Fundamentals of Quantitative
2 Log Interpretation
LOG INTERPRETATION
Almost all oil and gasproduced today comes from accumu-
lations in the pore spacesof reservoir rocks-usually sand-
stones, limestones, or dolomites. The amount of oil or gas
contained in a unit volume of the reservoir is the product
of its porosity by the hydrocarbon saturation.
In addition to the porosity and the hydrocarbon saturation,
the volume of the formation containinghydrocarbonsis need-
ed in order to estimate total reservesand to determine if the
accumulationis commercial. Knowledge of the thicknessand
the area of the reservoir is needed for computation of its
volume.
To evaluate the producibility of a reservoir, it is neces-
sary to know how easily fluid can flow through the pore sys-
tem. This property of the formation rock, which dependson
the manner in which the pores are interconnected, is its
permeability.
The main petrophysical parameters neededto evaluate a
reservoir, then, are its porosity, hydrocarbon saturation,
thickness, area, and permeability. In addition, the reservoir
geometry, formation temperature and pressure, and litholo-
gy can play important roles in the evaluation, completion,
and production of a reservoir.
Porosity
Porosity is the pore volume per unit volume of formation;
it is the fraction of the total volume of a sample that is oc-
cupied by pores or voids. The symbol for porosity is 6. A
dense,uniform substance,suchas a pieceof glass,has almost
zero porosity; a sponge,on the other hand, has a very high
porosity.
Porositiesof subsurfaceformations can vary widely. Dense
carbonates(limestones and dolomites) and evaporites (salt,
anhydrite, gypsum, sylvite) may show practically zero
porosity; well-consolidated sandstonesmay have 10 to 15%
porosity; unconsolidated sands may have 30%) or more,
porosity. Shalesor clays may contain over 40 % water-filled
porosity, but the individual pores are usually so small that
the rock is impervious to the flow of fluids.
Porositiesare classified according to the physical arrange-
ment of the material that surrounds the pores and to the dis-
tribution and shapeof the pores. In a clean sand, the rock
matrix is made up of individual sand grains, more or less
spherical in shape, packed together in some manner where
the pores exist between the grains. Such porosity is called
intergranular, sucrosic, or matrix porosity. Generally, it has
existed in the formations since the time they were deposit-
ed. For this reason, it is also referred to asprimary porosity.
Depending on how they were actually deposited, lime-
stonesand dolomite may also exhibit intergranular porosi-
ty. They may also have secondary porosity in the form of
vugs or small caves. Secondary porosity is caused by the
action of the formation waters or tectonic forces on the rock
matrix after deposition. For instance,slightly acidic percolat-
ing watersmay createand enlargethe pore spaceswhile mov-
ing through the interconnecting channels in limestone for-
mations, and shells of small crustaceanstrapped therein may
be dissolved and form vugs. Conversely, percolating waters
rich in minerals may form depositsthat partially sealoff some
of the pores or channels in a formation, thereby reducing
its porosity and/or altering the pore geometry. Waters rich
in magnesiumsalts can seepthrough calcite with a gradual
replacementof the calcium by magnesium.Sincethe replace-
ment is atom for atom, mole for mole, and the volume of
one mole of dolomite is 12% less than that of calcite, the
result is a reducedmatrix volume and correspondingincrease
in pore volume.
Stressesin the formation may also occur and cause net-
works of cracks, fissures, or fractures, which add to the pore
volume. In general, however, the actual volume of the frac-
tures is usually relatively small. They do not normally in-
creasethe porosity of the rock significantly, although they
may significantly increase its permeability.
Saturation
The saturation of a formation is the fraction of its pore
volume occupied by the fluid considered. Water saturation,
then, is the fraction (or percentage)of the pore volume that
2-l
CASED HOLE LOG INTERPRETATION PRINCIPLES/APPLICATIONS

