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ASP THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA Australian School of Petroleum IIYDRAULIC FLOW ZONE UNIT CHARACTERISATION AND MAPPING FOR AUSTRALIAN GEOLOGICAL DEPO SITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS Shripad Biniwale B. Eng. The University of Adelaide Australian School of Petroleum This thesis is submitted for the degree of Master of Engineering Science May 2005

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ASP

THE UNIVERSITYOF ADELAIDEAUSTRALIA

Australian School of Petroleum

IIYDRAULIC FLOW ZONE UNIT CHARACTERISATION

AND MAPPING FOR AUSTRALIAN GEOLOGICAL

DEPO SITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

Shripad Biniwale

B. Eng.

The University of Adelaide

Australian School of Petroleum

This thesis is submitted for the degree of

Master of Engineering Science

May 2005

Abstract

prediction ofreservoir productivity and petroleum recovefy efficiency requires detailed

analysis of various reservoir properties and their interrelationship' Among fundamental

data used in such analysis, core data occupies a significant piace in characterizing

reservoirs. Core data is used in laboratory measurements to obtain basic and special

formation parameters and plays a vital role in terms of understanding geological

depositional environments and subsequent alteration (diagenesis)'

Geoscientists have traditionally classified rocks according to porosity, gfain parameters

(size, sorting and distribution) whereas reservoir engineers tend to emphasize the

dynamic behaviour of multiphase flow in rock formations (relative permeability and

capillary pressure). To bridge such differing views, the carman-Kozeny (c-K) equation

based Hydraulic Flow Zone Unit (HU or FZU) methodology, which considers variation

in flow behaviour properties as a function of geological facies, has been found ideal in

charcctenzing very diverse Australian reservoirs' Compared to previous studies' which

tended to classify formations firstly by rock parameters, this research work shows the

advantages of classifying formations firstly according to geological deposition and

secondly by rock parameters. For this purpose' the concept of 'Global characteristic

Envelopes' (GCEs) has been introduced which groups data by specihc geological

environments. Several such envelopes can be created for different f,relds, where the

internal structure of each envelope is a function of rock parameters' influenced by

variation in deposition and subsequent diagenetic effects, such as compaction'

cementation and mineralization (e'g' formation of clays)'

As a specific application that uses the above methodology, laboratory derived capillary

pressure data, for a number of Australian offshore fields, has been reviewed for the

purpose of establishing water saturation-height relationships as a function of rock tlpe'

forming part of a comprehensive petrophysical analysis' A modified'FZl-lt" method'

capable of giving improved estimates of reservoir fluid distributions, has been proposed'

The new methodology is particularly well suited for interpolating among different

lithologies and diverse rock types as evident from comparison with other methods

reported in the literature.

In conclusion, this work demonstrates the multidisciplinary approach to reservoir

characterisation, a requirement for a more comprehensive understanding of reservoirs'

This systematic approach, utilizing FZlJs, has resulted in an overall improved

methodology that is able to integrate geological, petrophysical and engineering aspects'

ii

Table of Contents

o Abstract

a

a

Table of Contents

Declaration of AuthenticitY

a Acknowledgements

1. Research Overview

iv

.1

Introduction .......'.'

Hydraulic Flow Zone Units

Validation of Core AnalYsis Data .

characterisation of Depositional Environments and Rock Pore structures... 5

Global Characteristic Envelope Method

Correlation and Integration among Wells

FZU Application for Fluid Saturation Modelling

Figures l- 8 ..

t7

References20

4. Paper one: Behrenbruch, P. and Biniwale, s. (2005). "Characterisation of

Clástic Depositional Environments and Rock Pore Structures Using the Carman-

Kozeny Équation: Australian Sedimentary Basins." Journal of Petroleum

Science and Engineering: 4713-4, 17 5-196'

5. Paper Two: Biniwale, s. and Behrenbruch, P. (2004). "The Mapping of

Hyãraulic Flow Zone Units and Characterisation of Australian Geological

Dêpositional Environments." SPE 88521, presented at the Asia Pacific Oil and

Gas Conference and Exhibition, Perth, Australia, october 18-20.

ehrenbruch, P. (2005). "An Improved

Depositional Characteristics and Fluid

s: Australian Offshore Fields'" to be

eeting, New Orleans, USA, June26-29'

7. paper Four: Biniwale, S. (2005). "An Integrated Method for Modeling Fluid

saturation Profiles and characterising Geological Environments using a

Modified FZI Approach: Australian Fields case Study'' sPE, to be presented at

the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, USA, October 9-12.

a

a

a

a

a

o

a

a

1

2

4

,6

7

8

t2

2

J

Summary and Conclusion

lll

Declaration

This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other

degree or diploma in any other universities or tertiary institutions and, to the best of my

knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by any other

person, except where due reference has been made in the text.

