Why porosity is important for Petroleum engineers?

Definition of Porosity

Types of porosity
 Reservoir rocks
Good Porosity = Lots of Space for Petroleum
Sandstone Carbonate Crystalline rocks

Unfilled interparticle Vesicular (Scoria)

Pores are blue in colours
porosity (in Oolite).
Porosity is black.
FLUID IN PORE SPACES

PORE
FRAMEWORK
CEMENT (QUARTZ)
MATRIX

FRAMEWOR
K
(FELDSPAR)

0.25 mm
 Porosity
Dimensionless rock property
The percent void space in a rock or sediment.
φ = pore volume (void space)/total or bulk volume

expressed as a percentage
Large Range: <0.1% to >75%

Ø (percent) qualitative
0-5 negligible
5-10 poor
10-15 fair
15-20 good
20+ very good
 Porosity on the basis of pore types
PORE TYPES:
interconnected
dead end pores
isolated or closed pores

Total or absolute porosity

ø = vol. of interconnected + dead end + isolated pores/total or bulk volume

Effective porosity
ø = vol. of interconnected + dead end pores/total or bulk volume

Ineffective porosity
ø = vol. of isolated pores/total or bulk volume
 Connectivity between pores is
important for fluid movement

Permeable Void spaces

spaces contributes
contributes to absolute
to effective Porosity
Porosity
 Porosity on the basis of mode of origin

Original or primary porosity

Developed in the deposition of material on first burial before the
grains had not been altered, fractured or dissolved

Depends on:
• the degree of uniformity of grain size
• the shapes of the grain
• the method of deposition and so the manner of packing
• clay or organic content
 Porosity on the basis of mode of origin

Secondary or induced porosity

Developed due to post depositional or diagenetic processes

In sandstone compaction
contact-solution and redeposition
cementation

In carbonates solution
recrystallization (especially dolomitization)
fracturing
cementation
 Porosity with Grain size

Cubic packing
Rhombohedral packing
Porosity 47.64 %
Porosity 25.96 %

A room full of bowling ball and a room full of

baseball would have the same porosities if the Independent of grain size
respective balls are packed the same way

But if smaller particles are mixed with larger grains the effective porosity is
considerably reduced
 Porosity with Grain shape

The shapes of sediment particles affect the porosity

The greatest porosity is theoretically possesses by a rock
Consisting of spherical grains of uniform size.
Cubic packing 47.6 %
Orthorhombic packing 39.5 %
Rhombohedral packing 26 %
The lowest porosity is theoretically provided with
unsorted angular grains
Sediments are not perfectly round , but occur in many shapes.
In case of irregular grains, they tend not to pack as neatly as
rounded particles, which result in higher proportion of void space
or higher porosity
 Porosity with Sorting

The presence of clay and organic content generally tend to

increase the void space because clay particles tend to
electrostatically repel one another resulting higher porosities.
 SECONDARY POROSITY

Compaction creates a certain mechanical arrangement

of grains and a new pore system pattern developed
because of sediment compaction
Porosity with Cement
 POROSITY IN SANDSTONE
Pore

Quartz
Grain

Cement Minerals

Scanning Electron Micrograph

Scanning Electron Micrograph

Pore throats may be lined with a variety of

cement materials that affects petrophysical
properties
 Clay Minerals in Sandstone Reservoirs,

Secondary Electron Micrograph

Significant Permeability Reduction

High Irreducible Water Saturation

Migration of Fines Problem

Sandstone with authigenic kaolinite

 Porosity with Fracturing
MORE POROUS LESS POROUS

Fractured Shale Unfractured Shale

 Fractured porosity

Late diagenetic, fractured porosity Vuggy porosity. Probably solution enlarged.

Porosity is black.

Unfilled intraparticle porosity (within a large coral

fragment). Porosity is black.
 Crystalline rocks with reservoir quality
Vesicular (Scoria)

Amygdaloidal Basalt
BASALT WITH
JOINTS

PUMICE
Genetically the following types of porosity
can be distinguished:

Intergranular porosity

Fracture porosity

Micro- porosity

Vugular porosity

Intragranular porosity
 POROSITY RANGES FOR DIFFERENT ROCKS
AND FOR DIFFERENT PACKING

Non-uniform grain sizes FCC BCC Simple cubic

26% 32% 47.6%

Gravel Sand Silt &

Clay

Shale Sandstone Siltstone

Limestone karstic
& Dolostone

Fractured Basalt
Pumice
crystalline
rocks
0 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64

Porosity, %
 Porosity with burial depth

Shales
(Athy, 1930)

Sandstones
(Blatt, 1979)
 MEASUREMENT OF POROSITY
Routine core analysis – Direct method

PORE VOLUME MEASUREMENT:

All methods used for determining pore volume are based on either
extraction of a fluid from the rock sample or

introduction of a fluid in the pore spaces of the rock sample

Well logging techniques – Indirect method

WELL LOGGING techniques are indirect in
nature and porosity is measured in situ.
BOREHOLE AND
SURROUNDING
ENVIRONMENTS
 DENSITY MEASUREMENTS FOR POROSITY
DETERMINATION
Density is a typical physical property of minerals, fluids and rocks.

The basic equation which relates the bulk density of the

formation, ρb, to the porosity ø is:
ρf is the density of the fluid filling the pores
ρb = øρf + (1 – ø)ρma ρma is the density of the rock matrix
 DENSITY MEASUREMENTS FOR POROSITY
DETERMINATION
The transmission of gamma ray through matter can be related to
the electron density if the predominant interaction is Compton
scattering and the transport measurement through the formation
can be used to determine its density. With some information on
the material composition (lithology and pore fluids), the porosity
can be determined.
The density log is a continuous record of a
formations bulk density. This is the overall
density of a rock including solid matrix and
the fluid enclosed in the pores.

