BASIC PETROLEUM PHYSICS

All of my 50+ year career has been involved with the science of Petrophysics, literally the physics
of rocks, in some way or another. Petrophysics is a branch of Geoscience and intimately linked to
geology, geophysics, and petroleum / mining engineering. There is no degree granted in pure
petrophysics, so people in this field are often graduates of a closely related specialty and are self-
taught from there.

Petrophysics is mainly used in petroleum exploitation, but also in defining mining and ground
water resources.

To understand petrophysics, you need to understand rocks and the fluids they contain, how the
earth's surface and subsurface change shape, and how pressure, temperature, and chemical
reactions change rocks and fluids over eons of time. That's a tall order.

Rocks are formed in several ways, but usually end up as

moderately flat layers, at least initially (mountain building comes
later). As successive layers are laid on top of each other, the Earth
builds a sequence of rocks with varying physical properties.
Some layers will have open spaces, called pores or porosity, that
contain fluids (water, oil, or gas). A rock on Earth with porosity
cannot be "empty" -- they must contain something, even if it is
only air.

<== Microphotograph of a rock -- black colour is the porosity

where
oil, gas, and water can be held inside the rock

Think of a porous rock as similar to a huge sponge full of holes that can soak up fluids. Although
we often talk about "oil pools", these are not tanks of oil underground -- they are porous rocks.
The porosity, or quantity of open space relative to the total rock volume, can range from near zero
to as much as 40%. Obviously, higher values of this physical property of a rock are good news.

Some rocks have very little porosity and do not hold much
in the way of fluids. These are often called "tight" rocks.
Both tight and porous rocks can contain animal and plant
residue that are ultimately transformed into hydrocarbons
such as coal, oil, or natural gas that we can extract and use
to power vehicles and heat our homes. As the plant and
animal residues mature into oil or gas, they may migrate
through porosity or natural fractures in the rock until
trapped by a non-porous rock structure. Sometimes a rock
only sources itself or an adjacent porous rock, so little
migration occurs.

An anticline, the simplest form of petroleum trap ==>

Rocks that are capable of holding hydrocarbons in

economic quantities are called reservoir rocks. Rocks in
which the plant and animal residue has not been fully
converted to useful hydrocarbons are called source rocks.
Some rocks are both source and reservoir: others are barren
of hydrocarbons, and some others may act as the trapping
mechanism that keeps hydrocarbons from migrating to the surface and escaping.

A trap is what keeps oil and gas in the rocks until we drill wells to extract the hydrocarbons. Coal,
being a solid, doesn't need a trap to be kept in place.
 Reservoirs that contain oil or gas also contain water. The quantity
of water relative to the porosity is called the water saturation. In
the illustrations, the brown colour is solid rock grains and the
space around the grains is the porosity. The black colour is the
hydrocarbon and the white is the water, which forms a thin film
coating the surfaces of each rock grain. This is a water-wet reservoir (left). In
an oil-wet reservoir, the black and white colours are reversed (right).

Finding and evaluating the economics of such reservoirs is the job of teams of geoscientists and
engineers in petroleum and mining companies. A petrophysicist, or someone playing this role,
will be part of that team.

Once a useful accumulation has been found, drilling, completion, and production engineers take
over to put wells on stream. Oil production may initially flow to surface due to the pressure in the
reservoir. Some oil pools do not have enough pressure to do this and need to be pumped.
Depending on the reservoir drive mechanism, some wells that start flowing will later need to be
pumped. Water may be produced with the oil. It is separated and disposed of by re-injection into a
nearby unproductive reservoir layer. You can't just dump the water in the nearest swamp.

Aquifer Drive -- Before ... and After some production Gas Cap Drive Gas
Expansion Drive

An aquifer drive mechanism usually maintains the reservoir pressure for some time but may drop
off gradually. Recovery factors vary from 30 to 80% of the oil in place. The oil water contact rises
as production depletes the oil. A gas cap drive pushes oil out as the gas expands. Recovery factor
is similar to aquifer drive. There may or may not be some aquifer support. the gas oil contact
drops as the oil is depleted. Gas expansion reservoirs do not have aquifer or gas cap support.
Gas dissolved in the oil expels oil into the well bore because the pressure at the well bore is
below the reservoir pressure. Recovery factor is awful - usually less than 10%, but this can be
improved to maybe 20% by injecting water nearby to increase or maintain the reservoir pressure.
Water floods, carbon dioxide injection, and re-injection of produced gas or water can be used in
nearly any reservoir to improve recovery efficiency.

