PETE 343

PETROLEUM RESERVOIR
ENGINEERING - I
REVIEW OF ROCK AND FLUID PROPERTIES

Mahmut PARLAKTUNA – Çağlar Sınayuç

Middle East Technical University
Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department
mahmut@metu.edu.tr
caglars@metu.edu.tr

Fall 2023 - 2024 Chapter-2

 Review of rock properties

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Overview
• Porosity
– A measure of the void space in a rock
• Compressibility
– A measure of the change in volume that a substance undergoes
during a change in pressure
• Fluid Saturation
– A measure of the gross fluid distribution within a rock
• Formation Resistivity
– A measure of the conductivity of the rock and its contained
fluids to electrical current
• Permeability
– A measure of the fluid transmissivity of a rock

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Porosity
• The porosity of a reservoir rock is defined as that fraction of
the bulk volume of the reservoir that is not occupied by the
solid framework of the reservoir.
• Quantitatively, the porosity is the ratio of the pore volume to
the total volume (bulk volume).

Vp grains (or matrix)

f= pore (micron = 10-3 mm)

Vb
Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024
 Porosity

Vp • Porosity is expressed as a fraction.

f= • In order to express it in per cent it should be
Vb multiplied by 100.

Absolute porosity or total porosity

• Total porosity corresponds to all the pores, whether

interconnected or not.
• Effective porosity corresponds only the pores
connected to each other and to other formations. Isolated pore space
• Therefore effective porosity is more meaningful for
us. Interconnected pore space

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Isothermal Compressibility
• A reservoir thousands of meters underground is subjected to an
overburden pressure caused by the weight of the overlying
formations.
• Typical value of overburden pressure gradient is approximately 1
psi/ft.
• Porous rocks buried at depth are subjected to internal stress (pore
or fluid pressure) and external stress (overburden pressure).
• A typical fluid pressure is approximately 0.5/ft.
• Effective overburden pressure = overburden pressure – fluid
pressure
• Fluid production causes reduction in the fluid pressure, therefore,
effective overburden pressure increases.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Isothermal Compressibility
• Increase in effective overburden stress results
in:
– The reduction of the bulk volume of the reservoir
– Expansion of the sand grains within the pore spaces

• These two volume changes tend to reduce the

pore space and, therefore the porosity of the
rock.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Fluid Saturation
• Saturation is defined as that fraction, or
percent, of the pore volume occupied by a
particular fluid (oil, gas, or water).

volume of oil volume of gas volume of water

So = Sg = Sw =
pore volume pore volume pore volume

So + Sg + Sw = 1.0

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Fluid Saturation
• Residual Oil Saturation, Sor
– During the displacing process of the crude oil system from the porous media
by water or gas injection, there will be some remaining oil left that is called
the residual oil saturation.
• Critical gas saturation, Sgc
– As the reservoir pressure declines below the bubble-point pressure, gas
evolves from the oil phase.
– The gas phase remains immobile until its saturation exceeds the critical gas
saturation.
• Irreducible water saturation, Swirr
– The critical water saturation, connate water saturation, and irreducible water
saturation are extensively used interchangeably to define the maximum water
saturation at which the water phase will remain immobile.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Formation Resistivity
• The electrical resistivity (reciprocal of conductivity) of a fluid-
saturated rock is its ability to impede the flow of electric current
through that rock.

• The resistivity of reservoir rocks is a function of salinity of

formation water, effective porosity, and quantity of hydrocarbons
trapped in the pore space.

• A rock that contains oil and/or gas will have a higher resistivity than
the same rock completely saturated with formation water,

• The greater the connate water saturation, the lower the formation
resistivity.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Permeability
• Permeability is the capacity of a
reservoir rock to transport fluids
through a system of interconnected
pores.
• The permeability is a 3 by 3 tensor,
which means the resistance towards
fluid flow varies, depending on the
flow direction (anisotropic reservoirs).
• For isotropic reservoirs, permeability
is often considered to be a scalar.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Absolute Permeability
• It is the permeability of a porous medium saturated with a single fluid
(e.g. Sw =1.0 or So = 1.0)
• Absolute permeability is determined by flow experiments which
involves the direct application of the Darcy equation.