So, bulk density is a function of the density

of the minerals forming a rock (Matrix) and
the volume of the free fluids which it
encloses (Porosity)
 Although this equation is exact, it
presents several problems for
ρb = øρf + (1 – ø)ρma
the determination of porosity.

What value is to be used for matrix density?

Generally between 2.65 – 2.87 g/cm3
Depending on the lithology
What value is to be used for fluid density?
For HC it ranges from 0.2 to 0.8 g/cm3
Salt saturated water density as high as 1.2 g/cm3
And with the CaCl2, as high as 1.4 g/cm3
Tool measured bulk density and a visualization of the derivation of
the porosity component
 NEUTRON POROSITY MEASUREMENTS

Depending on the energy, neutrons can interact with

atoms in different ways an in a few of these interactions,
the hydrogen plays an important part.
As the hydrogen is present in both water and oil, an
estimation of its amount in the porous formations will
allow the estimation of the amount of liquid-filled
porosity. Therefore, an evaluation of the hydrogen index
will be directly associated to porosity.
The hydrogen index can be evaluated either by a
measurement of the spatial distribution of epithermal
neutrons, or by the measurement of the population of
neutrons having reached the thermal energy.
 NEUTRON POROSITY

The logging technique of the density tool is to subject

the formation to a bombardment of medium high energy
(0.2 – 2.0 meV) focused gamma ray and to measure
their attenuation between the tool source and detectors.
The interaction of gamma
rays by Compton scattering
is dependent only upon the
number density of the
scattering electrons. Thus in
turn is directly proportional to
the bulk density of the
formation.
 CNT-G tool
CNT-A tool

The sidewall neutron porosity sonde Dual-spacing neutron tool

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE MEASUREMENT

Element composition of the rocks

Hydrogen -
Presence of neutron
absorber:
Thermal neutron count
rates are affected

Epithermal neutron
measurements are much
less sensitive to the
presence of these
absorber
Drilling and coring
IMPORTANCE OF CORE DATA
IN PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Whole Core
SIDEWALL CORING TOOL

Coring bit

Samples
SIDEWALL SAMPLING GUN

Core bullets

Formation rock

Core sample
 CORE PLUG AND END TRIMS
A Core plug sample refers to a much smaller portion of the whole core sample.

End trims are nothing but sub samples sliced from core plugs.
 DETERMINATION OF POROSITY USING ROUTINE CORE
ANALYSIS

Bulk Volume (BV) = Pore Volume (PV) + Grain Volume (GV)

Necessary to determine only two of the three volume

reservoir rock samples must be dry and cleaned

BULK VOLUME MEASUREMENT:

1. From the dimensions of the regular samples (generally cylindrical core
plugs)
2. By applying Archimedes principle in case of geometrically irregular
samples
coating the sample with paraffin wax
Volume of the fluid displaced
saturating the sample with the same fluid
 Pore Volume Measurement:

Determination of pore volume:

either extraction of a fluid or
introduction of a fluid in the pore spaces

By extraction methods: summation of all the

fluids extracted from the core plug samples by
using suitable solvents to recover the fluids
contained in the pore spaces

ALL METHODS MEASURING PORE VOLUME YIELD EFFECTIVE POROSITY

By introducing fluids:
Fluids used: helium
water or synthetic oil
mercury

Advantages of helium:
1. its small molecules rapidly penetrate the small pore
2. its inertness does not allow the adsorption on rock surfaces
3. It can be considered an ideal gas for employed P & T for test
 Working illustration of a helium porosimeter

For isothermal condition using Boyle’s

law

P1V1 + P2V2 = P (V1+V2)

By rearrangement
V1(P1- P)
V2 = ---------------
(P - P2)

The calculated unknown volume V2 can be expressed as,

V2 = V1 – BV + PV
V2 – V1 + BV
Pore volume (PV) or Porosity, φ = ---------------------
BV
 Vacuum saturation:

Advantages: pore volume of multiple samples can be determined in one step

Large beaker filled with a degassed liquid generally water

Dry rock samples are placed Evacuation of the beaker started

Air bubbles seen in the saturating liquid as it displace air of the pores

The disappearance of air bubble indicate complete saturation of the sample

WW – DW WW = wet weight of the sample

Porosity, φ = ------------- DW = Dry weight og the sample
BVρw Ρw = density of the saturating fluid (water)

The time required for completion of the saturation is directly proportional to the
sample size and pore sizes
 WHOLE CORE ANALYSIS vs.
PLUGS OR SIDEWALL CORES
WHOLE CORE PLUGS OR SIDEWALL CORES
• Smaller samples
• Provides larger samples • Less representative of heterogeneous
formations
• Better and more consistent • Within 1 to 2% of whole cores for medium-to
representation of formation high-porosity formation
• In low-porosity formations, φ from core plugs
• Better for heterogeneous tends to be much greater than φ from whole
rocks or for more complex cores
lithologies • Scalar effects in fractured reservoirs
Averaging of Porosity
 Averaging of Porosity

Arithmetic average : φ = Eφi/n

Thickness-weighted
average:φ = Eφihi/Ehi

Area-weighted
average: φ = EφiAi/EAi

Volumetric-weighted average : φ = EφiAihi/EAihi