POROSITY

Porosity is the ratio of pores (micro-voids) in the stone, to its total solid volume. Pores and the capillary structure develop differently in each of the three stone groups.

PORES & CAPILLARY STRUCTURE

Igneous Stones: The formation process of these stones under high pressure and temperature allows very little open pore space. However, the quartz grains contract more than half their volume during the cooling process, and extensive cracking develops across and around the quartz grains. The grain size of granite and granite-type stones range from small to large and a particular variety may be composed of two grain sizes, this increases its porosity. It can be said that granite has more of a fracture system than a pore system. Metamorphic Stones: During the re-crystallization process of limestone to marble the small grains of calcite are reorganized into a larger crystal structure and are being repacked into a new texture. It is during this growth and repacking that micro-spaces (pores) develop between the grains. Mineralogy and degree of metamorphism causes sizes and shapes of pores to differ in quartzite and slate. Sedimentary Stones: Pores develop as a result of compaction and the cementing process. A nearly unlimited variety of pore sizes and shapes are characteristic of sedimentary stones.

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The porosity ratio is lower in igneous and metamorphic stones, generally higher in sedimentary types. POROSITY RATIOS % Granite 0.4 - 1.5 Slate 0.4 - 5 Marble 0.5 - 2 Limestone 0.6 - 31 Quartzite 0.4 - 3.9 Sandstone 0.5 - 35

Porosity: Porosity is an intrinsic property of every material. It refers to the amount of empty
space within a given material. In a soil or rock the porosity (empty space) exists between the grains of minerals. In a material like gravel the grains are large and there is lots of empty space between them since they don't fit together very well. However, in a material like a gravel, sand and clay mixture the porosity is much less as the smaller grains fill the spaces. The amount of water a material can hold is directly related to the porosity since water will try and fill the empty spaces in a material. We measure porosity by the percentage of empty space that exists within a particular porous media.

Influence of Porosity
For some ceramic fabrication techniques, the precursor material is in the form of a powder. Subsequent to compaction or forming of these powder particles into the desired shape, pores or void spaces will exist between the powder particles. During the ensuing heat treatment, much of this porosity will be eliminated; however, it is often the case that this pore elimination process is incomplete and some residual porosity will remain (Figure 13.17). Any residual porosity will have a deleterious influence on both the elastic properties and strength. For example, it has been observed for some ceramic materials that the magnitude of the modulus of elasticity E decreases with volume fraction porosity P according to

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where is the modulus of elasticity of the nonporous material. The influence of volume fraction porosity on the modulus of elasticity for aluminum oxide is shown in Figure 12.35; the curve represented in the figure is according to Equation 12.9. Porosity is deleterious to the flexural strength for two reasons: (1) pores reduce the cross-sectional area across which a load is applied, and (2) they also act as stress concentratorsfor an isolated spherical pore, an applied tensile stress is amplified by a factor of 2.The influence of porosity on strength is rather dramatic; for example,

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it is not uncommon that 10 vol% porosity will decrease the flexural strength by 50% from the measured value for the nonporous material. The degree of the influence of pore volume on flexural strength is demonstrated in Figure 12.36, again for aluminum oxide. Experimentally it has been shown that the flexural strength decreases exponentially with volume fraction porosity (P) as

PERMEABILITY
Associated with stones porosity is its permeability. This is the extent to which the pores and capillary structures are interconnected throughout the stone. These networks, their size, structure and orientation affect the degree and depth to which moisture, vapors and liquids can be absorb into the interior of the stone or migrate from the substrate by capillary action through the stone. Permeability may be greater in some directions than others based upon the pore size, shape and the distribution of the interconnectedness of the system. Permeability is increased when a stone is highly fractured or the veining material is soft or grainy. A particular variety of stone may be highly permeable ( a well defined interconnected network of pores), although its porosity is low (a low percentage of voids). The size and shapes of pores and the capillary structure differs in stones and is an important factor in relation to stone decay.
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Permeability: Permeability is another intrinsic property of all materials and is closely related to porosity. Permeability refers to how connected pore spaces are to one another. If the material has high permeability than pore spaces are connected to one another allowing water to flow from one to another, however, if there is low permeability then the pore spaces are isolated and water is trapped within them. For example, in a gravel all of the pores well connected one another allowing water to flow through it, however, in a clay most of the pore spaces are blocked, meaning water cannot flow through it easily.