Gas wells do not need pumps, but if they also produce water, a special process called artificial lift
is used to get the water out. That water is also disposed of legally.

The economics of a reservoir varies with improving technology.

Bypassed reservoirs, discovered and ignored years ago, are now
economic due to technical improvements in drilling practices and
reservoir stimulation techniques. Horizontal wells and deep water
drilling are now common. The use of heat or steam to assist production
of heavy oil or bitumen, and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing to stimulate production in tighter
reservoirs are relatively new techniques and relatively economic today. Obviously the specific
price of oil or gas after delivery to the customer plays an important role in how much effort can be
expended to recover oil and gas from underground.

There is controversy, of course, about new technology. Just as the Luddites resisted the weaving
machines in the early 1800's, modern Luddites insist that the old ways of oil and gas extraction
are best, while at the same time complaining loudly about the price of gasoline at the pumps or
the cost of electricity for their air conditioners. You can't have low-cost and low-tech at the same
time.

Green alternatives are 50 to 100 years away. Every green technology needs oil to make the
required plastics and fuel the manufacturing and delivery systems. The electricity grid is far too
fragile to fuel extensive use of electric vehicles anywhere, let alone everywhere. And where would
all that electricity come from (coal?). Clean coal is more oxymoronic than military intelligence. So
if you and the other 7 Billion people on this planet want to live a comfortable life, get used to oil
and its risks. Staying in bed is risky too -- more people die in bed than anywhere else.

For the record, I've been off the grid with wind or solar since 1984. But I live in the middle of
nowhere so the esthetics don't bother the neighbours. What have you done to green-up this
world?

BASIC PETROPHYSICS
"Last week, I couldn't spell Petrophysicist. Now I are one." That
describes me in 1962 as I moved from Montreal to Red Deer,
Alberta to run well logs for a company called Schlumberger. The
word petrophysics had been coined 20 years earlier by a
geologist named Gus Archie and it wasn't used much back in
the day. Lately it has attained a certain cachet, denoting a
professional level career path.

What is a "well log" you ask. It is a record of measurements of

physical properties of rocks taken in a well bore, usually drilled
for oil or gas, but possibly for ground water or minerals. Think
of a ship's log. The first record of such a log dates back to 1846
when Lord Kelvin measured temperature versus depth in water
wells in England, from which he deduced that the Earth was
7000 years old. The fact that he was wrong is not important. Log
analysis is an imperfect science.

Illustration of a wireline logging job: logging truck with

computer cabin, cable and winch (right), cable strung from
winch into drilling rig derrick and lowered into bore hole, with
logging tool at the end of the cable. Logs are recording while
pulling the tool up the hole. Logs can also be run with special
tools located at the bottom of the drilling string, or conventional
tools can be conveyed on coiled tubing or drill pipe ==>

The first logs for oil field investigation were run by the
Schlumberger brothers, Marcel and Conrad, in 1928 in
Pechebron, France. Soon, the service migrated to North and
South America, Russia, and other locations in Asia. At that time,
the only measurement that could be made was of the electrical
resistivity of the rocks. High resistivity meant porous rock with
oil or gas, or porous rock with fresh water, or tight rock with
very low porosity. Low resistivity meant porous rock with salty water or shale. Take your pick.
Local knowledge helped.

One virtue of the well log was that the top and bottom of each rock layer could be defined quite
accurately. When the log and depths were compared to the rock sample chips created by the
drilling process, a reasonable geological interpretation might be possible, but was far from
infallible.

By 1932, the spontaneous potential (SP) measurement was added. The analysis rules expanded:
low SP meant shale, or tight rock, or fresh water. High values meant salt water with or without oil
or gas in a porous rock. The resistivity could then be used to decide on water versus
hydrocarbons. Perfect. Except there were lots of shades of grey and the SP was not always
capable of defining anything.

