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EXPLORATION, DRILLING,
AND PRODUCTION
ENGINEERING
1. Origin, Deposition Mechanisms, Exploration, and Occurrence
of Crude Oil and Natural Gas
1.1. Crude Oil. Crude oil is the name given to all organic compounds
which are liquid under reservoir conditions. They can partly solidify at the surface
after expansion and cooling. Petroleum is a mixture of hydrocarbons in varying
proportions, which are accompanied by compounds of sulfur, oxygen, phosphorus,
and nitrogen. Minor constituents are porphyrins, ash-forming metal compounds
(usually sulfides of vanadium, nickel, copper, cobalt, molybdenum, lead,
chromium, and arsenic), as well as inorganic salts, hydrogen sulfide, and as a
typical constituent of crude oils water in varying amounts. The differing
mixing ratios preclude uniform chemical and physical properties. Elementary ana-
lyses show average carbon contents of ca. 79.5 88.5 wt %, hydrogen contents of
ca. 10 15.5 wt %, and impurity contents of up to a maximum of 5 wt %. Most
crude oils are optically active.
The essential ingredients of the petroleum mixture are alkanes, naphthenes,
and aromatics. The oxidation products naphthenic acids, terpenes, and phenols
are also present in some cases. According to the predominant constituents, a
distinction is made between paraffin-based crude oils and naphthene- or
asphalt-based crude oils. If both hydrocarbon types are contained in considerable
amounts in crude oil, it is termed mixed-based oil. The composition of crude oils on
a worldwide basis includes more than 30 % paraffins, at least 40 % naphthenes,
and ca. 25 % aromatics. Naphthene-based crude oils that contain resinous and
asphaltic substances are frequently found in the upper level of the Earths
crust, mixed-based oils in the middle, and paraffin-based oils in the deeper zones.
Near the surface, the crude oils lose part of their volatile constituents. Dur-
ing this, with chemical processes participating, more or less solid residues are
formed. Mainly ozokerite (earth wax) is formed from paraffinic crude oils and
natural asphalts from naphthenic crude oils.
For decades, petroleum has been mainly used as raw material for the pro-
duction of engine fuels, lubricants, and fuel oil. Because of the complex composi-
tions of crude oils, the chemical industry has developed many processes through
which petroleum has become the basis of numerous plastics. In 1990, more than
10 % of world petroleum production was used in petrochemistry.
Formation. Despite a centurys discussion with many contradictory opi-
nions and intensive research, the formation of petroleum can still not be satisfac-
torily explained. The discussion on the inorganic formation of crude oils continues
to this day. Russian experts, in particular Porfirev (56) do not exclude the fact that
petroleum is formed from inorganic matter (metal carbides and superheated
steam) even though it is generally agreed that the crude oils are predominantly
of organic origin. The investigations of potential petroleum source rocks in the
past decades have contributed considerably to this opinion. All deposits in the sedi-
mentary basins contain organic residues of terrestrial, limnic, fluvial, and marine
3) The ascent of marine currents from greater depths to the surface leads to the
substantial consumption of the scarce oxygen present in these currents as a
result of the biological productivity near the surface. From the organic resi-
dues that sink in the deep water lacking in oxygen, source rocks have been
formed. Examples of this occur off the Southwest African coast (Benguela
current) and off the west American coast (Humboldt current off Peru).
4) Source rocks are formed in the open ocean as a result of global climatic warm-
ing in association with the large transgressions. The many thick source rocks
in the Jurassic and Middle Cretaceous periods are attributable to this.
According to (60), the temperatures necessary for the genesis and maturation of
the petroleum are closely related to the geological time available for them.
Thus, according to Russian ideas, ca. 40 50106 a are required for the start
of petroleum formation at an earth temperature of at least 60 8C. The Californian
deposits mentioned, though, have formed at temperatures above 100 8C in only
1 2106 a (62).
Formation of Deposits. Deposit formation is the concentration of infi-
nite numbers of oil droplets which form in source rocks and are then squeezed
out of them to economically exploitable accumulations. Deposit formation is the
result of oil migration. The oil particles move during primary migration from
the argillaceous source rocks into the porous reservoir rocks, which usually
lie at a higher level. A considerable fractionation of the crude oils can occur
even during this movement as a result of selective filtration, adsorption, and
condensation (63,64).
Migration. In many cases, however, the true concentration of deposit
formation occurs only through migration in the bedding or horizontal secondary
migration, ie, through movement and accumulation within the permeable
reservoir horizons. With favorable facial conditions, lateral migration can be
very important for deposit formation. It can occur over distances of 10 km to a
maximum of 100 km. With changing facies, differential migration can occur, by
which the lighter hydrocarbons migrate to the higher reservoir beds. During the
course of this, the oils experience a certain buoyancy in relation to the formation
water present in the reservoir rocks because of their lower density. The oil is
therefore concentrated in the highest zones of the reservoir horizons, which
are sealed above by mudstones or salt beds. A gravity differentation of petro-
leum over edge water within the permeable reservoir rocks then occurs which
corresponds to the different densities of the individual components. Provided
gravitational separation is not prevented by capillary forces due to small pore
diameters, the edge water limits the oil column to the botom of the reservoir
(oil water contact). If the oils are supersaturated with gas, a gas cap forms
over the petroleum.
Possible reservoir rocks are permeable and porous sandstones and lime-
stones. They have average porosities of ca. 10 % to a maximum of 40 %. The qual-
ity of reservoir rocks is determined, aside from their pore volume, by their
permeability, which is of decisive importance for the production capacity of wells.
Petroleum and gas deposits can occur in all geological formations, starting
from the Cambrian period, provided reservoir rocks are available that are accom-
panied or underlain by source rocks of appropriate maturity. Also the reservoir
rocks must possess trap structures from the overlaying of sealing horizons,
such as clay and salt beds. It is also important that the structural traps were
already present at the time of oil formation and survived during the subsequent
geological periods.
Reservoir Rocks. The quality of deposits is greatly affected by the type of
reservoir rock.
Wind-blown sands, for example, form the good gas reservoir beds
of the Rotliegendes. They spread from England to Poland over an area of
1000 3000 km2 with thicknesses of up to 200 m and maximum porosity
up to 20 %. Fluvial sands of meandering rivers can have net thicknesses of
48 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
6 75 m. The Triassic sands of Prudhoe Bay with reserves of 2.8109 t oil belong
to this type. Both alluvial fans such as the Cretaceous sands of the Sirte Basin
in Libya and the beach and barrier sands parallel to the coastlines are good
reservoir beds. The latter include the Jurassic Piper field (United Kingdom).
The marine platform sands, which occur as transgressive or regressive
sequences, are equally good reservoir beds. Deep-water sands, occurring as
so- called deep-sea fans and turbidites, certainly spread over hundreds of kilo-
meters, but are of variable quality. This reservoir type includes the Pliocene
Sands in the Los Angeles Basin with a thickness up to 700 m and the Paleocene
Sands of the Viking Graben in the North Sea.
Carbonate reservoir beds can be of very differing quality. Thus reefs or reef
limestone debris can have excellent reservoir properties as in West Texas or
Alberta/Canada, with net thicknesses of 170 200 m, but they are mostly of lim-
ited extent and variable quality. The chalk forms only average-quality reservoir
beds. Mainly composed of coccoliths, the chalk is thin-bedded. The production
engineering of the Austin Chalk in West Texas, the Ekofisk field in the Norwe-
gian North Sea, or the reservoir of Reitbrook (Hamburg) is difficult. Owing to
their low permeability, these deposits can be extracted profitably only in conjunc-
tion with very fine fissuring.
Trap Structures. The type of trap structure encountered strongly
depends on the worldwide or regional tectonic processes in the Earths crust.
Movements at the plate edges lead to individual stress patterns with a variety
of structural phenomena as the result of forces of contraction and expansion.
The structures can, therefore, be of various sizes and shapes (65,66). The prin-
ciple trap structures, as listed below, can also occur in combination.
The types of structure possible as traps for petroleum and natural gas can
be of very different origin (see Fig. 2). There are anticlines (a), tiltings, faults (d),
salt intrusions, and discordant overlappings, and sometimes synsedimentary
facies differentiations which arose during the deposition of the beds. Permeabil-
ity barriers, arising as a result of secondary recrystallization and the formation
of new minerals in the pores, laterally seal the reservoir in such a way that a
special form of the facies reservoir is formed. This can often be observed in con-
junction with faults. The most important tectonic traps are the saddle-shaped
anticlines and flat, oval mound structures as well as monoclines originating
from antithetic faults. Reservoirs in association with overthrusts are usually
arched in the frontal zone and sometimes enrolled. They are known as rollover
structures. The first reservoirs discovered were found in association with salt
domes (d), where various kinds of structural traps are possible on the flanks
and the top of the dome. In the case of discordance reservoirs (c), porous horizons
are sealed off after tilting and partial removal of horizontally deposited younger
sediments. Other typical facies reservoirs are the reefs (b), which are usually
composed of corals, as well as traps which have arisen, eg, through the argilla-
tion of a sandstone with reservoir characteristics. In addition, there is a variety
of special forms and combined reservoir types. In all of these cases, it is common
that porous reservoir horizons in their top zone are covered and transposed with
sealing by clay rocks and salt layers.
Oil Exploration. The potential for petroleum and natural gas present in a
sedimentary basin must be proved by exploratory wells. The total costs of the
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 49
Fig. 2. Most important reservoir types and trap structures a) Under an updoming (anti-
cline); b) In a coral reef; c) Under overlapping strata (discordance); d) On a salt plug tank;
e) In a conformable downthrown fault; f) In a reverse downthrown fault.
magnetic minerals within them. Sediments, on the other hand, differ in their
susceptibility according to the proportion of such minerals in the strata. The
changes of the Earths magnetic field are recorded with the aid of proton magnet-
ometers and give, for example, indications of the shape and depth of the crystal-
line basement or of volcanic or magmatic intrusive bodies. Aeromagnetics was
developed in World War II to detect submerged submarines. The measuring
instruments are accommodated in the wingtips of the aircraft or towed behind
on cables. In their basic version, the measuring instruments are coils through
which current flows. The applied magnetic field is altered by the terrestrial mag-
netic field and the resulting anomaly is recorded.
Gravimetric Measurements. Gravimetric measurements are used to
measure the changes in the Earths gravitational field. Because of the different
densities of rocks, beds of relatively low density, such as salt rocks, with
negative anomalies can be demarcated from rocks of higher density, such as
intrusives or quartzites, with positive anomalies. As a result it is also possible
to detect blocks of identical rocks that are displaced tectonically by faults.
The typical measuring instrument is the spring balance, whose spiral spring
shows a different extension according to the density of the rocks. The
extension is recorded and interpreted (Fig. 3). Aerial gravimetry, combined
with aerial magnetics, is a rapid and cheap method of reconnaisance survey
for the petroleum exploration of extended areas.
Gravimetric methods are increasingly used again for the solution of special
problems. Computer model calculations can be carried out which lead to consider-
ably improved conclusions. Thus gravimetric measurements are an important
means for detecting petroleum reservoirs at the flanks of salt domes; for the defini-
tion of the drilling and casing program and the allowed deviation for deep gas wells;
and also for the interpretation of seismic surveys near salt domes, where the reflec-
tions are disturbed by the salt, in order to clearly determine the salt flanks.