WATER SATURATION BASICS

SATURATION BASICS

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Water saturation is the ratio of water volume to pore volume. Water bound to the shale is not included, so shale corrections must be performed if shale is present. We calculate water saturation from the effective porosity and the resistivity log. Hydrocarbon saturation is 1 (one) minus the water saturation. Most oil and gas reservoirs are water wet; water coats the surface of each rock grain. A few reservoirs are oil wet, with oil on the rock surface and water contained in the pores, surrounded by oil. Some reservoirs are partially oil wet. Oil wet reservoirs are very poor producers as it is difficult to get the oil to detach itself from the rock surface. It is fairly easy to take a core sample, clean it and dry it, then make the rock oil wet. However, reservoir rocks are seldom clean and dry, so that same rock in-situ will often be water wet.

A water wet reservoir (left)

An oil wet reservoir (right)

In a water wet reservoir, the water is held in place by surface tension. The surface water does not move while the oil or gas is being produced. This situation is shown below (left).

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Water wet formation with hydrocarbon before invasion (left) and after invasion (right). The same illustrations are used to describe a reservoir at initial conditions (left) and after production by aquifer drive or an efficient water flood - water moves in to replace the oil that is withdrawn (right). When a reservoir is drilled, some of the fluids near the wellbore are pushed away and the zone is invaded by the drilling fluid. If hydrocarbons were present, the water saturation after invasion will be higher than the original reservoir conditions. A shallow resistivity log will see the invaded zone water saturation. A deep resistivity log should see the original formation water saturation as long as invasion was not too deep. Production of oil or gas will often change the water saturation, but the amount of change varies with the drive mechanism.

Aquifer drive (left) pushes oil up, increases water saturation as the oil is produced. Gas cap drive (right) pushes oil down, but water saturation does not change until the gas that replaced the oil is also produced. If there is no aquifer, both situations produce only by expansion drive - in this case water saturation does not change unless a water flood is imposed by the field operator.

Expansion drive is also called solution drive as it is the gas in solution in the oil that pushes oil out of the reservoir. Water saturation does not change and oil recovery is very small (5 to 10% depending on gas-oil ratio and oil viscosity) unless a water flood is instituted. Gas reservoirs can produce with reasonably high recovery from pure expansion drive (Sw nearly constant), but there may also be an aquifer drive component (Sw will increase over time). Reservoir monitoring is used to assess the changes in water saturation over time. Monitoring is accomplished by periodically running appropriate logs through casing and analyzing the logs for porosity and water saturation. Changes in the position of the oil-water or gas-oil contact can lead to a workover of the well to restrict the perforated interval to reduce water or gas production. Modern
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technology applied to older wells may even find bypassed pay zones to find ways to improve the economic performance of the well.

BASIC SATURATION MODEL - ARCHIE"S METHOD Almost all saturation computation methods rely on work originally done by Gus Archie in 194041. He found from laboratory studies that, in a shale free, water filled rock, the Formation Factor (F) was a constant defined by: 1: F = R0 / RW He also found that F varied with porosity: 2: F = A / (PHIt ^ M) For a tank of water, R0 = RW. Therefore F = 1. Since PHIt = 1, then A must also be 1.0 and M can have any value. If porosity is zero, F is infinite and both A and M can have any value. However, for real rocks, both A and M vary with grain size, sorting, and rock texture. The normal range for A is 0.5 to 1.5 and for M is 1.7 to about 3.2. Archie used A = 1 and M = 2. In fine vuggy rock, M can be as high as 7.0 with a correspondingly low value for A. In fractures, M can be as low as 1.1. In some rocks, M varies with porosity. Note that R0 is also spelled Ro in the literature. For shale free rocks with both hydrocarbon and water in the pores, he also defined the term Formation Resistivity Index (I) as: 3: I = Rt / R0 4: Sw = (1 / I) ^ (1 / N) Archie used an N of 2 and the usual range is from 1.3 to 2.6, depending on rock texture. It is often taken to equal M, but this is not supported by core data in all cases. A, M, and N are called the electrical properties of the rock. They are found usually from laboratory measurements. Rearrangement of these four equations gives the more usual Archie water saturation equation: 5: SWa = (A * RW@FT / (PHIe ^ M) / RESD) ^ (1 / N) True resistivity (Rt) is estimated from the deep resistivity log (RESD) or RESD corrected for borehole effects and invasion (RESDc). RESD can come from many different logging tools, such as the Electrical Survey (64 inch Normal), induction log, laterolog, and all their modern siblings. The actual curve name and abbreviation must be determined from the log heading Porosity is determined from any one of a dozen available methods.
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Shale corrections are applied by adding a shale conductivity term with an associated shale porosity and shale formation factor relationship. Numerous authors have explored this approach, leading to numerous potential solutions for water saturation

