Petroleum Geology 221 Lecture 7 November 20, 2011

Source and Reservoir Rocks

By Md. Shofiqul Islam

 Source rock
A sedimentary rock in which petroleum forms.
A rock rich in organic matter which, if heated sufficiently,
will generate oil or gas.
Typical source rocks,
usually shales or limestones, contain about 1% organic matter
and
at least 0.5% total organic carbon (TOC), although a rich source
rock might have as much as 10% organic matter.
Rocks of marine origin tend to be oil-prone,
whereas
terrestrial source rocks (such as coal) tend to be gas-prone.
Preservation of organic matter without degradation is critical
to creating a good source rock, and necessary for a complete
petroleum system.
Under the right conditions, source rocks may also be
reservoir rocks, as in the case of shale gas reservoirs.
 Total organic carbon
The concentration of organic material in source rocks
as represented by the weight percent of organic carbon.
A value of approximately 0.5% total organic carbon by
weight percent is considered the minimum for an
effective source rock, although values of 2% are
considered the minimum for shale gas reservoirs
Total organic carbon is measured from 1-g samples of
pulverized rock that are combusted and converted to
CO or CO2.
If a sample appears to contain sufficient total organic
carbon to generate hydrocarbons, it may be subjected to
pyrolysis.
In global average terms, claystones and shales
(excluding oceanic sediments) contain only 0.99
wt% (weight percent) of organic carbon,
compared with 0.33 wt% in carbonate rocks and
0.28 wt% in average sandstones (Hunt,1979).
In comparison, most source rocks contain in
excess of 1.0 wt% of organic carbon, rich source
rocks contain >5.0 wt%, and the value can reach
as high as 20 wt%.
 Reservoir rock
A permeable subsurface rock that contains
petroleum. Must be both porous and
permeable.
Reservoir rocks are dominantly sedimentary
(sandstones and carbonates); however, highly
fractured igneous and metamorphic rocks
have been known to produce hydrocarbons in
smaller scale.
Sandstones and Sandstone Reservoirs
Description:
Composed of sand-sized particles
Sandstones may contain textural features indicative of the
environment in which they were deposited: ripple marks
(alluvial/fluvial), cross-bedding (alluvial/fluvial or eolian),
gradedbedding (turbidity current)
Typically light beige to tan in color; can also be dark brown to rusty
red

Classification:
Sandstones can be further classified according to the abundance of
grains of a particular chemical composition (i.e., common source
rock);
for example, an arkosic sanstone (usually abbreviated: ark. s.s.) is a
sandstone largely composed of feldspar (feldspathic) grains.
Sandstones composed of nearly all quartz grains are labeled quartz
sandstones (usually abbreviated: qtz. s.s.)
Properties:
Sandstone porosity is on the range of 10-30%
Intergranular porosity is largely determined by sorting (primary porosity)
Poorly indurated sandstones are referred to as fissile (easily disaggregated when
scratched), whereas highly indurated sandstones can be very resistant to
weathering and erosion
History:
Sandstones are deposited in a number of different environments. These can
include deserts (e.g., wind-blown sands, i.e., eolian), stream valleys (e.g.,
alluvial/fluvial), and coastal/transitional environments (e.g., beach sands, barrier
islands, deltas, turbidites)
Because of the wide variety of depositional environments in which sandstones can
be found, care should be taken to observe textural features (i.e., grading, cross-
bedding, etc.) within the reservoir that may provide evidence of its original
diagenetic environment
Knowing the depositional environment of the s.s. reservoir is especially important
in determining reservoir geometry and in anticipating potentially underpressured
(commonly found in channel sandstones) and overpressured reservoir conditions
Occurrence
Are the second most abundant (about 37%) sedimentary rock type of the three
(sanstones, shales, carbonates), the most common reservoir rock, and are the
second highest producer (about 37%)

