University of Karbala

College of Engineering
Petroleum Department

Porosity determination by liquid

saturating method

By students
Ammar ahmed abd alrazaq
Yousef adel talib
Ahmed thamer qasim

Supervisor by

Hawraa adel

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Purpose:
The main objective of this experiment is to calculate the effective porosity of the
interconnected pores of a core plug by saturating it with water using a manual
saturating device.

Introduction
Knowledge of the physical properties of the rock and interaction between
hydrocarbon system and the formation rock is crucial in understanding and
evaluating the performance of a given reservoir, porosity could be measured from
the saturation method.

Theory:
There are many methods to calculate porosity. Boyle's Law porosity meter as
shown in consists of two sample chambers. The first step is to calibrate the
volumes of the sample chambers by injecting inert gas such as helium or nitrogen
and recording the pressure differences when the valve between the two chambers is
open and equalization occurs. The next step is to place the core sample in one
chamber at some pressure, p1, which is isolated from the second chamber at p2.
When the valve is opened pressure equilibrium occurs at some final pressure, pf.
The pore space of the sample is penetrated by the gas; therefore the gas volume
difference between the two tests is a measure of the grain volume. The accuracy of
this method has been estimated to be 0.1% to 0.5% of the grain volume (Jenkins,
1960). Several methods have been developed to measure the pore volume of a
sample. The original mercury injection methods such as Washbum Bunting and
Kobe are obsolete and seldom used. Their elimination was due to the destructive
nature of mercury and the lack of accurate results. A second method is called the
fluid saturation method. A clean and dried sample is weighted, saturated with a
liquid of known density, and then reweighed. The weight change divided by the
density of the fluid results in the pore volume. This technique also yields effective
porosity; however, complete saturation is seldom obtained and therefore porosity is
commonly lower than that determined from the Boyle's Law method. Furthermore,
if the sample is water sensitive then oil should be used as the saturating fluid. The
procedure is slow, however numerous samples can be run simultaneously
(Helander, 1983).

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Porosity determination by liquid saturating method:
Over the past decade interest in shale properties has increased due to the
commercial success of gas shale plays. Despite their commercial importance,
porosity measurement from gas shale samples is still challenging due to their
extremely low permeability and complex pore structure. This leads to a significant
uncertainty in the economic assessment of these plays. The current energy industry
standard technique for measuring porosity in gas shales is based on methodology
developed by the Gas Research Institute (GRI) that involves crushing a rock and
aggressive pretreatment. The objective of this study is to develop an alternative
method of measuring total porosity in gas shales. A porosity measurement using a
liquid saturation and immersion technique with deionized water was adopted and
modified for such applications. The water immersion porosimetry (WIP) technique
was used to measure total porosity of shale samples from an Eastern Europe
Silurian gas shale play and the Haynesville Shale from East Texas, USA. The
samples were characterized for whole rock quantitative mineral and elemental
composition, along with cation exchange capacity (CEC) and organic matter. The
results from the WIP measurements are compared with other standard techniques
including the GRI method and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). An
assessment of the advantages, potential errors, pitfalls and reproducibility of this
method are also presented.

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Tools:
Equipment and sample requirements
1- Caliper
2- Stopwatch
3- Vacuum pump
4- Brine
5- Core saturator
6- Analytical balance
7- Core sample

4
Procedure:
1-We Record the temperature in the laboratory.
2-We Measure each dimension three times to take the average dimensions of the
core samples and record
3-We Measure the weight of the dry core sample
4-We will Wait till the weight reading will stabilize, and record.
5-We Put the core plug in the core cell chamber sample.
6-We will Turn on valve No.1 between the vacuum pump and core sample
container.
7-We will Closed the valve No.2 between the core sample container and the brine
reservoir.
8-We Turn on the vacuum pump.
9- WeWhen the vacuum pressure will be stable, wait for 2 minute and then turn off
vacuum pump.
10-We Will Open valve No.2 to allow brine to flow to the core sample container.
11- Once the liquid level in the saturant vacuum tank takes it is stabile level, then
We turn off valve No.2. and vacuum pump.
12- We Will Started to pressurize the core chamber cell manually and slowly up to
2000 psi.
13-We Monitor and keep the pressure on 2000psi till it will stabilize on this value.
14-We Will Waite for 5 minute.
15- We Open valve. No.2 and wait for the pressure gauge to go back to Zero
pressure reading.
16-We Will Gently take out the core sample and wipe out the liquid on the sample
surface by rolling it on a piece of paper.
17- We Will Measure 7 and record the weight of the saturated core sample.
18- We Will Measure the difference and find the pore volume and Porosity.

