Analysis of Shaly Sand Reservoir Rocks in The Eastern Niger Delta Basin Using Geophysical Well Logs
Analysis of Shaly Sand Reservoir Rocks in The Eastern Niger Delta Basin Using Geophysical Well Logs
Analysis of Shaly Sand Reservoir Rocks in The Eastern Niger Delta Basin Using Geophysical Well Logs
Shales in the reservoir causes complications for the petrophysicist because they generally are
conductive and mask the high resistance characteristic of hydrocarbons. Data from a suite of well logs
were used to estimate the effect of reservoir shaliness on petrophysical parameters of some reservoir
rocks of the eastern Niger Delta Basin. The log section was digitized using Neuralog software.
Delineation of the productive clean and dirty formations, as well as mapping of the fluid contents of the
possible reservoir zones was carried out using Interactive Petrophysics software. Fifteen shaly sand
bodies were identified. It was observed that, shale correction leads to a significant change in
petrophysical parameters. The results obtained indicate that, the Simandoux and Indonesian models
used for the study are both suitable for water saturation, and hydrocarbon saturation analysis in shaly
sands of this part of the Basin. The porosity results for the Indonesian and Simandoux models gave,
respectively 0.14-0.23 and 0.22-0.28, while the hydrocarbon saturation results are 0.650-0.908 and 0.650-
0.911 with permeabilities values of 1487.442-8881.697 mD and 1568.532-7451.592 mD for uncorrected
and corrected permeability, respectively. Thomas-Stieber model shows that shale distribution in sands
of the eastern Niger Delta Basin is mainly structural with few of disperse and laminar ones.
Key words: Reservoir rock, Shaly sands, petrophysical parameters, well logs, models.
INTRODUCTION
The present local and global increase in demand for Iyayi, 2007). On the contrary, most reservoir
energy has placed both pressure and greater challenge hydrocarbons reside in the pore spaces or open fractures
to increase energy supply. Most of this energy is derived of sedimentary rocks like sandstones. To produce them,
from hydrocarbon resources. In an oil prone area like the detailed geological, petrophysical knowledge and data
Niger Delta, even though hydrocarbons are within the are needed to guide the placement of the well paths (Stat
subsurface, they cannot impulsively gush to the surface Oil Research Group, 2003). This can consequently help
when penetrated by a production well (Aigbedion and to optimize hydrocarbon recovery, and to improve
Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 International License
2 J. Petroleum Gas Eng.
predictions of reservoir performance. proportion of shale, the physical properties of shale, and
The Niger Delta region is known for its proficiency in the way it is distributed in the host layer (Toby, 2005).
hydrocarbon production among the sedimentary basins in The prominent identity of the Niger Delta in Nigeria and
Nigeria. Three major stratigraphic units have been in the world at large with respect to its hydrocarbon
recognized in the Niger Delta oil and natural gas reserves, calls for proper exploration and petrophysical
province, namely Akata, Agbada and Benin Formations characterization, especially of the shaly sands which
(Short and Stauble, 1967). Petroleum in the Niger Delta have been the subject of few research works in the past
is produced from sandstones and unconsolidated sands years. The main objective of this work is to use selected
predominantly in the Agbada Formation. Reservoir rocks shaly sand analysis models to quantify the influence of
are of Eocene to Pliocene in age, and are often stacked, shaliness on the petrophysical parameters of a
ranging in thickness from less than 15 to 45 m thickness productive formation. Petrophysical characterization
(Evamy et al., 1978). The primary source rock is the using the considered shaly sand analysis models will
upper Akata Formation, the marine-shale facies of the enable a better evaluation of the reservoir quality and
delta, with possible contribution from interbedded marine potential of the studied field in this part of the Basin.
shale of the lowermost Agbada Formation. The Niger Reservoir zones that could have been lost will be
Delta province contains only one identified petroleum identified. This will equally give a better understanding of
system (Kulke, 1995) referred to as Tertiary Niger Delta the reservoirs of the area, and increase the certainty in
(Akata-Agbada) Petroleum System. the quantity of recoverable hydrocarbons in the basin.