Q k ΔP
=−
A μ L

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Effective Permeability
• It is the measure of the conductance capacity of a porous medium for one
fluid phase when the medium is saturated with more than one fluid.
• In the definition of effective permeability each fluid phase is considered to
be completely independent of the other fluids in the flow network. The
fluids are considered immiscible so that Darcy’s law can be applied to each
phase individually.
𝑘𝑖 𝐴∆𝑃𝑖 ki = Effective permeability of phase “i”
𝑄𝑖 =
𝜇𝑖 𝐿 “i” stands for oil, water or gas
• Studies showed that effective permeability is a function of the
- prevailing fluid saturation
- rock wetting characteristics
- geometry of the pores of the rock
• The effective permeability is stated Effective permeability to oil:
at the given saturation conditions So = 60 %, Sw = 13 %, Sg = 27 %

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Wettability
• Wettability is the preference of a liquid to be in contact with a solid
surrounded by another fluid

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Capillary Pressure
• Capillary pressure (Pc) is the amount of extra pressure required to force the
nonwetting phase to displace the wetting phase in the capillary.

For a water-wet oil reservoir

2 wo cos
Pc = = Po − Pw
r

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Capillary Pressure
The process of
saturating and
desaturating the
reservoir rock with
the non-wetting
phase is called
CAPILLARY
HYSTERESIS –
DRAINAGE and
IMBIBITION
CURVES
Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024
 Relative Permeability
Relative permeability is a concept used to relate the
absolute permeability of a porous system to the effective
permeability of a particular fluid in the system when that
fluid occupies only a fraction of the total pore volume.
where;
kr = relative permeability to the phase
ke= effective permeability of the phase, D
kabs= absolute permeability of the porous system
(when one fluid is present), D

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Relative Permeability

Effective permeability Relative permeability

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024
 Review of Fluid Properties

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Crude oil properties

• PVT properties of reservoir fluids:

– Solution Gas-Oil Ratio
– Oil Formation Volume Factor
– Gas Formation Volume Factor

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Simplified Schematic Production System for a Single Phase Flowing Oil Well

Pr > Pbh > Pb > Pwh > Psep > Pst

Pb

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Solution Gas-Oil Ratio, Rs

• Solubility is simply defined as

an ability of a substance to
dissolve.
• Oil is the mixture of different
HC compounds in which lighter
ones (gases) exist in dissolved
form in the mixture of heavier
ones.
• At the saturation pressure
(bubble point pressure) all the
available gases are dissolved in
the oil.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Solution Gas-Oil Ratio, Rs
• The quantity of gas dissolved in an
oil at reservoir conditions is called
solution gas-oil ratio.
• Solution gas-oil ratio is the
amount of gas that evolves from
the oil as the oil is transported
from the reservoir to surface
conditions.
• This ratio is defined in terms of the
quantities of gas and oil which
appear at the surface during
production.
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 (𝑆𝐶𝐹)
𝑅𝑠 =
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑖𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 (𝑆𝑇𝐵)

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Oil Formation Volume Factor, Bo

The volume of liquid that enters the stock tank at the surface is less
than the volume of liquid which leaves the reservoir due to
• Pressure reduction causes slight expansion of remaining oil ⊕
• Contraction of the oil due to the reduction of temperature ⊖
• Evolution of gas from liquid causes a rather large decrease in the
volume of liquid
The change in liquid volume due to these 3 factors is expressed in
terms of formation volume factor of oil which is defined as the volume
of reservoir liquid required to produce 1 STB of oil.

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑖𝑙 + 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑔𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑟 𝑇 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃 (𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑣𝑜𝑙)

𝐵𝑜 =
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑖𝑙 𝑎𝑡 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑘 (𝑆𝑇 𝑣𝑜𝑙)

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Oil Formation Volume Factor, Bo
• As the pressure in the reservoir reducing below the initial reservoir
pressure Pi, the oil volume increases due to expansion of liquid in the
reservoir. Therefore Bo increases up to Pb.
• Further reduction of reservoir pressure results in evolution of gas in the
pore spaces of the reservoir. The liquid remaining in the reservoir has a
smaller volume and consequently Bo decreases.

• When Pr → Patm, Bo → 1.
Yet, temperature reduction
to 60F is necessary to bring
Bo exactly to 1.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Gas Formation Volume Factor, Bg

• Gas formation volume factor is

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑟 𝑇 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃 (𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑣𝑜𝑙)
𝐵𝑔 =
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 (𝑆 𝑣𝑜𝑙)

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Two Phase (or Total) Formation Volume Factor, Bt
When reservoir pressure is below the bubble point pressure of the oil,
gas and liquid are present in the pores of the formation. Then total
formation volume factor (𝐵𝑡 ) is used.
𝐵𝑡 = 𝐵𝑜 + 𝐵𝑔 𝑅𝑠𝑏 − 𝑅𝑠
𝐵𝑡 : Total (or two-phase )
formation volume factor.