Logs from 1932 in Oil City-Titusville area, Pennsylvania, the location of Edwin Drake's "First Oil
Well" (in the USA - 6 other countries had oil wells predating this one). His well was only 69 feet
deep, so it penetrated just to the top of these logs, which found deeper and more prolific
reservoirs. Each pair of curves represents the measured data versus depth for one well. The SP is
the left hand curve of each pair; deflections to the left (shaded) show porous rock. The resistivity
is the curve on the right of each pair. Deflections to the right (shaded) show high resistivity, and
when combined with a good SP deflection, indicate oil zones. Some good quality rocks in this
example do not have high resistivity and are most likely water bearing.

The gamma ray log appeared in 1936. The rules were easy: low value equaled porous reservoir or
tight rocks. High values were shale. It said nothing about fluid content.

By 1942, Gus Archie had defined a couple of quantitative methods that turned analysis into a
mathematical game, instead of just some simple rules of thumb. His major work established a
relationship between resistivity, water saturation, and porosity. If we knew porosity from rock
samples measured in the lab, and a few other parameters, we could calculate water saturation
from the resistivity log values. This was really new news..

He even attempted to calculate porosity from the resistivity log. This worked in high quality (high
porosity) reservoirs but had problems in low quality rocks or heavy oil.

Just after 1945, a method that

investigated the response of
rocks to neutron bombardment
became available. The neutron
log was the first porosity
indicating well log. High values
meant low porosity or high
porosity with gas. Low values
meant high porosity with oil or
water, or shale. Add the gamma
ray log, SP, and resistivity and
again the world was perfect,
except for all those shades of
grey. Calibrating the response
to porosity depended on a lot of
well bore environmental
parameters (hole size, mud
weight, temperature) so it was
not terribly accurate.

It wasn't until 1958 that the

measurement of the velocity (or
travel time) of sound through
rocks in a well bore was
achieved. It turned out that the
travel time was a linear function
of porosity and a few other
factors.

<== This is an example of a

modern sonic log with gamma
ray and caliper curves (far left),
shear and compressional sonic
travel time curves (middle) and
sonic waveform image log
(right). Depths are shown in the
narrow track next to the gamma ray curve.

Shortly after 1960, another porosity indicating log appeared that measured the apparent density of
the rocks. Porosity was a linear function of density -- higher density meant lower porosity.

Both sonic travel time and density as measured by these logs could be transformed into
moderately accurate porosity values, using the gamma ray to discount shale, and the resistivity to
distinguish between salty water and oil. Fresh water was still a problem and gas zones could only
be located if a neutron log was also run.

This was the state of petrophysics when I entered the scene in 1962. The rules were obvious, the
math was easy. And running the logging tools into the well bore meant lots of travel. I loved the
job. There were no computers on every desk, calculators were bigger and heavier than
typewriters, so the quantitative work was done with penciland paper or sliderule. Anybody know
what I sliderule is?

Later, with sidetracks into seismic

data processing, reservoir
engineering, project management,
and seismic data center
management, I finally noticed that
petrophysics was the underlying
foundation of much of geology,
geophysics, and reservoir
engineering.

That realization led me to my

consulting and teaching career. I
got to see a lot of world, wrote a
dozen or more software packages,
analyzed the log data from
thousands of wells, and saw a lot
more of the world,

This may be the only editorial

cartoon ever published in a
newspaper (Calgary Herald, circa
1974 - 75) concerning petrophysical
analysis.That`s me peering down a
borehole on Melville Island NWT,
estimating the gas reserves to be
"four trillion cubic feet". The final
value was closer to 17 trillion. I was
the log analyst and logging
supervisor on about 140 wells in the Canadian Arctic across a 10 year period. We didn`t use our
eyeballs to look into the wellbores directly, of course; we used well logs and calcualtions based
on those measurements
to do what our eyes could not. ==>

Mainframe computers and dumb terminals were really unfriendly environments. It was apparent
that some portable form of computer was needed to do the math and make pretty images of our
results to show to management and team members. Five years before the IBM-PC, the HP9825
calculator became a computer and LOG/MATE, "The Friendly Log Analysis System", was born
(1976). Today, far more sophisticated and powrerful systems are commont, but LOG/MATE was
the first.
Adverisemenys for my two major forays into the software business: LOG/MATE 1976 (left),
META/LOG (1986)

We now call the business "Integrated Petrophysics" because we use much more than log data to
get our answers. Lab data from core analysis, such as porosity, permeability and grain density,
are critical input parameters used to calibrate our work. More exotic lab measurements have
become more common as we move into unconventional reservoir types like shale gas and tight oil
prospects.