The concept of shale differs from one discipline to
another. To a reservoir engineer, shale can generally be
characterized as low permeability formation. In most Geological setting
reservoirs, there exist a certain volume of shall, thus
leading to unclean sandstone. Such reservoir rocks are The Niger Delta is situated at the apex of the Gulf of
termed shaly sands. Shale can be distributed across a Guinea on the west coast of Africa (Hamada, 1999;
reservoir sand body as a combination of different modes: Doust, 1990) and on Nigeria‟s South-South geopolitical
laminar, structural or dispersed sahe (Maeland, 2014). zone, in a rift triple junction related to the opening of the
Shales can cause complications for the petrophysicist south Atlantic in the late Jurassic to the Cretaceous.
because they are generally conductive and may therefore According to Nwachukwu and Chukwura (1986), the
mask the high resistance characteristic of hydrocarbons. Niger Delta is located in West Africa between latitude 3°
Using Archie‟s equation in shaly sands results in very and 6° N and longitude 5° and 8°E (Figure 1).
high water saturation values and may lead to potential The Niger Delta is located geologically within 6 major
hydrocarbon bearing zones being missed. The way geologic features: Gulf of Guinea, West African shield,
shaliness affects log responses depends on the Benin hinge line, Anambra basin, Abakaliki fold belt, and
Fozao et al. 3
To calculate the neutron, density and effective porosities, the where Swirr is the irreducible water saturation, a = 10000, b =
following formulas were used. The density porosity ( was 5.0625, and c = 2 from Schlumberger Chart K3; Ф (non-corrected
calculated using Equation 3. and corrected porosity) (Schlumberger, 1997, 2009).
The hydrocarbon saturation was calculated using Equation 12.
(3) Sh = 1 -Sw (12)
where ρma = 2.65 g/cc, ρw =1 g/cc, ρsh = 2.66 g/cc, ρg = 0.6 g/cc, ρoil (13)
= 0.8 g/cc, and ϕ= apparent porosity; ρma= matrix density; ρb= bulk
density; ρf=fluid density. where D = 0.02 to 0.1 from (Buckles, 1965).
The neutron porosity (ϕn) was read directly from the neutron log. In the absence of core data, the Thomas-Stieber model (Moradi
To correct for shale effects on porosity, the corrected neutron (ϕnc) et al., 2016; Thomas and Stieber, 1975; Dejtrakulwong et al., 2009)
and density (ϕdc) porosities were derived using Equations 4 and 5. was used to establish the clay/shale distribution (dispersed, laminar
and structural) within the zones of interest in the study area as
(4) illustrated in Figure 2.
4 J. Petroleum Gas Eng.
a
6 J. Petroleum Gas Eng.
b
Fozao et al. 7
Figure 3. (a-c) Lithology and fluid modelling by well log interpretation, from 5764.44 to
8195.44 ft of depth through the log profile.
8 J. Petroleum Gas Eng.
a b
Figure 4. (a) Shale effect on uncorrected effective (ϕe) porosity, (b) Shale effect on corrected effective (ϕe)
porosity.
increase in shale volumes (Figure 4a) with a positive Effect of reservoir shaliness on fluid (water and
2
regression coefficient (R ) of 0.61. The high values of ϕe, hydrocarbon) saturation
signify that the presence of shale in sandstone reservoirs,
overestimates the porosity, that is, it causes the logging The influence of reservoir shaliness on water saturation
tool to read higher porosities than are the porosities was determined using Equations 8, 9 and 10, for
available for storage and circulation. computing the Archie, Simandoux, and Indonesian water
The corrected effective porosity shows a small increase saturations, respectively (Sw-Arch, Sw-Sim and Sw-Ind),
with an increase in shale volumes (Figure 4b) with a after which obtained values wereplotted against shale
2
positive regression coefficient (R ) of 0.179 which is volume (Figure 5). From Figure 5, it can be seen that as
negligible. This shows that the more the shale volume, the amount of shale (Vsh) changes, the Archie water
the higher the uncertainty of actual porosity of the saturation changes from 0.100 to 0.420 with a mean of
reservoir, which will affect the reservoir productivity 0.170, the Indonesian water saturation changes from
potential. 0.092 to 0.350 with a mean of 0.160, and the Simandoux
Fozao et al. 9
Figure 8. Thomas-Stieber model (modified from Moradi et al., 2016). Shale distributiom from a neutron
porosity-density porosity cross plot. Most of the points plot in the zone labeled “S” which corresponds to
structural shale. However, with few dispersed and laminated shales. Some few points are subjected to
„gas effect‟. Where A = dispersed + laminated, B = laminated + Structural, D = dispersed, L = laminated
and S = structural.
Fozao et al. 11
Porosity trends developed for clean rocks, and it does not account for the
extra conductivity caused by the clay present in shaly
Results of this work show an increase in effective sands. Therefore, Archie‟s equation would not provide
porosity (uncorrected), with increase shale volume. This accurate water saturation in shaly sands.
increase in porosity with increase in shale volume, can be Using Archie‟s equation in shaly sands results in very
accounted for by the fact that shales has its own porosity, high water saturation, thus the Simandoux and
and add to the sand porosity in the reservoir. This result Indonesian model were used in this work to correct for
does not agree with that of Adeoti et al. (2015), which the high water saturation values. The log derived
shows a decrease in effective porosity against increase in formation water saturation shows decreasing values from
shale volume, but agrees with the results obtained by Archie‟s model to Indonesian model, and then to
Alao et al. (2013), which reiterated that effective porosity Simandoux model. From the results, the Simandoux
after shale correction is lower than the log derived model also shows higher values of hydrocarbon
porosity. According to Kurniawan (2002), clay minerals saturation. These results agree with that of Adeoti et al.
