RESERVOIR ROCK PROPERTIES

PERMEABILITY
Habayib Fouad Youssef Riyadh Z a inab Mohammed Ali Abdu l Hussein
B a t o o l Ah m e d M u s t a fa M i t h a q Abdullah Abdul Wahab Mohammed Khalaf
INTRODICTION: -

Permeability (k) is the important property that

characterizes the rock to pass oil and gas to the bottom
of the well with a pressure difference ∆p between the
stratified pressure and the bottom pressure. Most of the
sedimentary rocks, such as sandstone , limestone ,
dolomatic and clay rocks, are characterized by the
presence of permeability.

However, clay rocks, despite their high porosity, have very poor permeability. because
of the porous channels in them that are not connected with each other, in addition to
their small scale and thus the great influence of capillary forces on them, and this is
what prevents liquids and gases from moving within them.
When investing in oil fields, we often find two or three types of fluids that pass through
the porous channels (oil-water, drops-gas, oil-water-gas). On this basis, the
permeability of the same porous partitions will be different for each fluid during its
infiltration.
To measure the permeability, a fluid of known viscosity is pumped through a rock
sample of known cross-sectional area and length, and the pressure drop across the
sample is measured through manometers.
 FACTORS AFFECTING PERMEABILITY

• Grain size.
• Properties of pore water pressure.
• Temperature.
• Void ratio.
• Stratification of soil.
• Entrapped air and organic impurities.
• Adsorbed water.
• Degree of saturation.
• Shape of particles.
• Structure of soil mass.
1.GRAIN SIZE

The Permeability varies approximately as the square of grain size.

It depends on the effective diameter of the grain size (D¹°).

K=C (D¹°)²

K is Permeability in cm/sec.

C is constant and generally lies between 100 to 150.

2. PROPERTIES OF PORE FLUID

Pore fluids are fluids that Occupy pore spaces in

a soil or rock.

Permeability is directly proportional to the unit

weight of pore fluid and inversely proportional
to the viscosity of pore fluid.
3. TEMPERATURE

As the viscosity of the pore fluid decreases with the temperature, permeability
increases with temperature, as unit weight of pore fluid does not change much with
change in temperature.

4. VOID RATIO

Increase in the void ratio increases the area available for flow hence permeability
increases for critical conditions.
5. STRATIFICATION OF SOIL

Stratified soils are those soils which are formed by layer

upon layer of the earth or dust deposited on each other.

If the flow is parallel to the layers of stratification, the

permeability is max. while the flow in perpendicular
direction occur with min. permeability.
6.ENTRAPPED AIR AND ORGANIC IMPURITIES

The organic impurities and entrapped air obstruct

the flow and coefficient of permeability is reduce
due to their presence.
7. ADSORBED WATER

Adsorbed Water means a thin microscopic film of water surrounding individual soil grains

This water is not free to move and hence reduces the effective pore space an thus
decreases coefficient of permeability.

8. DEGREE OF SATURATION

The permeability of partially saturated soil is less than that of fully saturated soil.

9. SHAPE OF PARTICLES

Permeability is inversely proportional to specific surface e.g. as angular soil have more
specific surface area compared to the round soil therefore, the soil with angular particles
is less permeable than soil of rounded particles.
10. STRUCTURE OF SOIL MASS

For same void ratio the permeability is more for flocculent structure as compared to the
dispended structure .
 Types of Permeability

1-Absolute permeability(k)

When there is only one type of fluid flowing through

porous media, the permeability for this case is called
“absolute permeability’’. It is the permeability given by
Darcy’s law.

The aquifer portion of a reservoir system by definition

contains water as a single phase (100% Sw).
2-Effective permeability (Ke)
The permeability of a reservoir rock to any one fluid in the presence of others is its
effective permeability to that fluid . It depends on the values of fluid saturations.

3-Relative permeability (Kr)

is the ratio of the effective permeability to a particular phase to the normal
(absolute) permeability . The units of relative permeability are dimensionless.
 Wettability and Relative permeability curves
1- Water-Wet Relative Permeability Curves

• Swc is the connate or irreducible water saturation.

This is the water saturation below which water is not
mobile because of capillary forces. The relative
permeability of water at water saturations below
Swc is zero.

• Sorw is the residual oil saturation or

critical oil saturation to water . This is the
oil saturation below which the oil is immobile,
that is, its relative permeability is zero.
2- Oil- Wet Relative Permeability Curves

• krowc is the relative permeability of

the oil at the critical water saturation.

