 Definition: Fraction, or percent, of the pore volume occupied by

a particular fluid (oil, gas, or water).

 Is an intensive property
 all saturation values are based on pore volume and not on the
gross reservoir volume.

 By definition, the sum of the saturations is 100%,

 Fundamental relationships
- Pore volume is occupied by fluids ( water, oil, and/or gas)

- For two phase case, only one of the two saturations is

independent, the other must make the sum of saturations
equal to unity (1)
- For three phase case, only two saturations are independent.
 Fundamental relationships
- Mass of fluids in the pore volume is comprised of water, oil
and/or gas.

- At laboratory condition it is often assumed that gas density is

negligible
 Concepts: Typical petroleum accumulation scenario

- Pores initially saturated with water ( Sw=1)

- Hydrocarbons migrate up dip into traps due to lower density
than water (gravity force)
- Hydrocarbons (oil and/or gas) distributed such that gravity
and capillary forces are in equilibrium
- minimum interstitial water saturation remains in HC
zone, even after accumulation occurs
a) Irreducible wetting phase saturation – water wet, drainage
accumulation process
b) Residual non-wetting phase saturation – oil wet, imbibition
accumulation process
 Methods for determination of reservoir fluid saturations.

- Direct Measurement
 Core Analysis of samples obtained from formation of interest
in original state and measure saturations directly is ideal

- Indirect Measurement
 Capillary Pressure Measurement
 Well log analysis ( electrical conductivity primarily on water
saturation)
 Factors affecting fluid saturations in cores:

- Flushing of core by filtrate from drilling fluids (especially for

overbalanced drilling)
-water filtrate – water based mud
- oil emulsion mud
- oil filtrate - oil based mud
- inverted oil emulsion mud
- gas filtrate - air drilling
- foam drilling
 Factors affecting fluid saturations in cores:

- Changes in pressure and temperature as core sample is

brought from bottomhole conditions to surface conditions
- Example: Oil zone at minimum interstitial water
saturation, water based drilling mud
 Application of core saturations: Water Based Mud
- Presence of oil zone
- Original oil/gas contact
- Original oil/water contact

 Application of core saturations: Oil based mud

- Fairly accurate minimum interstitial water saturation
- Original oil/ water contact

 Other Application of Core Saturations

- Correlation of indirect methods
 Connate (interstitial) water saturation, Swc
- reduces the amount of space available between oil and gas
- Not uniformly distributed throughout reservoir, varies with
permeability, lithology and height above free water level
- Define the maximum water saturation at which the water phase will
remain immobile.

 Critical oil saturation, Soc

- For the oil phase to flow, the saturation of the oil must exceed a
certain value
- the oil remains in the pores and, for all practical purposes, will not
flow.
 Residual oil saturation, Sor
- During the displacing process of the crude oil system from the porous
media by water or gas injection (or encroachment), there will be some
remaining oil left that is quantitatively characterized by a saturation
value that is larger than the critical oil saturation
- Associated with the non wetting phase when it is being displaced by a
wetting phase.

 Movable oil saturation, Som

- fraction of pore volume occupied by movable oil

 Critical gas saturation, Sgc

- As the reservoir pressure declines below the bubble-point pressure, gas
evolves from the oil phase and consequently the saturation of the gas
increases as the reservoir pressure declines
 gas phase remains immobile until its saturation exceeds a certain
saturation which gas begins to move
 Average saturation of each reservoir fluid is calculated from
the following equations:
 Factors affecting overburden stress:
a) Depth
b) Nature of the structure
c) Consolidation of formation
d) Geologic age
e) History of the rock

 The weight of the overburden simply applies a

compressive force to the reservoir
 The pressure in the rock pore spaces does not
normally approach the overburden pressure.
 Definition: The pressure difference between
overburden and internal pore pressure

 During pressure depletion operations, the internal

pore pressure decreases and, therefore, the effective
overburden pressure increases

 The increase of effective overburden pressure causes:

a) The bulk volume of the reservoir rock is reduced.
b) Sand grains within the pore spaces expand.
 Rock-matrix compressibility, cr
- defined as the fractional change in volume of the
solid rock material (grains) with a unit change in
pressure.
 Rock-bulk compressibility, cB
- Defined as the fractional change in volume of the
bulk volume of the rock with a unit change in
pressure.
 Pore compressibility, cp
- defined as the fractional change in pore volume of
the rock with a unit change in pressure
 In terms of porosity

 The formation compressibility cf is the term

commonly used to describe the total
compressibility of the formation and is set
equal to cp
 Formation compressibility plays important role in
understanding reservoir performance.
 As reservoir pressure decreases, external stresses (overburden
stress) tend to compact the rock and reduce pore volume. This
results in reduction in porosity which helps expel more fluid
out of res rock. It also can close out or reduce size of pores and
pore throats resulting in reduction in permeability. The
significance of this effect depends on value of formation
compressibility.
 Formation compressibility range from 3 × 10−6 to 25 × 10−6
psi−1

 Can also be written as:

 Geertsma (1957) suggested that the bulk
compressibility cB is related to the pore
compressibility cp as expressed:

 Geertsma has stated that in a reservoir only

the vertical component of hydraulic stress is
constant and that the stress components in
the horizontal plane are characterized by the
boundary condition that there is no bulk
deformation in those directions.
 For those boundary conditions, he developed
the following approximation for sandstones:

 The reduction in the pore volume due to

pressure decline can also be expressed in
terms of the changes in the reservoir
porosity
 By integrating:

 Will obtain:
 Note that:

 Using the expansion series and truncating

the series after two terms:
 Total reservoir compressibility ct in
transient flow equation and MBE:
 For undersaturated oil reservoirs, the
reservoir pressure is above the bubble- point
pressure, i.e., no initial gas cap:
 Hall (1953) correlated the pore
compressibility with porosity
 Hall (1953) correlated the pore
compressibility with porosity
 Newman (1973) to develop a correlation
between the formation compressibility and
porosity.
Formation compressibility vs Initial Porosity
 Yale et. al provided correlation to calculate
formation compressibility for various type of
sands.
 Provide correlation for formation
compressibility which is function of
pressure.
 As reservoir pressure decrease, formation
compressibility decreases.
 Unconsolidated sands, if formation pressure
reduced, grain particles due to overburden
pressure will be rearranged permanently. If
pressure of formation increased, formation
will not necessarily go back to its original
configurations.
 Overburden stress can be approximated by 1.0 psi/ft or integrating
density log