I give consent to this thesis, when deposited in the university Llbrary, being available

for photocopying and loan.

Shripad Biniwale

lv

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank some of the many people who

have made my postgraduate studies and this thesis possible.

First and foremost, I wish to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Prof' Peter

Behrenbruch for his invaluable technical advice, continuous support and enthusiasm

towards my project. Many thanks also go to my second supervisor Prof' Hemanta

Sarma, for his encouragement and valuable advice'

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the sponsors of the project: BHP Billiton'

ChevronTexaco, Santos Ltd and Woodside Energy for their financial support and

permission to use and publish their data and analysis results. In particular, I would like

to thank Santos Ltd. for their generous financial support through a 'santos Intemational

scholarship" thus providing me an opportunity to study at the university of Adelaide'

A thank you goes to all staff and students at the Australian School of Petroleum, for

their support and friendship, especially Yvonne, Maureen and Janet' I would like to

thank my fellow research students, Hussam and Thivanka, for being good friends and

for the informal technical discussions which were of great help.

I would like to thank my uncle Dilip Chirmuley, for his support, proof reading and

correcting my entire incoherent academic scribbles and making valuable suggestions'

Thanks also go to my friends, Akshay, Amit, Anuj, cyrus, Makarand, Mandar, sheetal,

Prasanna and vaijayanti, who tried to distract me from my studies but in fact made my

stay in Adelaide very pleasant and enjoyable'

I feel most indebted to my parents, Suhas and Anagha Biniwale, my grandmother and

my sister Maitreyee, who always encouraged me to face and overcome new challenges'

Thanks to my friends, Amol, Abhijit, chitragupt, Kedar, Niket, Nikhil, Pankaj, sachin

and Shailesh, with whom I discussed my long term career goals, for their support and

friendship.

This thesis is dedicated to all these very important people in my life'

Hydruulic Flo¡v Zone Llnit ClruracterisuÍion unil Mttpping for Australitttt Geologicul Deposìtionul Ettvironuettts

Resemclt Overview

Research Overview

Introduction

Formation characteristics, both qualitative and quantitative' are used by geologists'

petrophysicists and reservoir engineers. core description and analysis of core plugs give

information about facies, rock pore structure and their characteristics, where the pore

geometry is the end result of a long geological process involving deposition and

diagenesis. A conventional criterion for the subdivision used by geologists is that of

facies recognition and researchers have previously applied this idea of facies and flow

unit grouping for reservoir description (Rodriguez and Maraven', 1988; Ti et al'' 1993)'

Facies may be considered as fundamental building blocks for reservoir simulation and'

by using hydraulic flow unit identification and analysis, various layers may be grouped

into units that have similar flow characteristics (Barr and Altunbay, 1992)' Altunbay e/

al. (]994)proposed a method for predicting depositional and diagenetic facies by using

numerical geology from wireline logs and core data, while other researchers have used

electrofacies identification for describing reservoirs by grouping lithofacies based on

thickness, porosity and fluid saturation (wolff and Pelissiet,1982; Bucheb and Evans'

1994;Lee et al',2002).

Porosity and permeability are dominating factors for determining quality of a reservoir

and porosity-permeability cross plots have been used traditionally to establish the

general quality of reservoirs from basic core parameters. Kozeny (1927) and carman

(Ig3|)proposed a formula to mathematically correlate porosity and permeability' These

have been combined into a single equation, now known as the Carman-Kozeîy (C-K)

equation, in which reservoir rock can be represented by groups of capillary tubes' The

c-K equation, discussed in the next section, may be used to quantitatively describe

variation in flow behaviour as a function of geological facies, the correlation parameter

being the hydraulic radius. For a particular reservoir, various layers or facies may be

grouped together to form Hydraulic Flow Zone units (FZUs) or Hydraulic units (HUs)'

1

fl¡,draulic FIox' Zone Unít Chtrt cteristtlio n and Mappiug.for Australian G eo I ogica I D epo sítio n u I E t' viro t"" e"ls

Reseurch Overvìew

Hydraulic Flow Zone Units

Hydraulic flow zone units have more recently been widely used in the petroleum

industry in terms of its application. Aguilera and Aguilera (2002) have outlined a

practical, synergistic engineering and geological approach for core data analysis' Flow

zone units are also used over a gteatextent as a tool for reservoir description (Rodriguez

and Maraven, 19gg; Ti et al. |993;Ratchkovski et al.,1999; svirsky et al',2004)' The

FZIJ approach has also been used in the correlation of various other rock characteristics'

for example with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) measurements (ohen et al''

1995),andseismicvelocity(Prasad,2002).Abbaszadehetat'(1996)havedescribeda

detailed statistical treatment involving FZUs for carbonates' More recently' Míkes et al'

(2001) and Stolz and Graves (2003) have shown effective use of FZUs for the purpose

of upscaling and simulation'