Geologic Symbol:
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. . . . . .. . .. .. . . . . . . . .
. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Limestone and Dolomite
Properties:
Porosity is largely a result of dissolution and fracturing (secondary porosity)
Carbonates such as coquina are nearly 100% fossil fragments (largely primary porosity)
Are characteristically hard rocks, especially dolomite
Susceptible to dissolution weathering
History:
Limestone reservoirs owe their origin exclusively to shallow marine depositional
environments(lagoons, atolls, etc)
Limestone formations slowly accumulate when the remains of calcareous shelly marine
organisms (brachiopods, bivalves, foramaniferans) and coral and algae living in a
shallow tropical environment settle to the ocean bottom
Over large geologic time scales these accumulations can grow to hundreds of feet thick
(El Capitan, a Permian reef complex, in West Texas is over 600 ft thick)
Occurrence:
Are the least geologically abundant (about 21%) of the three (shales, sandstones,
carbonates), but the highest producer (about 61.5%)

Geologic Symbol:
Limestone layers of uniform rectangles, each layer offset from that above it.
Dolomite layers of uniform rhomboids, each layer offset from that above it.
 Reservoir rock
For a rock to be a petroleum reservoir, it need only be
porous capable of holding petroleum.
For a rock to be an "economically viable petroleum
reservoir" that is, an oil- or gasfieldmany other factors
must be considered; some are geologic.
The rock must be permeable; that is, able to flow petroleum
(Fig. 4.8).
The volume of trapped petroleum must be sufficient to
justify development and the reservoir not too
compartmentalized. These elements are used to calculate oil
or gas-in-place estimates, which in turn are multiplied by a
formation volume factor and a recovery factor to produce
the reserves estimate-how much petroleum we expect to get
out.
 A formation volume factor
represents the change in
volume of the oil that will
take place when it is lifted
from the high pressure and
temperature of the
reservoir and placed in the
"stock tank" (Fig. 4.9).
The equivalent term for gas
is the gas expansion factor.
The recovery factor is an
estimate of the percentage
of petroleum that is likely to
be recovered; this is rarely
greater than 50% for oil and
rarely less than 80% for gas
 Intrinsic properties

For the purposes of exploration, only a few

intrinsic reservoir properties of a potential
reservoir rock need be considered.

