|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||
| JOURNAL HOME | HELP | CONTACT PUBLISHER | SUBSCRIBE | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Geologic Note |
1 Statoil, N-4035 Stavanger, Norway; sne{at}statoil.com
2 Statoil, N-4035 Stavanger, Norway
Steve received a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1978. He works on sandstone and carbonate reservoir studies for exploration and production projects.First joining Statoil in 1986, Paul now serves as a specialist in the Global Exploration division working with basin evaluation and petroleum systems analysis. Originating from Maine, Paul received his degrees in geology from Boston College (B.Sc. degree, 1975) and Dartmouth College (Ph.D., 1980, petrology of Cretaceous marine shales, western United States). Early industrial experience includes petroleum exploration in the Rocky Mountains for the Anschutz Corporation. Postdoctoral research at the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, resulted in several seminal publications in mineralogy and diagenesis. Paul has also served as a research specialist in formation evaluation for Exxon Corporation (now Exxon-Mobil).
Plots are presented comparing average porosity vs. depth for 30,122 siliciclastic petroleum reservoirs and 10,481 carbonate petroleum reservoirs covering all petroleum-producing countries except Canada. However, separate plots cover 5534 siliciclastic and 2830 carbonate reservoirs of the Alberta basin in Canada. Average permeability vs. average porosity is shown for the non-Canadian reservoirs. Key similarities and differences between sandstones and carbonates are noted, and implications are discussed regarding the dominant factors controlling reservoir quality in each lithology. Trends of steadily decreasing median and maximum porosity with increasing depth reflect burial diagenetic porosity loss in response to increasing thermal exposure with depth. These trends seem inconsistent with the suggestions that both sandstones and carbonates commonly increase in porosity by dissolution during deeper burial. Carbonate reservoirs have lower values of median and maximum porosity for a given burial depth, probably because of greater chemical reactivity of carbonate minerals relative to quartz and the resulting lower resistance to chemical compaction and associated cementation. Relative paucity of low-porosity (0–8%) siliciclastic reservoirs at all depths compared with carbonates may reflect the more common occurrence of fractures in carbonates and the effectiveness of these fractures for facilitating economic flow rates in low-porosity rock. Overall, carbonate reservoirs do not have lower permeability for a given porosity compared with sandstones but do have strikingly lower proportions of both high-porosity and high-permeability values. The data presented can serve as a general guide for the distribution of reservoir quality that can reasonably be expected in exploration wells drilled to any given depth in the absence of detailed geologic information, such as burial and thermal history.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  S. N. Ehrenberg, P. H. Nadeau, and O. Steen Petroleum reservoir porosity versus depth: Influence of geological age AAPG Bulletin, October 1, 2009; 93(10): 1281 - 1296. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. Lezin, F. Odonne, G. J. Massonnat, and G. Escadeillas Dependence of joint spacing on rock properties in carbonate strata AAPG Bulletin, February 1, 2009; 93(2): 271 - 290. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. N. Ehrenberg, A. A. M. Aqrawi, and P. H. Nadeau An overview of reservoir quality in producing Cretaceous strata of the Middle East Petroleum Geoscience, November 1, 2008; 14(4): 307 - 318. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. R. F. Borgomano, F. Fournier, S. Viseur, and L. Rijkels Stratigraphic well correlations for 3-D static modeling of carbonate reservoirs AAPG Bulletin, June 1, 2008; 92(6): 789 - 824. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. N. Ehrenberg, P. H. Nadeau, and O. Steen A megascale view of reservoir quality in producing sandstones from the offshore Gulf of Mexico AAPG Bulletin, February 1, 2008; 92(2): 145 - 164. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. C. Poppelreiter, M. A. Balzarini, B. Hansen, and R. Nelson Realizing complex carbonate facies, diagenetic and fracture properties with standard reservoir modelling software Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2008; 309(1): 39 - 49. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. N. Ehrenberg, P. H. Nadeau, and A. A. M. Aqrawi A comparison of Khuff and Arab reservoir potential throughout the Middle East AAPG Bulletin, March 1, 2007; 91(3): 275 - 286. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. Aguilera Sandstone vs. carbonate petroleum reservoirs: A global perspective on porosity-depth and porosity-permeability relationships: Discussion AAPG Bulletin, May 1, 2006; 90(5): 807 - 810. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. H. Nadeau and S. N. Ehrenberg Sandstone vs. carbonate petroleum reservoirs: A global perspective on porosity-depth and porosity-permeability relationships: Reply AAPG Bulletin, May 1, 2006; 90(5): 811 - 813. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. N. Ehrenberg, G. P. Eberli, M. Keramati, and S. A. Moallemi Porosity-permeability relationships in interlayered limestone-dolostone reservoirs AAPG Bulletin, January 1, 2006; 90(1): 91 - 114. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| JOURNAL HOME | HELP | CONTACT PUBLISHER | SUBSCRIBE | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
