PETROLEUM

ELSEVIER

Journal of Petroleum

Scienceand Engineering 12 ( 1995) 295-308

Influences of pore geometry, porosity and permeability on initial

water saturation - An empirical method for estimating initial
water saturation by image analysis
Sefer B. Coskun *, Norman C. Wardlaw
Department

ofGeology and Geophysics, The University of Calgaary.Calgary, Alberta T2N IN4, Canada
Received22 September1994;accepted22 September1994

Abstract
Investigation of the relationships between two-dimensional pore geometrical data, from image analysis of thin sections, and
initial water saturation, measured by conventional laboratory techniques on core plugs, reveals that the volumes of small pores
within the pore space have strong influences on initial water saturation. A North American and a North Sea reservoir were
investigated and empirical models specific to each reservoir show that 72% and 73% of the variance in initial water saturation
can be explained by image data. The average amount that estimated initial water saturation differs from the experimentally
measured initial water saturation is + 3% and f 3.5%, respectively, for the two reservoirs.
It is also shown that the negative relationship between porosity or permeability and initial water saturation, which commonly
have been used for prediction of saturation, are not universal but depend on the degree of pore size variation. Significant negative
relationships between permeability and initial water saturation occur for rocks with relatively uniform pore systems but different
pore sizes. For rocks with varying degrees of non-uniform pore systems, quantitative determination of pore structure is essential
in order to estimate initial water saturation.
The porosity classification technique used in this study is shown to be useful for determining the pore geometrical parameters
which are significant for the prediction of initial water saturation. This technique could be used to evaluate initial water saturations
of larger numbers of samples including samples too small for conventional testing.

1. Introduction
Initial water saturation occurs during the immiscible
displacement of water by another fluid (oil or gas) in
a porous medium. The mechanism of immiscible fluid
displacement involves capillary action. The amount of
water (as a wetting phase) removed from a porous
medium is related to externally applied pressure and
can be illustrated with a capillary pressure drainage
curve (Fig. 1). The pressure required to remove the
* Correspondingauthor.
0920-4105/95/$09.50
0 1995
SSDIO920-4105(94)00051-4

Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

water depends on the size of the pore throats within the

porous medium. Thus, the height and slope of the capillary pressure curve reflects the pore throat size distribution of the samples. The water saturation at an
arbitrary pressure where saturation becomes relatively
insensitive to further increases in capillary pressure is
defined as the initial water saturation (S,i) (X on
Fig. 1) . This part of the curve represents the pore space
which is too small to be invaded at the maximum pressure. It is also attributed to the portion of the pore
volume which contains water which is effectively
hydraulically isolated because of heterogeneous pore

296

S.B. Coskun, N. C. Wardlaw /Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

Fig. 1. Form of typical capillary pressure drainage curve between oil

and water. The pressure data can be converted to size of pore constrictions by the Washburn equation which is P, = 2 y cosO/r, where
P, is the capillary pressure (dynes/cm*), y is the surface tension
between the two fluids (dynes/cm), @is contact angle between the
two fluids, and r is the radius of pore constrictions. The saturation
amount X ( 12% of pore volume) represents initial water saturation.

structure (Morrow, 1970; Morrow, 1971). Samples

with different particle sizes and pore systems may have
similar initial water saturations but require different
pressure levels to reach the initial water saturation. Fig.
2 shows capillary drainage curves for two samples with
the same initial water saturations attained at different
pressures. If the pressure level A were applied to
these samples, different initial water saturations would
be obtained. Thus, the amount of water removed from
a porous medium, and consequently the magnitude of
initial water saturation, is related to externally applied
pressure. In this paper, initial water saturation (S,i) is
defined as water saturation at the same arbitrary high
capillary pressure achieved during centrifuging of samples. The concept of hydraulically isolated irreducible water saturation (Morrow, 1970,197 1) probably
applies only for bead packs with smooth surfaces. Reservoir rocks have rough pore walls such that wetting
phase continuity can be maintained in the nooks and
crannies to very low saturations.
Initial water saturation (S,i) is usually obtained
from conventional laboratory experiments in regularly
shaped pieces of cores. These experiments are expensive and time consuming to perform and, only a few
samples from a reservoir are usually analyzed. Several
workers have used porosity and permeability, which

