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SECTION A
Question one
Definitions
i. Petrophysics: The study of the physical and chemical properties of rocks
in relation to the pore systems in the rocks and the fluids in the pores.
ii. Porosity: The measure of the void space within a rock.
iii. Pore throat: the narrow connection between two pores in a rock.
iv. Pore system: it is an aggregate of pores and pore throats that shares a similar morphology.
v. Reservoir: it is an underground geologic formation which contains hydrocarbons.
vi. Permeability: Permeability is a measure of the ease with which a fluid can flow through
a rock.
vii. Saturation: The percentage of different fluids such as gas (Sg), oil (So), and
water (Sw) in the pore space of a rock. (S)
viii. Wettability: the tendency of one fluid to spread on or adhere to a solid surface in the
presence of other immiscible fluids.
ix. Capillary pressure: as the pressure of the non-wetting phase minus the pressure of the
wetting phase.
x. Surface tension: partial derivative of the surface free energy with respect to the dividing
area between the gas and the liquid phases.

Question two
a) Paraffin is a member of the hydrocarbon series of molecules that are straight
chains with single bonds.
b) The study of the physical and chemical properties of rocks
in relation to the pore systems in the rocks and the fluids in the pores.
c) Factors affecting
i. Porosity
 Particle shape
 Grain size
 Packing
 Degree of cementation and consolidation
 Amount of compaction during and after deposition
ii. Permeability
 Packing
 Grain size
 Grain shape
 Sorting
  Packing
 Degree of consolidation and cementation
d) There is a difference between the flow of a gas and a liquid through a reservoir. As gas
flow is less impeded by the grain surfaces than liquid flow. Thus, this effect of gas flow
being less impeded than liquid is considered to be a KLINKENBERG Effect.
It causes the measured permeability of the gas to be greater the absolute permeability of
the sample

SECTION B
Question one
a) Effective porosity and absolute porosity
Effective porosity is due to interconnected pores while absolute is the total porosity of
rocks regardless whether or not the individual pores are connected
The petroleum engineer is interested in effective porosity
b) 5 factors affecting porosity

 Particle shape
Irregular shape will lead to porosity reduction
 Grain size
The presence of smaller particles such as clay, slit which may fit into tiny
void would greatly reduce the porosity
 Packing
The manner in which grains are arranged affect resulting porosity
 Degree of cementation and consolidation
Cementing materials deposited around grain junction reduce porosity
 Sorting: Well sorted sediments generally have higher porosities than
poorly sorted sediments for the simple reason that if a sediment is a range
of particle sizes then the smaller particles may fill in the voids between the
larger particles.
c)
Question two
a)

b)
Question three
a)

b)
 c)

Question four