TYPES and USES OF WELL LOG and LABORATORY DATA

The table below might not mean too much to someone who is not in the oil and gas business, but
it will give everyone an idea of the scope of work, wealth of data types, and the multiplicity of uses
that petrophysical data can be applied to.

DATA USES - General Outline DATA TYPES General Outline

Petrophysical Analysis Seismic
Geophysical Applications Magnetics
Geological Applications Gravity
Drilling Applications Radiometrics
Engineering Applications Air / Satellite Images
Completion Applications Well History
Production Applications Tops, Tests, Cores, Perfs, Logs, Status
Logs - Many Variations
DATA USES - Petrophysical Analysis Cores - Many Types of Analyses
Shale Content Data Gathering Considerations
Porosity Data Digitizing
Lithology Project Planning
Water Saturation Quality Control
Movable Hydrocarbon
Irreducible Water Saturation DATA TYPES - ENGINEERING
 Water Cut / Relative Permeability
Permeability / Productivity
Fracture Intensity / Orientation
Fluid Contacts - Original and Dated
Productive Intervals
Swept Zones
Pore Volume / Hydrocarbon Pore Volume
Flow Capacity
"Net Pay"
Where Are The Reserves?
How Much Does This Well Contribute?
DATA USES - Geophysical Applications
Velocity and Density
Seismic Modelling •
Synthetic Seismograms
Editing Logs for Seismic
Bad Hole Condition
Invasion
Missing Log Data
Modeling Hypothetical Rock Sequences
Modeling Hypothetical Fluid Content
Vertical Seismic Profiles
Seismic While Drilling
Calibrating Seismic Inversion
Calibrating Seismic Attributes
Amplitude versus Offset Models
Is the Seismic Interpretation Realistic?
DATA USES - Geological Applications
Reservoir Description
Structure and Stratigraphy
Dip and Direction
Sedimentary Models
Sequence Stratigraphy
Bedding Type / Orientation
Mineralogy
Depositional Environment
Tectonic Structures
Sedimentary Structures
Multi-well Analysis
Cross Sections / Fence Diagrams
3-D Visualization
Correlation and Mapping
Geostatistics
Conventional
Fractal
What Are the Geologic Risks?
DATA USES - Drilling Applications
Designing Vertical Wells
Fluid Properties
Pressure Transient
Wellhead / Bottomhole Pressures
Production History
Injection History
Completion Diagram
Facilities In Place / Needed
Economics / Costs / Prices
DATA TYPES While Drilling
Sample Descriptions
Drilling Records
Mud Logs
Core Descriptions
Measurements While Drilling
Logging While Drilling
Seismic While Drilling
DATA TYPES After Drilling
Conventional Open Hole Logs
Image Logs
Thin Bed Tools and Processing
Petrophysical Analysis Results
Geological Correlations / Maps
Seismic Analysis / VSP
Test Results
Core Analysis Results
DATA TYPES - Open Hole Logs
Resistivity and Resistivity Imaging
Acoustic and Full Wave Acoustic
Natural and Spectral Gamma Ray
Formation Density and Litho Density
Neutron Porosity
Dipmeter and Deviation Surveys
Formation Imager and Televiewer
Electromagnetic
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Induced Gamma Ray Spectroscopy
Pulsed Neutron and Activation
Pressure Profiles / Sample Taker
Sidewall Cores
DATA TYPES After Completion
Cased Hole Logging
Reservoir Description Logs
Production Logs
Casing / Cement Evaluation Logs
Bottom Hole Pressure Survey
Well Test Results
Initial Production / AOF / IPR
DATA TYPES Special Cases
Horizontal / Deviated Wells
 Designing Deviated Wells Logging Through Drill Pipe
Designing Horizontal Wells Coiled Tubing Logging
Drilling Prognosis
Overpressure DATA TYPES Core Data
Stress Regimes / Fractures Conventional Core Analysis
Borehole Stability Permeability, Porosity, Saturation
Bit Selection Grain Density Lithology Description
Cost Estimates Special Core Analysis
Electrical Properties
Where Are The Drilling Risks? Capillary Pressure
Relative Permeability
DATA USES - Engineering Applications Thin Section Petrography
Calculating Reserves Scanning Electron Micrographs
Calculating Productivity X-Ray Diffraction
Calculating Cash Flow Infra-red Mineralogy
Reservoir Simulation / Modeling Core Imaging
History Matching White Light
Production Prediction Ultra Violet Light
Production Optimization X-Ray
Economic Analysis CT Scans