Geoelectric Measurements. Geoelectric measurements of the natural
Earth currents (tellurics) in the form of magnetotellurics have not fulfilled
the hopes placed in them. The numerous interference factors in the industrial
countries, such as electrical energy in cross- country transmission lines and
on railway lines are as disadvantageous as the large spread of the results.
Magnetotelluries are therefore only rarely used.
Seismic Methods. Since the 1970s seismic methods have become the most
accurate and most frequently used exploration methods. This is mainly due to
digital recording and the many processing and interpretation programs avail-
able. If in the past, seismics was a subsidiary science of geology, today it must
be ranked of equal importance alongside it. The seismic methods permit very
accurate conclusions on the stratigraphic sequence and depth of geological
beds. These methods measure the transit time of artificially generated elastic
waves. The waves have usually been generated by the detonation of explosive
charges placed in boreholes (Fig. 4). Apart from this, other energy sources also
are used nowadays. The vibroseis method, has become established whereby a
steel plate mounted below a truck is pressed by the weight of the truck onto
the ground. This transmits controlled vibrations of a given frequency that are
produced by a vibrator installed in the truck, to the subsoil. Four to six vibrator
trucks operate simultaneously. With this method, measurements can be
52 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
performed on roads and tracks and therefore in populated areas. It is also more
rapid than explosion seismics, and cheaper.
The elastic waves spread in all directions and at bed boundaries, eg,
between claystone and sandstone or sandstone and carbonate. They are partly
refracted and partly reflected to the surface by the echo sounder principle.
The velocity of these seismic waves through the various geological strata is a
measure of the type of rock and depends on the rocks elasticity and density
53
Fig. 4. Reflection seismic surveying technique with two reflecting horizons, A and B.
54 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
(ca. 10002000 m/s in loose rocks and up to 6000 m/s in compact rocks). The more
accurately the actual velocity in each bed is known, the more accurately can the
depth of the reflection be calculated. Computer model calculations provide very
useful approximations. There are two different methods: the reflection seismic
method and the refraction seismic method, the latter was used almost exclusively
until the 1930s. The refraction seismic method is still used nowadays only for
wide-area surveying of deep-lying horizons, but is also called in for the determi-
nation of sonic velocities in the rocks and to solve special problems.
Seismic Refraction Method. In the seismic refraction method a part of
the energy waves is refracted at the refraction horizon, similar to light being
refracted at the interface between water and air. Some of the refracted waves
then continue to run along the bed boundaries and in the course of this generate
other waves that are refracted again to the surface. The measurement is of the
transit time from the detonation at the energy center until the refracted wave
impinges on the geophones set up on the surface at distances of up to ca.
25 km. The seismic refraction method requires large explosive charges with the
geophones at a relatively large distance and enables a relatively large depth of
penetration.
Seismic Reflection Method. The seismic reflection method uses, in con-
trast to the refracted wave, the waves directly thrown back by the reflecting hor-
izons. Depending on the depth of the reflecting horizons, the waves return to
the Earths surface after increasing time intervals and are received by groups
of geophones systematically laid out on the ground. They are then converted to
electromagnetic impulses and recorded on magnetic tapes in complicated digital
recording equipment. Recording the seismic signals on magnetic disks having
already been pretreated in the recording truck by amplification, filtering, and
balancing of the vibrations enables corrections to the raw data and various
investigations of the signals with simultaneous suppression of the interference
energy (noise) to be carried out at the geophysical playback centers. From the
transit time found for the emitted and reflected waves, the depth of the reflecting
bed can be determined, provided the velocity of the rock beds passed through,
which often shows rapid regional variations, is known. The depth is then half
the product of velocity and transit time. Indications of the velocity of the seismic
waves come from detailed calculations of the refraction and reflection seismic
methods, from seismic well-logging, and directly from a geophone being lowered
on a wine line in the bore hole. The geophone is positioned at the boundaries of
rock units and receives the waves produced in the usual manner off the well
site.
Aside from the compression waves which have up until now been used
almost exclusively for scanning the structural conditions in the subsoil, shear
waves also are gaining increasing importance today. They enable conclusions
to be made on the petrographic nature of the rocks and their contents. The com-
bination of compression and shear waves permits at least approximations to the
porosity of a reservoir rock and to the pore content.
Seismic Measurements in Offshore Regions. The reflection seismic mea-
surements can also be used in offshore regions. The seismic method based on
explosives previously used, has been abandoned and replaced because of
the great environmental damage, especially where a large fish stock exists; at
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 55
the same time the airgun method has established itself. In this method highly
compressed air is suddenly released. With the large number of available record-
ing vessels, seismic companies not only carry out commissions to order but, in all
seas, carry out self-financed measurements which they then offer for sale to the
oil companies for reconnaisance purposes.
Three-Dimensional (3 D) Method. In exploration seismics, the line
method has hitherto been used almost exclusively. According to the exploratory
problem definition, individual profiles spaced at a distance of 500 2000 m from
each other are intersected by crosslines having the same spacing. The 3 D
method, which is almost routine in the development of proved deposits, is also
being used more and more in exploration. The groups of geophones are placed
at profiles with distances of 25 m and the waves are generated by explosives
fired from various sides. The digitally recorded results are processed and
corrected, as in the line seismic method, and subsequently transmitted to work
stations. Because of the small distances between profiles and the possibility of
assembling profile lines according to ones own ideas via shot points of neighbor-
ing lines (random line), the interpretation of the reflection horizons leads to
increased precision. Because of the high cost of equipment several thousand
geophones are required for the geophone installation and the large number of
staff used up to 350 members the method is very expensive. It pays, however,
especially during development of a productive area, since as a result of the close
surveying, false interpretations and consequently false structural descriptions
are restricted or even avoided. Characteristics of a 3 D measurement are given
below:
facies distribution, but also the settling and the related rise of temperature, as
well as the uplift phases with erosion of reservoirs already formed. A three-
dimensional kinetic model has attracted attention (69). It is based on a set of dif-
ferential equations for energy and mass balances that describe the course of var-
ious geological processes. The physical parameters, such as porosity and
permeability, and the thermal sequences are selected from available lithological
data and, as knowledge increases, can be adjusted iteratively.
Occurrences, Production, and Reserves. The petroleum occurrences
are associated with the sedimentary basins of the Earth. Their distribution is
in no way statistical. Even their tectonic classification is very diverse and
shows that deposit formation is not associated with only certain types of basin
(Fig. 5). The largest petroleum occurrences lie in basins that have subsided con-
siderably for instance as a result of the continental drift approximately from
the Jurassic to the Middle Tertiary period and, owing to a lack of contact
with oxygen-rich waters of polar origin and to a simultaneously warm climate
with high, oxygen-reducing water temperatures, have preserved large amounts
of organic material in the anoxic medium. The reserves in older geological forma-
tions are relatively small. The reason may be that there were fairly small
amounts of organic material in the shallow seas of the epicontinental region dur-
ing the flooding by the worldwide transgressions. But the smaller reserves in
older formations than those of the Mesozoic era may also be the result of thermal
evolution (conversion of oil into gas), the destruction of the reservoirs or their
sealing horizon by tectonic events and erosion. The sedimentary basins with pro-
spects are nowadays distributed both over the continents and over the regions of
the continental shelves covered by the seas (Fig. 6). The methods of exploration
and development are in both cases the same, for offshore wells the means of
transport and technical installations are adapted to the water medium. The dif-
ference lies in the greater costs for offshore wells and production installations.
Apart from the classical offshore fields in Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela) and
in Baku (Caspian Sea) that were already developed in the 1930s with modified
onshore installations, offshore exploration and production achieved increasing
importance only in the 1960s. Technical developments then became necessary
58
Fig. 6. The sedimentary basins of the Earth with the most important production areas.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 59
that enabled deposits to be developed even at a depth of more than 1000 m water.
In 1983, on the west coast of France, a well was drilled to almost 2000 m at a
water depth of 1714 m. Such depths of water cause difficulties for production,
which then is only possible by means of an underwater completion. This
means that the production equipment is totally installed on the ocean floor
and must be maintained by divers. The deepest producing field is the Jolliet
field in the Gulf of Mexico. It produces from a depth of 535 m of water and is
equipped with a tension leg platform, ie, a floating platform that is fixed to the
ground by steel wire ropes. In 1992 the Snorre field in the Norwegian North Sea
also went into production by means of a tension leg platform at a depth of up to
350 m of water. Further production installations according to the tension leg sys-
tem are being prepared up to ca. 1000 m (Auger and Marlin fields). Owing to high
investment costs, the systematic recovery of hydrocarbons at great depths of
water, in particular on the continental slope, depends on the development of
the market price of crude oil.
Production and Reserves. The prices of crude oil collapsed in the second
half of the 1980s. OPEC saw a possibility of stabilizing the prices only by fixing
production quotas. These efforts, however, had no particular success. The control
of production by OPEC as well as other economic measures in producing coun-
tries outside OPEC, influence production in such a way that the annual produc-
tion data do not give a clear picture of the productivity of a producing country.
Rather, the cumulative production gives only an impression of the geological and
technical capacities (Table 1). For better comparison, the annual production
for 1989 for the region concerned is indicated. World oil production for the
year 1989 was 3.434109 t. In 20 years, it rose only by ca. 20 %. In view of world-
wide industrial development this is only a moderate increase that is attributable
in part to energy saving efforts which started with the 1973/1974 energy crisis.
The ranking of the producing countries for 1989 shows that the Middle East
states Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates lead
the list of producing countries with a production of 922106 t, followed by the
Soviet Union with 668106 t, and the United States and Canada together with
525106 t. Following behind are South and Central America (380106 t), Asia/
Oceania (365106 t), Africa (350106 t), and Europe (223106 t). The production
from offshore fields was about 25 % of world oil production (70). The proved world
oil reserves rose to ca. 164.30109 t through development, in particular, of off-
shore fields. Compared with reserves published in the 1970s (92.40109 t) this
is an increase of > 80 %. If the probable reserves determined according to the
Gaussian distribution curve are added, then there are currently 240109 t petro-
leum to be expected. Compared with the production of ca. 3.4109 t in 1990, this
gives a ratio of 72 : 1. Thus the ratio of 30 : 1 existing for decades has more than
doubled. Even taking only the proved reserves into account, the ratio is about
50 : 1. There may be various reasons for this. One could be the rapid sequence
of discovery and development of large deposits above all offshore. These include
new discoveries in East Venezuela and in the Brazilian Campos Basin, as well as
in the Russian North Caspian Basin and in Saudi Arabia. Large reserves have
recently been developed in the Tarim Basin (West China) and in the Papua Basin
of New Guinea, in which up until now no economic oil discoveries have been
known. Another reason is certainly the nature of the recording or evaluation of
60 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
Table 1. The most important crude oil producing countries; their total production up to
December 31, 1989 and their resources (assembled from various international data)
Resources
Bahrein 127 30
Iran 5898 11 750 3 020
Iraq 3 323 16 850 5 560
Kuwait 3 800 13 700 320
Neutral Zone 713 2 200 320
Oman 493 1 100 150
Qatar 684 650
Saudi Arabia 9 157 41 500 7 950
Syria 207 300
United Arab
Emirates 1 860 10 500 800
Others 207 750
Table 1. (Continued)
Resources
the proved reserves. The new assessment is based on the newly proven or re-
evaluated reserves in the oil fields, larger extent of the deposits, or improved
oil recovery. At the World Petroleum Congress in 1990, a rise of the reserves
by 45109 t to more than 164109 t, was reported, ie, a rise of ca. 33 %. Of
this, ca. 32109 t are apportionable to the Middle East and only 3109 t to
North and South America. Other authors quote a larger or smaller rise than
this. The reason for this may be that, in addition to the newly developed reserves,
new evaluations of the fields have been made in which, apart from the proved
reserves, probable and possible reserves have been accounted for. The reserves
according to MASTERS et al. (71) listed in Table 1 represent, despite all uncertain-
ties, a reliable order of magnitude. The size of the increase in reserves from new
discoveries also reflects the number of successful exploration wells. As stated
above, the saturation of the petroleum market since 1985 has led to a drastic
reduction of exploration activity. If in 1984 in the western countries, 1250
seismic crews and 6500 drilling rigs were in use, their numbers had fallen in
1989 to 447 and ca. 1924, respectively (1990: 2057, 1991: 1896). A speeding up
of exploration depends on the general improvement and stability of prices and
availability of reserves in the important consumer centers. The further pros-
pects for success in petroleum exploration are limited to where the assumed
profitability for foreseeable future ends or when the natural deposit potential
of liquid hydrocarbons in the subsoil of the earth is exhausted. The two aspects
are closely interlinked, since the estimation of potential reserves and even the
definition of a deposit are determined by profitability factors. The ca. 77109 t
of conventional crude oil still to be expected according to the most recent esti-
mates must be supplemented by the reserves from very heavy oil deposits and
oil (tar) sands (see Tar Sands), which can be assumed to be at least 100109 t.
