PEB2023 Reservoir

Engineering 1
Lecture 1 - Introduction
C.W. Sia, PhD, 2020
Department of Petroleum Engineering
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri
Iskandar, Perak
Table of Contents

•  Lesson outcomes
• What is Reservoir Engineering?
• The Importance of Reservoir Engineering
• Hydrocarbon Reserves and Hydrocarbon initially in-place
• Gross Rock Volume, Net Rock Volume, Pore Volume, Hydrocarbon Pore
Volume
• Fluid Pressure Regimes
• and the Derived information
• Summary
Lesson Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, learners are expected to be able to

• Explain the role of reservoir engineers
• Define and compute Hydrocarbon Reserves and Hydrocarbon initially in-place
• Assess the relationship between Gross Rock Volume, Net Rock Volume, Pore
Volume and Hydrocarbon Pore Volume
• Estimate the essential parameters from depth versus pressure plot
 What is Reservoir Engineering?

• Reservoir engineering is a branch

of petroleum engineering that utilises the
scientific principles to the flow of fluid
through porous medium during the
development and production of
hydrocarbon reservoirs in order to obtain
an optimum recovery.
• Reservoir engineers deal with the
subsurface geology, applied mathematics,
and the basic laws of physics and
chemistry that are governing the behaviour
of liquid and vapour phases of crude oil,
natural gas, and water in reservoir rock.
 The Importance of Reservoir Engineering
• One of the crucial roles of reservoir engineers
is generating accurate reserves estimates for Hydrocarbon Reserves
financial reporting to the regulatory bodies.
• Reservoir engineers’ responsibilities include
numerical reservoir modelling, production
forecasting, well testing, well drilling and
workover planning, economic modeling, and Hydrocarbon reserves is the amount
of hydrocarbon that can be technically
PVT analysis of reservoir fluids. recovered at a cost that is financially
• Reservoir engineers also play a central role in feasible at the present price of oil. Hence
field development planning, recommending reserves will change with the price.
appropriate and cost effective reservoir
depletion schemes such as waterflooding or
gas injection to maximize hydrocarbon
recovery.
Hydrocarbon Reserves

Hydrocarbon Cumulative
Hydrocarbon Recovery
Reserves = Initially in- × Factor - Production
place to-date

Hydrocarbon reserves is Subjected to Total amount of

the amount of  • STOIIP +
• Technical hydrocarbon that
hydrocarbon that can be Associated
capability has been
technically recovered at a GIIP • Oil price produced from
cost that is financially • GIIP
• Governing drive day 1 to-date
feasible at the present price mechanisms
of oil. Hence reserves will • Oil recovery
change with the price. schemes
• Flactuates
Hydrocarbon Initially in-place

•  Oil initially in-place (OIIP)

• is the amount of oil that is estimated by the engineers during the discovery of the
reservoir.

• The unit is reservoir barrel or m3.

• Stock Tank Oil initially in-place (STOIIP)
• When the volume of oil in reservoir conditions is translated to stock tank conditions,
the volume is known as stock tank oil initially in-place (STOIIP) or stock tank oil
originally in-place (STOOIP)
• ST
• The unit is stock tank barrel (STB) or sm3 (Standard meter cube)
Gas Initially in-place

•  Gas initially in-place

• is the amount of gas that is estimated by the engineers during the discovery of the
reservoir.

• The unit is reservoir barrel or m3.

• For dry gas,
• At standard condition,
• For the undersaturated oil reservoir, the gas evolved from the oil is known as the
associated gas, should be considered as GIIP as well. (This will be covered in reservoir
engineering 2)
Gross Rock Volume (GRV)

•  Shall we recall the equation for Hydrocarbon in-place (HIP)

• The first term on the RHS of the equation above is the rock volume that
contains hydrocarbon plus none pay zone
• The volume of rock including the
shale layers (excluding the cap rock) is
known as the gross rock volume
(GRV)
• The GRV of interest are normally
above oil-water contact (OWC)
because we are only interested in
estimating the HIP not water volume
and below cap rock
 Gross Rock Volume (GRV)

• The shale dominated layer should be ignored as well since the effective
porosity in this layer is small. On top of that the shale layers have low
permeability.
Curious?
• How the gross rock volume can be determined?
• Where can we get the raw data?
Aquifer

• The none productive layer (the shale layer) should not be taken into account
in the volume calculation. How?
• How can we determine the oil water contact?
Hydrocarbon Initially in-place

• In order to estimate the hydrocarbon initially in-place we must

know/determine the underlined parameters
• GRV – This information can be determined using surface map
• Net rock volume – This is result of the product of GRV and net-to-gross, where, net-to-
gross can be estimated from the gamma-ray log of well log (Covered in Well Logging
and Formation Evaluation course)
• Net-to-gross can be defined as the ratio of the volume of pay zone to the total volume inclusive of
the shale layer but excludes cap rock above oil-water contact
• Pore volume – the product of net rock volume and average porosity
• Hydrocarbon pore volume – The product of net rock volume and hydrocarbon
saturation
Hydrocarbon in-place