are relatively easy to measure and more widely available, to estimate Swiof reservoir rocks (Amyx et al.,
1960; Buckles, 1965; Morrow et al., 1969; Chilingarian
and Yen, 1987). Although, in general, there are negative relationships between these parameters and Swi,
porosity and permeability do not always correlate well
with S,i.
Pore properties have a major effect on S,i. Quantitative pore geometrical data have been difficult to
obtain and many workers have used qualitative or semiquantitative petrographic data obtained from thin sections (grain size, framework mineral composition and
diagenetic minerals) to understand the effects of pore
geometry on the entrapment of water in reservoir rocks
(Morrow, 1970, 1971; Morgan and Gordon, 1970;
Wardlaw and Cassan, 1978). Through recent advances
in computer based image analysis of rock samples, it
is now possible to quantify the two dimensional (2-D)
aspects of pore geometry rapidly and effectively by
Petrographic Image Analysis (PIA) (Ehrlich et al.,
1984, 1991a).
A pore system is a three-dimensional network of
spaces which consists of individual pores connected
through constrictions or throats. In a 2-D slice of a rock
impregnated with colored epoxy, a pore system appears
as discrete areas that have been referred to as porosity
elements, or porels (Ehrlich et al., 1991a). Porels

Fig. 2. Capillary pressure drainage curves for two samples with the
same initial water saturation but significantly different pore throat
sizes. The Curve-l represent a coarser grained sample with large
pore sizes. Curve-2 represents a finer grained sample with smaller
pore sizes. initial water saturation is 13.3% for Curve- 1 and 20.5%
for Curve-2 at a capillary pressure A.

S.B. Coskun, N.C. Wardlaw/Joumal

of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

differ in size and shape from the three-dimensional

pores and throats they represent. It is possible to extract
three-dimensional size distributions from 2-D planes
only if the shapes of objects are defined (Weibel,
1979). Pores characteristically have complex shapes
which are difficult to represent with simple geometrical
forms. Nevertheless, pore geometry in 2-D planes is
ultimately related to the three-dimensional pore geometry, and several works have shown that 2-D sections
contain sufficient information to study the relationships
between three-dimensional pore geometry and petrophysical properties (Etris, 1991; Ehrlich et al., 199 1b;
McCreesh et al., 1991; Bonnie and Fens, 1992; Coskun
and Wardlaw, 1993).
In this paper, pore systems of sandstones from two
different oil reservoirs (30 samples from a North American reservoir and 16 samples from a North Sea reservoir) are quantified using image analytical techniques
on thin sections. The thin sections were prepared from
the end pieces of the same core plugs from which initial
water saturation measurements were obtained by conventional laboratory techniques. Pore systems of each
reservoir sample were classified into pore types defined
by characteristic size and shape information and the
proportions of pore types in each sample were determined using PIA. Relationships between 2-D image
data and measured Swi values are reported as well as
relationships between porosity, permeability and S,i.
Empirical models are developed to estimate S,i from
2-D sections of pore systems.

2. Methods
Sandstone core plugs were vacuum impregnated
with blue-dyed epoxy and thin sections were prepared.
The thin sections were digitized using an ARIES-II
Image analyzer and an EIKONIX camera. Images were
produced at a resolution of 5 mm per pixel. The size of
the imaged view for each sample was 3290 X 1500 pixels ( 1.6 X 0.75 centimeters). Binary images segmenting porous and non-porous areas were created based
on light intensities. The Erosion-Dilation (E-D) algorithm of Petrographic Image Analysis (PIA) (Ehrlich
et al., 1991a) was used to generate quantitative size
and shape data from porels in each thin section. Successive iterations of the E-D process were used to produce three pore1 size distributions; ( 1) total pore1 size;

291

(2) smooth pore1 size; and (3) rough pore1 size. The
smooth pore1 size is approximately equal to the area of
the maximum inscribed circle for most porels. The
remaining part of the pore1 is termed the rough pore1
area. The total of smooth and rough pore1 areas is the
total pore1 area. The ratio of total pore1 area to total
digitized area is a measure of optical porosity and is
termed Image Porosity. The smooth portions of
porels give size information, and the ratio of smooth to
rough porosity and the scale of rough porosity carry
shape and connectivity information. Each pore1 has a
single size for the smooth component but may have
many sizes for the rough components.
Porosity observed in thin sections was objectively
classified using a pattern recognition algorithm of PIA
(Ehrlich et al., 1991a). In PIA, porosity is classified
into several pore types defined by characteristic distributions of sizes and shapes present in the thin sections.
The classification procedure is based on Q-Mode factor
analysis using smooth and rough pore1 size distributions. The number of pore types represents compositionally the most distinct pores (in terms of size and
shape) within the analyzed samples and the pore structure of each sample is explained in terms of the proportions of these pore types. A detailed explanation of
the porosity classification procedure and its theoretical
basis can be found in Ehrlich et al. (1984, 1991a) and
Full et al. ( 1981, 1982, 1984).
In order to understand the effects of rock properties
on the trapping of water and to develop a statistical
model to estimate initial water saturations from pore
structure, all factors other than rock properties must be
constant. Initial water saturations in both data sets were
obtained using an ultracentrifuge under oil. The core
handling, core aging, temperature, fluid properties (oil
and water) and pressure during the centrifuge treatments were similar for all experiments within each data
set. The maximum capillary pressure achieved during
the ultracentrifugal rotation was 520 kilopascals and
the initial water saturation measurements were obtained
at this pressure for all samples.
The NA sandstones were determined as slightly
water wet, whereas the NS sandstones were determined
as mixed wet, by the operating oil companies, based on
the results of AMOIT tests.
Regression analysis was used to establish empirical
relationships between measured initial water saturations and pore geometrical parameters by using SPSS /