A number of researchers have published articles on hydraulic flow zone unit concepts

and their importance in fluid flow in porous media, but Kozeny (1927) is generally

credited as the first to introduce more significant ideas regarding the interdependence of

permeability and porosity. Kozeny introduced the concept of a 'textural properties

constant', H., representing the product of tortuosity' shape factor and the square of the

specific surface atea. Catman (1937) described the flow of fluid through granular beds

and developed an equation to introduce direct dependence between porosity and

permeability, based on the concepts of specific surface area' hydraulic radius and

tortuosity. Combining the work of both scientists, the so-called Carman-Kozeny

equation, gives a theoretical foundation for the dependence of permeability on pore

structure.ThegeneralisedformoftheC-Kequationisasfollows:

: Permeability, pm2

: Effective porosity, fractional bulk volume: Shape facior (2 for a circular cylinder)

: Tortuosity _r: Surface area per unit grain volume, pm-'

(1)

where,k

þ,F,Tsru

2

Hydrttulic Flotv Zone LInit Clrurucleristtiott utttl Mapping.for A ustrul iu n G eot ogical D epo silio n u I E n vi ro n n en ts

Reseurch Overvìew

More recently, Ebanks (1987) explained the concept of a hydraulic flow unit from a

geological viewpoint and defined it as follows:

,,A Hydraulíc Ftow zone unít is the 'Representatíve Elementary volume' (REI) oÍ

the total feservoir rock wìth¡n whìch geologícal ønd petfophysícal propeftíes thøt

alþctltuidflowrøteareínternøllycons¡stentandpredictablydffirentfrompropertíes of othet rock volumes"'

Amaefule et al. (1988) were the first to describe the practical application of the flow

zone unit concept in the petroleum industry. They specifically used the FZU concept for

the analysis and prediction of permeability for actuar reservoir rocks. Barr and Altunbay

(1992) explained the practical aspects of FZUs more generally, for a variety of

depositional environments and diagenetic facies. They opposed the assumption of

.constant textural properties' (H") on the basis that, as tortuosity and shape factor vary

drastically from sample to sample, reflecting heterogeneity, H. must also depend on

pore structure variables such as cementation and roughness. Therefore, they suggested

that adherence only to the more fundamental assumptions of Kozeny may be

misleading, and that H" should be called 'hydraulic unit characterization factor"

reflecting the greater complexity that is found by incorporating alarger range of rock

ty.pes and depositional environments'

Later,Amaefule et al. (1993) suggested a methodology of using core and log data for

the identification of FZUs, for the purpose of permeability prediction' They elucidated

that core data provides information about various depositional and diagenetic controls

on pore geometry, which in turn defines existence of distinct zones (flow zone units)

with similar fluid-flow characteristics. They also observed variation of permeability by

several orders of magnitude for any porosity within a given rock type, which also

indicated the existence of several FZUs' They then proposed a methodology based on a

modified form of the c-K equation and the mean hydraulic radius concept for

identification and characlenzation of hydraulic flow zone units within mappable

geological units (facies). This technique includes a log-1og plot of a 'Reseryoir Quality

Index, (RQI), which is related to the hydraulic radius (w ø ,) 0'5 and a 'Normalized

porosity Index or Porosity Group' (PG) lÓ" | (l'ø "¡1, wherc þ " is the effective

porosity as a fraction. When RQI is plotted against PG' the relationship results in a

3

H!,draulic Flo¡v Zone Llnìt Churucterisution und Mapping for Austrnlitttr Geologícul Deposìfionul Environnents

Reseurch Overvietv

straight line with a unit slope and the intercept defines the characteristic 'Flow Zone

Indicator, (FZl). This offers flexibility for a pfactical implementation of the c-K

equation without exact determination of parameters such as pore throat shape factor'

tortuosity and surface area.

k(md) (2)RQI (¡m)= Reservoir Quality Index = 0'03 1

ø"

ó z = p orosity Group (pore volume to grain voltrne ratio) =lh) (3)

FZr(pm)= Flow Zone rndicator = t;fu)(4)

substituting these definitions into Eq. 1, and taking logarithms:

log RQI = log þ" + log FZI

Equation 5 represents a straight line of the form

y:mx*c

(s)

(6)

In Eq. 6, variable y is a function of permeability (and porosity) and x is a function of

porosity. The slope m and constant c are functions of rock type' Amaefule et al' (1993)

suggested that the value of the FZI constant in Eq'l can be determined from the

intercept of the unit slope straight line at h:l'

Validation of Core AnalYsis Data:

In order to generate reliable results, validation is the most important step before

processing conventional core analysis data. For every analysis, the data validation step

is carried out, where all data is categorised into various classes, as explained in Papers

one and Two. The main data class omitted from analysis consists of non-reservoir data

