PET 305

Fundamentals of Petroleum Operations

Reservoir Rock Property
Permeability & Compressibility

Fall 2017
 Reservoir Rocks
To be hydrocarbon reservoir, the geological formation mush
have two essential characteristics:
Capacity for storage void spaces within the rock
Capability to transfer the (HC) fluids transmissibility for the
continuity of void spaces
Reservoir rock should be porous and permeable

Reservoir bulk volume,

Reservoir pore volume,
Reservoir hydrocarbon (pore) volume,

Flow in the reservoir and Produced to the surface

 Permeability
Unlike porosity (a static property), permeability is a dynamic
property and characterizes the fluid flow in the porous medium
Absolute permeability or simply permeability
Relative permeability
Permeability is a property of the porous medium and is a measure
of the capacity of medium to transmit fluids
Permeability, k,
Unit: Darcy (D), milliDarcy (mD), microDarcy (D), nanoDarcy (nD)
 Core / Coring

What information the core can provide??

Permeability Measurement:
Darcys Law
Permeability - Measurement
Darcy Equation Linear, Steady-State Incompressibe Flow
 Definition of Darcy as a Unit of
Permeability

One Darcy means: If a 1 atmosphere of pressure drop is required

to flow a liquid of 1 cp viscosity through a porous medium of 1cm
length and 1cm2 cross- sectional area at a rate of 1cm3 per
second, then the medium has a permeability of 1 Darcy
Note that 1 Darcy (= 1000 md) is very high and rare value in
reservoirs
Permeability Field Unit
Permeability Field Unit
 Reservoir Permeability
Permeability (md) Classification
<0.1 Very Tight
0.1-1 Tight or Poor
1-10 Fair
10-50 Moderate
50-250 Good
>250 Very Good

1 Darcy = 1000 md
 Permeability

Ability of a formation to flow fluid, k.

A measure of the rate of flow of fluid through a porous medium.
Generally expressed in millidarcys, md.
For producing formations, 1000md is high, 0.1md is low (even lower
to D or nd for Tight Gas or Unconventional Resources)
The lower limit of permeability for production is highly variable
Technology improvement
Permeability varies as a function of
grain packing
the volume of pore fill solids
grain sorting (range of grain sizes)
Dimension Analysis of Permeability

Given the above equation and the bellow definition. Can you show by
calculation that

1 Darcy = 9.869 x = 1.062 x

Permeability has dimensions of area (2 ). Why and
physical meaning?

Note that: 1 cp = 0.001 pa.s

Incompressible Liquid and Ideal Gas
Flow
Darcys Law / Equation
Darcys Law - Linear
 Remarks
Grain size has a predominant effect on
permeability
More frictional forces are encountered while
passing the same fluid through a fine granular
pack than through a coarse granular pack with
equal porosity
Permeability linear flow
Permeability linear flow
 Averaged Permeability
Parallel Flow

= for i layers

Using
=
= and

=

Gives

= (Thickness averaged)

Area-Averaged?
 Averaged Permeability
Series Flow

= for i layers

Using
= +1
= 1
=

=

Gives

= (Harmonic Average Permeability)
/
 Permeability: Radial Flow
dL replaced by dr for radial system

Integrate between the wellbore and the

external boundary

Obtain:

Express in terms of Oil Field Units

 Averaged Permeability
for Radial Flow System
Can you derive the average permeability of
these systems for
Parallel system
Series system
Average Permeability - Linear
Average Permeability - Radial
 Geometric Average Permeability
Probability approach for a heterogeneous
reservoir
=permeability of core sample i
= thickness of core sample i
n = total number of core samples
 Permeability Measurement
Using Liquid

Plot Flowrate (Q) vs. Pressure difference (p)

 Permeability Measurement
Using Gas
Boyles Law:
Apply to average gas rate & averaged pressure

Darcy Equation:
Absolute permeability using gas:
 Porosity & Permeability
No direct or fixed relationship between the porosity and
permeability
Porosity is the requirement to the permeability permeability is a
result of continuity of pore space
Limiting (end-point) cases:
K zero when porosity is zero
K infinite when porosity becomes 100%
Typically, the higher (effective) porosity, the greater chance of
higher permeability
Porosity & Permeability
 Directional Permeability
Horizontal permeability ( or ) vs vertical
permeability ( ) why these are important?
Effect of Overburden Pressure on
Permeability
 Remarks: Permeability
Absolute permeability, : laboratory derived from
core space is 100% saturated with the same fluid.
Absolute permeability will NOT change with varying
fluids (assume pore space configuration remains
unchanged)
Effective permeability, : permeability of a flowing
phase which does not saturate 100% of the rock. The
effective permeability is always less than the absolute
permeability of a rock
Relative permeability, : a dimensionless term which
is the ratio of effective permeability (to a fluid) to the
absolute permeability of the same rock
= / or =
 Rock Compressibility
Reservoir rock compressibility isothermal
1
=

c = isothermal compressibility
v = volume
p = pressure
The change in volume that a substance undergoes during a change of pressure at
isothermal condition
When the internal fluid pressure within the pore space of a rock is reduced
The bulk volume of the rock decreases
The volume of solid rock material (e.g., sand grain) increases
Factors to be considered:
Overburden weight of rocks
Depth
Pore pressure
Pressure gradient
Pressure depletion
 Rock Compressibility - Types
Rock-matrix (grain) compressibility

Rock bulk compressibility

 Rock Compressibility - Types
Pore compressibility
 Formation Compressibility
Formation compressibility

For sandstone (empirical):

For limestone (empirical):

Typical value for the formation compressibility: 3 x 10-6

to 25 x 10-6 psi-1
Rock Compressibility
 Rock Compressibility - Subsidence
Subsidence due to oil & gas production
High rock compressibility formation
Subsidence Ekofisk (North Sea)
Chalk (limestone) Formation (high )
Abnormal & Subnormal Reservoir Pressure
Reservoir Compressibility
PET305: Fundamentals of Petroleum
Operations