298

S.B. Coskun. N.C. Wardlaw / Journal ojPetroleum Science and Engineering I2 (1995) 295-308

PC + statistical software (SPSS/PC +, 1988). The

standard error of variance (s), the error of regression
coefficients, and the coefficients of determination (?)
were used to evaluate the degree of linear association
between dependent and independent variables in the
analysis. Residuals were analyzed to detect whether
any of the following assumptions were violated during
the regression analysis: independence of errors, normality of errors, equality of variance in errors, and the
presence of outliers in the data set. The correlation
coefficient (r) was used to determine the direction of
a relationship as well as the strength of the relationship
between two variables.

3. Petrographic and petrophysical

of the sandstones

generally

of porosity, permeability

monocrystalline quartz and quartz cement occurring as

overgrowths. Carbonate cement is more common in
coarser grained, poorly sorted sandstones than in finer
grained, well sorted sandstones (Coskun et al., 1993).
The North Sea sandstones (NS) have been interpreted as mouth-bar deposits (Tjolsen et al., 1991).
Compositionally they are subarkose to quartz arenites.
The sandstones mainly consist of quartz but also of
some feldspar, mica and clays. Clays are mainly kaolinites which occur as pore filling booklets. Grain size
ranges from very fine sand to very coarse and conglomeratic sands. All sandstones regardless of their grain
size are well to very well sorted, although finer grained
sandstones are better sorted than coarser grained sandstones. Diagenetic alterations are relatively insignificant in the NS sandstones. They are poorly consolidated
by quartz and do not have calcite cement.
Table 1 shows the parameters of distributions of
porosity, permeability and initial water saturation for
the 30 NA and 16 NS samples studied. Porosity variation among the NA samples is large (from 6.4% to
28.5% of porosity). Permeability ranges from 2 millidarcy (mD) to 4009 mD. Porosity variation among the
NS sandstones is relatively small (from 16.7% to
23.8% of porosity), whereas permeability varies from
72 mD to 9269 mD. The distributions

of initial water

for the North American and North Sea data sets

North Sea data set ( 16 samples)

North American data set (30 samples)

Mean
St. deviation
Minimum
Maximum

and pyrite are

and intensity of diagenetic alteration varies with grain

size. Finer grained sandstones have more abundant

characteristics

and initial water saturations

of kaolinite

spar and other unstable or soluble grains is very extensive in some samples. The mineral composition, type

A detailed description of the mineralogy, textural

and diagenetic features of the North American (NA)
sandstones can be found in Coskun et al. ( 1993). These
sandstones have been interpreted as deposits of braided
river systems. Compositionally,
the NA sandstones are
sublitharenites
to quartz arenites. Grain size ranges
from very fine sand to very coarse and conglomeratic
sands. Sorting ranges from well-to-poorly
sorted.
Although most sandstones are poorly sorted, coarser
grained samples tend to be more poorly sorted than
finer grained sandstones.
Cementation, mineral replacement and dissolution
have affected samples to varying degrees. Quartz, dolomite and calcite are common cements. Replacement
of shale clasts, chert and detrital calcite by dolomite
was a common early diagenetic event. Variable but

Table 1
Distribution

minor amounts

present in most samples. The dissolution of dolomite

cement, dolomite-replacedclasts,
calcitecements, feld-

4(B)

log, k (mD)

s,, (%)

4(B)

log, k (mD)

SW, (%)

18.0
5.0
6.4
28.4

5.65
1.80
0.74
8.30

14.0
5.0
6.2
25.3

21.0
2.0
15.8
24.7

6.85
1.51
4.28
9.13

14.0
6.0
2.7
24.8

C#I
= core measured porosity (percentage)

; log, k = logarithm of permeability

(millidarcy)

; Swi= initial water saturation (percentage).

S.B. Coskun, N.C. Wardlaw / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

299

PT.1

PT-2

PT-3

PT-4

.I

454
-;:.
.

PT.5

iid
Y

PT-7

Fig. 3. Smooth and rough pore1 size spectra and binary images of seven pore types for the North American Sandstones. Darker bars represent
smooth pore1 size distribution and the patterned bars represent the rough pore1 size distribution for each pore type. Numbers are the largest pore1
diameter (n X 10 Fm) associated with each bin. See Table 2 for the average size, petrographic description and occurrence of the pore types.