1. net to gross;
2. porosity;
3. permeability;
4. hydrocarbon saturation.
 Net to gross
Net to gross is a measure of the potentially productive part of a reservoir. It is
commonly expressed either as a percentage of producible (net) reservoir within
the overall (gross) reservoir package or sometimes as a ratio.
The percentage net reservoir can vary from just a few percent to 100%.
Care must be taken to recognize the difference between net to gross, the
potentially productive part of a reservoir, and netpay, that which actually
contains petroleum.
It is common to define net sand (or limestone) using a permeability cutoff. The
exact value will depend upon the nature of the petroleum and the complexity of
the reservoir but, as a rough guide, 1 mD is commonly used for gas and 10 mD is
enough for light oil (for an explanation of the units, see the section below on
Permeability).
However, such detailed knowledge of permeability is only available when the
reservoir has been cored or a petroleum flow test completed.
For uncored intervals and uncored wells, we often rely on a combination of data
on lithology and porosity from wireline logs, calibrated to permeability data in a
cored interval.
Fractured reservoirs present their own particular problems when it comes to
prediction or even measurement of net to gross.
 Porosity
Porosity is the void space in a rock (Fig. 4.11). It is commonly
measured as either a volume percentage or a fraction
(expressed as a decimal).
In the subsurface this volume may be filled with petroleum
(oil and gas), water, a range of nonhydrocarbon gasses (CO2,
H2S, N2), or some combination of these.
Typically, many reservoirs have a porosity in the range 20
30% but the full range varies from a few percent in some
fractured reservoirs to around 70% in some types of
limestone reservoir.
Fig,4.1 I Porosity, (a) Intergranular porosity
(X) between quartz grains
with quartz overgrowths, UIa Formation,
Norwegian North Sea; thin-section
photomicrograph, field of view 650 JJ,m X
450 /im. (b) Intragranular porosity (X) within
feldspar grain, UIa Formation, Norwegian
North Sea; thin-section photomicrograph,
field of view 1.3 mm X 0.9 mm. (c)
Microporosity (arrowed) between illitized
kaolinite crystals, Brent Group sandstone, UK
North Sea; scanning electron microscope
photomicrograph, field of view 25 (Im X 17
JXm. (d) Intergranular porosity (X) in
limestone, beach rock, Bahamas; the rock has
been partially cemented by aragonite. (From
Bathurst 1975.) (e) Biomoldic porosity (x)
within dasycladacean (D) and mollusk (M)
molds, Pennsylvanian limestone, Texas; field
of view 5 mm X 4 mm. (From Dickson & Sailer
1995.) (0 Intercrystalline porosity (X) within
dolomite, Zechstein dolomite, Dutch North
Sea; the periphery of each pore is oil stained;
thin-section photomicrograph, field of view
1.3 mm X 0.9 mm. (g) Cavernous porosity,
Ste.
 For sands and sandstones, many authors use a
simple three fold description of porosity:
intergranular,
intragranular, and
"micro."
Intergranular porosity occurs between grains.
Individual pores in a clean sand will occupy
approximately 40% of the total volume (grains
plus void).
For coarse sands the pores are larger than in fine
sands. In most sands and sandstones the
intergranular porosity is primary, a residuum of
that imparted at deposition.
Some intergranular porosity may be created in
sandstones by the dissolution of mineral cements
such as calcite (Schmidt & McDonald 1979).
 Intragranular porosity is largely secondary in origin, created on
partial dissolution of grains in the sandstone. Minerals such as chert
and feldspar commonly have pores within them. Any oil trapped in
such secondary pores is unlikely to be released from the reservoir
during production.
Microporosity simply means small pores, those associated with
depositional or diagenetic clay or other microcrystalline cements.
The development of porosity in limestones and dolomites is much
more variable than that for sandstones. Both rock types are much
more prone to mineral dissolution and precipitation than
sandstones.
This, coupled with the often varied suite of shell and other bioclastic
materials in the carbonates, makes for a wealth of pore types:
intergranular, intragranular, intercrystalline, intracrystalline,
biomoldic, vuggy, fracture, and cavernous (Fig. 4.11).
The size range for pores is also much greater for limestones than for
sandstones: from micropores (a few Jim) in individual oolite grains
to giant cave systems (Bathurst 1975).
 Permeability
Permeability is an intrinsic property of a material that
determines how easily a fluid can pass through it.
In the petroleum industry, the darcy (D) is the standard unit
of permeability
A Darcy is denned as a flow rate of 10-2 ms-1 for a fluid of 1
cp (centipoise) under a pressure of 10-4 atom-2.
Permeability in reservoir rocks may range from 0.1 mD to
more than 10D.
Permeability measurements made at the Earth's surface
are commonly a factor or more greater than those in the
subsurface.
As a consequence, a pressure correction must be made to
restore the value of permeability to reservoir conditions.
This intrinsic rock property is called "absolute permeability"
when the rock is 100% saturated with one fluid phase.
 Fig.4.12 Average permeability for various producing fields on the UK and Norwegian continental shelves. Many
of the low permeability reservoirs are still able to deliver in excess of 10,000 bbl d"1 per well because of low-
viscosity oil, high-pressure drawdown (the pressure differential between the formation and the wellhead) and
heterogeneous permeability distribution. For example, the Gyda reservoir contains highpermeability sandstone
layers (>1000 mD) and most of the chalk fields produce through fracture systems. (Data sources are Spencer
etal. 1987; Abbots 1991;Gluyasetal. 1992; Permeability to air (mD) Oxtobyetal. 1995.)
 Water, oil, and gas saturation
It is rare in nature to find a reservoir entirely oil- (or
gas-) saturated. More commonly, the pore system
contains both oil and water.
The proportions of each phase are usually expressed as
percentages, linked to the abbreviations Sw for water, So
for oil, and Sg for gas.
Water and petroleum saturations are not constant across
a reservoir. They vary in response to position in the oil
column, and the permeability and mineralogy of the
rock.
Oil and water saturations will also change as petroleum
is produced.
END