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Chapter Outline
▪ Introduction

▪ Porosity

▪ Permeability

▪ Saturation

▪ Wettability

▪ Capillary Pressure

▪ Relative Permeability

▪ Hysteresis
Introduction

 Two main properties of reservoir rocks are porosity and

permeability;

 Amount of fluids inside reservoir rocks, known as in-situ

fluid saturation and rock-fluid interaction properties
such as wettability, capillary pressure, relative
permeability are also of primary concerns;

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Porosity

Porosity represents the storage capacity of reservoir rock

𝑉 𝑉 −𝑉
𝜙= =
𝑉 𝑉

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 Rock Matrix and Pore Space

Rock matrix Pore space

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Porosity
 Porosity depends on grain packing, NOT grain size
 Rocks with different grain sizes can have the same
porosity

• Rhombohedral packing • Cubic packing

• Pore space = 26 % of total volume • Pore space = 47 % of total volume

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Pore-Space Classification

 Total porosity

Total Pore Space V pore

t  
Bulk Volume Vbulk

• Effective porosity

Interconnected Pore Space

e 
Bulk Volume
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 Permeability

 Permeability is a measure of the reservoir rock

capacity to transmit fluids
 There are three types of permeability:
 Absolute permeability
 Effective permeability
 Relative permeability

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 Absolute Permeability

 Absolute permeability of a reservoir rock is its own

characteristic, independent of the fluids inside it
 Darcy’s experiment with a single-phase fluid injected
into a sand pack was the first to define and determine
the absolute permeability of a permeable, porous
media

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Darcy’s Equation

q v: Velocity
q: Flow rate
x
Direction of flow
A A: Cross-section area
k: Permeability
: Viscosity
q k p L: Length increment
v   p: Pressure drop
A  x

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Effective Permeability
 Darcy’s equation is used for single-phase fluid only

 For multiphase flow in reservoirs, the individual fluid flow is

described by the generalized Darcy’s equation in which the
absolute permeability is replaced by the effective
permeability

kopo kg p g
vo    vg   
o x g x
kw pw
vw   
w x

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Effective Permeability

 Effective permeability is determined by the product of the

two measurable quantities from lab experiments: the absolute
permeability and the relative permeability

𝑘 =𝑘×𝑘
𝑘 =𝑘×𝑘
𝑘 =𝑘×𝑘

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 Relative Permeability

 Relative permeability (𝑘 , 𝑘 , 𝑘 ) is defined as the ratio of the

effective permeability to a fluid at a given saturation to the
effective permeability to that fluid

0 ≤ 𝑘 ,𝑘 ,𝑘 ≤1

 When the relative permeability of a fluid is zero, that fluid exists

in the rock but does not move

 Relative permeability can be measured by core flooding

experiments known as the special core analysis

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 Relative Permeability
1.00
kro @ Swi
- Irreducible water saturation
Relative Permeability (fraction)

𝑆 : Saturation of water
0.80 remaining in the rock sample
after the experiment of oil
Two-Phase Flow displacing water.
0.60 Region
- Residual oil saturation (𝑆 ):
Oil Saturation of oil remaining in the
0.40 rock sample after the experiment
of water displacing oil

0.20 - As Sw increases, kro decreases

krw @ Sor
and krw increases until oil in the
Water core reaches its residual
0 saturation
0 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00
Water Saturation (fraction)

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 Fluid Saturation

 Saturation of a reservoir fluid represents how much that fluid is

present in the pore space of the reservoir rock

𝑉
𝑆 =
𝑉

 All fluids in a reservoir fully occupy the pore space of the

reservoir

𝑆 =1

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 Wettability

• Wettability is the tendency of one fluid to spread

on or adhere to a solid surface in the presence of
the other immiscible fluid.

• Wettability refers to interaction between fluid and

solid phases.

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 Wetting Phase Fluid
• Wetting phase fluid preferentially wets the solid rock
surface.
• Attractive forces between rock and fluid draw the
wetting phase into small pores.
• Wetting phase fluid often has low mobile.
• Attractive forces limit reduction in wetting phase
saturation to an irreducible value (irreducible wetting
phase saturation).
• Many hydrocarbon reservoirs are either totally or
partially water-wet.

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 Nonwetting Phase Fluid

• Nonwetting phase does not preferentially wet the

solid rock surface
• Repulsive forces between rock and fluid cause
nonwetting phase to occupy largest pores
• Nonwetting phase fluid is often the most mobile
fluid, especially at large nonwetting phase
saturations
• Natural gas is never the wetting phase in
hydrocarbon reservoirs

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Water-Wet Rock

ow Oil

 Water
os ws os
Solid

• 0 <  < 90

Adhesive tension between water and the rock surface
exceeds that between oil and the rock surface.

