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Petroleum reservoir porosity versus depth: Influence of geological age

¹ StatoilHydro, N-4035 Stavanger, Norway; present adress: PanTerra Geoconsultants B.V., Weversbaan 1-3, Leiderdorp 2352 BZ, Netherlands; s.ehrenberg{at}panterra.nl
² StatoilHydro, N-4035 Stavanger, Norway; phn{at}statoilhydro.com
³ StatoilHydro, N-4035 Stavanger, Norway; oysteen{at}statoilhydro.com

Steve has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. He works on sandstone and carbonate reservoir studies for exploration and production projects.

Paul first joined Statoil in 1986, and now serves as a specialist in global exploration working on basin evaluation and petroleum systems analysis. Originating from Maine, Paul received his B.S. degree from Boston College and his Ph.D. from Dartmouth College. He received the Schlumberger Medal from the Mineralogical Society and the Brindley Award from the Clay Minerals Society. Presently, Paul is preparing a popular petroleum geology book outlining the diagenetic controls on hydrocarbon discovery and production efficiency, focusing on the strong relationships between recoverable reserves and reservoir temperature, as well as implications for future energy resource management.

Øyvind received his M.Sc. degree in 1994 and his Ph.D. in 1997 in structural geology from the University of Oslo. He joined Statoil in 1997 and has been working as a production geologist and in exploration. His current research concerns the reconstruction of sedimentary basins and thermal-history modeling.

Average porosity values for the producing zones of oil and gas fields worldwide are examined as a function of the present depth for sandstone and carbonate lithologies divided into 10 groupings by reservoir depositional age (Precambrian–Silurian to Pliocene–Pleistocene). The wide variations in average reservoir porosity within each depth range reflect the extreme ranges in porosity-controlling factors such as depositional facies, early diagenetic histories, geothermal gradients, and degrees of uplift from previous maximum burial that exist in the Earth's petroleum reservoirs. Median porosity for a given depth nevertheless decreases with both increasing depth and age in most age and lithology categories examined. Maps of reservoir geographic distributions corresponding with each porosity-depth plot show the Earth's petroleum provinces in terms of reservoir ages and lithologies. The results demonstrate quantitatively and empirically the degree to which porosity is related to depth, lithology, and geological age on the global scale of observation.