(data with exceptionally low permeability and/or porosity), atypical data (data which

appears atypical or non-representative for a particular deposition) and scattered data

4

H!,drsulic Flow Zone Unit Clrcnt cte risutio tt u n d M uPP ì n g .for Austruliurt Geological Depositionnl Environnenls

Reseurch Overvìew

(data scattering on both porosity-permeability and c-K plots)' The remaining dataset is

used for further, detailed analysis and study. In Paper Three capillary pfessure data

validation has been carried out based on similar criteria'

This methodology may also be used for validating Special Core Analysis (SCAL)

Samples for various depositional environments. As shown in FigUres 1 and 2' where

large symbols indicate scAL samples, the relative affinity of such samples with other

conventional core analysis samples is a measure of their representativeness for a

particular depositional environment. More specifically, SCAL sample 1 (Figures I and

2), which represents a fluvial channel/ mouth bar environment, is not representative of

the geological interval considered, with porosity and permeability values being

reratively high in Figure 1 and a higher ReI value being indicated in the c-K plot of

Figure 2. This means that SCAL analysis results for this plug are likcly to be non-

representative f-or the overall group and SCAL results require adjustment before being

used in upscaling and reservoir simulation (Behrenbruch, 2000; Goda and Behrenbruch'

2004). Careful review of conventional core analysis data can thus be invaluable in

validating the applicability of special core analysis derived relationships' such as

relative permeability, and this has largely been the impetus for the work described in

this research rePort.

characterisation of Depositional Environments and Rock Pore structures

paper one mainly details a classification scheme for depositional environments for

various Australian fields based on the C-K equation. In many instances, practitioners

have used the c-K equation in a more mechanistic manner' to identify rock similarities'

whereas the paper presents a systematic method for analysing flow zone units' to

classify clastic formations on a more general / universal scale, emphasising that geology

should form the basis for such analysis' Paper one presents a modified definition of

hydraulic flow zone units, from a practical perspective, which is stated as follows:

,,Hydraulic flow zone units are lìthologícalþ unique geological layers ot lìthofacíes

(or simply facies), øs mønífested by petrologícal characteristícs' and øs cotrelatøble ìn

termsofthehydrøulìcradíus,bystrictadherencetogeology.',

5

H),¡lntulic Flow Zone Ilnìt Chnructerisuliott untl Muppítrg .fo r A ustru I ìtr rr G eo I ogical D epo s itio n n I E n v i ro n u ett ls

Resenrch Overvìew

The c-K equation is very populaf with practitioners due to minimum parameter

requirements (porosity and pemeability) and ready availability of conventional core

analysis data. The equation links permeability with other pore parameters' but is not

necessafily the best conelation for predicting permeability for clastic rocks (Dias and

Jing, 1996; Shang et a1.,2003); neveftheless, the c-K methodology is most useful in

comparing different rock pore structures'

Nagtegaal (1980) has outlined several factors such as grain size, geometry, orientation'

and other pore structure aspects that contribute to the overall global properties of clastic

formations. Paper One comments on the three global factors, i'e' provenance and

transport, depositional environment and diagenesis, which give rise to the properties of

clastic formations. The paper discusses various Australian offshore fields from the

Bonaparte and Carnarvon Basins. The Bonaparte basin is located in the'l'imor Sea and

the Carnarvon Basin is located offshore Western Australia, see Figure 3'

Detailed explanations of the proposed FZU methodology and analysis technique are

given in Paper One, using the Laminana-2 well from the Bonaparte Basin as a case

study. Data flow and analysis for the proposed methodology is shown in the flow chart

of Figure 4. The Laminaria freld is in many ways ideal for a reservoir characterisation

study, due to the presence of a large number of different geological environments and

the availability of an extensive dataset'

The proposed FZU methodolo Ey apptoach, based on depositional environments' is

compared in Paper one with an alternative, rock type classification scheme, considered

by Barr et al. (2001). The new FZU methodology considers depositional environments

as the highest level of classification and incorporates rock type, i.e. grain and pore

structure parameters, as a sesondary classification'

Global Characteristic Envelope (GCE) Method

Paper Two provides a new perspective of FZUs, by mapping similar types of rocks in

terms of a 'Characteristic Envelope'. The envelope may be seen as an aid in FZU

modelling, by mapping regions or envelopes in c-K space as a function of geological

6

fl),clruulic FIow Zone IJn¡l Clruruclerisatìott mil Mappingfor Austruliatt Geologicul Dcpttsilíonul Envirottnenls

Reseurch Overview

depositional environments. A large amount of data, covering two Australian offshore

basins has been compared and analysed by the GCE methodology.

