Pore space

The pores between the rock components, e.g. the sand grains in a sandstone reservoir, will initially be filled with the pore water. The migrating hydrocarbons will displace the water and thus gradually fill the reservoir. For a reservoir to be effective, the pores need to be in communication to allow migration, and also need to allow flow towards the borehole once a well is drilled into the structure. The pore space is referred to as porosity in oil field terms. Permeability measures the ability of a rock to allow fluid flow through its pore system. A reservoir rock which has some porosity but too low a permeability to allow fluid flow is termed tight . 

Poorly sorted sediments comprise very different particle sizes, resulting in a dense rock fabric wifh low porosify. As a resulf the connate water saturation is high, leaving little space for the storage of hydrocarbons. Conversely, a very well sorted sediment will have a large volume of space between the evenly sized components, a lower connate water saturation and hence a larger capacity to store hydrocarbons. Connate water is the water which remains in the pore space after the entry of hydrocarbons. 

Laminae of clay and clay drapes act as vertical or horizontal baffles or barriers to fluid flow and pressure communication. Dispersed days occupy pore space-which in a clean sand would be available for hydrocarbons. They may also obstruct pore throats, thus impeding fluid flow. Reservoir evaluation, is often complicated by the presence of clays. This is particularly true for the estimation of hydrocarbon saturation. 

Compaction occurs when continuous sedimentation results in an increase of overburden which expels pore water from a sediment package. Pore space will be reduced and the grains will become packed more tightly together. Compaction is particularly severe in clays which have an extremely high porosity of some 80% when freshly deposited. 

The initial temperature of a gas condensate lies between the critical temperature and the cricondotherm. The fluid therefore exists at initial conditions in the reservoir as a gas, but on pressure depletion the dew point line is reached, at which point liquids condense in the reservoir. As can be seen from Figure 5.22, the volume percentage of liquids is low, typically insufficient for the saturation of the liquid in the pore space to reach the critical saturation beyond which the liquid phase becomes mobile. These... 

Nearly all reservoirs are water bearing prior to hydrocarbon charge. As hydrocarbons migrate into a trap they displace the water from the reservoir, but not completely. Water remains trapped in small pore throats and pore spaces. In 1942 Arch/ e developed an equation describing the relationship between the electrical conductivity of reservoir rock and the properties of its pore system and pore fluids. 

The pore system is described by the volume fraction of pore space (the fractional porosity) and the shape of the pore space which is represented by m , known as the cementation exponent. The cementation exponent describes the complexity of the pore system i.e. how difficult it is for an electric current to find a path through the reservoir. 

On a microscopic scale (the inset represents about 1 - 2mm ), even in parts of the reservoir which have been swept by water, some oil remains as residual oil. The surface tension at the oil-water interface is so high that as the water attempts to displace the oil out of the pore space through the small capillaries, the continuous phase of oil breaks up, leaving small droplets of oil (snapped off, or capillary trapped oil) in the pore space. Typical residual oil saturation (S ) is in the range 10-40 % of the pore space, and is higher in tighter sands, where the capillaries are smaller. 

The above experiment was conducted for a single fluid only. In hydrocarbon reservoirs there is always connate water present, and commonly two fluids are competing for the same pore space (e.g. water and oil in water drive). The permeability of one of the fluids is then described by its relative permeability (k ), which is a function of the saturation of the fluid. Relative permeabilities are measured in the laboratory on reservoir rock samples using reservoir fluids. The following diagram shows an example of a relative permeability curve for oil and water. For example, at a given water saturation (SJ, the permeability... 

When water is displacing oil in the reservoir, the mobility ratio determines which of the fluids moves preferentially through the pore space. The mobility ratio or water displacing oil is defined as ... 

As Everett points out, however, the analogy of a pore as a narrownecked bottle is over-specialized, and in practice a series of interconnected pore spaces rather than discrete bottles is more likely. The progress of capillary condensation and evaporation in pores of this kind (cf. Fig. 3.13) has been discussed by de Boer, and more recently by Everett. ... 

In between the inclusion limit and the exclusion limit, each solute spends an amount of time in the pore space proportional to its size. The retention volume for a solute is... 

Reverse Osmosis. Membranes are used for the separation of smaller components (<500 daltons). They have smaller pore space and are tighter than those used for ultrafiltration. High pressure pumps, usually of the positive piston or multistage centrifugal type, provide pressures up to 4.14 MPa (600 psi). 