An accurate demarcation from the conventional crude oils listed in Table 1
is not possible, since MASTERS et al. (71) also take into account the reserves
between 108 and 208 API, which other authors include in the low-quality heavy
oils. The heavy oil and bitumen deposits are found to the extent of 87 % in Canada
62 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
(Athabasca, Cold Lake, Peace River), the CIS (Volga Urals, East Siberia), and
Venezuela (Orinoco). They represent a future reserve that can only be used
when, because of the depletion of the conventional fields, so- called tertiary recovery
methods are standard, eg, hot water injection or steam injection, to extract the oil
from the deposits. The prices by then must have exceeded the limit of $ 50/bbl (the
oil price in 1992 was ca. $ 20/bbl).
Regional Distribution of the Reserves. Middle East Arabian (Persian)
Gulf. The largest reserves are in the countries of the Middle East and in the
Arabian Gulf. On 1st January, 1990, proved reserves of ca. 99109 t were estab-
lished and probable ones of 19109 t calculated (see Table 1). The first economic
oil find in recent times in this region was made in 1908 with the discovery of the
Iranian Masjid-i-Sulaiman field. Many subsequent discoveries have been added.
At present, Saudi Arabia, with more than 41.5109 t of proved reserves, followed
by Iran with 11.75109 t, Kuwait with ca. 13.7109 t, and Iraq with ca.
16.85109 t are leading. The largest deposits in the Middle East include the fields
of Burgan in Kuwait, Ghawar, and Safaniya in Saudi Arabia, Kirkuk and
Rumaila in Iraq, and the deposits of Gach Saran and Agha Jari in Iran.
Geologically, the oilfields of the Arabian Gulf are situated on the shelf area
in front of the pre-Cambrian massif outcropping in the west, and south of the
Arabian peninsula in the form of intensively block-folded crystalline. Continen-
tal and shallow-water sediments are found deposited between the Cambrian and
the Cretaceous systems on the slowly sinking shelf. The shelf is divided by
numerous North South trends that are linked with basement highs. North
and east of the shelf, including the Taurus Zagros Oman mountains there fol-
lows a geosynclinal or plate-edge region. This region also received thick tertiary
sediments and during alpidic orogenesis was folded by tangential forces and
divided into structures with a northwest southeast direction. In accordance
with the asymmetric structure of this trough, the large deposits on the Arabian
side mainly lie in Jurassic and Cretaceous beds, and the offshore deposits mainly
in Cretaceous reservoir rocks. The Persian Iraqi fields produce in the more dee-
ply settled parts of the trough from Cretaceous and Tertiary horizons. On the
Arabian peninsula, anticline-like updomings dominate structurally, whilst in
the Persian Gulf salt structures and bending folds, and in the foothills of the Ira-
nian Zagros range anticlinal and overthrust structures can be found. The most
recent exploration activities in Saudi Arabia proved deposits with several hun-
dred million tonnes of oil in sandstones of the Paleozoic era. The Permian
Khuff, itself a reservoir bed of natural gas deposits, serves here as capping of
stratigraphic and structural traps. The oil is of Silurian origin. The Paleozoic
era could provide further potential in Saudi Arabia.
Europe. The petroleum deposits of Europe, apart from the North Sea,
are fully developed and, with production falling, are already in the phase of sec-
ondary and tertiary recovery methods. If the reserves of all onshore producing
countries are combined, proved reserves of ca. 0.7109 t can be established
together with exploratory reserves of ca. 0.5109 t. The United Kingdom and
Norway possess proved reserves of ca. 5.325109 t from offshore fields, and a
further ca. 2.34109 t exploratory reserves are expected. The comparison with
the Middle East, however, shows the small importance of the European states
as oil-producing countries. Even so, in 1974 the Federal Republic of Germany
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 63
produced more than 6106 t oil and was able to cover ca. 30 % of indigenous
requirements. Of the 823106 t oil reserves originally present, 61106 t proved
and probable oil reserves remained after a total production of 225106 t (Decem-
ber 31, 1991). The recovery factor of 35 % of the original reserves means that
537106 t remain unrecoverable. The reserves in Italy and the Netherlands,
with developed quantities of ca. 110106 t in each case and prospective reserves
of ca. 330106 t in Italy, are on a worldwide view of equally low importance as
those of Romania, with 190106 t and a prospective reserve of 235106 t. All
other countries on the European mainland are globally considered insignificant
as producing countries. The oil deposits of northern Germany are bound to
sediments of epicontinental floodings which occurred during the Jurassic and
Cretaceous periods. The narrow NNW SSE striking troughs filled with Jurassic
deposits are caused by halokinetic movements. The Rhine Valley Graben as a
minor oil region dates from the rifting (continental drift) related-to young
tectonic movements. The European deposits are distributed over the foredeeps
of the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Carpathians, although the deposits in the
Aquitaine Basin, the Molasse Basin (Bavaria), the Carpathian Basin, and
the Po Basin are not very large. The oil occurrences in Sicily, Spain, and in
the Aquitaine Basin of France are linked with Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous
carbonates. The intramontane Pannonian Basin and the Paris Basin should be
mentioned because of their historic importance for the exploitation of oil in
Europe. The Lower-Saxony Basin also is of historic importance, since the
deposits of O lheim (1881) and Wietze (1859) were discovered here almost
simultaneously with Colonel Drakes success in the United States.
North Sea. The North Sea has been one of the most attractive exploration
regions for the international oil industry since the start of exploration in 1964.
All large oil companies, often together with recently founded local partners,
have introduced their worldwide know-how into development of this logistically
difficult region. Great depths of water, strong currents, and extremely harsh
weather conditions require the use of specially developed drilling and production
installations. Although the technology used can nowadays be regarded as
advanced, the damage to the platforms during construction and operation
shows the limits for the prospecting and production of hydrocarbons. The first
success in the North Sea was the discovery of the Ekofisk field on the Norwegian
Shelf in 1968. Two important successes in the British sector of the North Sea
were the discovery of Forties in 1970 and of Brent in 1971. About 17 oil fields
are in production in the Norwegian North Sea, and in the British North Sea
more than 100 oil and gas fields including numerous small ones. Norways lar-
gest fields are Ekofisk/Eldfisk, Gulfaks, and Statfjord, which have up to now pro-
vided ca. 80 % of the Norwegian oil production. In the United Kingdom the
Forties, Brent, Magnus, Ninian, Fulmar, and Statfjord (British part) fields pro-
vide more than 40 % of the British oil production. The five Danish and seven
Dutch offshore fields are negligible compared with those of Norway and the
United Kingdom. Geologically, the fields are linked with the large graben that
open up from the beginning of the Mesozoic era in conjunction with the rifting
of the Atlantic plate. The most important element is the Viking Graben which
collapsed between the East Shetland Platform and the Norwegian Vestland
Bogen. It runs for a length of ca. 455 km and has a width of ca. 50 km in the
64 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
south and 180 km in the north approximately on the midline between Norway
and the United Kingdom. In addition, there are special basins, some with
thick tertiary sediments, to which the oil is bound. The deposits are found in
sediments of the Triassic, the Jurassic, the Upper Cretaceous, and the Paleogene
periods. The traps are mostly the tilted fault blocks typical of rifting, that are
sealed by transgressively overlapping fine-grained Upper Cretaceous sediments.
The development of hydrocarbons is limited to the north by the 62nd degree of
latitude as a result of Norwegian legislation. Seismic measurements and specifi-
cally located wildcats have provided evidence that in the northern North Sea
(Troms, Haltenbanken) and in the Barents Sea, deposits both of oil and of nat-
ural gas can be expected. The time for specific development of these fields will
depend on the development of the reserves already developed and also on the
oil price. Even today, owing to expensive technology, a price in excess of $ 20/
bbl and tax relief by the producing countries is necessary for the continuation
of exploration in the North Sea. In 1991, the daily production of all North Sea
fields reached 192106 t.
Commenwealth of Independent States. Industrial oil recovery in the
territory of the CIS had already started at Baku in the middle of the last century
and reached its first peak around 1900, when North American production was
briefly surpassed. After a period of stagnation, a rapid upward development
started in the former Soviet Union after World War II with the development of
new oil reserves. The proved resources on January 1, 1990, were 13.2109 t, and
14.6109 t of exploratory reserves were expected. Accordingly, the total reserves
are more than 200 % higher than those of the United States. Until 1918, almost
the whole production came from the Caucasus mountains. In the 1950s the
Volga Urals region and the Timan Petschora Basin, adjacent to the north,
were developed. In addition, the discoveries in the North Caspian Basin
(Emba) and in the Mangyschlak trough of Turkmenia developed very rapidly,
but have passed their peak. In the 1960s and 1970s, the extended deposits
east of the Urals in the West Siberian Basin were discovered. Meanwhile 96 %
of the oil developed in West Siberia is produced in the Tjumen province. In the
southern provinces of Novosibirsk and Omsk, exploration has given disappoint-
ing results. In almost all oil provinces, as a result of technical deficiencies and
lack of oil field equipment, production is falling or remaining below expectations.
