Total or Effective Porosity - Petrophysics Training & Courses

1. 11/1/21, 12:13 PM https://www.petrophysics.net/how-can-i-measure-effective-porosity/ Petrophysics Pty Ltd Total Or Effective Porosity? INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT & TUTOR IN PETROPHYSICAL DATA INTEGRATION Total or Effective Porosity? The Petrophysicist’s Old Chestnut PETROPHYSICS Pty Ltd report appendix extract. “The detail of this porosity evaluation and the equality of numerous core to log comparisons suggest a high degree of certainty in the evaluated total porosity (por). This porosity is calibrated to core oven dried helium porosities and is therefore “total porosity”. Core companies often use of the term “effective porosity” to mean these same oven dried helium interconnected pores which creates a situation where the same measurement has two different names. However ‘interconnected’ is not the mainstream petrophysical definition of ‘effective’ porosity and the confu- sion regarding total vs. effective porosity is due to this longstanding inconsistency between core companies use of the term “effective porosity” to mean interconnected pores penetrated by He atoms in the laboratory vs. mainstream petrophysicists (Shell, Archie, W&S, NMR literature, this report) to mean (total porosity – clay bound water) following Hill, Shirley and Klein’s historic link between lab measured Qv and CBW volume. Hence the same measurement value is called “total” by main- stream petrophysicists and “effective” by many core companies. Herein lies the cause of this dysfunction. How can a group of such logical, scientifically minded folk get so confused? The term effective porosity is also used loosely by others in an intuitive common sense and usually qualitative way, as shown below. Note also that non-NMR conventional logs lack the basic data from which to determine a storage capacity “effective” porosity from rocks containing non-clay micro- pores such as carbonates or quartz silts. Non-NMR log based determinations of “effective” porosity in clay and thus CBW free micro-porous carbonates are largely meaningless – what tool is providing the information for storage capacity? When reading a clean carbonates petrophysical report and the term effective porosity is used ask yourself how that number was measured. This is the primary reason why carbonates (reservoirs where compaction and clays do not control storage capac- ity and permeability) are seen as difficult to evaluate with conventional logs, because no log data is available to measure storage capacity – the advantage of NMR in carbonates. This author conforms with mainstream petrophysics and uses “total porosity” to equate to the basic volumetric reference of conventional, hot oven dried core to constant weight (c.100degC) porosities, as with these plugs dried to 115degC. Reviewers should search the core report for the key words “oven dried to constant weight” to learn if the core reference mea- surement is total porosity – about 80% of core analysis globally is. In cases of humidity drying (usually 60C 40RH) the evalu- ation should still be calibrated to that core porosity but all SCAL must have this same measurement as its base or the evalu- ation becomes “disintegrated petrophysics”. Conventional core, special core and logs must be equal. Logs simply carry the core measurements along the well track, like cargo trains. Under extremely rare circumstances (pers. comm Dave Bowen) conventional core oven helium dried porosities fail to report all the pore space, where pores are actually closed off as in intra crystalline pores. The essential point for the petrophysicist here is that correct use of the core reported grain density in the fixed point fluid density procedure herein will still allow logs to duplicate the core measured porosity’s by virtue of that cores lower grain density – we need a directly measured reference. The important issue is whether logs are calibrated to a parameter which is directly measured and accurate. This subject has https://www.petrophysics.net/how-can-i-measure-effective-porosity/ 1/3

2. 11/1/21, 12:13 PM https://www.petrophysics.net/how-can-i-measure-effective-porosity/ been discussed with rare common sense by Istvan Juhasz: “Porosity systems and petrophysical models used in formation evaluation” SPWLA London Chapter Porosity Seminar, 26th April 1988, which should be read by all aspiring petrophysicists to clarify this vexed issue. Note: This is a total porosity evaluation in which shale porosity is evaluated as non zero and has an Ro : porosity (m) relationship. One of the many reasons for adopting total porosity is that the relationship between shale vol- ume and Ro can be seen. In effective porosity evaluations the analyst is denied this information because the porosity parameter disappears in shales, denying the petrophysicist powerful, immediate information for shaly sand evaluations. If the petrophysicist wants to understand tool responses – which respond to the whole forma- tion not bits of it – during the petrophysical investigations shale porosity must not be hidden from view and Sw must not be truncated at 1.00. If your users prefer the cosmetics of effective porosity display it after you have fin- ished the evaluation and understood what is really happening. Provide End-Users with Effective Porosity – the Practical Result “ ’Total’ porosity is useful for the calculation of porosity and water saturation. Core porosity measurements usu- ally give total porosity. E&P managers need to know something different. They need estimates of potential reser- voir thickness, ’effective’ porosity, permeability and the volumes of producible hydrocarbon and water. ‘Total’ and ‘effective’ porosity are equal in non-shaly reservoirs, and may be nearly equal in shaly sandstones containing clays (other than smectites) with little clay-bound water in the clay structure. In shaly sandstones con- taining hydrated clays (smectites), ‘effective’ porosity may be much less than ‘total’. Immature smectite shales with ‘core’ and ‘total’ porosities of 23% are impermeable non-reservoir rock. To obtain practical results, petrophysicists and log analysts certainly need to understand and evaluate ‘total’ porosity and the volumes of water bound in clays. However, for the end users of the petrophysical results it is more informative to be provided with ‘effective’ porosity. It reduces confusion and give a more practical evalua- https://www.petrophysics.net/how-can-i-measure-effective-porosity/ 2/3

3. 11/1/21, 12:13 PM https://www.petrophysics.net/how-can-i-measure-effective-porosity/ tion of the reservoir. In depth plots of the results, ‘total’ porosity should be de-emphasised and ‘effective’ porosity emphasized.” Dick Woodhouse, Consultant. https://www.petrophysics.net/how-can-i-measure-effective-porosity/ 3/3