Petroleum Engineering Random Notes

Note No.: 001

Field of Study: Reservoir Engineering, Geology, Petrophysics
Subject: Porosity
Section: 01

By:
Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

Tehran - Iran
July 2023
 Contact 1
• E-Mail:

amirarsalan.abbasi94@gmail.com
About Me:
• Linkedin:
I am experienced in different
positions in petroleum industry
including Production and Reservoir
Engineering specially Well Testing
and Reservoir Studies. Also, I have
worked on Synthetic/Natural
Surfactant-Emulsion, EOR, and
HSE fields. I studied Bachelor's
degree in Production Engineering
and Master's degree in Reservoir
Engineering. Besides, I have good
experience in lecturing Simulation,
Reservoir Engineering, and relative
Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.
Software courses.
 Pore scale 2

Micro
• d < 1 µm
Pore

Meso
• 1µm < d < 3µm
Pore

Macro
• 3µm < d
Pore

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 Porosity definition 3

➢ The rock texture consists of mineral grains of various shapes and sizes and its pore structure is
extremely complex. The most important factors of the pore structure are how much space there is
between these grains and what their shapes are.
➢ That is because the spaces between these grains serve to either mainly transport fluids forming
connecting pores, or to store the fluids forming storage pores.
➢ From the reservoir engineering standpoint, porosity is one of the most important rock properties, a
measure of space available for storage of hydrocarbons.
➢ Quantitatively, porosity is the ratio of the pore volume to the total volume (bulk volume).

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

 Bulk volume 4

𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 43560𝐴ℎ , (𝑓𝑡 3 )

𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 7758𝐴ℎ , (𝑏𝑏𝑙)

1 𝑏𝑏𝑙 = 5.615 𝑓𝑡 3

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

 Porosity 5

➢ The nature of reservoir rocks containing oil and gas dictates the quantities of fluids trapped within
the void space of these rocks.
➢ The porosity of a reservoir rock is defined as fraction of the bulk volume of the reservoir that is not
occupied by the solid framework of the reservoir. This can be expressed in mathematical form as:

Where: Pore Volume Grain Volume Bulk Volume

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 Pore volume 6

𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑃𝑉 = 𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 × 𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 43560𝐴ℎ , (𝑓𝑡 3 )

𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 43560𝐴ℎ𝜙 , (𝑓𝑡 3 )

𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 7758𝐴ℎ𝜙 , (𝑏𝑏𝑙)

1 𝑏𝑏𝑙 = 5.615 𝑓𝑡 3

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

 Porosity in different materials 7

➢ Many of natural and artificial materials include void spaces as a character which are interesting to be
calculated.

Wood Cigarette Filter Beach Sand

Crushed Limestone Human lungs Sandstone

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

 Porosity classification in general 8

➢ As the sediments were deposited and the rocks were being formed during geological times, some
void spaces that developed became isolated from the other void spaces by excessive cementation.
➢ Thus, many of the void spaces are interconnected while some of the pore spaces are completely
isolated.
➢ This leads to two distinct types of porosity, namely:
▪ Absolute Porosity
▪ Effective Porosity

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

 Absolute Porosity 9

➢ The absolute porosity is defined as the ratio of the total pore space in the rock to that of the bulk
volume.
➢ A rock may have considerable absolute porosity and yet have no conductivity to fluid for lack of
pore interconnection.
➢ The absolute porosity is generally expressed mathematically by the following relationship:

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 − 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

𝛷𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 = =
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

 Effective Porosity 10

➢ From the standpoint of flow through a porous medium only interconnected pores are of interest,
hence the concept of effective porosity defined as the percentage of interconnected pore space with
respect to the bulk volume, or:

𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

𝛷𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 =
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

➢ The effective porosity is used in all reservoir engineering calculations because it represents the
interconnected pore space that contains the recoverable hydrocarbon fluids.
➢ Transportation of fluids is controlled mainly by connected pores.
➢ For intergranular materials, poorly to moderately well cemented, the total porosity is approximately
equal to effective porosity.
➢ Another type of pores that seem to belong to the class of interconnected pores but contribute very
little to the flow, are dead-end pores or stagnant pockets.

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 Porosity and Throat 11

➢ Pores providing the storage space for fluids.

➢ Throat controls the fluid flow in the porous medium between pores.

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 Type of pores 12

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 Reservoir rock 13

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 Reservoir rock different parts 14

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 Porosity classification regarding the origin 15

Porosity

Primary/Original Secondary/Induced
Porosity Porosity

Biological Intercrystalline Intragranular Intergranular Dolomitization Fracture Dissolution

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 Factors governing the magnitude of 16
porosity

Secondary/Induced Porosity Primary/Original Porosity

Cementing Angularity & Sphericity

Dissolution
Packing
Fracturing

Overburden Stress Sorting

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 Angularity & Sphericity 17

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 Packing 18

Cubic = 47.6%

Rhombohedral = 26%

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 Sorting 19

𝐼𝑓 → 𝜙1 > 𝜙2 > 𝜙3 > 𝜙4 > ⋯

𝜙𝑆𝑦𝑠. = 𝜙1 × 𝜙2 × 𝜙3 × 𝜙4 × ⋯

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 Overburden Stress 20

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 Porosity in Carbonate rocks 21

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 Average porosity 22

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤

𝑅𝐻 =
𝑊𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 = 𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝑊𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 = 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒

𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝑅𝐻 =
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

 Average porosity 23

∑𝜙𝑖
𝜙= Arithmetic Average
∑𝑛
∑𝜙𝑖 ℎ𝑖 Thickness - Weighted Average
𝜙=
∑ℎ𝑖
∑𝜙𝑖 𝐴𝑖
𝜙= Areal - Weighted Average
∑𝐴𝑖
∑𝜙𝑖 𝐴𝑖 ℎ𝑖
𝜙= Volume - Weighted Average
∑𝐴𝑖 ℎ𝑖

Amir Arsalan Abbasi, M. Sc.

THANK YOU