contains formation water. If nothing but water exists in the rough relationship betweenporosity and permeability exists.
pores, a formation hasa water saturationof 100%. The sym- Greater permeability, in general, corresponds to greater
bol for saturation is S; various subscripts are usedto denote porosity, but this is far from being an absolute rule.
saturation of a particular fluid (S, for water saturation, S, Shalesand somesandshave high porosities, but the grains
for oil saturation, S,,for hydrocarbon saturation, Ss for gas are so small that the pathsavailable for the movementof fluid
saturation). are quite restricted and tortuous; thus, their permeabilities
Oil, or gas, saturation is the fraction of the pore volume may be very low.
that contains oil or gas. The pores must be saturated with Other formations, such as limestone, may be composed
somefluid. Thus, the summationof all saturationsin a given of a denserock broken by a few small fissures or fractures
formation rock must total 100%. Although there are some of great extent. The porosity of sucha formation can be low,
rare instancesof saturating fluids other than water, oil, and but the permeability of a fracture can be enormous. There-
hydrocarbon gas (such as carbon dioxide or simply air), the fore, fractured limestones may have low porosities but ex-
existenceof a water saturation less than 100% generally im- tremely high permeabilities.
plies a hydrocarbon saturation equal to 100% less the water
saturation (or 1 - S,) . Reservoir Geometry
The water saturation of a formation can vary from 100% Producing formations (reservoirs) occur in an almost limit-
to a quite small value, but it is seldom, if ever, zero. No less variety of shapes, sizes, and orientations. Figure 2-l
matter how “rich” the oil or gasreservoir rock may be, there shows some of the major reservoir types; almost any com-
is always a small amount of capillary water that cannot be bination of these is also possible.
displaced by the oil; this saturation is generally referred to
as irreducible or connate water saturation.
Similarly, for an oil- or gas-bearing reservoir rock, it is
impossible to remove all the hydrocarbonsby ordinary fluid
drives or recovery techniques. Some hydrocarbons remain
trapped in parts of the pore volume; this hydrocarbon satu-
ration is called the residual hydrocarbon saturation.
In a reservoir that contains water in the bottom and oil in
the top, the demarcationbetweenthe two is not always sharp;
there is a more or less gradual transition from 100% water
to mostly oil. If the oil-bearing interval is thick enough,water Anticline Piercement Salt Dome
saturation at the top approachesa minimum value, the ir-
reducible water saturation,S,,. Becauseof capillary forces,
some water clings to the grains of the rock and cannot be
displaced. A formation at irreducible water saturation will
~~
produce water-free hydrocarbons. Within the transition in-
terval somewater will be produced with the oil, the amount
increasing as S,,, increases. Below the transition interval,
water saturation is 100%. In general, the lower the permea-
bility of the reservoir rock the longer the transition interval. Pinnacle Reef Low-Permeability Barrier
Conversely, if the transition interval is short, permeability
will usually be high.

Permeability
Permeability is a measureof the easewith which fluids can
flow through a formation. For a given sample of rock and
for any homogeneousfluid, the permeability will be a con-
stant provided the fluid doesnot interact with the rock itself. I I 1
Channel Fill Lenticular Traps
The unit of permeability is the darcy (which is very large),
so the thousandth part or the millidarcy (md) is generally
Fig. 2-l--Some typical reservoir shapes and orientations
used. The symbol for permeability is k.
In order to be permeable, a rock must have some inter-
connected pores, capillaries, or fractures. Therefore some

2-2
 FUNDAMENTALS OF QUANTITATIVE LOG INTERPRETATION

The physical shapeand orientation of a reservoir can bear

heavily on its producibility. Reservoirs can be wide or nar-
row, thick or thin, large or small. Giant reservoirs, such as
somein the Middle East, can cover hundredsof squaremiles Critical Point
and be thousandsof feet thick. Others are tiny, far too small
for a well completion. Configurations vary from a simple
lens shape to tortuously complex shapes.
Most reservoir-forming rocks were supposedlylaid down
in layers like blankets or pancakes. Their physical charac-
teristics thus tend to be quite varied in different directions,
a condition called anisotropy. This nonuniformity is a very
important consideration in reservoir engineering and com-
pletion design.
Normally, the permeability of such formations is much
higher parallel to rather than perpendicular to the layering,
and the permeabilities of the various layers can also vary
widely.
Reservoirs that did not originate as deposited layers of
grains do not conform to this laminar model of anisotropy.
Carbonate rocks that originated as reefs, rocks subjectedto
extensive fracturing, or rocks with vuggy porosity are
examples. Temperature -