Altunbay and Barr (lgg4) have described factors affecting hydraulic quality of a rock,

mainly controlled by its pore geometry, which in turn is a function of mineralogy (type'

abundance, morphology and location relative to pore throats) and texture (grain size'

grain shape, sorting and packing). All these attributes are primarily influenced by

geological deposition and subsequent diagenesis, consequently controlling reservoir

quality. Such depositional trends and diagenetic aspects are generally responsible for

the location of HUs within a particular characteristic envelope. 'Global Characteristic

Envelopes' (GCEs) may be created for any specific situation, by grouping depositional

environments and their facies in terms of hydraulic units. The limits of GCEs are

controlled by the physical extend of compaction, grain and pore structure

characteristics.

Paper one describes such envelopes with the flexibility to compare similar

depositional environments and their relative quality, together with the ability to group

and compare major depositional environments. Papers Two, Three and Four show

such GCEs based on a Bonaparte Basin case study. For each well a HU classification

scheme is proposed, consisting of different quality zones. other HU zonation techniques

(Porras et al., 1999; Perez et al., 2003) based on petrofacies or electrofacies and

lithofacies can be compared and subsequently incorporated as additional characteristics

for particular quality zones/groups, as demonstrated in Paper Two' Furtherrnore' Paper

Two indicates how photomicrographs and Scanning Electron Micrographs' (SEMs) can

be used effectively in studying the peculiarities of grain parameters and diagenesis' The

paper shows that, the GCE method addresses the large number of rock attributes in a

systematic and hierarchical manner, effectively integrating geological attributes with

engineering parameters.

Correlation and Integration among Wells

Several researchers have taken different approaches for correlating data among wells

based on depositional environment, lithofacies, petrofacies, electrofacies' log

7

ll),¡lraulìc Flow Zone Ltt,¡t Churucterisution anil Mapping for Austrulfun Geologìcul Depositionul Ettvironutettls

Researclt Overview

measurements and hydraulic flow zone units (Busharu et al' 1997; Fichtl et øL1997;

Barr, 2000; Barr et a1.,2001). Geological zones within a well can be cofrelated to

geologically similar zones from nearby wells within the same field (or nearby fields)'

considefing the continuity of a particular geological zone, while the general practice has

been to use wireline logs for correlation'

paper Two describes such correlation f-or the Griffin field, comparing logs with FZU

methodology for Zeepard and Birdrong formations. The outlined approach emphasizes

that initial correlation should be based on geological deposition, compared with

petrophysical log correlation and finally resulting in integration by FZUs for an overall

consistent treatment. Paper Two details construction of stratigraphic cross sections

based on shale layers, distinctly observable in all Griffin field wells, serving as a datum

or reference. only cored intervals are considered at this stage and FZUs tbr individual

zones are constructed following the FZU methodology' All zones can be analysed with

c-K plots and the ones with similar FZU values aro then considered for further

integration, possibly represented by a single FZU relationship. similarities of geological

properties and petrophysical attributes for such zones must be checked before

integration.

using the case study of the Griffin area fields, Paper Two shows that by strict

adherence to geological interpretation, the hydraulic radius based HU methodology can

be used for correlation and integration among wells' The paper also demonstrates the

use of a polar transformation of HUs and the correlation of FZIs with petrophysical

logs, and fuither shows that after establishing such relationships, correlation and

integration can be extended to uncored intervals of wells for a particular held'

FZU Application for Fluid Saturation Modelling

one of the principal contributions made by petrophysicists to the understanding of

hydrocarbon distribution within a reservoir is the determination of appropriate

saturation-height functions (Skelt and Harrison, 1995)' Capillary pressure data and

saturation-height relationships form the basis for a number of engineering and

geoscience applications (Swanson, 1977; Wells and Amaefule, 1985; Amaefule and

8

HJ,druulìc Flotv Zone IJnìt Chorrclerisutiott nnd Mappìng fitr AusÍrttIiun GeoIogìcul DepositÍottnI Environnetús

Reseurch Overvìew

Masuo, 1986; Jennings et al., 1987; Ma et al., lggl; Aguilera and Aguilera,2002)'

Several methods are available in the literature for determining field-wide saturation-

height functions based on capillary pressure data and log derived data, mainly utilizing

parameters related to rock typing, porosity and permeability, all for the purpose of

grouping similar relationships. Papers Three and Four present a detailed description of

common methods used by the industry'

Leverett is generally regarded as the first person to introduce an equation for

normalization of capillary pressure data, widely known as the Leverett-J function

(Leverett, lg4l). However, this generalized method often gives poor results for diverse

rock types and is also inappropriate for a large range of permeability values' Johnson

(1987) proposed a 'permeability-averaged' capillary pressure technique, relating

saturation derived from capillary pressure data to permeability and capillary pressure'

This technique is also not universally applicable and fails to predict saturation for lower

permeability values and short distances above the 'Free Water Level' (FWL)'