• krwoc is the relative permeability of

the water at the critical oil saturation.
3-Gas-Oil Relative Permeability Curves

•Sgc is the critical gas saturation. This is

the minimum saturation for gas to
become mobile.
•Sorg is the residual oil saturation to gas.
This is the immobile oil when gas is the
displacing fluid.
•krogc is the relative permeability of oil at the
critical gas saturation.
•krgc is the relative permeability of the gas at
the residual oil saturation.
 PERMEABILITY CALCULATION
Darcy’s law
Darcy's law helps us to measure the degree of permeability.
𝑸 = −𝑲𝑨𝒅𝒑 𝒅𝑳
Darcy's "K" was determined to be a combination of :
- K: permeability of the sand pack (porous medium, e.g. reservoir rock)
- K: is a constant of proportionality
- 𝜇: viscosity of the liquid
- dp: Pressure gradient
- dL: length gradient
- A: cross-sectional area
- Q: flow rate
Note : K constant may be written as :
𝐾=𝑘𝜇
Note : The unit of permeability in the empirical equation is the Darcy and the dimension is
(L2). It is usually too large to be convenientinhydrocarbonreservoirs.Themillidarcy(10-3 Darcy)
is therefore used.
Generally the permeability is termed as :

• Poor if : k<1
• Fair if :1< k <10
• Moderate if : 10< k <50
• Good if :50< k <250
• Very good if :k >250
EXAMPLE
A brine is used to measure the absolute permeability of a core plug. The rock sample is 4 cm
long and 3 cm2 in cross section. The brine has a viscosity of 1.0 cp and is flowing a constant
rate of 0.5 cm3/sec under a 2.0 atm pressure differential. Calculate the absolute permeability.
Sol:
dp=-2atm......𝜇=1𝑐𝑝 ......dL=4cm......A=3c𝑚²......Q= 0.5 𝑐𝑚3⁄𝑠𝑒𝑐 ...... k= ?

Q = −KAdp/dL

0.5 = − (3)(−2)(𝐾) /4
1=3K
K= 1/3
k=(1)(0.333)

k=0.333
PERMEABILITIES OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROCKS

The absolute permeability of reservoir rocks can cover a fairly wide

range, for exam- ple, as low as 0.1 to as high as 1000 mD, the low
permeabilities being typical of tight sands formations and chalks. As
outlined earlier, reservoir rock permeability depends on a number of
inherent factors such as grain shape and size, grain arrange- ment, and
clay cementation that can substantially vary from formation to
formation obviously imparting wide-ranging absolute permeability
values.
In general, the quality of a hydrocarbon-bearing formation is judged
according to its permeability. Formations having permeabilities greater than
250 mD are considered very good; those having permeabilities less than 1
mD, typically found in chalk formations, are considered poor. However,
classification of reservoir rocks on a scale of poor to very good is rather
subjective and relative. For example, Levorsen¹9 classifies permeabilities of
common reservoir rocks as 1-10 mD being fair, 10-100 mD being good, and
100-1000 mD being very good. Because for instance, reservoir rocks having
permeabilities less than 1 mD, which are sometimes termed as tight.
Measurement of permeability

• The permeability of a porous medium can be determined from the

samples extracted from the formation or by in place testing such as
well logging and well testing. Measurement of permeability in the case
of isotropic media is usually performed on linear, mostly cylindrical
shaped, “core” samples.
Cores are cylinders with approximately 3.81cm (1.5 inch) diameter and 5 cm (2
inch) length. Sometimes the permeability tests run on a whole core samples about
30-50 cm long.
The experiment can be arranged so as to have horizontal or vertical flow
through the sample. Permeability is reduced by overburden pressure, and this
factor should be considered in estimating permeability of the reservoir rock in
deep wells because permeability is an anisotropic property of the porous
rock, Permeability for flow in a direction that is perpendicular to gravity
is horizontal permeability. By contrast, vertical permeability is the
permeability for flow in the direction aligned with the direction of the
gravitational field. Both liquids and gases have been used to measure
permeability.
There are several factors that could lead to some of error in determining reservoir
permeability. Some of these factors are:

•Core sample may not be representative of the reservoir rock

because of reservoir heterogeneity.

•Core recovery may be incomplete.

•Permeability of the core may be altered when it is cut, or when it is

cleaned and dried in preparation for analysis. This problem is likely to
occur when the rock contains reactive clays.
As core samples usually contain water and oil, it is necessary to prepare the core
samples for the test. Cores are dried in an oven or extracted by a Soxhlet
extractor and then they are subsequently dried. The residual fluids are thus
removed and the core samples become 100% saturated with air. In principle
measurement at a steady single flow rate permits the “routine” calculation of
the permeability from Darsy’s law. Measurements of permeability on large core
samples generally yield better indication of permeability of limestone than do
with small core sample. Rocks which contain fractures in situ separate along
natural plane of weakness when cored. Therefore the conductivity of such
fractures will not be included in the laboratory data. However there is
considerable experimental error in this experiment so the requirement that
permeability be determined for conditions of viscous flow is best satisfied by
obtaining data at several flow rates and plotting the flow rate versus pressure
drop, as shown in Figure:
A straight line is fitted to the data
points. According to the Darcy’s law, the
slope of this line is K / μ, and this line
must pass through the origin. But at
ultralow flow rates, the flow rate is not
proportional to pressure drop.

Figure : Plot of Experimental Results for Calculation of

Permeability .