can cause the log-derived porosity values to be too high (2015), which concluded that, the Simandoux and
because of the limitation of density tool calibration Indonesian models provide favorable petrophysical
whenever clay minerals are present; and because the parameters indicating higher hydrocarbon potential than
high concentration of hydrogen ion in clays translate to a Archie model. This implies that the Simandoux and
higher calculated porosity in neutron log tools. This thus Indonesian model could be valuable tools in shaly sand
could account for the reason why effective porosities environments.
(shale corrected porosities), are lower than the effective
porosities derived from the logs.
The values for effective porosity obtained in this work, Shale distribution
range averagely from 22.25 to 28.32%, and are very
high. These results agree with conclusions made by Using the Thomas-Stieber model, the distribution of shale
Selley and Morrill (1983) and Egeh et al. (2001) which appears to be mainly structural with few dispersed and
concluded that, almost all reservoirs have porosity in a laminated shales. Some few points are subjected to „gas
range of 5 to 30%. effect‟. The presence of structural shales increases the
porosity of the reservoirs with increase in shale volume.
In fact, structural shale are present as grains within the
Permeability sand, which are similar to the findings of Thomas and
Steiber (1975) and Mæland (2014) where the effective
In a large number of studies on oil drilling, the existence porosity in shaly sand are greater compared to those in
of a positive correlation between permeability and clean sand.
porosity is identified (Nelson, 1994; Ehrenberg et al.,
2006). The effect of shale on porosity is directly
proportional to shale effect on permeability. Because of Conclusion
the intrinsic low permeability of shales, their presence in
the reservoir reduce the connectivity between pores. It can be concluded that shales in a reservoir formation is
Thus, an increase in shale volume reduces permeability like scales in the human observation. In fact, shales can
in a reservoir. cause complications in interpretation for the petrophysicist
because of their general conductivity and low
permeability. As a result, the high resistance
Fluid saturation characteristics of hydrocarbons may be masked, leading
to potential hydrocarbon zones being missed out.
During water saturation interpretation, difficulties arise After proper log analysis and interpretation, 28 potential
whenever the portions of clay minerals in a shaly-sand reservoir zones (with 15 shaly and 13 clean) were
formation are high. These clay minerals contribute to an identified. The stratigraphic unit from where the log data
increase of the overall conductivity. In large quantities, was derived is mainly composed of an intercalation of
their conductivity becomes as important as the shales and sandstones corresponding to the Agbada
conductivity of the formation water (Kurniawan, 2002). An Formation of Short and Stauble (1967). Utility and
increase in formation conductivity due to the presence of analysis of the shaly sand correction methods, point to
shale in a reservoir reduces the formation true the conclusion that the complex lithology model is
resistivities (Rt) and thus causes the derived water suitable for shale corrections of the reservoir porosity and
saturations (Sw) to be seemingly higher, since water permeability in the Niger delta, while the Simandoux and
saturation and formation true resistivity have inverse Indonesian models are both suitable for shale corrections
relations. of fluid saturations.
According to Alao et al. (2013), Archie‟s equation was Generally, results of this work indicate that the effective
12 J. Petroleum Gas Eng.
porosity and saturation of formation water increases with Moradi S, Moeini M, Ghassem Al-Askari MK, Mahvelati EH (2016).
Determination of Shale Volume and Distribution Patterns and
increase in shale volume while, hydrocarbon saturation,
Effective Porosity from Well Log Data Based On Cross-Plot Approach
and permeability decrease with increase in shale volume. for A Shaly Carbonate Gas Reservoir. IOP Conf. Series: Earth and
Environmental Science 44:042002 http://doi:10.1088/1755-
1315/44/4/042002.
Nelson PH (1994). Permeability-Porosity Relationships in sedimentary
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
rocks. The Log Analyst 35:38-62.
Nwachukwu JI, Chukwurah PI (1986). Organic matter of Agbada
The authors have not declared any conflict of interests. Formation, Niger Delta, Nigeria. American Association of Petroleum
Geologists Bulletin 70:48-55.
Paul G (2018). Formation evaluation. Unpublished petrophysics Msc
course Notes, University of Aberdeen, UK.,
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Appendix
- Archie equation for clean reservoirs (Equation 8) - Irreducible water saturation: Equation 13
- Simandoux model for shaly sand (Equation 9) - Permeability: Equation 11
- Indonesian model for shaly sand (Equation 10)