce more oil and little or no water
but at certain point as the proportion of oil to water in the reservoir change it shall start
producing water and less oil. When this point is reached we start thinking of methods to
enhance oil production.
Irreducible: It is the percentage of effective porosity occupied by wetting phase fluid. In a
water wet system, irreducible water is that proportion which cannot be driven out, no matter
how high the pressure. In oil wet systems it is possible to have irreducible oil.

Residual: the percentage of non-wetting phase (usually oil or gas) left in the ground after
removal of that phase by production or natural geological processes.

Recovery efficiency (RE): = 1 - Residual. Both recovery efficiency and residual percentage
may be changed by increasing Pressure, water flooding.

When two phases of liquid are present then we define the following terms. Irreducible is
defined for the wetting phase fluid that cannot be driven out of the pores under any
circumstances. Residual is the percentage of non-wetting phase that cannot be pumped out.
In a water-wet system the recovery efficiency is defined as 1-residual.
Primary migration: From relatively impermeable source rock to Permeable carrier rocks
Most source rocks are oil-wet, most reservoir rocks are water-wet. Primary
migration occurs through micro-fractures that open and close as extreme pressures
are created by the generation of oil and gas from maturating kerogen + water from
the dehydration reactions of clays in the source rocks.
Secondary migration: From with a permeable carrier reservoir rocks to a Trap.
Re-migration: If a trap is breached, further migration may occur to the next trap.

In any trap the general configuration of gas oil and water is as shown above.

Traps consist of
RESERVOIR: A rock with enough porosity to store economic quantities of
petroleum and enough permeability for production: e.g. sandstone and lime-
stones
SEAL: A relatively impermeable rock which disallows or retards the escape
of petroleum moving up through rocks eg. shales, limestone, salt.
CLOSURE: Some sort of 3-dimensional closure to stop the petroleum
migrating away e.g. anticlines/faults/salt domes
Traps can be :

Structural
Stratigraphic

Structural traps are formed after layers of sedimentary rocks are deformed by regional
stress resulting from crustal motions. The stress bends the layers into folds ( a set of
anticlines and synclines) or faults or failure planes along which one side moves up or down
again the other leading to discontinuities in the layer of reservoir
Stratigraphic traps on the other hand do not involve deformation. It results from the natural
process of sedimentation and weathering process. Examples are pinch-outs, unconformities
and buried reefs
Sedimentary rocks are classified by the source of their sediments:
Clastic rock formed from fragments broken off from parent rock, by
weathering in situ or erosion by water, ice or wind, followed by transportation
of sediments to the place of deposition; eg sandstone and shale.
Biogenic activity: broken shells, corals e.g. bioclastic limestone
Chemical precipitation (eg Calcite = CaCO3 = carbonate = limestone,
evaporation of salty water NaCl = rock salt)
The sediments are then compacted and cemented and converted to rock by the process
of Lithification (lithos Greek = rock).
Sandstone, Shale and Limestones are sedimentary rocks

Sandstone is composed of sand-size mineral or rock grains


Size of sand is between 2 mm to .25 mm
Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar grains because these are the
most common minerals in the Earth's granitic crust.
High porosity sandstones make good reservoirs.

Sandstone Shale Limestone

sand-size mineral or rock very fine-grained composed largely of the mineral


grains sedimentary rock calcite (calcium carbonate
composed of clay CaCO3).
Size of sand is between 2 Size of clay is < 2 Carbonate sources are from shells
mm to .25 mm microns of living organisms and bones

Most are composed of quartz Clay minerals result either chemically deposited or
and/or feldspar grains from weathered composed of shell fragments.
because these are the most feldspar and are
common minerals in the deposited as mud.
Earth's granitic crust
High porosity sandstones Low permeability Reefs carbonates form good
make good reservoirs. Shale with high reservoir rocks and seals
organic content form
good source rocks
Salts
Salts are better seals.
They are deposited in ephemeral lakes or where seawater has evaporated.
Gypsum & Halite are common salt deposits

Seal
Seal = the fundamental part of the trap which prevents the petroleum from migrating
onward through the rock.
Seals prevent further migration of petroleum because of the size of pores exert
capillary forces that balance the buoyant force
Two types of seal:
Membrane seal
Hydraulic seal

Membrane Seal will leak whenever the pressure differential across the seal exceeds
the threshold displacement pressure, allowing fluids to migrate through the pore
spaces in the seal. It will leak just enough to bring the pressure differential below that
of the displacement pressure and will reseal. Pore size, that influences capillary
pressure is the key for Membrane seals

Hydraulic Seal occurs in rocks that have a significantly higher displacement pressure
such that the pressure required for tension fracturing is actually lower than the
pressure required for fluid displacement. The rock will fracture when the pore
pressure is greater than both its minimum stress and its tensile strength then reseal
when the pressure reduces and the fractures close. Ductility is the main property for
Hydraulic seals.

Structural traps

Domes and Basins


Domes form structural traps

Basins cannot trap petroleum

Summary
Expulsion of oil from source rock is called primary migration
Secondary migration is upward movement of oil in a porous and permeable rock
Oil accumulates at a trap which has a reservoir rock, seal rock and a closure
Porosity and permeability are important rock properties which are related to grainsize
and sorting.
Porosity decreases with compaction
Seal can be membrane seal or a hydraulic seal
Faults can seal or leak
Structural traps: folds, faults, salt domes
Lecture 3

Faults
- A fault is a planar rock fracture which shows evidence of relative movement.
-A fault line is where the fault is exposed on the surface

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