300

S.B. Coskun, N.C. Wardlaw /Journal

Table 2
Porosity classification

for North American

Pore type Mean pore diameter

Petrographic

of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

sandstones
description

and occurrence

(pm)

I (PTI)
2(PT2)

24
38

3 (PT3)

54

4 (PT4)

77

5 (PTS)

104

6 (PT6)

208

7(PT7)

211

Small, isolated pores in tightly carbonate cemented sandstones. Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio = O.SO/O.SO.
Small intergranular pores in finer grained sandstones and in poorly sorted coarse grained sandstones. Smooth
to rough pore1 area ratio = 0.56/0.44.
Extremely well connected small to medium pores. Most common in fine to medium grained sandstones and is
developed where the early carbonate cementation prevented grain compaction,and where the subsequent
dissolution of carbonates created well connected channel-type pores. Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio = 0.09/
0.91.
Intermediate size, intergranular pores. Most common in well consolidated, well sorted, medium grained
sandstones. Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio = 0.66/0.43.
Well connected, intermediate-size intergranular pores in loosely consolidated, medium to coarse grained
sandstones. Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio = 0.20/0.80.
Large, poorly connected moldic pores. Most abundant in carbonate-cemented,
coarse grained sandstones.
Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio = 0.61/0.39.
Large, well connected, secondary-intergranular
pores related to dissolution of carbonate and unstable grains.
Most common in coarse grained, poorly sorted sandstones. Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio=0.33/0.67.

saturations are not significantly different between the

two reservoir sandstones (Table 1) .

4. Pore variables
Porosity of the NA and NS sandstones were classified using PIA and the resulting proportions of pore
types were used in regression analysis to assess the
relative importance of pore geometrical variables in
controlling SWi. In addition to the proportions of pore
types, the following global pore geometrical variables
(defined as variables which have single values for each
sample) were used as independent variables in the
regression analyses. These variables are:
( 1) The fraction of core porosity not accounted for
by image analysis (&). This parameter is calculated
using the formula:
4f=(+c_4i)/4r

(1)

where & is the core measured porosity and & is the

image porosity. For all samples, the core porosities are
higher than image porosities. It is assumed that the
difference between image and core porosity is due to
insufficient resolution to detect small pores. Therefore,
c#J,.
represents the portion of porosity which is contributed by pores of less than 5 pm in diameter.
(2) The fraction of total porosity contributed by
porels whose diameters are less than 20 pm ( c&) .

(3) Hydraulic radius (HR) is the total pore1 area

divided by the total pore1 perimeter. Hydraulic radius
provides information about the overall pore1 size. As
the parameter HR increases, the contribution of larger
pores increases.
(4) The ratio of smooth to rough pore1 area (SR) is
chosen as a connectivity indicator. A high SR indicates
that porosity, in general, consists of approximately
spherical pores which are probably poorly connected.
Irregularly shaped elongate porels have lower SR values and are likely to represent better connected pores.

5. Quantitative characterization

of pore structure

Petrographic Image Analysis produced two distinct

porosity classification models, one for the NA reservoir
and another for the NS reservoir, because sandstones
from the two reservoirs differ significantly in mineral
composition, texture and diagenesis. The North American sandstones are characterized by the presence of
seven distinct pore types. Fig. 3 shows binary images
of pore systems from the NA sandstones in which each
of the pore types dominates. Pore types are arbitrarily
ordered by mean smooth pore1 diameter, where smaller
numbers represent smaller pore types and larger numbers represent larger pore types. The petrographic
description and the average diameter of each pore type
is given in Table 2. In general, diagenetic alterations

S.B. Coskun, N.C. Wardlaw / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

301

PT-1

PT-2

1s

_.._._.._

- _ _ __

- ._..

so
2s

---

*0

-.-._-

IS

-.-.-

.____. -_--.-.._
- ..-

---.-._

PT-4

r41:

--.-

10
I
0
4 t l,azsa

a ,

6 ,

._._.._
_ _.._.
-.--.._.__-.._.._.
- ._._
._._.
-._._.._.._
_.-.-._,___.._.
-._._
---._ -.-._._
----.--._.._.
-- _
.._.._..-.--.._.__
- ._-.

1 IJun

1 2

PT-5

Fig. 4. Smooth and rough pore1 size spectra and binary images of five pore types for the North Sea Sandstones. Darker bars represent smooth
pore1 size distribution and the patterned bars represent the rough pore1 size distribution for each pore type. Numbers are the largest pore1 diameter
(n X 10 pm) associated with each bin. See Table 3 for the average size, petrographic description and occurrence of the pore types.