DEFINITION OF SATURATION Saturation of any given fluid in a pore space is the ratio of the volume of that fluid to the pore space volume. For example, a water saturation of 10% means that 1/10 of the pore space is filled with water; the balance is filled with something else (oil, gas, air, etc. - a pore cannot be empty). As for porosity, saturation data is often reported in percentage units but is always a fraction in equations.

Porosity is the capacity of the rock to hold fluids. Saturation is the fraction of this capacity that actually holds any particular fluid. Porosity, hydrocarbon saturation, the thickness of the reservoir rock and the real extent of the reservoir determine the total hydrocarbon volume in place. Hydrocarbon volume, recovery factor, and production rate establish the economic potential of the reservoir. Irreducible water saturation (SWir) is the minimum water saturation obtainable in a rock. Water is usually the wetting fluid in oil or gas reservoirs, so a film of water covers each pore surface. The surface area thus defines the irreducible water saturation. Formations at irreducible water saturation cannot produce water until water encroaches into the reservoir after some oil or gas has been withdrawn. Small pores have larger surface area relative to their volume so the irreducible water saturation is higher. If pores are small enough, the irreducible water saturation may be 1.0, leaving no room for oil or gas to accumulate. The initial water saturation (SWi) is the saturation of an undisturbed reservoir with no prior production from any earlier well. Usually SWir = SWi, at least above the oil water transition zone. In the transition zone, SWa is higher than SWir and some water would be produced if the well was completed in this interval. In a reservoir that has had some production, SWa may be higher than SWir (and higher than SWi) so some water may be produced with the oil. Of the total amount of oil or gas present in a reservoir, only a fraction of it can be produced, depending on the recovery efficiency. This recovery factor, normally determined by experience, is typically in the 20% to 50% range for oil, and may be as high as 95% for gas zones, or as low as 5% in heavy oil. Recovery factor can sometimes be estimated from log data by observing the moveable hydrocarbon volume.

Introduction of Petroleum
Petroleum simply means rock oil which is mainly the compound of hydrogen and carbon. It had been discovered by people long times ago and today it has become the dominant energy resource
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to keep the world working. First of all to understand this issue is to truly learn the underground condition of oil reservoir. There are four main factors involved in to form a recoverable hydrocarbon formation, sources rock, reservoir rock, trap and cap. Oil expelled from source rocks, which were mainly shale, and transported by gravity or pressure to those rocks having pore space, then those rocks confronted faults or other impermeable barriers to get trapped, finally they were stored and formed a recoverable oil formation. Two rock properties should be stated here because they are the essential elements to do everything about petroleum issues, they are Porosity and permeability. Porosity defined as the ratio between pore space and rock bulk volume. Higher porosity indicates a great storage potential of a rock. Permeability simply indicates how efficient fluid can pass through those rocks. High porosity sometimes cant guarantee an optimum prospect. Because those pore spaces are not fully communicated with each other, only when those pores are efficiently connected, then the oil can be recovered from the formation