Proved reserves could be mobilized by the use of modern technology, such as the
horizontal drilling process in many reservoirs of low permeability. The opening of
the CIS to the West leads to the expectation of a strong involvement of interna-
tional oil companies which, with their know-how and their modern technology
can bring oil exploration and exploitation to a reliable high standard. There
are also justified expectations of the development of important new reserves in
Turkmenia and East Siberia, where only a small production of oil has been
achieved so far. Large oil discoveries in the pre-Caspian Depression promise
interesting exploration possibilities. In the recently discovered Thenguise,
Astrakhanskoe, and Karatshaganakskoe fields, oil is produced from carbonates
and clastics of the Paleozoic era at depths of more than 4000 m below a Permian
salt cover. With an area of 500 000 km2 and a sedimentation thickness of almost
20 000 m, good possibilities also arise here which may increase the number of
reservoirs in the CIS substantially. Geologically, the deposits in the Caucasus
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 65
mountains, the Caspian Sea, Galicia, the Fergana depression, and on Sachalin,
etc., are linked above all with Neogen horizons in prealpine depressions and
innermontane troughs. The deposits of the Volga Ural area lie in Paleozoic
depressions of the Eastern European Platform. The main reservoir rocks
here are Devonian and Permian reef limestones as well as sandstones of the Car-
boniferous period. In the large and oil-rich Timan Pechora Basin, the reservoir
systems belong to Upper Devonian sandstones and chalks of the Lower Carboni-
ferous period. Mainly Permian and Mesozoic reservoir horizons are oil-bearing in
the deposits of the North Caspian Depression, in Kazakhstan, and Turkmenia.
In the deposits of the Western Siberian Platform, the hydrocarbons are assigned
to the central part of the Lower or Middle Cretaceous period. In the Molasse
Basin of the eastern Ural foreland, oil and gas deposits are linked with Upper
Jurassic sandstones and calcarenites.
Africa. In 1990, the proved and probable oil reserves of Africa were about
11.3109 t, and the exploratory ones ca. 5.0109 t. The resources are concen-
trated in Libya, Algeria, and Nigeria. There are further deposits of noteworthy
size in Egypt, Congo, Angola, Gabon, and Tunisia. The African continent was
long considered to have few prospects for hydrocarbons. The breakthrough
came in the 1950s with the almost simultaneous discoveries of the first large
deposits in Algeria and the Niger delta. The large discoveries in Libya followed
in the 1960s. Geologically, the oil deposits of Algeria and the smaller occurrences
in West Libya which are not yet producing, are linked to the Paleozoic basin
between the Precambrian Massifs of the mid-Sahara and the Atlas range. Fairly
large amounts of oil are found in the Neogene basins of the Syrte in Central
Libya and in the Niger delta. There are also older oil-producing strata, mostly
in the Cretaceous system. At the western edges of the African shield, between
several stable cratons, depression fields have been formed, on which marine
transgressions deposited thick sediments in the Mesozoic and Tertiary eras. In
some cases, between the Permo-Triassic system in Morocco and the Cretaceous
system in Gabon, salt deposits occurred that led, possibly in conjunction with the
continental drift, to diapirism. The basins not only cover parts of the current
mainland but reach far into the Atlantic. The coastal basins range as follows
from north to south: Spanish Sahara, Senegal Mauritania, Ivory Coast,
Dahomey, Nigeria, Gabon, Congo, and Angola. In Eastern Africa, of the graben
systems which are largely linked to the rifting, only the Red Sea graben with
Miocene salt deposits and hydrocarbons below is of importance, as in the Gulf
of Suez, which is the only area of East Africa with fairly large reserves.
Libya, with 4.9109 t proved and probable reserves and ca. 1109 t pro-
spective, has the largest oil reserves of Africa. Cumulatively, ca. 2.6109 t oil has
been produced in Libya up to now. Geologically, Libya is divided into three large
basins: in the west the Murzuk basin, in the central part the Syrte basin, and in
the east the Kufra Basin. The oil originates for the greater part from reservoir
rocks of the Cretaceous (sandstones) and the Lower Tertiary (reef limestones)
systems, but also from the Cambrian and Ordovician systems of the Syrte
Basin. Libyas only producing offshore field Bour, with a daily production of ca.
13 000 t (1991), has little importance. The development of hydrocarbons in North
Africa began with the discovery of the Zelten (now Nasser) field in 1959. Nasser
produces from Lower Eocene limestones of the Syrte Basin. With original
66 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
reserves of about 400106 t, it belongs, like Amal and Sarir, with ca. 1.2109 t, to
the largest fields of Libya. Libyan oil is low in sulfur and in great demand as a
light crude in European refineries.
Nigeria is the second largest producing country in Africa. The proved and
probable reserves are indicated as 2.8109 t and the prospective reserves as
1.1109 t oil. The fields are in the Niger Delta Basin that is filled with ca.
12 000 m of clastic rocks of the Tertiary period. In Nigeria, 15 giant oilfields
(according to U.S. definition, fields with more than 500106 bbl, ca. 80106 t)
have been proved, of which almost half lie offshore.
Algeria, with proved and probable reserves of ca. 1.4109 t, occupies the
third position among the producing countries of Africa. The prospective reserves
(ca. 240106 t) are quite insignificant. The oilfields lie in the Polignac Basin, near
the Libyan border, and in the Ghadames Basin. The fields in Polignac produce
from reservoirs in the Carboniferous, Devonian, and Cambro Ordivician sys-
tems. In the Ghadames Basin likewise there are sandstones of the Cambro
Ordivician, that are discordantly overlaid with evaporites.
North America. Geologically, the North American oil deposits are linked
with the large sedimentation region that appeared repeatedly since the Paleozoic
era. This basin forms the foredeep to alpine-type mountains in the west (Rocky
Mountains) and flattens to the east towards the basement area of the Canadian
shield. In the south, this sedimentary basin expands and becomes the thick Ter-
tiary Gulf basin. A lateral arm of the trough zone with Paleozoic rocks follows the
south-east edge of the Canadian shield to the mouth of the St. Lawrence river. In
accordance with this geological structure, the deposits in the more deeply sunken
western sections of the trough appear in Tertiary and Cretaceous horizons, and
in the higher-lying eastern marginal areas (mid-continent, eastern states with
Appalachians) in sandstones and limestones of the Paleozoic era. The deeply sun-
ken Gulf coast has its main deposits in Cretaceous and Tertiary strata. In the
Californian fields, the oil comes from Tertiary and Cretaceous horizons. The
new discoveries in Alaska occur mainly in Permo-Triassic sandstones. Other
oil discoveries, scarcely developed until now, in the arctic expanse of Canada
indicate several very promising basins with possibilities of reservoirs from the
Paleozoic era to the Tertiary period.
United States. On January 1, 1990, the United States had available
proved reserves of ca. 7.2109 t and prospective reserves of ca. 7.3109 t. Follow-
ing the producing countries of the Middle East and the CIS, the United States
are in the third position. The same ranking applies to the production in the
year 1990. The cumulative production of 24.7109 t crude oil was achieved
from 597 320 production wells. (The Middle East states produced ca. 26.4109 t
from only 7061 wells). The oil resources in the offshore region of Texas,
Louisiana, and California were about one quarter of the total reserves. Due to
results of exploration in the Gulf of Mexico an increase of the offshore reserves
can be anticipated from new discoveries in the deep water region, but this will
scarcely lead to compensation for the fall in reserves determined by production.
Before Texas, with the coastal strip on the Gulf of Mexico, advanced in 1930 to
become the leading petroleum province, the position of the leading producer was
occupied by Pennsylvania until the turn of the century, then by California, and
later by the mid- continent. On January 1, 1990, the order according to daily
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 67
production was Texas (ca. 306 179 t), Alaska (281 948 t), Louisiana (171 145 t),
California (152 840 t), and Oklahoma (48 900 t).
Canada. Only after World War II did Canada rise to become an impor-
tant producing country as a result of discoveries in Alberta. On January 1,
1990, the Canadian reserves amounted to ca. 2.1109 t, 7.9109 t of prospective
reserves were reported. The daily production of ca. 190 000 t is obtained from
39 159 production wells. The reserves are declining. However, numerous discov-
eries in arctic regions cannot be developed and therefore cannot be evaluated.
More than 80 % of the oil production occurs in Alberta. The hydrocarbons are pre-
sent in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and in the Alberta Plain. The reser-
voirs for oil, as for natural gas, are present in highly stressed folds, mostly bound
to overthrusts, in limestones of the Upper Carboniferous period, more rarely in
beds of the Devonian or the Triassic periods. In the Alberta Plain, Paleozoic
reef limestones are the reservoir rocks for the oil. Occasionally Cretaceous sand-
stones are the reservoir rocks, overlaying the Paleozoic discordant.
Latin America. The most important deposits in Latin America are those
of Venezuela and Mexico; Trinidad, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and
Brazil follow some way behind. The main deposits are in the foretroughs of the
cordilleras and their branches, and are bound to sediments from the Cretaceous
to the Neogene periods. In addition, fairly small coastal basins in Brazil and Argen-
tina are productive. The resource figures have increased due to new discoveries in
Venezuela and more recently in Columbia but most of all to the oil accumulations
developed in the jungle basins of Ecuador and Peru. Through the development of
the Marina Austral Basin between Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands,
the reserves of Argentina have increased considerably. The new reserves are not
yet in production because of their geographical position and high gas : oil ratio. The
high proportion of prospective reserves in Argentina of ca. 477106 t, as against
proved reserves of only ca. 350106 t still points to a good exploration potential.
As a result of the large oil deposits in the Bay of Maracaibo and on the Gulf
Coast of Mexico, the submarine reserves of Latin America reach 40 % of the
total resources. Further offshore deposits are off Trinidad and Brazil.
Far East. The most important producing regions of the Far East are
China, Indonesia, Brunei, and Australia. In addition, oil deposits are known,
for example, in Malaysia, Burma, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, and New Zealand.
China. Only after World War II has China gained importance as a produ-
cing country. By the use of modern scientific techniques, the first small fields
were discovered in the 1950s. In three regions, groups of fields had been proved
by the end of the 1980s that originate from plate-tectonic movements. Up to
1980, 150 fields had been discovered. Of these, merely for reasons of size, only
ca. 20 fields are of importance. Even so, the proved reserves have grown to ca.
5.0109 t. The two largest groups of fields, Daqing in East China and Shengli
on the Yellow Sea, achieved annual productions of 55.6106 t and 33.5 106 t,
respectively in 1990; that is ca. 64 % of the Chinese production. In the Daqing
field, which was discovered in 1959, between 4000 and 5000 wells distributed
over an area of 1200 km2 are producing from Lower Cretaceous sandstones in
very shallow anticlinical deposits. Shengli produces in a group of more than 40
individual structures from Precambrian and Tertiary reservoir beds. Of the
numerous sedimentary basins of China, only a few are fully developed. The
68 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
and pipeline transport of the natural gas (see Natural Gas). The production
quantities reported are not a measure of the natural gas potential available
in the producing countries, which follows from the growth of the reserves. This
is evident on comparing the United States and the CIS In 1989, production in
the United States was 500109 m3, and that of the CIS 739109 m3. On
January 1, 1990, the proved and probable reserves of the United States were
ca. 8.41012 m3 and those of the CIS ca. 451012 m3. To these there must be
added exploratory reserves ca. 111012 m3 for the United States and ca.