Is The Well/Pool/Project Any Good? DATA TYPES Fluid Properties

Density, Viscosity
DATA USES - Completion Applications Water Resistivity, Chemical Analysis
Perforating Interval Oil / Gas Analyses
Stress Regime / Orientation
Hydraulic Fracture Design DATA TYPES Pressure Transient
Acidizing / Other Treatments Pressure versus Time
Sand Control Buildup or Drawdown
Maximize Productivity Horner / Ramey Plots
Are There More Targets? PBU Modeling / Curve Fitting
Static Wellhead Pressure
Is production maximized? Static Bottom Hole Pressure

DATA USES - Production Applications DATA TYPES Production Data

Through Casing Reservoir Description Oil / Gas / Water Rates
Fluid Identification Changes With Time
Cement Evaluation Completion History
Casing Inspection Well / Pool / Reservoir Summaries
Flow and Production Analysis Deliverability Analysis Results
Gas Leak Detection

How Do We Repair The Well?

BASIC VISUAL LOG ANALYSIS

I have been teaching the practical application of petrophysics fsince 1967. The seminars always
start with "What is a log?" and "What do we do with them?". The first question was answered in
the previous section. Here, I'll try to provide an answer to the second, just as it s done in the
seminar. We use the rules as developed over the last 80 years and apply them to the individual log
curves as we see them on paper or on a computer screen.
The step by step procedure using Crain's Rules will reduce the complexcity considerably and give
you a straight forward path toward your goal. The illustration below is to give you a few of the
basic rules in one single illustration. Further on there is a more detailed coverage of the Rules.

Lets start with just 3 curves - the

gamma ray (GR), resistivity, and a
porosity indicating log (a sonic in
this example). The GR is at the far
left and the sonic is the left edge
of the red shading. The resistivity
and sonic have been overlaid to
make it easier to see the shape of
the two curves relative to each
other.

Basic Rule "A": When GR (or SP)

deflect to the left the zone is
clean and might be a reservoir
quality rock. When GR deflects to
the right, the zone is usually
shale (not a reservoir quality
rock). There are exceptions to
this rule, of course.

Basic Rule "B": Porosity logs are

scaled to show higher porosity to
the left and lower porosity to the
right. Clean and porous is good,
so compare the GR to the
porosity log and mark
clean+porous zones.

Basic Rule "C": Resistivity logs

are scaled to show higher
resistivity toward the right.
Higher resistivities mean hydrocarbons or low porosity. Low resistivity means shale or water
zones. So clean+porous+high resistivity are good. There are exceptions to this rule too.

The exceptions are what makes the job interesting. There are low resistivity pay zones,
radioactive (high GR) pay zones, gas shales, oil shales, coal bed methane, and low porosity zones
that produce for years. Some of these are shown in the illustration. See if you can figure out the
logic behind each of the interpretations shown here before you move on to the more formal rules.

The more detailed Crain's Rules are described here with reference to the logs shown below.

Crain’s Rule “Minus 1”: Identify log curves available, and determine their scales.
 The left half of this image shows a resistivity log with spontaneous potential (SP) in Track 1 and
shallow, medium, and deep resistivity (RESS, RESM, RESD) on a logarithmic track to the right of
the depth track. The right half of the image shows a density neutron log with gamma ray (GR) and
caliper (CAL) in Track 1. Photo electric effect (PE) is in Track 2 with neutron porosity (PHIN) and
density porosity (PHID) spread across
Tracks 2 and 3.