302

S.B. Coskun, N.C. Wardlaw/ Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

Table 3
Porosity classification

for North Sea sandstones

Pore type Mean pore diameter

Petrographic

description

and occurrence

(pm)
1 (PTI)
2 (PT2)

38

Small, intergranularpores in fine grained sandstones. Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio=O.43/0.56.

14

3 (PT3)

172

4 (PT4)

206

5 (PT5)

299

Small to intermediate-size, interganular pores. Most common in finer grained sandstones. Smooth to rough
pore1 area ratio = 0.22/0.78.
Intermediate to large size, intergranular pores. Most common in laminated sandstones. Smooth to rough pore1
area ratio = 0.30/0.70.
Large, well connected, intergranular pores in coarse grained sandstones. Smooth to rough pore1 area
ratio = 0.35/0.64.
Very large, well connected pores. Most common in loosely consolidated conglomeratic sandstones and
conglomerates. Smooth to rough pore1 area ratio = 0.39/0.61.

have the determining influence on the pore type classification and the size of a pore type is not necessarily
related to grain size. For instance, Pore Type- 1 ( PTI ) ,
which is the smallest pore type, is associated with carbonate cement and occurs most commonly in tightly
cemented, coarse grained sandstones. On the other
hand, Pore Type-3 (PT,) and Pore Type-7 (PT,) are
closely related to the grain size but are the results of
the dissolution of carbonate cement in both finer
Table 4
Correlation coefficients (r) between initial water saturations and 2D image data-porosity-permeability
for the 30 North American sandstones and 16 North Sea sandstones
Variables
PT,
PT>
PT,
PT,
PTs
PT,
PT,
4,
&I
SR
HR
4
lo&. k

North American

0.57**
0.11
- 0.39
-0.59**
-0.24
-0.11
-0.23
0.49
0.53
-0.08
- 0.07
- 0.43 *
- 0.5 I *

data set

North Sea data set

0.46
0.78 *
-0.77
- 0.49
-0.15
_
_
0.20
0.80 *
0.44
-0.71
- 0.26
- 0.86 *

PT = Pore types; & = core porosity-image

porosity; & = fraction
of porosity contributed by porels with diameters less than 20 pm;
SR = smooth to rough pore1 area ratio; HR = image porosity divided
by total pore perimeter;
4=core
measured
porosity;
log,
k = logarithm of core measured permeability.
* * = Significance level for t-statistic is 0.001.
* = Significance level for f-statistic is 0.01.

grained and coarser grained sandstones, respectively

(Table 2).
Pore systems in the NS sandstones are characterized
by the five pore types. Fig. 4 shows the binary images
of the pore systems of the NS sandstones in which each
of the pore types dominates. The petrographic description and the average diameter of each pore type is given
in Table 3. In contrast to the NA sandstones, the sizes
of pore types are closely related to grain sizes (Table
3) and, therefore, to depositional processes.
Thus, pore types are more closely related to diagenetic processes in the case of the NA sandstones and to
depositional processes for the NS sandstones.

6. Relationships between two-dimensional

structure and initial water saturation

pore

Table 4 shows the correlation coefficients

(r)
between independent variables and the initial water
saturation for the 30 NA and 16 NS sandstones. &
increases with increasing percentage of smaller pores
(&, &O, PT,, PT2) and decreases significantly with
increasing percentage of large pores (PT, in the NA
sandstones and PT,, PT, and PT, in the NS sandstones). The relatively low correlation coefficients
between SWiand independent variables for both reservoir sandstones indicate that none of these factors is
the dominant control, but rather that most of these factors influence SWi to some degree. Statistics for the
stepwise linear regression results from the statistical
program SPSS/PC + are given in Table 5. The regression equations to estimate S,i for the NA and NS reservoirs are:

S. B. Coskun, N. C. Wardlaw / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

303

Table 5
Statistics for the regression analysis between 2-D image data and initial water saturations for the North American and North Sea data sets
Data set

North American
Notth Sea

Number of samples

30
16

Coefficient of determination

Standard error of variance

(r?

(s)

0.72
0.73

0.030
0.035

16.25
18.01

0.0000
0.0002

F= F-value for the F-scatisric; LY= significance level for the F-statistic

Kviw,4,=0.13+0.25(PT,)

-0.46(PT,)

+1.26(&J
swi(N!)

Fig. 5. Correlation between measured SWiand estimated SW;for the

NA Sandstones using ISq. 2. The solid line is the prediction with no
adjustable parameters while the dashed lines represent an average
deviation of 3%.