351012 m3 for the CIS The disproportion between production and reserves in
the CIS originates in missing pipeline connections, line losses, and also marketing
problems. Other large natural gas producers are Canada, the Netherlands, Iran,
Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Romania, Mexico, China, and Germany. The
large natural gas potentials in the countries of the Arabian Gulf, in Nigeria, and
in Indonesia suffer from the distance of the markets, since a basic requirement
for transportation from remote countries to the trade centers is the liquefaction
of the natural gas. Because of the relatively small capacity of the liquid gas tankers
and the large distances to be covered, the economic use of liquid gas is often at or
below the break-even point. The natural gas resources of the world proved and
probable on January 1, 1990, were ca. 127.01012 m3, and the prospective
another ca. 1211012 m3. The CIS has developed its leading position through the
enormous new discoveries, above all in Western Siberia, and is followed by the Mid-
dle East, which also has a very powerful growth to record. The raising of the proved
gas reserves in these two large districts originates not only in new discoveries but
partly in the extension or higher evaluation of deposits already known and the
strengthened inclusion of petroleum gases, particularly in the Middle East and
Venezuela. While Africa and North America show a declining trend for the proved
reserves, Western Europe has improved its position in the international gas sector
by further new discoveries in the North Sea.
Regional Distribution of the Reserves. A breakdown of natural gas pro-
duction and resources according to region is given in Table 2.
Commonwealth of Independent States. The largest reserves in the
world, at 451012 m3, are those of the CIS The occurrences are widely spread
and in some cases combined with petroleum deposits.
Table 2. Natural gas production and resources up to December 31, 1989 (assembled
from various international data)
Resources
The first great gas boom was in the 1950s with the development of the fields
of Shebelinka in the Dnieper Donetz Trough and Gazli in Central Asia, each
with primary resources of 450 500109 m3. The discoveries in the second
half of the 1960s, some of which were enormous, established the present position
of the CIS in the natural gas sector. Important deposits mentioned are those of
Krasny Kholm (Orenburg) in the Volga Urals district, where ca. 750109 m3
of gas have been discovered, and the Vuktyl and Layavozh deposits in the Petchora
Basin, linked with beds of the same age and each with ca. 500109 m3 of gas. In
Turkmenia, the Malai field with ca. 340109 m3, is one of the giants. Probably
the largest natural gas province in the world is in the north of the Western Siberian
platform. The gas occurring here in sandstones of the Cretaceous system (predomi-
nantly Cenomanian), in part several hundred meters thick, consists of almost pure
(97 99 %) methane. The structural traps are extended anticlines and mound-like
highs. About 220 fields have been developed in this area up to now.
This producing province is the most important for the future export of gas
to Europe. Its most extensive deposits include the Urengoy field, the largest
deposit proved so far with ca. 61012 m3 of initial gas reserves, and also the
large deposits of Jubileyny (ca. 21012 m3), Taz (ca. 1.151012 m3), Medvezhye
(ca. 1.05 1012 m3), and Yamburg (ca. 850109 m3) among others. At least a
further ten fields of this region have each reported primarily more than
100109 m3 of recoverable gas reserves. Two new discoveries in the Arctic
Ocean deserve attention. In 1987 in the Barents Sea, not far from the
Norwegian border, the Shtowmanowskaja field with an estimated reserve of
3 41012 m3 was discovered, and in 1988 in the Kara Sea, the Russanowskaja
field with 61012 m3. Both fields together are credited with 15 % of the future
production provided that the production and transportation to Nowaja Semlja
is possible under arctic conditions.
Middle East. Even if not so dominant as in the case of crude oil, the
areas on the Arabian Gulf, with proved natural gas reserves of ca. 681012 m3
play an important role in the possibility of future exports. However, a consider-
able fraction of these quantities is trapped in gas caps or is dissolved petroleum
gas linked with the large oilfields of this area and is therefore dependent on their
production. The gas cap of the Pazanan oilfield in Iran alone contains recoverable
quantities of ca. 1.41012 m3 of gas. With the recent discovery of enormous gas
accumulations in the Permian Khuff formation, very large dry gas deposits have
also been proved for the Middle East. The Kangan field in Iran is said to contain
41012 m3 of resources. The deposits available in the Permian formation are
sealed above by triadic salt beds. There are further deposits of this type, not
hitherto exploited, in Qatar. Iran also is involved in the northern part of the
Northwest Dome (North Field) with 2.8 3.4 1012 m3 a super giant
which belongs to the Permian Khuff. Notable natural gas reserves are also
known in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
North America. Despite higher quantities produced, the known North
American gas reserves have risen again. The reserves of 91012 m3 in the mid
1970s have risen to ca. 111012 m3 proved and probable. Of these, 8.41012 m3
in the mid 1980s were assigned to the United States alone, the traditional
land of natural gas. Its large-scale industrial use started here even before the
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 73
2. Reservoir Engineering
Fig. 7. Composition of a detritral rock (72) a) Grain (texture: sand granules 1/16 2 mm
diameter; silt 1/256 1/16 mm diameter); b) Pore fillings (texture: sand granules 1/16 mm
diameter; silt 1/16 1/256 mm diameter; clay < 1/256 mm); c) Cement; d) Fluid.
Vp
f
Vb
According to this definition, the porosity also includes the volume of isolated
pores (dead pores).
If all interconnected elements of the pore volume are taken into account, the
effective porosity is obtained. This is an indicator of the effective storage volume
of a rock. The sum of effective feff and dead fd porosities gives the total porosity:
feff fd f
76 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
For geometrical or hydrodynamical reasons, not all pores are available for
convective mass transport. A fixed portion of the cavity volume can be regarded
as dead-end pore volume.
The porosity depends essentially on four characteristics of the sedimentary
rock:
1) Particle shape
2) Degree of cementation
3) Particle size distribution
4) Particle arrangement
A B C
90 60
90 90 60 60
90 90 90
Fig. 9. Packing and porosity (73) A) Space-centered, cubic sphere packing (number
of contacts = 6, f 47.6 %); B) Hexagonal packing (number of contacts 8, f 39.5 %);
C) Densest packing of spheres (rhombohedral) (number of contacts = 12, f 25.9 %).
(Fig. 9 A), in which the particle midpoints form the corners of a cube, the inter-
particulate pore volume is exactly 47.6 % of the total volume. In this case each
particle has six points of contact with the neighboring particles. In the hexagonal
arrangement of particles (Fig. 9 B), the spherical particles of the upper lattice
plane are displaced by half the particle diameter relative to the lower lattice
plane. In this arrangement, the number of contacts rises from six to eight and
the porosity decreases to 39.5 %. If in the second lattice plane of the packing,
the row of spheres is displaced not only in the x-direction by d/2, but also
in the y-direction perpendicular to it, by d/2, the densest packing of spheres is
obtained (C). Here in the rhombohedral arrangement the particles of the upper
lattice plane are placed exactly in the holes of the lower plane and accordingly
each particle has twelve neighbors and the porosity is only 25.9 %. The porosity
of a natural packing of cemented sedimentary grains usually falls between the
limiting values of 39.5 and 25.9 %.
Pore Configuration Models. Although, at first glance, the shape of the
pores or fissures of a sedimentary rock has very little to do with regular geo-
metric forms, cylindrical capillaries or parallel plates are regarded as geometri-
cally similar to the pores and fissures and are chosen as models for calculating
the pore space properties. These very simple geometries are unable, however,
to reproduce the irregular variation of the pore or fissure cross section or of
the tortuosity of flow path, which are important characteristics of the pore
configuration.
In Figure 10, the commonest types of pore configuration models, up to the
most advanced representation (fractal network model), are shown. The capillary
bundle model (Fig. 10 A) is the most frequently applied pore configuration model,
mainly used for calculating the pore radius distribution, the saturation with
fluids, and the oil displacement process. A particular drawback of this model is
that a transverse flow between the capillaries is not possible. A pore configura-
tion model for fissured reservoir rocks derived from the plate model is the
78 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
Fig. 10. Pore configuration models (74) A) Capillary bundle model; B) Brickstone model;
C) Intersphere network model; D) Cascade network model; E) Fractal network model
White color means pore space.
brickstone model (B), in which the individual blocks symbolize the porous matrix
and the gaps between them, the fissures. Here mass transfer between matrix and
fissure is possible. The intersphere network model (C) is used particularly for
determining the phase distribution in the pore space and the capillary forces.
With the cascade network model (D), dead-end pore effects, turbulence effects,
and mixing phenomena can be investigated.
According to the principle of self-similarity of geometric forms in nature,
relations are traceable as far as between the crystal forms in the microcosmos
and the geological outfits (morphology) of the Earths surface. In connection
with this, the fractal dimension is a scale-up factor between the characteristic
dimensions and the image scales. If the spherical shape (circular shape in
Fig. 10 E) is chosen as the characteristic elementary shape of the rock structure
and of the pore space, a fractal network for matrix and pore configuration can be
developed, whose specific internal surface and volume fraction are calculable and
correlatable with other physically measurable quantities such as electrical con-
ductivity and permeability.
An example of the use of pore configuration models for calculating pore
space properties is given here, based on the determination of the pore radius
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 79
2sHg cosyHg
pc
r
where sHg is the surface tension of mercury and y the wetting angle of
contact.
In order to reconcile this measurement with actual pore space configura-
tions, it must be taken into account that each pore has at least two characteristic
dimensions the pore entrance and the pore widening. The characteristic cross-
section determined by the mercury injection method corresponds to the pore
entrance radius.
Compressibility of the Pore Space. The compressibility c of a substance
is the change, with external pressure, of its volume relative to its initial volume.
For a solid the compressibility is negligibly small. A porous medium which is
built up of individual particles can, however, change its particle arrangement
under pressure and, therefore, is said to have considerable compressibility.
The deformability is discussed for the different forms of packing of spherical par-
ticles in Section 2.1.1.1.1. According to the studies of GEERTSMA (75), the pore
volume compressibility cf depends on the type of pore configuration (porosity of
the medium) and the effective pressure which is the difference of external pres-
sure pe and internal pore pressure pi.
1 qVp
cf
Vp q pe pi
Figure 11 shows that the pore volume change reacts with increasing sen-
sitivity to an increase in the external pressure with decreasing porosity. The
porosity of sedimentary rock under in situ conditions (ie, under the influence
of the overburden pressure of the sediments) can, therefore, be up to 20 % smaller
than the porosity determined in the laboratory (77).
Physical Properties of the Pore Saturating Fluids. Gas, oil, and water
are the relevant pore saturating fluids, whose physical properties must be
known as a function of the pressure, the reservoir temperature, and the fluids
composition. The material properties of these multicomponent systems can
only be predicted for the gas state at low pressure with acceptable accuracy
and without an extensive experimental data base.
For liquids and phase mixtures, estimates of the material properties
are obtained in accordance with the theorem of corresponding states by
normalizing to conditions at the critical point. The state variables, pressure,
and temperature, are normalized by introducing the reduced pressure pr
80 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
14
12
10
0
0 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16 0.20 0.24
p T
pr Tr
pc Tc
Mr p
%g
zRT
where Mr is the molecular mass, p the pressure, z the real gas factor, R the gas
constant, and T the temperature.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 81
1 %0 j
where the standard conditions for gases are: p0 = 0.1013 MPa and T0 273.15 K.
For liquids p0 = 0.1013 MPa and T0 = 293.15 K holds.
In the United States, 60 8F, corresponding to 288.65 K, is used as standard
temperature. The formation volume factor for gas Bg can be calculated directly
from the real gas equation:
zT p0
Bg
pT0
To describe the volume behavior of a two-phase mixture of gas and oil, the two
formation volume factors can be added to obtain the two-phase formation volume
factor Bt, taking the gas oil ratio (Rs) into account.