Several researchers (Rajan and Delaney, lggl; Gunter et al. 1997; Ding et al',2003)

have used reconciliation methods between core and log data' and have obtained

improved results. Skelt and Harrison (1995) have proposed saturation-height functions,

as based on Thomeer's model of pore geometrical factors, using both capillary pressure

and log-derived data. Harrison and Jing (2001) have further modified the method using

regression and optimization techniques, providing better fitting for saturation curves'

Although this method provides increased flexibility and amore practical approach, the

link to permeability is less clear. Papers Three and Four discuss and compare several

such methods, together with their advantages and shortcomings, and Figure 7 gives a

comparative overview of these methods'

cuddy et al. (1993) proposed a simple model based on a Bulk Volume'water (BVW)

function, widely used by practitioners. More recently Amabeoku et al' (2005) have

proposed a modified function, incorporating hydraulic flow zone units, that does not

require permeability as previously used in Cuddy's method' Aguilera and Aguilera

(2001 ;2004) have used a more integrated approach for capillafy pressure modeling'

utilizing Pickett plots for determining flow zone units and saturations' Recently,

I

Hydruulic FIow Zone LInil Clnracferisuliott uttd Muppíng for Auslraliun Geologicul DepositÍottrtl Ettvironmetús

Reseurclt Overview

Desouky (2003) has developed a new method of normalizing capillary pressure curves

using FZUs.

while correlation of conventional rock properties and geological attributes, with

parameters such as capillary pressure and fluid saturation, has been carried out by many

researchers and practitioners, such corelation and analysis has often provided less

satisfactgry results. on the other hand, a flow zoîe unit appfoach' indirectly

incorporating a larger number of geological and petrophysical parameters' has shown

greater promise. Mapping of FZUs in terms of such reservoir characteristics may lead to

better understanding when compared to conventional analysis methods' A modified

'FZI-^'method has, therefore, been proposed in Papers Three and Four' comparing

this method with other saturation prediction models. The new model may be described

as follows:

S.: A (H - H )-^ (7)

S* is expressed as a fraction of the pore volume and A, H¿ and À are parameters, being

simple functions ofFZl, as follows:

AlFZI A2

(8)

(e)

A

),

H

I12

H1FZI H2

FZI(10)

d

where,

H : the height above the free water level (FWL)

H¿ : the entry height, equivalent height at which oil first enters the pores, equating

to the pore entrY Pressure P¿.

Ar, Az, Àr, À2, Hr and H2are specific constants, evaluated from capillary pressure data

and determined by optimization techniques, being specific for each field' H¿ is

introduced to model various entry heights above the FWL and to ensure that valid

saturations are achieved at the FwL. This method gives more realistic saturations' even

close to the FWL where other methods are less satisfactory. Based on Brooks and

10

Hydruulìc Flot, Zone (lnìl Churucterisúion unl Mupping .for A ustru I irt tt G eo I ogi cu I D eposi I io n u I E n viro n n enls

Resesrclt Overviev'

corey,s equation, udegbunam and Amaefule (199S) have utilized a similar formulation

(Equations 9 and 10), relating the terms À and P¿ with FZIs'

This modified method uses FZI as a correlation parameter for saturation modelling,

which automatically incorporates the hydraulic radius (Leverett J function)' porosity

grouping (lambda function) and offers flexibility for tuning specific relationships using

regression and optimization techniques (Skelt-Harrison rnethod)' overcoming

shortcomings of earlier methods, the improved methodology offers a better solution for

saturation mode[ing. paper Three details a case study for the corallina field, whereas,

Paper Four provides a Griff,rn field case study for comparing the new 'FZI-À' method

with other, conventional methods available in the literature. It has been found that for

Australian offshore fields, for treating diverse lithologies and handling a wide range of

rock types, the method proves superior. In order to provide further insight, Paper Four

presents statistical comparisons of various saturation prediction models' For each

method, model predicted water saturation is compared with core-derived saturation,

indicating that the modified Fz!-t^,method gives overall the best results, as represented

by the highest RÍ (correlation coefficient) values. For comparison' histograms plots

have been generated, showing differences between water saturation predicted by each

model and core measured saturations. As a further measure, mean average enor (MAE)

and root mean square error (RMSE) have been calculated. The superior performance of

the modifie d1z!-Xmethod, as compared with the other methods, is clearly indicated in

Figures 5 and 6.

Figure 8 summarises the multidisciplinary approach advocated, integrating geology

(Gl-G4: showing core analysis, facies zonation techniques, photomicrographs and

SEMs), reservoir engineering (Rl-R2: capturing porosity-permeability and c-K

relationships) and petrophysics (P1-P4: integrating capillary pressure and log data with

modified FZI-^ approacþ. This integration of disciplines is thus paramount in

providing consistent and meaningful averages of data that may be assigned to grid

blocks for geo-cellular modelling and reservoir simulation. In offering greater flexibility

for modelling various relationships, the improved and recommended saturation

modelling method is able to provide an extra dimension to formation evaluation

techniques.