Formation-volume factor, Bo
𝐵𝑔 𝑅𝑠𝑏 − 𝑅𝑠 : volume of gas
evolved from the liquid in the
reservoir. Bt
𝐵𝑔 : (rbbl/SCF), 𝐵𝑜 : (rbbl/STB)
𝑅𝑠 : (SCF/STB) Bob

𝑅𝑠𝑏 : 𝑅𝑠 at Pb (SCF/STB) Bo
Pb Pi
1.0
Patm
Reservoir pressure, P

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Isothermal Coefficient of Compressibility, Co
Isothermal coefficient of compressibility is required in solving
many reservoir engineering problems.
1 𝜕𝑉 1 𝜕𝐵𝑜
𝐶𝑜 = − 𝑜𝑟 𝐶𝑜 = − if P > Pb
𝑉 𝜕𝑃 𝑇 𝐵𝑜 𝜕𝑃 𝑇

1 𝜕𝐵𝑜 𝜕𝑅𝑠
𝐶𝑜 = − − 𝐵𝑔 if P < Pb
𝐵𝑜 𝜕𝑃 𝑇 𝜕𝑃 𝑇

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Crude Oil Viscosity, o
The effect of reservoir pressure on the viscosity of the reservoir oil at
constant reservoir temperature:

Pr > Pb initially:
As Pr decreases µo decreases
due to expansion of the oil.

At Pb gas is liberated so µo starts

to increase. (i.e. lighter HCs
start to leave the solution).

As an oil reservoir is depleted, not only does the production decreases

due to decrease in pressure available to drive the oil to the well, but
also because the µo has increased.
A 10-fold variation between the viscosity at the bubble-point pressure
and the viscosity at very low pressure is common.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 CLASSIFICATION OF RESERVOIRS

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of Reservoirs

• A reservoir is simply classified as either a gas reservoir or

an oil reservoir.

Reservoir

Gas Oil

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Oil reservoirs

Gas reservoir

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of reservoirs
• The reservoirs can be classified by looking:
– The composition of the reservoir
hydrocarbon mixture,
– Initial reservoir pressure and temperature,
– Pressure and temperature of the surface
production.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Phase Diagrams
• It would be handy to use a pressure-temperature diagram to
classify reservoirs.
• The conditions under which gas or oil phase exist is shown on
phase diagrams. Pressure-temperature diagram is one such
diagram.
• Naturally occurring hydrocarbons are more complex than a
single or two component systems.
• They contain a great many members of the paraffin series and
usually some non-hydrocarbon (N2, CO2, H2S, etc.) impurities.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Pressure-temperature diagram
Bubble-point curve is the line separating the liquid-phase region from the two-phase region.

Dew-point
curve is the
line
separating
the vapor-
phase region
from the
two-phase
region.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Pressure-temperature diagram
Cricondenbar (pcb) is the maximum pressure above which no gas can be formed regardless of temperature.

Cricondentherm (Tct)
is the maximum
temperature above
which liquid cannot
be formed regardless
of pressure.

Quality lines

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Back to classification of reservoirs

Gas reservoirs: If the reservoir temperature Tr is greater than the critical temperature
Tc of the reservoir fluid, the reservoir is classified as a gas reservoir.

Oil reservoirs: If the reservoir temperature Tr is less than the critical temperature Tc of
the reservoir fluid, the reservoir is classified as an oil reservoir.

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of oil reservoirs
Depending upon the initial reservoir
pressure, oil reservoirs can be sub
classified into the following categories:

• Undersaturated oil reservoir:

– pi > pb (point A)
• Saturated oil reservoir:
– pi = pb (point B)
• Gas-cap reservoir (or two-
phase reservoir):
– p i < pb

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of crude oils
• Based on the properties exhibited, crude oils commonly classified into
the following types:

Types Gas-Oil Ratios Oil Gravities Color

Ordinary black oil 200-700 scf/STB 15 to 40° API Brown to dark green

Low-shrinkage crude oil < 200 scf/STB < 35° API Black or deeply colored

High shrinkage 2000–3200 scf/STB 45° to 55° API Greenish to orange

(volatile) crude oil
Near-critical crude oil > 3000 scf/STB > 45° API Light colored

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of gas reservoirs
Depending upon the initial reservoir conditions, gas reservoirs
can be sub classified into the following categories:
1. Retrograde gas-condensate
Tc < Tr< Tct (Point 1)
GOR: 8000 – 70,000 scf/STB
Condensate gravity: > 50° API

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of gas reservoirs
2. Near-critical gas-condensate
Tc < Tr << Tct

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of gas reservoirs

3. Wet gas
Ti > Tct
Separator conditions lie within the
two-phase region
GOR: 60,000 – 100,000 scf/STB
Stock tank oil gravity: > 60° API

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024

 Classification of gas reservoirs

4. Dry gas
Hydrocarbon mixture exists as
gas both in the reservoir and in
the surface facilities.
GOR: > 100,000 scf/STB

Parlaktuna & Sınayuç PETE 343 Fall 2023 – 2024