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 Water-Wet Reservoir Rock

• Reservoir rock is water-wet if water preferentially

wets the rock surfaces
• The rock is water-wet under the following
conditions:
• ws > os
• AT < 0 (Adhesion tension is negative)
• 0 <  < 90

If  is close to 0, the rock is considered to be

strongly water-wet

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Oil-Wet Reservoir Rock

• Reservoir rock is oil-wet if oil preferentially wets the

rock surfaces.
• The rock is oil-wet under the following conditions:
• os > ws
• AT > 0 (Adhesion tension is positive)
• 90 <  < 180
If  is close to 180, the rock is considered to be
strongly oil-wet

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Oil-Wet Rock

ow
Water
Oil


os ws os Solid

• 90 <  < 180

The adhesion tension AT between water and the rock
surface is less than that between oil and the rock surface.

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 WATER- OIL-WET
WET
Oil
OIL Oil OIL


 WATER  WATER
 < 90
WATE WATE  > 90
SOLID (ROCK) R R SOLID (ROCK)
FREE WATER

OIL

GRAIN GRAIN

OIL
RIM

BOUND WATER FREE WATER Ayers, 2001

Contact Angle
The contact angle, ,
Oil measured through the
ow denser liquid phase,
Oil  Water Oil defines which fluid wets
the solid surface.
os ws Solid os
AT = adhesion tension, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm)

 = contact angle between the oil/water/solid interface measured through the water,
degrees

os = interfacial energy between the oil and solid, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm

ws = interfacial energy between the water and solid, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm

ow = interfacial energy (interfacial tension) between the oil and water, milli-
Newtons/m or dynes/cm

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Adhesion Tension

• Adhesion tension is expressed as the difference

between two solid-fluid interfacial tensions.

AT   os   ws    ow cos 
• A negative adhesion tension indicates that the denser
phase (water) preferentially wets the solid surface (and vice
versa).
• An adhesion tension of “0” indicates that both phases have
equal affinity for the solid surface

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 Imbibition Process

• Imbibition is a fluid flow process in which the saturation

of the wetting phase increases and the nonwetting
phase saturation decreases.

• Mobility of wetting phase increases as wetting phase

saturation increases

– mobility is the fraction of total flow capacity for a

particular phase

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 Water-Wet Reservoir, Imbibition

• Water will occupy the smallest pores

• Water will wet the circumference of most larger pores

• In pores having high oil saturation, oil rests on a water

film

Imbibition - If a water-wet rock saturated with oil is placed

in water, it will imbibe water into the smallest pores,
displacing oil

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Oil-Wet Reservoir, Imbibition

• Oil will occupy the smallest pores

• Oil will wet the circumference of most larger pores

• In pores having high water saturation, water rests on an

oil film

• Imbibition - If an oil-wet rock saturated with water is

placed in oil, it will imbibe oil into the smallest
pores, displacing water

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 Drainage Process

Fluid flow process in which the saturation of the

nonwetting phase increases.

Quiz: Fill in the gaps below with appropriate terms

– Drainage process is associated with a waterflood

of an oil reservoir that is …
– Injection of … in an oil-wet reservoir is a drainage
process
– Accumulation of gas in trap in a (an) ... wet
reservoir is a drainage process

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 Effect of Wettability
1.0 1.0
Relative Permeability, Fraction

Relative Permeability, Fraction

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

Oil Oil Water

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2
Water
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Water Saturation (% PV) Water Saturation (% PV)

Strongly Water-Wet Rock Strongly Oil-Wet Rock

• Water flows more freely
• Higher residual oil saturation

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 Capillary Pressure Curves in Drainage and
Imbibition Processes
DRAINAGE

• Fluid flow process in which the saturation of

the nonwetting phase increases

IMBIBITION
Drainage
• Fluid flow process in which the saturation of
the wetting phase increases

Pc Saturation History - Hysteresis

- Capillary pressure depends on both direction of

Pd change and previous saturation history

Imbibition - At Sm, nonwetting phase cannot flow, resulting in

residual nonwetting phase saturation (imbibition)
Swi Sm
- At Swi, wetting phase cannot flow, resulting in
0 0.5 Sw 1.0 irreducible wetting phase saturation (drainage)

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Hysteresis Effect on Relative Permeability

100
Non-wetting phase
Wetting phase

80
Relative Permeability, %

krw

60 Imbibition krnw Drainage

krnw

40

20 Irreducible wetting Residual non-wetting

phase saturation phase saturation
0
0 20 40 60 80 100

Wetting Phase Saturation, %PV

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Hysteresis Effect on Relative Permeability

 During drainage, the wetting phase ceases to flow at the irreducible

wetting phase saturation
 This determines the maximum possible non-wetting phase
saturation
 Common example: Petroleum accumulation
 During imbibition, the non-wetting phase ceases to flow when its
saturation reaches the residual non-wetting phase saturation
 This determines the minimum possible non-wetting phase
saturation displacement by the wetting phase
 Common example: waterflooding water wet reservoir

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