Reservoir

Flow units
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Petroleum geologist, engineers, and hydrogeologists have long recognized the need of defining
quasi geological/engineering units to shape the description of reservoir zones as storage
containers and reservoir conduits for fluid flow. Several authors have various definitions of flow
units, which are resultant of the depositional environment and diagenitic process.
Bear defined the hydraulic (pore geometrical unit) as the representative elementary volume of
the total reservoir rock within which the geological and pertophysical properties of the rock
volume are the same.
Ebanks defined hydraulic flow units as a mappable portion of the reservoir within the geological
and petrophysical properties that affect the flow of fluid are consistent and predictably different
form the properties of other reservoir rock volume.
Hear et al. defined flow unit as a reservoir zone that is laterally and vertically continuous and
has similar permeability, porosity, and bedding characteristics.
Gunter el al. defined flow unit as a stratigraphically continuous interval of similar reservoir
process that honors the geologic framework and maintains the characteristic of the rock type.

Flow unit characterization factors

(a) Reservoir quality index (RQI): Amaefule et al. introduced the concept of reservoir
quality index considering the pore-throat, pore and grain distribution, and other
macroscopic. It is defined mathematically as

k
RQI  0.0314 (µm) (1)
e
where
k : permeability (mD)
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 e : effective porosity (fraction)
(b) Flow zone indicator (FZI): The flow zone indicator is defined as
RQI  FZI  z  (2)

where z is the ratio of pore volume to grain volume:

e
z  (3)
1  e
Taking the logarithm of equation 2 on both sides yields:
log RQI   log  z   log FZI  (4)

Equation 4 yields a straight line of a log-log plot of RQI versus z with a unit slope. The

intercept on this straight line at z =1 is the FZI. Samples with different FZI values will lie on
similar parallel lines. Samples that lie on the same straight line have similar pore throat
characteristics and, therefore, constitute a flow unit. Straight lines of slopes equal to unity should
be expected primarily in clean sandstone formations. Slopes greater than one indicate a shaly
formation.

(c) Tiab flow unit characteristic factor (HT):

Snedier and King showed that most of the petrophysical properties of sandstones and
conglomerates can be related to grain size and sorting, degree of rock consolidation,
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cementation, sizes of pores, and pore interconnections. They also showed that there are a finite
number of rock types and corresponding pore geometries that characterize geologic units.
However, geologic units may or may not coincide with hydraulic flow units. It is also possible
that a geologic unit may contain several flow units. The general expression for this factor is:

1  3 
HT    (5)
k  1   2 

HT and FZI are related through the following equation

1
HT  (6)
FZI 2
(d) Free fluid index (FFI): is defined as the product of hydrocarbon saturation and porosity. it
is a measure of movable liquids, oil and/or water, and therefore it is connected to the flow
unit. Mathematically, it is expressed as:
FFI   1  S wir  (7)
Coates and Denoo related permeability to FFI as follows:
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 FFI 
k  10   
4
(8)
   FFI 
Combining this equation and the definition of RQI yields a useful relationship between RQI and
FFI:
 FFI  3
RQI  3.14   (9)
   FFI 
where FFI and porosity are expressed as a fraction, permeability in mD, and RQI in µm.
Taking the logarithm of both sides of equation 8 yields:

  
log RQI  log  3  log  3.14

FFI 

  FFI 

Thus a log-log plot of the reservoir quality index versus  3 should yield a straight line of slope
unity, assuming the reservoir is a clean homogeneous sandstone formation. The intercept at

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  3 =1 may be used to calculate the free fluid index, which in turn can be used to estimate an
average value of irreducible water saturation for the entire unit or reservoir.

EXERCISE
Assuming that the permeability and porosity data shown in Table below represent several
hundred data points taken from an oil reservoir:

(a) Identify the number of flow units and their corresponding values of flow zone indicator, FZI,
and the Tiba flow unit characterization factor, HT.
(b) Calculate tortousity and plot versus reservoir quality index, RQI, on a log-log graph. Does
this plot confirm the number of flow units?
(c) Calculate the free fluid index (FFI) and plot versus RQI on log-log graph. Interpret this plot.
The irreducible water saturation is approximately 5%.

SOLUTION
The calculation of the different parameters is only presented for sample #1.
(a) Calculate RQI using equation 1, i.e.:

k 22
RQI  0.0314  0.0314  0.52
e 0.08

The ratio  z is calculated from equation

 0.08
z    0.087
1 1  0.08
Calculate the formation resistivity factor using the Humble equation:

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 0.81 0.81
F   126.56
 2
0.08 2


The plot of RQI versus  z  shows two straight lines of slope unity, indication two
1
hydraulic units. The corresponding FZI values are 15 and 9 respectively. The corresponding
values of HT are obtained from equation 6.
Hydraulic unit #1, FZI =15:
1 1
HT  2
 2  4.44  10 3 m 1
FZI 15
Hydraulic unit #2, FZI = 9:
(b) Calculate tortuosity using equation    1m , and assuming m = 2

   1m  0.0812  12.5

Plot  versus RQI on log-log paper. This plot verifies that there are two hydraulic flow units in
the reservoir.
(c) Calculate free fluid index (FFI) using equation 7:
FFI   1  S wir   0.081  0.15  0.068
Note that extrapolating the two straight lines to FFI = 100% yields the same FZI values as are
obtained from the plot of RQI versus  z .
EXERCISE RESULTS

K (mD)  RQI (µm) F  (m=2) FFI (%)
1
22 0.08 0.521 0.087 126.56 12.5 7.60
51 0.1 0.709 0.111
315 0.12 1.608 0.136
344 0.13 1.615 0.149
90 0.11 0.898 0.124
112 0.09 1.107 0.0989
430 0.18 1.534 0.220
250 0.16 1.241 0.190
490 0.14 1.857 0.163

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