-0.023+0.25(PT,)

+0.12($,)

+2.10(#~&

(2)
(3)

Coefficients of determination (3) are 0.72 and 0.73

for the Eqs. 2 and 3, respectively (Table 5). Coefficients of determination indicate that the variables in the
equations explain 72% and 73% of the variations in S,i
for the NA and NS sandstones, respectively. The standard error of variations about the regression lines are
0.030 for the NA sandstones and 0.035 for the NS
sandstones. These numbers are fractions of pore volume and indicate the average amount that actual S,i
values differ from the estimated average S,i values and
can be expressed as :
~wi(M)(estimatee)

1- 3~0%b(Swi(NA)(uue))

Swi(NS)(estimate)
= f3.5%(Swi(NS)ftme~)

(4)
(5)

The average S,i for the NA sandstones and NS sandstones are both 14% (Table 1) . The analyses of residuals in both regressions indicate that variance of errors
are uniform, and that errors are normally distributed.
Durbin-Watson d-statistic (Younger, 1979) indicates
that the errors in both regression analyses are independent at the significance level of 0.0 1. Figs. 5 and 6
show the cross plots between measured and estimated
S,i values for the NA and NS sandstones, respectively.

7. Discussion

Fig. 6. Correlation between measured SW,and estimated SW,for the

NS Sandstones using Eq. 3. The solid line is the prediction with no
adjustable parameters while the dashed lines represent an average
deviation of 3.5%.

The results indicate that initial water saturation is

related mainly to the relative abundance of small pores.
Although the two reservoir sandstones have significantly different pore geometry and wettabilities (one
slightly water-wet and the other mixed-wet), increas-

304

S.B. Coskun, N.C. Wardlaw /Journal

of Petroleum

ing volume of small pores within the pore space

increases SWiin both reservoirs. The parameters representing the measurements of small pores (PT,, PT,, +r
and &) correlate positively with S,i and enter the
regression equations in both data sets (Table 4; Eqs. 2
and 3).
The results are in contrast to irreducible
water
saturations obtained for disordered packings of unconsolidated, smooth beads which are approximately 6 to
10% of pore volume and independent of grain size or
pore size (Morrow, 1970, 197 1) The difference is that
the pendularrings of water on smooth beads are hydraulically discontinuous and truly irreducible.
That is,
the water saturation is not reduced by further increases
of capillary pressure. This state is achieved at higher
capillary pressures for smaller bead sizes but the irreducible saturation is independent of size. In the case
of reservoir rocks reported here, the maximum capillary
pressure is arbitrarily constant for all samples in the
test group and reflects a capillary pressure which is
large in relation to pressures commonly achieved in oil
reservoirs as a result of buoyancy pressures. Smallscale surface roughness of the pore walls of reservoir
rocks is likely to maintain some hydraulic continuity
of water to very low water saturations and the concept
of irreducible water may not be appropriate. It is for
this reason that SWi is measured at constant capillary
pressure for the reservoir rocks studied. The essential
finding is that SWiincreases as average pore size of the
rocks decreases.
Morrow also showed (Morrow, 1970, 197 1) that
irreducible
saturation in bead packs could be
increased to much larger values than 6 to 10% by introducing packing heterogeneities in the form of isolated
clusters of small beads in continuous domains of larger
beads. In the present study, the porosity classification
method separates pores into smaller and larger size
intervals but does not provide information about the
spatial order or clustering of pores of different sizes.
PIA provides information about the degree of nonuniformity of pore systems. In this paper, non-uniformity is used as an indicator of pore size variation. Rocks
with relatively uniform pore systems are dominated by
fewer pore types, whereas the degree of non-uniformity
in pore systems increases as the contribution of different pore types to porosity increases. In general, rocks
with poorly-sorted grains have a higher degree of non-

Science and

Engineering I2 (1995)295-308

uniformity in their pore systems than rocks with wellsorted grains.

Correlations between permeability and S,i have been
recorded in which & increases as permeability
decreases (Amyx et al., 1960, p. 159; Morrow et al.,
1969; Chilingarian and Yen, 1987). Increasing & with
decreasing porosity also has been reported (Buckles,
1965). In the present study, the relationships between
permeability and Swi, and porosity and .SWiare significantly different in the two reservoir sandstones studied.
The differences are thought to be related to pore characteristics of the two reservoirs and are discussed
below.