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Conclusions
Calculations and report:
1. We Calculate the saturated brine weight, Wbrine = Wsat-Wdry
2. We Calculate the pore volume (saturated brine volume), Vp = Wsat/ ρ brine.
3. we Calculate effective porosity, e = Vp/Vb.
Wdry(g) - Wsat(g) - Wbrine(g) - Vp(cm 3 )

Discussion

Q1/Porosity is one of the most important rock properties why?

Becauses that can be calculated from well log data. It gives the rock’s capacity to
store oil or gas. Thus far, I have referred to porosity as the void space in the rock.
A rock such as chalk may be nearly half void space, but the pores are usually so
small that they cannot be seen without suitable magnification.

Q2/ Why we take the core plugging?

-We take the core plug to determined the physical properties of the rock like
(porosity ,permeability ,saturation ,capillary pressure ,surface & interfacial tension
&.....so on).

Q3/why we don't use mercury for saturation?

Mercury does not enter in a sample filled by air if no pressure is applied. The
mercury pycnometer method consists in measuring the volume of mercury without
and with the core immersed. Due to safety reasons, this method is no longer used in
most of laboratories.

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Q4/ what are disadvantages and advantages of core saturator?
Disadvantages: 1- Wetting the rock surfaces with either brine or hydrocarbon
saturants is difficult. 2- Incomplete saturation causes erroneously low porosity
values.
Advantages: 1- Rapid and efficient saturation. 2-Samples can be used for further
testing. 3- Can accommodate plug size sample and full sized core sample in option.
4-Manual operations Load carrier for easy loading. 5- Dead volume sets to
minimize volume of saturant.

Q5/ What are the objectives porosity?

- To measure the volume of oil in place &gas in place,and many other objectives.

Q6) how can we find porosity by saturation?

after the core sample is cleaned we place it in the sample container and we inject it
with water by considerable amounts of pressure and the volume of the injected
water is equal to the pore volume of the interconnected pores and the porosity can
be calculated.

Q7) Discuss what type of porosity you found and why?

Effective porosity measured on core samples which are dried in a humidity oven so
that clays retain one or two molecular layers of bound water-however, this CBW
tends to a minimum and is likely not reservoir representative.

Q8)why we don't use mercury for saturation?

Mercury does not enter in a sample filled by air if no pressure is applied. The
mercury pycnometer method |consists in measuring the volume of mercury without
and with the core immersed. Due to safety reasons, this method is no longer used
in most of laboratories

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Q9) what are the advantages of and limitations of manual saturator?
Advantages: Rapid and efficient saturation.
• Samples can be used for further testing.
• Can accommodate plug size sample and full sized core sample in option.
• Manual operations Load carrier for easy loading.
• Dead volume sets to minimize volume of saturant. Disadvantages: • Wetting the
rock surfaces with either brine or hydrocarbon saturants is difficult.
• Incomplete saturation causes erroneously low porosity values.

Q10) why are the dead volume sets used in this experiment?
they are used to reduce the exposed area to the compressible pressure by water, and
that allows the core sample to get more saturated with water (depending on the
rocks porosity).

Q11) How we find pore volume?

At the first we weigh the sample (w1) and then put it in a manual saturating in
order to take out all of the air in a void of a rock by vacuum process later we
increase the pressure until the water enter all of the pore space of a rock and then
we weigh a sample (2) so we can find a pore volume of a rock. |At the end we can
find porosity by pore volume and bulk volume.

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