Bt Bo Bg Rsi Rs
1.0
0
from degassing below the bubble point pressure ( pb). Instead, it rises further as
a result of volume expansion on pressure release. This is due to the relatively
low dissolved gas volume in water (ca. 1 m3 gas/m3) compared with oil
(10 50 m3 gas/m3).
Compressibility. The isothermal compressibility of the pore fluids is
given by:
1 qv
c
v q pT
The pore fluids differ clearly in their compressibility behavior. While gases in
the pressure range 0.1 100 MPa are extraordinarily compressible (c = 105
108 Pa1), oils have a moderate to low compressibility (c = 108 1010 Pa1)
depending on their dissolved gas content, and water has a compressibility of ca.
1010 Pa1. The last figure is of the same order as the compressibility of the
rock pore volume. In calculating the compressibility of real substances, the nor-
malized thermodynamic functions of state, pressure, and temperature can be used.
For a gas mixture under real conditions, the compressibility equation
reduced to normalizedconditions is:
cpr 1 1 1 qz
cg
ppc ppc ppr z q ppr
Here, instead of the critical data for a single gas, pseudocritical values ( ppc and
Tpc) are used as normalizing quantities.
p X
n
ppr ppc y j pc j
ppc 1
T X
n
Tpr Tpc y j Tc j
Tpc 1
84 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
To allow for the influence of pressure and temperature on the viscosity of a real
gas, the normalized representations of the reduced pressure and temperature
can again be employed.
The pressure and temperature dependence of the viscosity of reservoir oils
is shown in Figures 15 and 16, respectively. Above the bubble point pressure pb,
Fig. 16. Viscosity of oil as a function of temperature a) Heavy crude oil; b) Medium crude oil.
the viscosity linearly increases with the reservoir pressure. Below the bubble
point pressure, the oil viscosity falls steeply with increasing pressure or gas
content.
The temperature dependence of the viscosity of oil is characterized by an
exponential function, so that in a semilogarithmic plot versus the reciprocal of
the absolute temperature (see Fig. 16) a straight line is obtained. The slope of
this straight line is greater the higher the oils content of heavy components.
For the dependence of the viscosity of water on the temperature the same math-
ematical relationships apply. In addition, the viscosity of water increases with
increasing salt content (79).
Reserves. A detailed discussion of worldwide resources of oil and gas is
given in Sections and 1.2.3,, respectively.
Resources mean the total volume of hydrocarbon stored in reservoirs. With
oil, gas, or condensate reservoirs, the initial volume of the pore contents, the so-
called original oil in place (OOIP) or original gas in place (OGIP), is the first
quantity used for evaluating a resource. Since for physical, technological, and
economic reasons the resources are not completely recoverable, a second concept
is necessary for characterizing the profitability of a discovery: the reserves.
Reserves mean those quantities of hydrocarbons that at a given time are proved
on the basis of sufficient geological and reservoir engineering information and
can, in future, be produced with currently available methods of recovery and
applicable economic conditions. Reduced to a simple formula,
The recovery factors for oil reservoirs, apart from a few exceptions, are
between 20 and 45 % of the contents. For gas reservoirs, the recovery factor
can be up to 85 %. The degree of certainty in the determination of the reserves
increases with increasing development of a reservoir. According to a classifica-
tion of reserves made by the Committee of the World Petroleum Congress, pro-
ven reserves are spoken of when the probability of proof exceeds 90 %, and
unproven reserves when that probability is between 10 and 90 % (80). The
86 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
unproven reserves are split by a median value of 50 % into probable and possible
reserves. The remainder are the speculative, so far undiscovered, possibly reco-
verable reserves.
Volumetric Determination of the Reservoir Contents. At the start
of development of an oil or gas reservoir, usually only the contours of the reser-
voir are known; apart from test analyses data, no adequate production and pres-
sure trends are available. The content of a reservoir can then be surveyed only by
volumetric methods. The contents related to standard conditions are calculated
from the following formulae:
Vb f 1 Swi
OOIP
Boi
Vb f 1 Swi
OGIP
Boi
where OOIP denotes original oil in place, OGIP denotes original gas in place, and
Swi is the initial water saturation.
The bulk volume of the reservoir Vb is determined from a geological model
of the reservoir. In this procedure the nonproductive regions of the strata must
also be taken into account such as clayey interlayers or lenses, water-bearing
belts, and the distinction between gas-, oil- and water-bearing zones (gas
oil water contacts) when delimiting the net rock volume from the gross rock
volume. In the evaluation of borehole measurements, so- called cut-off values
for porosity, saturation, clay content, and permeability are introduced to differ-
entiate between pay zone and nonproductive thickness and to determine the pay
zone thickness (Fig. 17). The black areas correspond to the porous, hydrocarbon-
bearing formation intervals that are included in the net layer thickness.
For displaying the geological models, various mapping methods are chosen.
For example, in Figure 18, the structural map of a reservoir is represented by
subsurface contour lines (that is in feed). For determining the net rock volume
of a reservoir, the reservoir body can be imagined to be divided into a large num-
ber of slices of equal thickness. Each of these slices can be represented by a geo-
metrically similar body such as a truncated cone, truncated pyramid, or other,
irregular shapes, allowing its volume to be calculated. A more elegant method
is the graphical evaluation of the subsurface contour planes. In this method
the areas of the contour line map determined by planimeter for the upper and
lower boundary of the reservoir are plotted against the relative depth in a system
of cartesian coordinates (77).
Furthermore, if the lower and upper boundaries of the reservoir contents
the gas oil and water oil contacts, respectively are taken into account, the
rock volume can be determined directly from the area depth graph by means of
millimeter paper or planimetry. These computed or graphically-determined rock
volumes are inserted into the formulae for calculating the OOIP and OGIP. In
low-permeability reservoirs bearing formation water, the transition zone from
the completely water saturated zone to the oil bearing zone, containing irreduci-
ble water, is an uncertainty factor in the oil or gas resource calculation. The tran-
sition region is characterized by the capillary pressure curve.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 87
2.2. Flow Processes in Porous Media. The original state of a crude oil
or natural gas reservoir is characterized by the thermodynamic equilibrium of the
hydrocarbon phases and the capillary equilibrium of the wetting and nonwetting
phases, which in turn depends on the prevailing temperature, pore space pressure,
and rock properties. Not only the composition but also the properties of the oil, gas,
and water phase show a remarkable memory for the early history of the formation
of the deposit. For example, oils that lack in certain alkanes can be recognized as
intermediate products of biological degradation from an original sapropellitic
material. Light oils which have been exposed to oxidation as a result of tectonic
88 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
postsedimentary processes, might have been converted into medium-heavy oils, but
they still retain the chemical features (fingerprints) of their origins.
The initial distribution of the phases in the pore space is governed by the
equilibrium between interfacial forces and viscous forces during the migration pro-
cess. If a volatile oil enters a porous rock which is saturated with salt water and
flushes the pore space over extended periods then the resulting initial water
saturation in the deposit is normally greater than the adsorbed water saturation
(ie, the layer of water retained by physical adhesion to the interior surfaces of the
rock). If, in contrast, the migrating oil is composed of heavier hydrocarbon frac-
tions, it displaces the pore water almost down to the level of the absorbed water
saturation. After a reservoir has been filled, the materials are in dynamic rather
than static equilibrium. Diffusion and convection can influence the material equi-
librium and the distribution of the phases in the deposit.
Single-Phase Flow. If a fluid with little or no compressibility (water, oil)
is flowing in an infinitely large reservoir system towards a pressure sink (well)
then after a transient phase a steady-state condition is reached between the
quantity removed from the well and the quantity flowing in from the deposit.
Under these conditions, the pressure changes only as a function of space, but
not of time. However, during the transient state before the steady-state equili-
brium is reached the pressure also changes with time.
Steady-State Flow Darcys Equation. In the laminar flow regime
ie, in a homogeneously porous medium with a Reynolds number < 1 Darcys
law holds; a single well in an infinitely large reservoir radial flow geometry
can be assumed
q k qp
v 2:1
2prh m qr
where q is the flow rate, r the radius, h the thickness of the porous layer, v the
apparent velocity, k the permeability of the rock, m the dynamic viscosity, and p
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 89
the pressure. Integration of Equation (02.1) between the well radius rw and the
radius re of the area drained by the well gives the following for steady-state flow:
Boundary conditions: pe at re; pwf at rw are constant with time
2phk pe pwf
qw 2:2
Bm ln re =rw
pe pwf
pm
2
Ak pe pwf
qm
m l
2
Ak pe p2wf
qw pwf qm pm
m 2l
2
Ak pe p2wf
qw
Bm 2 pwf l
Fig. 19. Material balance in a cylindrical capillary of length Dx and cross-sectional area A.
90 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
divided by A Dx Dt
q%vx q%
0
qx qt
The differential equation for the continuity law is obtained from the differ-
ence equation assuming small increments of time and space. The nabla operator
and the porosity in the storage volume DV are introduced so that this equation
can be applied to a porous medium and extended to three-dimensional flow
conditions. For horizontal flow of a medium of low compressibility, the extended
continuity equation becomes:
qf%
r%v 0 2:4
qt
In one dimension:
k qp
vx
m qx
q k qp qf%
% 0 2:5
qx m qx qt
k q% q p q2 p q%
% 2
m qx qx qx qt
where k/m is the transmissibility of the pore fluid for a given porous medium.
As an initial condition it was assumed that the transmissibility k/f and the
porosity f are constant throughout the pore space system. The compressibility
equation
1 q%
c
% qp
for a fluid of low compressibility is introduced and used to replace the change in
density % by the change in pressure p.
"
k% q p 2 q2 p qp
c 2 %c
m qx qx qt
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 91
Both sides are multiplied by the product m/k%. The flow rate, at some dis-
tance from the well, is only in the range of a few centimeters per hour so the pres-
sure gradient p/x and the square of the pressure gradient are very small in
comparison with the other variables in Equation (2.5). This term can therefore
be neglected.
This then gives Equation (2.6) which is similar in form to the diffusivity
equation, and is referred to as the pressure propagation or hydraulic conductiv-
ity equation for the one-dimensional case.
q2 p fmc q p
2:6
qx2 k qt
Equation (2.5) can also be solved for other initial conditions. If the density of
the fluid phase is defined by a mass law, eg, the gas law for ideal gases, then the
following form of the hydraulic conductivity equation is obtained
q2 p 2 fm q p
2
2 2:7
qx k qt
q2 p 1 q p fmc q p
2:8
qr2 r qr k qt
With a linear pressure sink as the well, and for infinite extension of the reservoir,
ie, re 1, the Boltzmann transformation can be used for solving Equation (2.8).
The following boundary conditions apply:
t0 r rw p pi
r re p pi
t t1 r rw p pwf
r = re p pi
where the symbol Ei denotes exponential integral and pwf the flowing pressure at
the bottom of the well.
In an infinitely large homogeneous reservoir system with a line source
as the well, the flowing pressure at any point can be calculated from
Equation (2.9) as a function of the radius r and the time t. The natural
92 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
logarithm can be used in place of the exponential integral provided the argu-
ment of the exponential integral is significantly smaller than the limiting value
of 0.01 (83).
qm gfmct rw 2
pwf pi ln 2:10
4phk 4kt
qm tp t
pws pi ln 2:11
4phk t
where tf tp denotes the flow duration and Dt the shut-in time (84). This equation
has been used to extrapolate the initial reservoir pressure pi from the graphical
presentation of the shut-in pressure plotted against the logarithm of the time
t t
ratio p t 1 (Fig. 20).