11

fl¡,t¡rn,,,,, FIo¡t'Zone Lluil Cl¡nructcrisutiott (rtd tVIupping for AustruIiutt Geologicul De¡sosilionul Ettvirottntenls

Reseurch OvervietY

Figures

Fig. I Data validation and scAL sample representativeness: porosity-pelmeability cross plot

Fig.2 Data validation and scAL sample repfesentativeness: cozeny-Karman

- - - Note: Large symbols indicate SCAL samples

,, I*r4

T I

a

a

Ì:x

ot a

)fi

2

3t*

/ ,Ìr

I t](

I1, T;lrrvial Cttantte I & nloL¡tlr tlal'

2. Fluvial Channels

3. Proximal Estuarine Channels

4. Point Bar & Stream Mouth Bar

J.

( 'r :1i

10000.0

1000.0

ît

5GoL

oo.

10.0

1.0

0.300.250.200.10

01 00.

0.050.1

0.00 0.15Porosity

Note: Large symbols indicate SCAL samples

1

2

^È3

tiìF.

o

)f

llì r :x.

,X

^{^

a

^^^

^^ a

a

iliti t:

I Fltlvi;tl (lhirrt¡le,l & lnouth lrar

2. Fluvial Channels

3. Proximal Esttlarine Channels

4 Point Bar & Stream Mouth Bar

x o.2oEg0G'a

?- -o.,o(l)

E -0.4É.E)

-3 -o.o

-0.8

o.4

-0.6 -o.5 -0.4-1.3 -1.2 -1.1 -1 -0.9 -0.8 -o.7

Log PorositY GrouP

12

plot

fl¡,r¡rnr,,r, Fltnp Zttne LInit Churucterisulit¡tt unl Muppittg.fbr Ausîrulíurt Geologit'ul Depositiotrttl EnvironuenÍs

Reseurch Overview

Fig. 3 Locations of the Bonaparte.and carnarvon basins, Australia.

Fig. 4 Hydraulic flow zone unit methodology: flow chart

ùÅLil,EEr.ì,', l' l.l l l. ll

¡,4 L I lì l-lr \li

¡EÁl-Uiì/\

i-:¡ì RPEl,lT/\Rl,ù

Ríì:-itlr- K

DLlr\,'iEÌ'lzoÉzÉ.

o

PLli ll I

ùt.lf l

Moãifeà.Ser tutth,2003

x$.ö"Y

(i

Alr'l¿.¡EU::ì

iY:j\.lEY

PARTE

4ISLvr, ¡

'l;ì¡,1;{1LtAl:,lt I

Porosity ând perm eability välues from core analysis data

calculate PG and RQI values (by usirìg FZI equations)

Draw best f,rt elliPse foreach deposition

Calculate PG and RQI values

Plot (log) PG vs (l"g) RQI values

Draw straight line with unit sloPe for

each deposition (FZU line)

13

Ff=0.98-1.00MSE = 0.00013óRMSE = 0.0088

" 1'o

.9uÉ

E o.gfNl¡.

E o.ô!EoEE 0.1o

!tD

E 0.2l¡ËE

,i o.o1.00.80.20,0 0.1 0.0

Measuled S*

Hldraulic FIow Zoue Llnil Chtrucleristtion and Muppìng fo r A ustru I kt tt G eo I ogìcu I D eposit io n a I E n vint n n en ts

Reseurclt Overview

Fig. 5: comparison between modified FZI-), function predicted

,rut", saturation and core derived saturation, Griffin-2 well.

Fig. 6: Difference between modified FZI-ì," function predicted

wãter saturation and core derived saturation, Griffrn-2 well.

Mean = 0.0014Std Dev = 0.001ó

0.0fl {.014 .{1.006 0.005 0'012 0'009 0,008 0.005 {'001 0'001 {l'00,|

t0

Difference ln Predicted S,

5

35

30

25

Izotr0)aSr¡IL

14

\g\{

+

t.¡

G

?q

\

'ti

\{

=i

G

at

I(tl

Log DerivedPorosity and

Depth

Pc6 Pc4 P czPo't

100

.l¿cDo10

I1 10 100

\

\

Johnson's APProach (1987) Ios(Sw) = B.PC( - A-Log(K)

Cap. Pressure DataFWL Galculations Sw

FZUr----|>

Satu¡ation ilodelling

Gore AnalysisData

Leverett J ApProach (1941)

skelt-Harrison Approach (1995) Modified Fzu-À Approach (2005)