•  The equation for hydrocarbon in-place is

• The hydrocarbon in-place is also known is equivalent to the hydrocarbon pore

volume in this context
•
Pressure Regime

• Overburden Pressure (OP) is also known as the

lithostatic pressure, confining pressure or vertical
stress. It is the pressure or stress imposed on the
layer of rock by the weight of the overlying
materials (grain plus fluid).
• Fluid pressure (FP) is the pressure imposed by the
weight of the overlying fluid.
• Grain pressure (GP) is the pressure or stress
exerted by the weight of overlying grain.
• OP = FP + GP
• d(OP)=d(FP)+d(GP); d(OP)=0  why?
• d(FP)=-d(GP)  What does this mean
Depth versus Pressure Data

• Figure on the right shows the graph

of depth versus fluid pressure.
• The plot of depth versus pressure
can be used to determine
• The type of fluid(s) presence
• Oil and/or water and/or gas
• The fluid contact(s)
• OWC and/or GOC and or GWC
• The densities
• The importance of knowing the
above:
• Use to determine the HIP
• Casing design/ perforation etc.
Depth versus Pressure

•  The gradient of the graph is

• The inverse of the gradient is
• The typical values of for gas, oil and water are
• psi/ft
• psi/ft
• psi/ft
• By knowing the inverse gradient of the graph of
Depth vs pressure we can predict the fluid type
Depth versus Pressure

•  What represents?

• D is the depth from TVD from MSL

• TVD = True vertical depth
• MSL = Mean sea level
• In fact if we know , we can tell what is our fluid
density.
• We expect steeper gradient for gas compare to
oil and water. Why?
Depth versus Pressure

•  Typically the pressure is in psi and is in ft, hence has a unit of psi/ft.
• psi = lbf/(in)2  psi = lbf/144(ft)2  psi/ft = lbf/144(ft)3
• Water density at std condition = 62.4 lbm/cu-ft  1 g/cc

• By knowing the fluid pressure gradient, we can determine the fluid density
and hence the type of fluid
Example

•  The density of distilled water is 62.4 lbm/cu-ft. Determine the distilled water
pressure gradient in psi/ft
Answer:
Why divides with
psi/ft 144? What is 144?

• The formation pressure gradient in an aquifer is 0.45 psi/ft. Determine the

water density in lbm/cu-ft and g/cc
Answer:
Why divides with 0.433?
Density in g/cc = 0.45÷0.433=1.039 g/cc What is 0.433?

Density in lbm/cu-ft = 0.45×144= 64.8 lbm/cu-ft

Fluid Contacts

•  The fluid contacts are the depths where two

immiscible fluids are in-contact.
• By knowing the fluid pressure gradients , we can
determine the fluid contacts.
• In normal cases, we always starts with water
pressure gradient.
• Hydrostatic pressure (water pressure),

• The equation above tells us, the deeper the depth,

the higher the hydrostatic pressure
Example

•  The water pressure gradient is 0.445 psi/ft, determine the hydrostatic pressure
at the depth 2000 ft if the hydrostatic pressure is normal.
Answer:
psia
• What is the depth of the abovementioned water at the depth of 2500 psia.
Answer:
ft
Fluid Contacts

•  However, the hydrostatic pressure , sometimes it is not normal. It could be

overpressured or underpressured. The values depend on the grain pressure
and overburden pressure which can be tied directly to the geological setting.
Hence, the hydrostatic pressure can be written as
•
•  Normal hydrostatic pressure
•  Underpressure
•  Overpressure
• In normal circumstances, and are from the pressure plot and is the inverse of
the gradient of versus plot, by knowing all these values, can be determined.
Example

Table shown tabulates the fluid pressure at

different depth measured from MSL.
a. Determine the types of fluid
encountered.
b. Determine the densities of the fluids.
c. Determine the fluid contacts.
d. The reservoir has a normal pressure or
it is overpressured or underpressured?
Justify your answer
Answer

a. Plot the graph of Depth versus

Pressure. From the plot, the inverse of
the gradients are
• 1/12.5 = 0.08 psi/ft
• 1/(2.7778) = 0.36 psi/ft
• 1/(2.2727) = 0.44 psi/ft
From the gradients we can tell we have three
type of fluids which are gas, oil and water
(based on the gradients)
b. Fluid densities
• Gas density = 0.08/0.433 = 0.185 g/cc
• Oil density = 0.36/0.433 = 0.831 g/cc
• Water density = 0.44/0.433 = 1.016 g/cc
Answer (cont.)

•c.  From the plot, the intersection of water line

and oil line and the oil and gas lines are
• OWC is at 5000 ft
• GOC is at 4750 ft
d. The pressure is normal or not?
Refer to the hydrostatic pressure @5000 ft

psia. The negative sign indicates

underpressured
Exercise

The fluid pressure data from well X is

tabulated in the Table shown.
a. Determine the type of hydrocarbon
encountered.
b. If the nearby well has the hydrostatic
pressure to be underpressured by 0.7
psi, estimate the OWC. State clearly
your assumptions and justify why you
make such assumption.
Summary

What have we learned in this lesson?

• Explain the role of reservoir engineers
• Define and compute Hydrocarbon Reserves and Hydrocarbon initially in-place
• Assess the relationship between Gross Rock Volume, Net Rock Volume, Pore
Volume and Hydrocarbon Pore Volume
• Estimate the essential parameters from depth versus pressure plot
 THANK
YOU
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