7.1. Relationship between permeability

water saturation

and initial

Permeability (k) is directly proportional to the effective pore radius squared and capillary pressure is
inversely proportional to pore radius. Inasmuch as wetting phase saturation decreases as capillary pressure
increases, a negative relationship between k and water
saturation (Swi) is not surprising for rocks with relatively uniform pore systems but differing pore sizes.
However, if significant volumes of small pores or
microporosity are present in a rock, the effect on k may
be small but the effect on SW;is likely to be large. Thus,
the relationship between k and S,i for rocks with varying degree of non-uniform pore systems can be weak.
The pore systems in the rocks of the NA reservoir
have been affected by differences in grain sorting, varying mineral compositions,
variable compaction
effects, and complex diagenetic events in varying
degrees. As a result, the relationships between k and
SWi are weak for the 30 samples (correlation coefficients (r) = - 0.5 1; Fig. 7; Table 4). Indeed, the exclusion of three samples from the data set (the three
samples which have k of less than 10 mD in Fig. 7),
causes r for the remaining 27 samples to fall to - 0.08.
The three excluded samples are tightly cemented,
coarse grained sandstones. Their porosity consists
mainly of small pores (PT, and PT,) . Consequently,
their & is higher and permeabilities are lower than the
other sandstones of the set. The remaining 27 samples
are not tightly cemented and have differing degrees of
grain size sorting, diagenesis and dissolution. In other
words, there is large variability of pore types among

S.B. Coskun, N.C. WardlawlJoumaf

of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

28%T

;25;
_*
.P
;;23L
'
3
_
220-

.
.

.
.
l

tively uniform pore systems but different pore sizes. In

this case, permeability values provide an index of relative pore size differences among the samples, and
samples with lower k will have smaller pores and larger
S,i. This is the case for the NS reservoir. For rocks with
varying degrees of non-uniform pore systems with variable volumes of small pores associated with larger flow
channels, permeability is controlled by the larger channels, whereas Swi is controlled by the volume of the

.L

. .

4 RA

Permeability

(md)

Fig. 7. Cross plot between k and & for the 30 NA Sandstones. The
correlation coefficient (r) is 0.52 for all samples and is - 0.08 for
the 27 samples with k higher than 10 mD.

25SC

.620-

z
%
m15-

.
~.

305

Porosity

(W)

Fig. 9. Cross plot between 4 and SW,for the 30 NA Sandstones. The

correlation coefficient ( r) is - 0.43.

Porosity
Range

30Sk
I

1000

100

Permeability

10000

(md)

Fig.8. Crossplotbetween k and S,i for the 15 NS Sandstones. The

correlation coefficient (r) is - 0.86 for all samples.

the 27 samples indicating varying degrees of non-uniformity in their pore systems.

In contrast to the NA sandstones, the NS sandstones
with well sorted grains have relatively uniform pore
systems. The coarse grained sandstones consist mostly
of larger pore types and have higher k and lower S,i
than the finer grained sandstones which consist mostly
of the smaller pore types. A strong negative correlation
exists between k and 5wi in the NS sandstones
(r= -0.86; Fig. 8).
To summarize, permeability can be a significant
parameter for the prediction of water saturation (S,i)
at a constant capillary pressure where rocks have rela-

19-24

.o
F

I%

= 25-0

Group-l

120-

CE

.
.

;154

,j lo.c
c
u
Y

Group-2

*.

.
.

.
' Group-3

5-

2
$
r

15

~"~,"~~,JI~~/JIII,IJII/
17

Pokity

23

25

!A)

Fig. 10. Cross plot between 4 and S,, for the 16 NS Sandstones. The
correlation coefficient (r) is - 0.26. Groups 1.2 and 3 are arbitrarily
chosen to represent rocks with high, intermediate and low S,,,,,respectively. Distribution of smaller and larger pore types for rocks having
porosity range between 19 and 24% are determined for each group
(see Table 6).

S.B. Coskun, N.C. Wardlaw /Journal @Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

306

Table 6
Distributions of smaller (PT, and PTz) and larger pore types (FT,and PT5) for the NS sandstones having C#J
between 19% and 24% and from
SW,groups of I, 2 and 3 shown in Fig. IO. The average 4 of samples from the three groups are almost equal, whereas proportional volumes of
smaller pores increase and those of larger pores decrease with increasing S,i for the three groups *
Number of samples

Group- I
Group-2
Group-3

4
4
4

Mean I#J

Mean S,,

Proportion of PT, + PTz

Proportion of PT, + PT,

(%o)

(%)

(%)

(%)

21
22
22

21
12
06

69
40
35

24
38
49

Group-l includes the samples with S,, more than 15% of pore volume. Group-2 includes the samples with S,, between 8% and 14.99% of pore
volume. Group-3 includes the samples with S,, less than 8% of pore volume.

small pores. This is the case for the NA reservoir and

the relationships between k and & are much weaker.