Crain’s Rule #0: Gamma ray or SP deflections to the left indicate cleaner sands, deflections
to the right are shaly. "Shay Sands" fall in between these two extremes. Draw clean and shale
lines, then interpolate linearly between clean and shale lines to visually estimate Shale Volume
(Vsh).
 To find clean zones versus shale zones, examine the spontaneous potential (SP) response,
gamma ray (GR) response, and density neutron separation. Low values of GR, highly negative
values of SP, or density neutron curves falling close to each other usually indicate low shale
volume. High GR values, no SP deflection, or large separation on density neutron curves normally
indicate high shale volume.

Very shaly beds are not “Zones of Interest”. Everything else, including shaly sands (Vsh < 0.50)
and even obvious water zones, are interesting. Although a zone may be water bearing, it is still a
useful source of log analysis information, and is still a zone of interest at this stage.

Crain’s Rule #1: The average of density and neutron porosity in a clean zone (regardless of
mineralogy) is a good first estimate for Effective Porosity (PHIe).
Crain’s Rule #2: The density porosity in a shaly sand is a good first estimate for Effective
Porosity (PHIe), provided logs are on "Sandstone Units" scale.
 For zones of interest, draw bed boundaries (horizontal lines). Then review the porosity logs:
sonic, density, and neutron. All porosity logs deflect to the left for increased porosity. If density
neutron data is available, estimate porosity in clean sands by averaging the two log values. In
shaly sands, read the density porosity.
IMPORTANT: This is just an estimate and not a final answer -- computer programs will do the
work more accurately, especia;;y pn shaly sands. accurately.

Scale the sonic log based on the assumed matrix lithology. Mark coal and salt beds, which appear
to have very high porosity -- they don't; it is just an artifact of the log scale combined with their
unique petrophysical properties. Identify zones which show high medium, low, or no porosity.
Low porosity, high shale content, coal, and salt beds are no longer “interesting” as conventional
reservoirs.
Crain’s Rule #3: Tracking of porosity with resistivity on an overlay usually indicates water or
shale.
OR
Low resistivity with moderate to high porosity usually indicates water or shale.

Crain’s Rule #4: Crossover of porosity on a resistivity--porosity overlay usually indicates

hydrocarbons.
OR
High resistivity with moderate to high porosity usually indicates hydrocarbons.
 Raw logs showing resistivity--porosity overlay. Red shading indicates possible hydrocarbon
zones. The density or density porosity (solid red curve) is placed on top of the deep resistivity
curve (dashed red curve). Line up the two curves so that they lie on top of each other in obvious
water zones. If there are no obvious water zones, line them up in the shale zones. If the porosity
curve falls to the LEFT of the resistivity curve, as in Layers A and B, hydrocarbons are probably
present.

To find hydrocarbon indications and obvious water zones, compare deep resistivity to porosity,
by mentally or physically overlaying the density porosity on top of the resistivity log. High
porosity (deflections on the density log to the left) and high resistivity (deflections to the right)
usually indicate oil or gas, or fresh water. See red shaded area on resistivity track on the log
above.

Layer A above is a shaly sand and has medium porosity. Layers B and C are clean sands and
have high porosity. All other layers are shale with no useful porosity.

The average of density and neutron porosity in Layers B is 24 %; Layer C is 19%. This is close to
the final answer because there is not much shale in these zones. The average in Layer A is 16 % -
much higher than the truth due to the influence of the shale in the shaly sand. The density
porosity is about 11%, pretty close to the core data. Therefore all our analysis must make use of
shale correction methods. Crain's Rule #1 handles visual analysis of clean sands (up to about
25% shale) and Crain's Rule #2 handles shaly sands.

Low resistivity and high porosity usually means water, as in Layer C. Known DST, production, or
mud log indications of oil or gas are helpful indicators.