Vein Deposits. The vein deposits of uranium are those in which uranium minerals fill cavities such as cracks, fissures, pore spaces, breccias, and stockworks. The dimensions of the openings have a wide range, from the narrow pitchblende-fiHed cracks, faults, and fissures in some of the ore bodies in Europe, Canada, and AustraHa to the massive veins of pitchblende at Jachymov, Czech RepubHc (15). 

Finely ground cements often called ultrafine cements, having particles less than 10 p.m and an average size of 4 pm are used to grout soils with fine pore spaces, such as fine sand with a permeabiUty of lO " cm/s. These cements can be made with a wide combination of Pordand cement, slag, or siUca fume (72). 

The ability of the gas stream to permeate the filter is also affected by the shrinking and elongation of the fabric. Elongation of the fibers results in increased pore space, and conversely shrinkage decreases the pore volume. Fabrics of good dimensional qualities are essential to fabric life and efficiency. 

Bulk density, soil - Mass of dry soil per unit bulk volume (combined volume of soil solids and pore space). 

In the adsorption cycle, the wet inlet gas flows downward through the tower. The adsorbable components are adsorbed at rates dependent on their chemical nature, the size of their molecules, and the size of the pores. The water molecules are adsorbed first in the top layers of the desiccant bed. Dry hydrocarbon gases are adsorbed throughout the bed, As the upper layers of desiccant become saturated with water, the water in the wet gas stream begins displacing the previously adsorbed hydrocarbons in the lower desiccant layers. Liquid hydrocarbons will also be absorbed and will fill pore spaces that would otherwise be available for water molecules. 

Poren-fiiller, m. pore filler, primer, -gehalt, tn. content of pores or voids, -grosse, /. size of pore(a) or voids, -raum, m. pore space, -volumen, n. volume of pores or voids, -weg, n. pore passage, -weite, /. pore width, pore diameter,... 

Subsurface Fluid Pressure (Pore Pressure Gradient). The total overburden pressure is derived from the weight of the materials and fluids that lie above any particular depth level in the earth. Of interest to the petroleum industry are the sedimentary rocks derived from deposits in water, particularly, in seawater. Such sedimentary rocks contain rock particle grains and saline water within the pore spaces. Total theoretical maximum overburden pressure, P (Ib/ft-), is... 

The term PDC is defined as polycrystalline diamond compact. The term TSP is defined as thermally stable polycrystalline diamond. TSP materials are composed of manufactured polycrystalline diamond which has the thermal stability of natural diamond. This is accomplished through the removal of trace impurities and in some cases the filling of lattice structure pore spaces with a material of compatible thermal expansion coefficient. 

Basically all formations penetrated during drilling are porous and permeable to some degree. Fluids contained in pore spaces are under pressure that is overbalanced by the drilling fluid pressure in the well bore. The bore-hole pressure is equal to the hydrostatic pressure plus the friction pressure loss in the annulus. If for some reason the borehole pressure falls below the formation fluid pressure, the formation fluids can enter the well. Such an event is known as a kick. This name is associated with a rather sudden flowrate increase observed at the surface. 

The pore space of a soil may contain either water or a gaseous atmosphere. Thus the aeration of a soil is directly related to the amount of pore space present and to the water content. Soils of fine texture due to a high clay content contain more closely packed particles and have less pore capacity for gaseous diffusion than an open-type soil such as sand. 

The saturation of the pore space of a rock with gas, expressed in a percentage of the total pore space or as a fraction. The inverse of the gas saturation is called the water saturation. 

That part of a reservoir rock surrounding and/or beneath the gas accumulation in which the pore space is filled with water. Reservoir rock completely filled with water in structures without gas or oil accumulation (aquifer structures). 

The sediment surface separates a mixture of solid sediment and interstitial water from the overlying water. Growth of the sediment results from accumulation of solid particles and inclusion of water in the pore space between the particles. The rates of sediment deposition vary from a few millimeters per 1000 years in the pelagic ocean up to centimeters per year in lakes and coastal areas. The resulting flux density of solid particles to the sediment surface is normally in the range 0.006 to 6 kg/m per year (Lerman, 1979). The corresponding flux density of materials dissolved in the trapped water is 10 to 10 kg/m per year. Chemical species may also be transported across the sediment surface by other transport processes. The main processes are (Lerman, 1979) ... 

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