For an infinitely large reservoir the initial pressure in the well will
t t
be reconstituted after an infinite shut-in time pt 1: The gradient of the
tp t
Fig. 20. Shut-in pressure pWS versus logarithmic time ratio t for extrapolation of
initial reservoir pressure pi (83).
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 93
qmB
m
4phk
qmB
kh
4pm
In addition to this simple radial model with the selected initial and bound-
ary conditions many methods exist for finding solutions for specific reservoir con-
ditions, which can be applied to individual well and reservoir problems.
Individual solutions have therefore been found for the differential equations to
the following conditions; finite reservoir extension, near wellbore effects, frac-
tured reservoirs, stratified reservoirs, and partial penetration and particular
direction of the well in the producing formation.
Multiphase Flow. Capillary Pressure and Saturation. If there is
more than one phase in the pore space system of a reservoir rock then the distri-
bution of the phases is determined by the interfacial tensions between the fluids
and the solid phase. The equilibrium of forces between two liquid phases (oil and
water) and a solid phase is shown in Figure 21.
The wetting angle y is a measure of the wettability of the solid phase
by the oil and water phases. A value of 08 for y represents an ideally water
wet solid, whereas 1808 defines a completely oil wet surface. The distri-
bution of the phases for a pore cross section therefore can be idealized as
follows:
Fig. 21. Equilibrium of forces between two liquid phases (water and oil) and the solid
phase (77). sso = interfacial tension solid oil; ssw = interfacial tension solid water; swo
interfacial tension water oil.
94 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
Fig. 22. Idealized distribution of oil, water, and gas phase in a pore cross section.
a) Water; b) Gas; c) Oil; d) Rock.
Gas, which is the least wetting, is positioned in the center of the pore duct
The oil phase is distributed between them (Fig. 22)
Due to the adhesive forces the pressure in the wetting phase (water) is
lower than in the nonwetting phase (oil). The difference between these two pres-
sures is the capillary pressure pc where
pc po pw
Capillary pressure curves (see Fig. 23) are of fundamental importance for
the mobility of the phases in multiphase flow. They determine the irreducible,
and, therefore, fixed saturation of the wetting phase at infinite capillary pressure
and characterize the capillary ascent of the water table at the boundary of the
oil water zones. The capillary pressure can be directly transferred into eleva-
tion by use of the capillary/gravity force equilibrium.
2sow cosy
%w do gh
r
where sow denotes the interfacial tension between oil and water phase, r the
equivalent hydraulic radius of the porous system, %w the density of water, do
the density of oil, g the gravitational constant, and h the elevation above the
water table.
For the same capillary pressure, a higher water saturation is found in a
pore space system of lower permeability (a) than in a highly permeable
one (b). If it is assumed that water represents the wetting phase this means a
reinforced capillary imbibition of water from zones of high permeability into
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 95
Fig. 23. Capillary pressure versus wetting fluid saturation (85). a) Low permeability;
b) High permeability.
low permeability and therefore an improved displacement of oil from the pores of
lower permeability.
Relative Permeabilities. The mobilities of the individual phases in mul-
tiphase flow in a porous medium depend on the wettability of the rock, on the
interfacial tension between the fluids, and on their viscosities. A new flow coeffi-
cient, which is introduced into the phase flow equation as the relative permeabil-
ity, is needed to describe the different mobilities of the phases in the medium as a
function of their fractional saturation. Relative permeability kr is defined as the
ratio of the effective permeability of a phase (kw, ko, kg) in the presence of one or
more adjacent phases to a reference permeability. The absolute rock permeabil-
ity according to Darcy, or the permeability to water at 100 % water saturation,
or the permeability to oil for irreducible water saturation can be used as the
reference permeability. The relative permeabilities for a binary oil water sys-
tem for a more strongly water-wet and a more strongly oil-wet rock are shown
in Figure 24. If the saturation of the wetting phase Sw is plotted on the abscissa
then the curves are displaced to the right with increasing water wettability. On
the other hand, the final value for the relative permeability of the water phase
increases if the water wettability decreases.
This type of representation can only be used for two-phase permeabilities;
for a three-phase system STONE (87) has proposed a paired representation of the
water oil and gas oil relative permeabilities.
96 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
Fig. 24. Relative permeabilities for a binary oil water system (86). A) Water-wet rock;
B) Oil-wet rock.
Apart from this, a ternary diagram is the only possible way of representing
the relative permeabilities of a three-phase system.
The flow equations for a two-phase system can therefore be represented
while taking account of the functions of the relative permeabilities and the capil-
lary pressure.
Oil:
kro k%o qSw o qw
r ro q
mo q pc qt qt
Water:
krw k%w qSw qo qw
r rw f
mw q pc qt qt
1
p %gz
%
and kro and krw denote the relative permeabilities of oil and water, respectively.
Depending on the boundary conditions, this system of partial differential
equations, can, in general, only be solved numerically.
Drive Mechanisms and Recovery Efficiency. The energy reservoir for
the flow of oil, gas, and water in a porous medium consists of the compression
energy of the aquifer volume surrounding the deposit; the mechanical energy
of the gas liberation process; the influence of gravity; and the capillary pressure
effect.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 97
Fig. 25. Binary diagram for a gas oil mixture (each phase consisting of one component)
(77). A = bubble point pressure (pressure depletion at room temperature); A0 = initial reser-
voir pressure; C = critical point.
change in the system also changes the properties of the phases in a way
which is disadvantageous to the oil recovery process; measures which
maintain the pressure are, therefore, favorable. Water drive is by far the
most effective drive mechanism; it can be introduced by artificial flooding
measures in locations where water cannot be fed from natural sources (ie,
inadequate aquifer size or inadequate energy replenishment due to low aqui-
fer permeability). The oil recovery process by natural aquifer expansion and
by the other drive mechanisms mentioned rate as primary extraction pro-
cesses. On the other hand, replenishment of the reservoir energy by water
or gas injection is one of the secondary extraction processes.
The recovery efficiency of a deposit is given by the percentage of the
cumulative production of the quantity of hydrocarbon originally present. The
performance of extraction and the recovery efficiency are determined largely
by the geological factors of the deposit and the physics of the oil recovery pro-
cess. The physical approach to oil recovery processes presupposes a micro-
scopic dimension, and the geological approach a macroscopic one; the
recovery factor must, therefore, include microscopic and macroscopic para-
meters. The total recovery factor or recovery efficiency ER is the product of
the microscopic recovery factor ED, the areal recovery factor EA, and the ver-
tical recovery factor (flood invasion efficiency) EI. Figure 26 shows that the
recovery efficiencies lie between 20 % and 40 % of the oil present, depending
on the characteristic drive mechanisms and oil viscosities. In gas reservoirs
the recovery efficiency lies between 80 and 90 % of the gas present. This is
Fig. 26. Oil recovery efficiency as a function of pressure for various drive mechanisms
(88). a) Depletion drive; b) External gas drive (small gas cap); c) External gas drive (large
gas cap); d) Water drive.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 99
attributable to the high mobility of the gas and the favorable form of the
volume expansion drive.
Microscopic Recovery Factor. BUCKLEY, LEVERETT, and WELGE (8991)
have developed the theory of the displacement of a fluid by a second, immiscible
fluid in a homogeneous medium. This microscopic process determines which fluid
exhibits the stronger wetting properties towards the porous medium and which
has the greater mobility. The displacement process in the pore space is not as
perfect as the displacement of a fluid by a piston in a machine; this is because
a mobile residual phase saturation of the displaced fluid (oil) remains after the
displacement front has passed. Continued flooding can reduce this mobile resi-
dual phase saturation down to an irreducible, fixed percentage. Through a linear
flooding process it is possible to determine the saturation distribution S along the
flooding section, ie, in direction x (Fig. 27).
Fig. 27. A) Saturation distribution along flooding section (direction x); B) Fractional flow
for water along flooding section.
100 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
At the inlet cross section the water saturation is only slightly smaller than
the difference of 1 minus the physical residual oil saturation Sor. Up to the flood-
ing front, the water saturation decreases to a value Swf (front saturation),
depending on the mobilities of the phases. The difference between the ultimate
water saturation (1 Sor) and the actual water saturation at any section is
defined by the profile f, the saturation of mobile oil. The front is characterized
by a step change in the water saturation down to the irreducible water saturation
Swi. The proportions of the flowing phases change along this saturation profile
and can be expressed by the fractional flow f of one of the two flowing phases,
as it is shown for different times t1 and t2 in Figure 27 B.
qw 1
fw
qo qw 1 M1
lw krw mo
M
lo kro mw
The fractional flow for water is a function of the mobility ratio M, ie, the
mobility of water kw/mw as the displacing phase to the mobility of the oil ko/mo
as the displaced medium. At the front the fractional flow of water falls to zero,
as only the mobile oil phase can flow ahead of the front. By using a continuity
approach in the porous medium the velocity has been determined at which the
front or the saturation profile moves through a pore continuum (90). If an infi-
nitely small volume unit is considered at the boundary between oil and water
then the difference between input and output water flow volume in the time
unit Dt must be equal to the change in saturation in the space element A Dx
(see Fig. 28).
Fig. 28. Mass balance for an infinitely small volume unit at the saturation boundary
between oil and water.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 101
saturation profile.
qx q q fw
qt Af qSw
Integration between the limits x and 0 and the times t and 0 gives the equa-
tion for determining position x which has reached some arbitrary saturation
value at the time t after injection of a certain volume of water Wi.
W i q fw
x
Af qSw
Zt
Wi qdt
0
Fig. 29. Fractional flow curve for water, definition of the front saturation Swf and break
through saturation Swbt according to Welge (92).
Fig. 30. Concentric arrangement of four peripheral production with respect to one injec-
tion well, 5-point pattern.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 103
before breakthrough of the flooding front depends on the mobility ratio of the
front and the arrangement of the wells.
In a homogeneous producing formation the well spacing initially plays no
part. However, as the capacity of the producing formation to accept the injection
medium (water) depends on permeability, the well spacing cannot be set at any
arbitrary distance. There is little point in optimizing the well spacing on the
basis of a homogeneous deposit model, as in practice more complex deposit for-
mations are often found.
Vertical Recovery Factor or Flood Invasion Efficiency. If the oil pro-
ducing formation were to have no vertical subdivisions then the overall oil recov-
ery factor from this deposit would be the product of the microscopic and areal oil
recovery factors. However, the conditions under which the sediments were
deposited have normally led to a vertical, facially subdivided stratification,
with the result that the vertical recovery factor also has to be taken into account
when determining the overall oil recovery.
If water is invading into a stratified producing formation from an aquifer or
an injection well the strata fill in the order of their permeabilities. The most
permeable layer is flooded first.
DYKSTRA and PARSONS (93) have developed a simple theory for determining
the vertical recovery factor in a stratified producing formation. For this purpose
they have further simplified the microscopic displacement process as described
by BUCKLEY and LEVERETT and have assumed that no mobile residual oil remains
behind the front. However, unlike BUCKLEY and LEVERETT, they have taken into
account the fact that the velocity of the displacement front depends on the mobi-
lity ratio of the phases and on the position of the displacement front along the
flooding section. The higher the mobility of the displacing phase the more rapidly
the flooding front extends toward the end of the flooding section. The flooding
velocity at the inlet corresponds to the effective Darcy flow velocity of the oil
phase (see Fig. 31).