Relationships between porosity and initial water saturation

Porosity (4) variation among a suite of samples
does not provide information about the size differences
or the degree of non-uniformity
of the pore systems. A
series of well-sorted sandstone samples with relatively
uniform pore systems may have similar $J but varying
grain sizes and, therefore, varying pore sizes and varying water saturations at constant capillary pressure
(Swi) . Similarly, samples may have similar 4 but significantly different degrees of non-uniformity
in their
pore systems. As a result, no relationship is to be
expected between (p and &. As the degree of nonuniformity of pore systems increases related to poorgrain sorting, 4 and pore sizes both decrease (Beard
and Weyl, 1973) and a negative relationship between
4 and S,i is possible if samples with relatively uniform
pore systems have similar pore sizes. However, not all
rocks with relatively non-uniform
pore systems are
expected to have lower 4 than rocks with relatively
uniform pore systems because 4 variation in reservoir
rocks is not only related to grain size sorting but also
to the effects of cementation and dissolution during
diagenesis. The dissolution of minerals and grains can
increase both 4 and the degree of non-uniformity
in
pore systems. Coskun et al. (1993) show that the NA
sandstones with poorly-sorted
grains contain more
unstable or soluble minerals and grains (feldspar, chert,
detrital carbonate) than the sandstones with well sorted
grains. The subsequent dissolution of these grains in
some samples increased $J significantly
and also
increased the degree of non-uniformity
(Coskun et al.,

1993). As a result, the relationship between $I and Swi

is weak for the NA data set (Figp. 9). The correlation
coefficient (r) between 4 and S,i is - 0.43 for the 30
NA samples (Table 4).
The relationship between 4 and Swi is also weak for
the NS sandstones (r= - 0.26; Fig. 10). Inasmuch as
the NS sandstones have relatively uniform pore systems, it is thought that there should be a monotonic
relationship between Swi and the volumes of smaller
pore types for a given 4. Samples in the NS data set
are subdivided arbitrarily into three groups on the basis
of high, intermediate and low S,i (Group- 1, Group-2
and Group-3, respectively) for a narrower range of 4
values (between 19 and 24% of 4; Fig. 10) and the
distributions of smaller and larger pore types within the
each group are investigated. Table 6 shows that the
average 4 of the samples from the three groups are
almost equal, whereas the proportional volumes of
smaller pore types decrease and those of larger pore
types increase systematically from Group- 1 to Group3.

8. Conclusions
( 1) Petrographic Image Analysis (PIA) is used to
characterize the pore structures of two reservoir sandstones (a North American (NA) and a North Sea (NS)
oil reservoir) using two-dimensional thin section data.
Pore systems of each reservoir are defined by pore types
which have characteristic sizes and shapes. Seven pore
types for the NA reservoir and five pore types for the
NS reservoir are necessary to capture the pore characteristics.

S.B. Coskun. N.C. Wardlaw / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 12 (1995) 295-308

(2) The regression analysis between two-dimensional pore geometrical data and core measured initial
water saturation (S,i), which is defined as water saturation at a constant, high capillary pressure, indicates
that initial water saturation is closely related to the
volumes of small pores. Increasing volumes of small
pores within the pore space increases initial water saturation for samples from both reservoirs.
(3) Empirical regression models, specific to each
reservoir, explain 72% and 73% of variations in initial
water saturations for the NA and NS reservoirs, respectively. Both reservoirs have mean values of Swi of
= 14% and the average amount that actual S,i values
differ from the estimated average S,i is 3% and 3.5%
for the NA and NS reservoirs, respectively.
(4) Negative relationships between permeability
(k) and & are not universal as is commonly assumed.
Permeability can be a significant parameter for S,i prediction only where rocks have relatively uniform pore
systems but differing average pore sizes. In such cases,
k values provide an index for the relative pore size
differences among a suite of rocks. Rocks with low k
have smaller pores and larger Swi.As a result, a negative
relationship can occur between k and Swi,as is the case
for the NS reservoir. For rocks with varying degree of
non-uniform pore systems with relatively large, continuous flow channels and variable volumes of microporosity, k is affected by the large flow channels which
do not indicate the relative abundance of small pores
and no relationship between k and S,i exists. This is
the case for the NA reservoir. For these sandstones,
information about the volume of small pores within the
pore space is essential for the estimation OfS,i and PIA
provides a quantitative and efficient method to obtain
this information.
(5) Relationships between porosity (4) and S,i are
weak for both reservoir sandstones because variation
in 4 does not indicate the overall pore size differences
or the degree of non-uniformity of pore systems among
a suite of samples. Rocks with dominantly large pores
may have similar 4 but significantly lower Swi than
rocks with dominantly smaller pores. The information
about the distribution of small and large pore types
within the rocks is more important for S,i prediction
than the information about the total void space (porosity).

301

Acknowledgements

The Natural Science and Engineering Research

Council of Canada is thanked for a grant in aid of
research to Dr. Norman C. Wardlaw. We also thank
Mr. M. McKellar, Department of Geology and Geophysics, who assisted in the image analyzing phase of
this work and Dr. R. Chapman who suggested useful
revisions to the original manuscript.

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