Sandstone Reservoirs
Prepared by: Ala Ghafur
In this class
What is Reservoir rock?
Porosity
Permeability
Sandstone reservoir:
Depositional environment
Controls of Porosity in sandstone reservoir
Types of porosity in sandstone reservoir
What is Reservoir rock?
What: Is a porous and permeable rocks (ex. coarse-grained
sandstones and carbonates-Limestone) that has both storage
capacity and the ability to allow fluids to flow through it.
Porosity and permeability are influenced by the depositional
pore-geometries of the reservoir sediments and the post-
depositional diagenetic changes that take place.
Where: several depositional environments: from aeolian, deltaic,
marine shallow siliciclastic and carbonate sands, reefs, and poorly
cemented, dissolved, fractured rocks.
Porosity
Porosity is defined as the ratio of pore space in a sediment or sedimentary
rock to the total volume of the rock. It is commonly expressed in percentage.
Porosity (%) = (Vp/Vb)*100
Where Vp is pore volume and Vb is bulk volume. This formula yields the total
or absolute porosity.
Petroleum geologists are often more interested in the effective porosity,
which is the ratio of the interconnected pore space to the bulk volume of a
rock.
Effective porosity (%) = (IVp/Vb)*100
where IVp is interconnected pore volume. It is the effective porosity,
commonly several percent less than total porosity, that controls the
movement of fluids through rock.
Porosity between the quartz
Total porosity Vs. Effective porosity
grains of sandstone
Permeability
Permeability is commonly defined as the ability of a medium to transmit a
fluid. It is expressed by Darcy or mili-darcy D or mD.
The passage of fluids through porous substances and formulated an
equation for fluid flow that is commonly called Darcy’s law. This equation is
expressed as
Q = K (P1 – P2) A/ μ L
where Q is the flow rate, K is the permeability constant or permeability of the
flow medium, P1 − P2 is the pressure drop across length L of the medium, A is
the cross-sectional area of the medium, and μ is the viscosity of the fluid.
Gas reservoir = 0.1mD
Oil reservoir need to be 100x or 1000x more permeable than gas reservoir.
Porosity Vs Permeability
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Sandstone Reservoirs
Sandstone reservoirs are generally created by the accumulation of
large amounts of clastic sediments which is characteristic of
depositional environments such as river channels, deltas, beaches,
alluvial fans and submarine fans.
Sandstone reservoirs have a depositional porosity and permeability
controlled by grain shape (roundness), grain size (sorting), and
packing of the sediments.
Diagenetic changes may include precipitation of clay minerals in
the pore space, occlusion of pores by mineral cements, or even
creation of additional pores by dissolution of some sediments.
Depositional Environments of
sandstone
Alluvial
Fan
Submarine River
fans Channel
Sand
dune/
Delta
Aeolian
Dune
Beach/
Barrier
Island
Depositional Environments
Alluvial fans
River
channel
Aeolian Delta
Dunes
Beaches
Barrier
Island
Submarine
fans
Alluvial fan
Alluvial fan: As a streams emerge
from mountains onto flatter plains,
they deposit broad, fan-shaped
piles of sediments.
River Channel: Rivers deposit
elongate lenses of conglomerate or
sandstone in their channels. It
contains cross-beds and ripple
marks.
Sand Dune/Aeolian dune: The term Aeolian describes the process
of wind erosion, deposition, and how it is transported. It also has to
do with the deposits that wind leave behind, such as sand dunes. A
sand dune is an elongated mound of sand formed by wind or
water.
Delta: Is a body of sediment deposited when a river flows into
standing water such as sea or lake. It has low-angle of cross-
bedding.
Beach, Barrier Island: A barrier island is an elongate bar of sand
built by wave action. Beaches and barrier islands and dunes are
characterized by cross-bedding.
Submarine fans: are underwater geological structures associated with
large-scale sediment deposition which formed by turbidity currents. They
can be thought of as an underwater version of alluvial fans and can vary
dramatically in size, with widths from several kilometres to several thousands
of kilometres.
Submarine fans
Controls of Porosity in sandstone
reservoir
1. Sorting: In sandstone, porosity is largely controlled by
sorting.
In Well Sorted Rock— Grains are generally of the same
size and shape. If the grains are well rounded and of
similar size, then they will not fit well together, thereby
leaving a large amount of pore space between the
grains. Porosity in a well sorted rock is generally high.
In Poorly Sorted Rock— Rock that is composed of a
wide variety of grain sizes and shapes. Porosity can be
reduced considerably because smaller or irregularly
shaped grains can be inserted in between the larger
grains, thereby reducing the amount of pore space.
Controls of Porosity in sandstone
reservoir
2. Roundness: The degree of sorting and packing are dependent upon roundness
of the grains. The degree of roundness and sphericity is a function of the erosional
processes the grains have undergone during transport and burial.
Controls of Porosity in sandstone
reservoir
3. Grain Packing— Refers to the spacing or density patterns of grains in a
sedimentary rock and is a function mainly of grain size, grain shape, and the
degree of compaction of the sediment.
Types of porosity in sandstone
The primary porosity is the intergranular, formed during deposition.
The fractures and dissolution are types of secondary porosity can be
formed during post-depositional diagenetic processes.
Thin section illustrating grain and pore configuration in sandstone
Quartz grain
Pores
End