Layer B and Layer A show crossover when the porosity is traced on the resistivity log, so these
zones remain interesting. In fresher water formations, it is often difficult or impossible to spot
hydrocarbons visually. If it was easy, log analysts would be out of work!

Crossover on the density neutron log sometimes means gas (not seen on the above example).
Watch for rough hole problems, sandstone recorded on a limestone scale, or limestone recorded
on a dolomite scale, which can also show crossover – not caused by gas.

Water zones with high porosity and low resistivity are called “obvious water zones”. Fresh water
may look like hydrocarbons, particularly in shallow zones. The lack of SP development will often
help distinguish fresh water zones. Low porosity water zones may not be obvious.

Crain’s Rule #5: Approximate Water Saturation (SWa) in an obvious hydrocarbon zone is
estimated from: SWa = Constant / PHIe / (1 - Vsh)

where Constant is in the range from 0.0100 to 0.1200.

Use 0.0400 as a first try in sands, 0.0600 to 0.0800 in shaly sands, and 0.0250 in intercrystalline
carbonates.

In computer programs, water saturation is usually calculated from the Archie equation or a shale
corrected version of it. This is not easy to do with mental arithmetic. An easier estimate of water
saturation Crain's Rule # 5: In obvious hydrocarbon zones use a method attributed to Buckles,
SWa = Constant /PHIe. In obvious water zones, SWa = 1.00. If it is not obvious, get professional
advice.
 Here is the computer
output from the data in
the logs used in the
visual analysis shown
above. ==>

This depth plot is

typical of a straight
forward petrophysical
analysis. Some raw
data curves are
presented because
most people find them
helpful in correlating
the zones of interest.
From left to right are
gamma ray (GR),
spontaneous potential
(SP), then three
different resistivity
curves (RESD, RESM,
RESS) with the depth
numbers in between
them and the GR / SP
track.

Next come some

answers, from left to
right, water saturation
(SW), porosity (PHIe),
permeability (Perm),
and the mineral
breakdown on the right.
This latter track shows
only shale and quartz in
this example.

The solid red shading

in the porosity track is
the oil in the porosity.
More red is good news.
The white area to the
right of the oil is the
water volume in the
reservoir.

Using the curve colour

codes and scales at the
top of the log, you can
identify each curve and
read values for the
answers. For example
the upper oil zone has
about 10% porosity,
40% water saturation. The zone is 50-60% shale with the balance being quartz.

The lower oil zone has 24% porosity, 17% water saturation, nearly zero shale. The white area
underneath the red, indicates a watrer zone under the oil zone.

Coloured dots represent lab analysis data for [orosity and permeability. The close agreement with
the log analysis means we did a good job. This may have taken a few iterations to get all the
parameters just right.

MORE ADVANCED STUFF

The mineral makeup of the rocks can often be determined if the petrophysicist becomes familiar
with a few more rules, and can memorize some numerical values that represent individual
minerals.

Crain’s Rule #6: On Limestone Units logs, the density neutron separation for limestone is
near zero, dolomite is 8 to 12 porosity units, and anhydrite is 15 or more. Sandstone has up to 7
porosity units crossover.

On Sandstone Units logs, separation for sandstone is near zero, limestone is about 7 porosity
units, dolomite is 15 or more, and anhydrite is 22 or more.

Visual determination of lithology (in addition to identifying shale as discussed earlier) is done by
noting the quantity of density neutron separation and/or by noting absolute values of the photo
electric curve. The rules take a little memory work.

You must know whether the density neutron log is recorded on Sandstone, Limestone, or
Dolomite porosity scales, before you apply Crain’s Rule #5. The porosity scale on the log is a
function of choices made at the time of logging and have nothing to do with the rocks being
logged. Ideally, sand-shale sequences are logged on Sandstone scales and carbonate sequences
on Limestone scales. The real world is far from ideal, so you could find any porosity scale in any
rock sequence. Take care!

SANDSTONE SCALE LOG

 Sand – shale identification from gamma ray and density-neutron separation. Small amounts of
density neutron separation with a low gamma ray may indicate some heavy minerals in a
sandstone. Most minerals are heavier than quartz, so any cementing materials, volcanic rock
fragments, or mica will cause some separation. Both pure quartz (no separation) and quartz with
heavy minerals (some separation) are seen.