Temperature and Pressure

Temperature and pressure also affect hydrocarbon produc-
tion in several ways. In the reservoir rock, temperature and
pressurecontrol the viscosities and mutual solubilities of the
three fluids-oil, gas, and water. As a result, the phaserela-
tionship of the oil/gas solution may be subject to highly sig-
nificant variations in responseto temperature and pressure
changes.For example, as pressure drops gas tends to come
out of solution. If this happensin the reservoir rock, the gas
bubbles can cause a very substantial decreasein the effec-
tive permeability to oil.
The relationships between pressure, temperature, and the
phaseof hydrocarbon mixtures are extremely variable, de-
pendingon the specific typesand proportions of the hydrocar-
bons present. Figure 2-2 is a simple, 2-componentphasedi-
agram that illustrates those relationships.
Ordinarily, the temperatureof a producing reservoir does
not vary much, although certain enhanced-recoverytech-
niques (such as steam flood or fire flood) create conspicu-
ous exceptions to this rule. However, some pressure drop
betweenthe undisturbedreservoir and the wellbore is inevita-
ble. This pressuredrop is called the pressure drawdown; it
can vary from a few pounds per square inch (psi) up to full
reservoir pressure. These relationships will be addressedin
Chapter 4.
Log Interpretation
Unfortunately, few petrophysical parameters can be mea-
sureddirectly. Instead,they must be derived or inferred from
Fig. 2-2-2-component diagram
the measurementof other physical parametersof the forma-
tions. A large number of thesephysical parameterscan now
be measuredthrough casing. They include, among others,
the thermal decay time, the natural radioactivity, the hydro-
gen content, the elemental yields, and in some casesthe in-
terval transit time of the rock.
Log interpretation is the processby which thesemeasura-
ble parametersare translated into the desired petrophysical
parametersof porosity, hydrocarbon saturation, producibil-
ity, lithology, and mechanical rock properties.
Since the petrophysical parameters of the virgin forma-
tion are usually needed, the well logging tool must be able
to “see” beyond the casing and cement into the virgin for-
mation, or the interpretation techniquesmust be able to com-
pensate for these environmental effects. An elaborate en-
vironmental test facility and computer modeling programs
are used to design correction algorithms for these environ-
mental effects.
It is the purpose of the various well logging tools to pro-
vide measurementsfrom which the petrophysicalcharacteris-
tics of the reservoir rocks can be derived or inferred. It is
the purpose of quantitative log interpretation to provide the
equations and techniques with which these translations can
be accomplished.

2-3
CASED HOLE LOG INKERPRETATION PRINCIPLES/APPLICATIONS
Determination of Saturation
Determining water and hydrocarbon saturation is one of the
basic objectivesof well logging. Most of the casedhole water
saturation equationsare basedon proven openholeinterpre-
tation models. In open hole, the modelsuse resistivity values
while sigma measurementsare used in most cased hole
evaluations.
Actually, the basic fundamentalpremisesof casedhole log
interpretationare few in numberand simple in concept.These
will be covered in Chapter 3.
2-4
REFERENCES
Archie, G.E.: “Classification of CarbonateReservoirRocksand Petrophysi-
cal Considerations,” AAPG Bull&t (February, 1952) 36, No. 2.
Jones, P.J.: “Production Engineering and Reservoir Mechanics (Oil Con-
densateand Natural Gas),” OGJ (1945).
Log Interpretation Charts, Scblumberger Educational Services, Houston
(1989).
Log Interpretation Principles/Applications, SchlumbergerEducational Ser-
vices, Houston (1987).
Timur, A.: “An Investigationof Permeability, Porosity, and ResidualWater
SaturationRelationshipsfor SandstoneReservoirs,” Ihe Log Analyst (July-
Aug., 1968) 9, No. 4.