Lecture Presentation

PGE368 Fall 2001 Semester September 24, 26, and 28, and October 5

Electrical Properties of Porous Rocks

Carlos Torres-Verdn, Ph.D. Assistant Professor

Porosity
Definition:
The volume fraction of the rock occupied by pore space

= Vp / VR * 100 %

Water Saturation
Definition:
The fraction of the pore space containing water Sw = Vw / f

Composite Porous Media

Spatial Scale is Important!

THEORY

REALITY

Water-Wet Hydrocarbon-Bearing Rock Formation

Wilcox Sand Oklahoma City

1 cm Clay Close-Up

Water-Wet Hydrocarbon-Bearing Rock Formation

Thin Sections

1 cm

POROSITY

TOTAL POROSITY? EFFECTIVE POROSITY?

WATER SATURATION

TOTAL WATER SATURATION? BOUND-FREE (MOVABLE) WATER? IRREDUCIBLE WATER SATURATION (i.e. clay-bound water and capillary-bound water)?

FORMATION EVALUATION (PETROPHYSICS)

DIRECT: Core Analysis INDIRECT: Well Logging (In Situ)

Electrical Resistivity Spontaneous Potential Acoustic Velocity Radioactive Emissions Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Gravity Etc.
EFFECTIVE MEDIUM THEORY

DC ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY EXPERIMENT (low frequency behavior)

V + I + + + + R V R= I Electric Field Lines

DC ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY EXPERIMENT A more realistic E-field line behavior

V + I + + + + R V R= I Electric Field Lines

DC ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY EXPERIMENT Approximate Equivalent Circuit

V + Rm
Rock Matrix Pore Fluid

Rf 1 1 1 = + R Rm Rf V R= I

ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY OF ROCK CONSTITUENTS

ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY AND RESISTIVITY

ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY OF ROCK CONSTITUENTS

ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY OF NaCl and KCl SOLUTIONS AT 200C

ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY OF ROCKS: MAIN TENDENCIES

Several Water Saturation Models

Shale-Free Electrical Model

Archie (1942) (Indonesian)

Laminated Shale Electrical Model Poupon-Leveaux

Double-Layer Dispersed Clay Electrical Models Waxman-Smits Dual-Water Mixed Dispersed-Clay / Laminar-Shale Electrical Model Patchett-Herrick

GUS ARCHIE (Circa 1942)

Testing Archie by Experiment

ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY OF CLEAN POROUS ROCKS

Archie (1942)
In clean sandstones with saline brines, the resistivity of the rock is proportional to the salinity of the saturating brine. The constant of proportionality is called the formation factor. F = R0 / Rw . The formation factor varies as the inverse square of the porosity. F = 1 / 2 . The saturation index in a reservoir (IR = Rt / R0 ) varies as the inverse square of the saturation. I = 1 / Sw2.

ARCHIES Clean Sand Equation Effective DC Resistivity Response

Use of Archie formulae (late 40s)

F = R0 / Rw F=1/ m IR = Rt / R0 = 1 / Swn and permeability too

LOG-LOG PLOT: F vs. Porosity

FORMATION FACTOR vs. POROSITY

Formation Factor Porosity Relationships

RESISTIVITY: Influence of Water Saturation

LOG-LOG PLOT: Resistivity Index (I) vs. Water Saturation

Mean Value of Saturation Exponent

Archie may be written in terms of electrical conductivities

Standard form

In conductivity notation

1 1 m n n t = w Sw = w Sw F a

Archie 1

Archie 1

Archie 2

Summary Archie 1
Archie valid at high salinities > 100ppk at 200F Archie also valid if there are no conductive materials (clays). In very fresh water surface conductance of ordinary grains can also be a problem

Archie 1 OK in Clean Sands

General form
where a ~ 1 and m ~2

m is called the formation factor exponent sandstones a = .81,

m=2 or Humble formula carbonates a = 1, m > 2

F=

Archies First Law

Ideally the Formation Factor is purely a function of pore space geometry. It is giving us information about porosity and the porosity distribution. In practice ionic conduction is dependent on ion-type, concentration and temperature. In shaly rocks we do not measure the Formation Factor and are dependent on a rock model eg. SEN (1986)

Archie 1 fails in shaly sands

Archie 2 also fails when there is clay

Archie 2 not so good in carbonates

m in carbonates, vugs and fractures

3 . 0 1 . 2 0 . 5 2 . 5 1 1 i 2 . 0
s

2 . 0 . 5

2 . 5

. 0

1 5

. 0

vugs

fractures

1 0

. .

0 5 0 .1 8 2 , 6 p o 8 r 1 o 0 s i 2 t 0 y 3 04 5 0 0

Formation Factor in Carbonates

General form of Archie 1

Formation Factor generally, the m exponent are often a function of porosity. Variable m technique has been successful in carbonates.

Carbonate Texture

On the left, a crystalline dolomite with = 47% and m = 1.95. On the right, a moldic bioclastic packstone with = 36% and m = 3.27. This large variation in m illustrates the importance of rock texture on petrophysical evaluation. Environmental scanning electron microscope images, scale bar is 100 mm at left and 200 mm at right.

DC ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY EXPERIMENT Low Frequency Behavior of Heterogeneous Media

Spatial Scale of Measurement Becomes a Central Issue Effect of Clay Component Effect of Clay-Bound Water Effect of Capillary-Bound Water Anisotropy

V + I + + + +

?
R

V R= I

ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF SHALY SANDS

Water-Wet Hydrocarbon-Bearing Rock Formation

Water

Oil

Matrix

Dry Clay

ClayBound Water

Capillary Bound Water

Mobile Water

Hydrocarbon

Water Adsorption by Clays [Cation-Exchange-Capacity (CEC) Mechanism]

Oil-Wet Hydrocarbon-Bearing Rock Formation

Oil

Water

Matrix

Dry Clay

Clay- Capillary Bound Bound Water Water/Oil

Mobile Water

Hydrocarbon

Saturation Exponent: Water-Wet vs. Oil Wet

The Case of Heavy Oil

Matrix and Fluid Distributions

Heavy Oil ClayBound Water CapillaryBound Water

Matrix

Dry Clay

Mobile Water

Solid HC

Water-Wet Hydrocarbon-Bearing Carbonates

Matrix and Fluid Distributions

Matrix

Dry Clay

ClayClayBound Water

Capillary Bound Water

Mobile Water

Hydrocarbon

Vugs

The Effect of Wettability and Surface Texture on the n Exponent

Data from Sweeney and Jennings (1960) Data from Diederix (1982)

Archie 2 Summary
In water-wet rocks estimations of water saturation from resistivity logs are generally pessimistic

We need to account for the conductivity of clay

AC ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY EXPERIMENT Frequency Behavior of Heterogeneous Media

Spatial Scale of Measurement Becomes a Central Issue Effect of Clay Component, Clay-Bound Water Capillary Effect Anisotropy

V(f)

Time-Varying Voltage Source

I (f)

+ + + +

?
Z(f)

V(f) Z(f) = I(f)

Electrical Impedance (Ohmic conductivity + dielectric permittivity)

LABORATORY SAMPLES
Brine-Water Saturation
Fine Grains

Coarse Grains Coarse Grains and Dispersed Clay Super-Fine Sand Grains

Stacked Grains

WHEN DOES THEORY BREAK DOWN? Example of Microfracturing

Photograph courtesy of Prof. Jon Olson

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Baker Atlas Schlumberger Tony Bermudez