LIMESTONE SCALE LOG

Lithology identification is accomplished by observation of density neutron separation and the
gamma ray response, along with a review of core and sample descriptions.
The photoelectric effect is often a direct mineralogy indicator.

Crain’s Rule #7: PE below 1 is coal, near 2 is sandstone, near 3 is dolomite or shale, and near 5 is
limestone or anhydrite. The high density (negative density porosity) of anhydrite will distinguish
anhydrite from limestone. High gamma ray will distinguish shale from dolomite.

SUMMARY OF
LITHOLOGY RULES

ROCK N–D N–D PE GR

(SS) (LS)
SAND 0 --7 2 LO
LIME 7 0 5 LO
DOLO 15+ 8+ 3 LO
ANHY 22+ 15+ 5 LO
SALT --37 --45 4.5 LO
SHLE 20+ 13+ 3.5 HI

Memorize this table, or keep a

copy in your wallet. Practice
the skill and use it in your
daily work.

THINK LIKE A DETECTIVE:

1. Find the evidence
2. Assess the evidence
3. Postulate all possibilities
4. Eliminate the impossible
5: Select the answer that fits
best with the evidence

Remember: logs are not

perfect and these rules are
not perfect. Adjust the rules
to suit your experience.
Mineral mixtures are
common, so think in terms of
what is possible in each case.

On the log at the right, the

evidence and conclusion is
shown for 6 layers with
different lithology.

This is a LIMESTONE scale log ==>

RULE EXCEPTIONS: High GR log readings coupled with density neutron log readings that
are close together, are a sign of radioactive sandstone or limestone. To tell radioactive dolomite
zones from shale zones, use a gamma ray spectral log, since the density neutron log will show
separation in both cases. The PE value can help differentiate between radioactive dolomite and
chlorite shale but not between dolomite and illite rich shale. High thorium values on the gamma
ray spectral log indicate the shale.

Crain’s Rule #8: If it is porous, it is probably permeable. A quicklook equation for

permeability in intergranular or intercrystalline porosity is: Perm = 100 000 * (PHIe^6) / (Sw^2).

To find signs of permeability, look for indications of porosity, mudcake shown by the caliper,
separation on the resistivity log curves, known production or tested intervals, sample
descriptions, and hydrocarbon shows in the mud.

A quicklook equation for permeability is:

Perm in milliDarcies = 100 000 * (Porosity ^ 6) / (Water Saturation ^ 2)

Crain’s Rule #9: If the logs are noisy, blame it on fractures.

To check for indications of fractures, look for sonic log skips, density neutron crossover in
carbonates, hashy dipmeter curves, hashy resistivity curves, or caved hole in carbonates.

Crain’s Rule #10: Check your work and revise your assumptions, then refine rules for each
project.

When lab data is available, checking the answers is relatively easy. If the match between the log
analysis results and lab data is poor, then some parameters in the analyis model need to be
refined. That's where the "Art of Petrophysics" takes over from the "Science of Petrophysics".
Below is an exaample of the core data (coloured dots) matching the log data, or vice versa.
 “Tight Oil” example showing raw log data on left half of image and petrophysical properties
(answers) derived from that data on the right half. Raw data includes (from left to right) gamma
ray, caliper, shallow and deep resistivity, photo electric effect, neutron porosity, density porosity,
and sonic travel time. In this example, high resistivity represents organic rich source rock (shale)
and lower values are found in the oil zone. The answers are (from left to right) porosity, oil volume
in porosity (shaded red), water volume in porosity (shaded white), water saturation, permeability,
and mineralogy (various colour symbols) at right of image. Core porosity (black dots), core oil
saturation (red dots). core water saturation (blue dots), and core permeability (red dots) are
plotted on the log analysis results to demonstrate how well the mathematical model matches
ground truth. The model and parameters can then be used on other wells that do not have this
type of control data. My first colour plot, considerably less elaborate than this one, was generated
from my own software-hardware package (LOG/MATE) in 1976 from a minicomputer with only 8
Kb RAM. IBM didn't "invent" the PC until 1981.