There are three structures can indicate oil reservoir potentials, they are anticline, faults and stratigraphic trap.
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One of the most common debates in Petrophysics is whether to use Total or Effective Porosity. This article discusses the differences between the two. It explains why total porosities should always be calculated and why some companies use effective porosity to improve their insight into reservoir behaviour. Definitions Total porosity may be defined as all the pore space containing fluids (water, oil or gas), whether or not they are mobile. This pore space includes any hydrocarbon fluids, mobile water, capillary bound water and clay-bound water. There are various definitions of 'effective' porosity e.g.Juhasz (1986), Hill-Shirley-Klein (1979), Clavier-Coates-Dumanoir (1977). However, the most common definition is: = T - VD, E where T is the total porosity of clean (clay free) sand and VD is the volume of dispersed clay in the sand pore space expressed as a fraction of the bulk volume. In other words, effective porosity is total porosity less the volume of clay-bound water. Of course, when you decrease porosity by converting from a total porosity to an effective porosity, the hydrocarbon saturations must increase, since the same amount of hydrocarbon is present. In other words, the hydrocarbon volumes estimated using either a total or effective porosity system are the same (i.e. ShTTh = ShEEh), it should make no difference which system is utilised. Core Calibration of Porosity To have the most confidence in your log evaluations, the core derived measurements should agree with those from your wireline logs. Since it is not possible to measure effective porosities in a reliable and repeatable manner, calibration with core analyses is best achieved by measuring total porosities on core plugs and comparing these with total porosities estimated from logs. Calculating Total Porosity The best way to calculate total porosity is using the density log, correcting for lithology (using grain density) and fluid density (using invaded zone resistivity or neutron logs). For completeness the formula recommended is:
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T = ( - )/ (ma - (hc(1-Sxo)+mfSxo)) ma where ma is the grain density (normally determined from laboratory measurements on core material), is the density log measurement, hc is the in-situ hydrocarbon density (from pressure data or sampling), mf is the mud filtrate density (from correlation charts normally) and Sxo is the invaded zone water saturation. Of course, solving this equation properly requires iteration since Sxo is dependent on T, no matter which saturation model you use (Archie, Dual-Water, Indonesia, Waxman-Smits etc.). Unfortunately, this requirement is also why this type of solution is not more commonly used. In actuality, the math is very straightforward to program nowadays. In the absence of density log (or NMR) data, total porosities are best calculated by empirical calibration to core data. Determining Effective Porosity From the first equation, to estimate the effective porosity, some estimate of VD must be made. Typically the density neutron separation or the gamma ray logs are used to make this estimate. Actually, in the industry today, over 20 different models for the shale fraction VD are in use. A lot of time is spent in discussions between personnel as to which model is most appropriate in any particular circumstance. Of course, once E is known, along with T and ShT, ShE can be readily calculated from the second equation. Porosity & Water Saturations Once a total or effective porosity has been determined, it must be used in a water saturation equation to determine hydrocarbon saturations. If you've used a total porosity model, then there's no concern about which shale fraction model you've used. If you've gone down the effective porosity route too early, you must adjust the saturation model to account for the conductivity of the clay-bound water that is measured by the resistivity logs, but not accounted for in the porosity. Effective Porosity, Permeability & Mobile Fluids So why bother with effective porosity at all? - There are a number of reasons: Effective porosity is primarily used as a tool to help people understand whether or not the hydrocarbons are likely to flow. In this respect, formation pressure tests or NMR measurements would be more diagnostic. Since effective porosity refers to the fluids that are not bound to the rock matrix, there is typically a better correlation between effective porosity and permeability than there is using total porosity unless there is negligible shale present. Hence, if you're having trouble working out a decent
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porosity to permeability transform, effective porosity may reduce your difficulties. Summary Since a total porosity system is more reliably calibrated to core and simpler to work in, this is the approach recommended for petrophysical evaluation. If there are conductive shales present, correct for these using total porosity and either the Waxman-Smits or Dual Water models to get water saturations. Use effective porosity only to calibrate a permeability transform. If you need effective porosities and water saturations for some other reason (e.g. your volumetric model is "effective"), calculate them from your calibrated total porosity system.

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