Fig. 31. Relative velocity of flooding front as function of fractional distance for different
mobilities of displacing phase (94). a) M 0.1; b) M 0.2; c) M 0.5; d) M 1; e) M 2; f)
M 5; g) M 10.
104 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
Fig. 32. Cross section of a layered reservoir; position of flood front in the individual
layers at a certain time level t (94).
P
i P
n
xj
hj l hj
1 i1
EI
P
n
hj
1
The position of the flooding front at time t in the incompletely swept strata
j i + 1, relative to the layer i in which the water has just broken through, is
determined by the equation
0:5
2 kj 2
M ki 1 M
xj M
l 1M 1M
fl2 M 1mw
ti
2kwi p
With the aid of these three equations the vertical oil recovery factor can be
determined at any given time. The product of the three factors gives the overall
recovery efficiency ER:
ED ED EA EI
plan measures to optimize production from the reservoir. The calculation meth-
ods used are the basis for predictions of future production performance and are a
strategic instrument of reservoir management. All methods of prediction are
based on the physical fundamentals of the recovery process and the flow pro-
perties of the fluids in a geologically complex reservoir body. The credibility
and reliability of these prediction methods depend on how closely the calculation
techniques model the reality of the recovery process and the reservoir. This
accuracy of the model must be checked by a model validation before use. Once
the model is chosen it must be adjusted to the production history of the reservoir
(model calibration). The better the model is calibrated, the more reliable the
prediction.
The following models for describing the reservoir behavior, with increas-
ing complexity of process description and/or reservoir characterization, can be
distinguished:
Material Balances Method. The tank model is the simplest form of recon-
struction of the reservoir contents. It is based on the conservation of mass and an
equation of state (88). All forms of material balance use the following approach:
Initial State:
N Boi
Vpi
1 Swi
Vwi Vpi Swi
(for explanation of terms see the abbreviations list at the beginning of this
article).
1) The actual pressure exceeds the bubble point pressure pb but is lower
than pi.
2) The oil volume NpBo is produced. The volume lost is replaced by the expan-
sion of the rock matrix, the residual oil, and the initial water.
Vp Vpi 1 cf pi p
Vw Vwi 1 cw pi p
N Np Bo Residual oil
(for explanation of terms see the abbreviations list at the beginning of this
article).
State Below the Bubble Point Pressure pb:
1) The reservoir pressure p is less than the bubble point pressure pb.
2) Aside from the volume expansion of oil, initial water, and rock matrix, the
release of gas from solution occurs as a further drive process. To simplify
the calculation of the equilibrium behavior as far as possible, the compres-
sibility equations for the oil, water, and rock phases as well as the real gas
equation for the gas phase are used as material laws.
Vp Vpi 1 cf pi p
Vw Vwi 1 cw pi p
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 107
NRsi Bg Gp Bg N Np Rs Bg Vp Vw Wp Bw N Np Bo
N Boi
N Rsi Bg N Rs Bg N Bo Swi 1 cw p 1 cf p
1 Swi
Gp Bg Np Rs Bg Wp Bw Np Bo
G p N p Rp
gives
Boi
N Rsi Rs Bg Bo cf Swi cw p 1 Swi
1 Swi
Np Rp Rs Bo Wp Bw
Bo Boi
co
Boi p
gives
Bg Bo Boi cf swi cw
N Boi Rsi Rs p
Boi Boi 1 Swi
Bg co Soi cw Swi cf
N Boi Rsi Rs p
Boi 1 Swi
Np Bo Bg Rp Rs Wp Bw
108 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
with
co Soi cw Swi cf
ceff
1 Swi
it follows that
Wp Bw
Np Bg Rsi Rs ceff pBoi N
2:14
N Bo Bg Rp Rs
Tz p0
Bg
pT0
Gp Np Rp
qg
Rp when qg and q0 constant
q0
N Rsi Bg N Boi N Bo N Rs Bg Np Rp Bg Np Bo Np Rs Bg
with
Bo Rsi Rs Bg Bt
Boi Bti
it follows that:
Np Bt Bti
2:16
N Bt Bg Rp Rsi
The index 1 refers to the gas oil ratio derived from the material balance.
Change of saturation
OOIP NBoi
Residual oil N Np Bo
110 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
N Boi
Vp
1 Swi
N Np Bo
So 1 Swi 2:17
N Boi
Np Bo
So 1 1 Swi
N Boi
qg qo Rs
qg Bg Bo
Rp2 qo
qo To ; po
Bo
The index 2 refers to the gas oil ratio derived from flow equation.
qg Bo
Rp2 Rs
qo Bg
kg A
qg r pg
mg
ko A
qo r po
mo
kg mo Bo
Rp Rs 2:18
ko mg Bg
Gp2 Np Rp2
Fig. 33. Graphical method of solution in the Tarner method. a) Material balance; b) Flow
equation.
If the permeability is equal in all nodes (ie, in all blocks) and the areas of
flow are likewise identical (since the block width is constant), the general form of
flow equation for the Darcy law (see Section 2.2.1.1) can be written as follows:
Ak
qi pi 2:20
mx
Since the coefficients before Dpi are constant in all terms, Equation (2.21)
can be written in place of Equation (2.19)
q7 q8 q5 q8 q8 q12 q8 q9 2:21
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 113
For node 8 there then follows the pressure balance set up in Equation (2.21)
or rearranged to:
q5 q7 4 q8 q9 q12 0
Such a pressure balance can be set up for each of the 13 nodes, in addition
radial flow conditions must be included in the pressure balance for nodes 1 and
15. The 15 equations with 15 unknowns are arranged in matrix form and solved
for the pressure values at the nodes with, eg, the Gauss Jordan or Gauss Sei-
del method. The calculation can also be performed with different permeabilities
in the individual blocks.
Model for Unsteady-State Flow. If the same model is used, but instead
of an incompressible fluid a compressible medium is injected into the well, then,
instead of a material balance for the individual volume flows in the nodes, a bal-
ance for the mass flows must be set up. As already derived earlier from the mass
balance in a cylindrical volume element, a variant of the diffusivity equation
must be used to describe unsteady-state flows. For linear flow through the
volume element of edge length Dx, the following differential equation can be writ-
ten for the change of flow along the distance Dx:
kA p kA p
t 2:22
m x xx m x x
t Axfc p
After separating the variables Dx and Dt, the diffusivity equation for
unsteady-state flow is obtained (Eq. 2.23):
p k p=x
2:23
t fmc x
p j1 2 p j p j1
x2
114 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
Equations (2.27) and (2.28) can give the same result only when the time
interval Dtn approaches zero. If the pressures at time n in all segments are
known, the pressure in element j at time n 1 can be calculated with Equa-
tion (2.27). This method is known as the explicit solution method. The advantage
of the explicit solution method is that it is very easy to program. However, it is
only accurate if very small time steps are chosen.
Vol. 1 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 115
In contrast to the explicit solution (Eq. 2.27) in which there is only one
unknown, ie, the pressure pj at time n 1, three unknown values are present
in Equation (2.28) at the end of the interval (ie, pj1, pj, and pj+1).
If, however, Equation (2.28) is formulated for all three nodes, j 1, j and
j 1, the three unknown pressures can be determined from the three equations.
The equations are arranged in matrix form and solved simultaneously either by
the Gauss Seidel or by the Gauss Jordan method. This procedure is known
as the implicit solution method and has the advantage of yielding sufficiently
accurate results even at quite large time intervals. For modeling problems in
multiphase flow, the saturation equation for each block of the reservoir model
must be solved in addition to the pressure equation. Hence, the chosen block
size of a reservoir model is influenced not only by the availability of geological
and petrophysical information but also by the accuracy of the numerical compu-
tation method. In regions of the reservoir where relatively rapid changes occur in
the transport characteristics such as pressure gradient, transmissibilities, and
saturation changes fine-mesh grids are necessary for numerical accuracy of
the solution method. For complex reservoir studies, simulation models with sev-
eral ten thousand blocks can be produced which require considerable computer
time. There are numerous simulation codes with a dynamicized fine grid size
that follows the movement of flood fronts.
The powerful computer programs currently available to the natural gas and
petroleum industry not only take into account simple processes such as gas dis-
solution, gravitational force, and capillary pressure effects but also can describe
the infuence of compaction in unconsolidated formations and the influence of
the diffusion and sorption of components. They can also treat particular rheologi-
cal properties of the phases, eg, the structural viscosity of polymer solutions in
polymer flooding the phase behavior during mixing processes, temperature-
controlled fractionation of materials (distillation and cracking), thermal conduction,
and thermal convection. A survey of common simulator types is given in Table 3.
Statistical Prediction Methods (Decline Curve Methods). Aside from
tank models or flow models to describe and predict reservoir behavior, statistical
prediction methods also can be used. These methods are based on observation of
the decline of production or pressure in a reservoir; analysis of the mathematical
trend; and extrapolation of the decline of production or pressure over the period
of prediction. The observed trend curves often show uniform patterns. This is due
to the fact that the change in the flow rate is proportional to the pressure change,
and the pressure change is linked logarithmically, as a result of the compressi-
bility relation, with the volume removed from a closed system. In many cases,
therefore, an exponential decline of the production rate with time can be derived
from the trend analysis.
To characterize the decline curve analysis method, some basic definitions
are given in advance (98). The fractional production decline is defined as the
change of flow rate divided by the initial flow rate
dq
fractional production decline
q
The change of the fractional production decline with time is called the pro-
duction decline rate D.
dq
D
q dt
dq
D a0 q0 a0
q dt
after integration
Zq Zt
dq
a0 dt
q
q0 0
q
ln a0 t Dt
q0
q
eDt
q0 2:29
q q0 DNp 2:30
A plot of production rate q versus Np is shown in Figure 38. From this plot
the production decline rate D is also obtained from the gradient. As soon as
118 EXPLORATION, DRILLING, AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Vol. 1
Fig. 38. Exponential production decline, production rate versus cumulative production.
the production rate of a well falls below a marginal value determined by the cost,
production must be stopped. The corresponding cumulative amount produced
can be determined graphically by extrapolating the production decline curve to
the known limiting production rate qa. The difference between the maximum cu-
mulative production Npa and the present cumulative production Np gives the re-
serves of the well or reservoir.
Harmonic Production Decline. The defining equation for harmonic
production decline is:
dq
D0 a0 q
qdt
D0
D0 a0 q0 ; a0
q0
Zq Zt
dq 0
a dt
q2
q0 0
1 1 D0
t
q q0 q0
q0
q
1 D0 t
q
log log1 D0 t 2:31
q0
Next Page
Fig. 39. Harmonic production decline, production rate plotted against cumulative
production.
For harmonic production decline, the double logarithmic plot of the produc-
tion rate against the time function (1 + D0t ) gives a straight line of gradient 1.
Again, if a new quantity is introduced by combining q and t a semilogarithmic
relation between production rate and cumulative production is obtained after
integration (see Fig. 39).
tNp
Z
Np qdt
0
tN p
Zq Z
dq
a0 qdt
q
q0 0
q D0
ln Np 2:32
q0 q0
dq D0
D a0 qn a0
qdt qn0