Darcy’s law should not be extrapolated to the origin. Deviation from the straight
line at high flow rates is an indication of turbulent flow This deviation shows that
the pressure drop in turbulent flow is higher than viscous flow. By increasing the
pressure drop we can reach to a maximum flow rate capacity of the medium, after
that flow rate will not increase by increasing the pressure drop.
Effect of reactive liquid on permeability

While water used as testing liquid in permeability determination, in

samples with clay material water act as a reactive liquid in connection
with permeability determination. Reactive liquids alter the internal
geometry of the porous medium which causes permeability change.
The effect of clay swelling in presence of water when water used as
testing fluid in permeability test is the most known effect of a reactive
testing fluid. The degree of swelling is a function of water salinity.
While the fresh water may cause swelling of the cementation material
in the core it is a reversible process. Highly saline water can pass
through the core and return the permeability to its original value.
 The klinkenberg effect

This effect is due to slip flow of gas at pore walls which enhances gas flow when pore
sizes are very small. Experimental results show (1) that gas permeability is larger than
water permeability by several times to one order of magnitude, (2) that gas permeability
increases with increasing pore pressure, and (3) that water permeability slightly increases
with increasing pore-pressure gradient across the specimen. The results (1) and (2) can be
explained by Klinkenberg effect quantitatively with an empirical power law for
Klinkenberg constant. Thus water permeability can be estimated from gas permeability.
The Klinkenberg effect is important when permeability is lower than 10-18 m2 and at low
differential pore pressures, and its correction is essential for estimating water
permeability from the measurement of gas permeability. A simple Bingham-flow model
of pore water can explain the overall trend of the result (3) above. More sophisticated
models with a pore-size distribution and with realistic rheology of water film is needed to
account for the observed deviation from Darcy's law .
 Figure : Permeability of Core Sample to Three Different Gases and Different Mean Pressure .

Effect of overburden pressure

All the confining forces release and rock matrix expands when the core is removed from the formation.
Fluid flow path in the rock changes by expansion of the rock’s matrix. Compaction of the core due to
the overburden pressure may cause as much as 60% reduction in the permeability of various
formations. So there is a need to an empirical correlation to correct the surface permeability for
overburden pressure. It is noted that some formations are more compressible than others, so we need
more data to develop this correlation .
 What is the well loging

Well logging is an evaluation method in which a logging crew lowers a

special tool, a sonde, into the well and then pulls it back up. As the
sonde passes the formations on its way up the wellbore, it senses and
measures electrical, radioactive, and acoustic (sound) properties of the
rocks.
 THE IMPORTANCE OF WELL LOGGING

1-Determination of lithology.

2-Determination of reservoir characteristics (e.g. porosity, saturation, permeability).

3-Determination formation dip and hole size.

4-Identification of productive zones, to determine depth and thickness of zones.

5-Distinguish between oil, gas, or water in a reservoir, and to estimate hydrocarbon

reserves.

6-Geologic maps developed from log interpretation help with determining facies
relationships and drilling locations.
Well Log Techniques

• Acoustic Logs
• Caliper Log
• Chemical Logging
• Density Log
• Gamma Log
• Image Logs
• Mud Logging
• Neutron Log
• Pressure Temperature Log
• Single-Well and Cross-Well Resistivity
• Spontaneous Potential Well log
 Use well logging

Well drilling is a high cost process, so detailed

information must be obtained about the different
rock layers that we drill. This gives greater
certainty about whether hydrocarbons are
present or not.
Once the well has been drilled to the target depth,
the drill pipe is removed from the hole, and
specialized logging crew and equipment are brought
to the site. The crew assembles the probe (a tool for
measuring the depth or capacity of the tank)
consisting of several different recording tools
connected to each other. The length of the probe
ranges between 70-120 feet in relation to the
number of tools used in the probe.
The probe is lowered into the borehole by a
wire line. This is carefully monitored by the
well logging staff and geologists. As the probe
is being lifted, various logging tools are
activated by the computers on the surface
which produce a graph called (the well log).
Gamma log :

A gamma ray machine measures

radiation emitted by rocks. Rocks that
emit less radiation are more likely to
contain hydrocarbons such as limestone
and sandstone than rocks that emit
more.
Apparent water resistivity:

indicates the presence of water in the

rock formations surrounding the
borehole of the well
Resistivity

The interlinear impedance are six

impedance curves, each measured at a
different distance from the wellbore.
How well do rocks conduct electricity?
The left side shows lower resistance to
electricity, while the right side indicates
greater resistance to oil or gas.
The relationship between porosity and permeability

Porosity is the distances between the particles, and these distances can be tight or
loose.

Permeability is the ability of a rock to pass liquids through its pores.

Factors affecting porosity

1_ grain packaging The higher the packing, the lower the porosity and
permeability.

Grain Packaging
2_ grain size The more equal the
particle size, the greater the
porosity and permeability.

Grain size
3_ Grain shape :
The more rounded the granules, the more
porosity and permeability increased .

Grain shape

4_ Grain sorting :
The higher the sorting, the greater the
porosity and permeability .

Grain sorting
5_ Fracture :
The higher the fracture, the
greater the porosity and
permeability.

Fracture

6_ Solution :
The higher the solution, the
lower the porosity and permeability.

Solution
Thank you for listening