300

200

100

ËJ

=l¿-

oo-oo

.9oI

10000 e-'10 K (md)'l

0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.õ

Sw

0.8 1

k

ú

PcJ{Su,) = ------=

ocosd

Normalised S*

ìØ-t

l. Thomeer's Model

2. Lambda Function

Regrcssionand

OptimizationTechniques

,S/¡--l-.Su=J^^Bourr 50o ...>+uo^^4l JtìGe2ogr 1Û'õ-

0 û fiT 0,4 sw0.6 Û-8 1 0 ì 2

FZU20 0.253uoJE40lro30

Ezoo-c !u.9on- "0.0 Ð.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Fig. 7 Comparison of various methods for saturation modeling

G2an s

G1 r9 It t t9 !t¡ t¡

)t

l,

1,

ffi

HU1HU2

HU3

Fac¡e 1

Fac¡e 2Core

AnalysisData

Facie 3 .4Facie 5'

I

HU

HU

Fac¡e 6

Far¡e 7

Fac¡e Iacie 1 0 :a.d ¡6û,.¡ ¡*i''ó I l:r

rFlifri:":ìe ons o

PGR3¿!

¡lJ 4al06

vo.S

a

":4olf

"pþ

n.,Ð.

R1 R2

^¡.rdat. Þ..ùsÌ ll ofo il

Global Characteristic Enve ach

PIP3 P4

Capillary Pressure DataFWL Calculations

P2

Log DerivedPorosity and DePth

Modified FZI-À APProach

roach

C-K Space (FZU)

PorositY GrouP

ge,

I'

P" = 45 Psi

FZU

FZU

3ctt

ÈvSlJ

E¿nl!

930oll înaú ¿*

_c 1u€

0.25 FZU

oI 0.6 0.8 1o o.o r.z o

-oGt

oÈPorosity

Reseruoir

roach

wAI

,. Le.Eæet H,

5òiþt

$9n

;L-r0dþF,''

G.iinSi:!.

J

^llç¡11ÞmP

ä¡

B

A

IO)

G

ñ

G

i

\<=s*

-{

\0l

{

?q

Fig. 8 Multidisciplinary approach: integration of geology, petrophysics and engineering for enhanced reservoir characterisation

Llydruulic Flow Zttne IJniÍ CharuclerÍsution urtd MuppÍng.for Australinu Geologícul Deposìtionul Envirottnettts

Researclt Overvìew

Summary and Conclusions

o A practical and theoretically based, improved flow zone unit (FZU) approach

has been outlined, representing an ideal method to characterise formations'

linking their geological attributes with engineering parameters for the purpose of

better quantification of petroleum recovery efficiency. Conventional core and

scAL sample data validation is paramount in determining representative

relationships, such as relative permeability. Overall reservoir description can be

improved significantly by integfation of various core analysis results' utilizing a

multidisciplinary approach that covers geology, petrophysics and reservoir

engmeenng.

a

Based on the logarithmic form of the modif,red Carman-Kozeny equation' the

proposed, modified formulation has been shown to be effective in characterising

the variability of rocks. This methodology can be used for a systematic

classification of clastic formations and appears to be universally applicable. A

modified definition of the hydraulic flow zone unit is proposed: lithologically

unique geological layers or lithofacies (or simply facies)' as manifested by

petrological characteristics, and as correlatable in terms of hydraulic radius' by

strict adherence to geology. The method may also be used in reverse modelling

to predict porosity-permeability relationships'

The introduced methodology has allowed mapping and integration of hydraulic

flow zone units into groups or 'Global Characteristic Envelopes' (GCEs)' which

have the potential for a unique classification scheme. Such GCEs have been

derived for d,ata from several Australian fields in two basins, covering

depositional trends and diagenetic aspects, major controlling factors for reservoir

quality. Extending such ideas, the methodology may be used as a prediction tool

for the case of a new geological province, where a particular geological

environment has a certain chance of occurrence'

photomicrographs and SEMs are a useful aid to study the peculiarities of grain

parameters and diagenesis, and in addition compliment and support results

obtained from FZU and GCE analYsis'

o

17

I I¡u¡ro r,," Flou' Zttne Llnit Clturucraristtion uttil tlluppiug .fit r,,l t rf ru I i u t t G eo I o gicu I D e po s i I i tt n u I E n v i ro n n e ttt s

Rcsetrch Overvien'

The FZU methodology has been found to be useful for correlation and

integration among wells, adhering strictly to geological interpretation, as

exemplified by the Griffin aÍea case study' The effective use of polar

transformation of HUs and the correlation of FZI with petrophysical logs has

also been demonstrated'

a

a

o

Different classihcation schemes for grouping of geological depositions/ facies

have been reviewed and compared with the FZU classification scheme' While

such comparison confiffns the validity of alternative methodologies, the authors

have found that geological deposition should be the super-category and that

specific grain and pore characteristics should be secondary. A systematic FZU

classification, mainly based on quality groups and FZI values, has been

proposed.

A modified FZI-À saturation-height function approach, which automatically

incorporates the hydraulic radius and porosity grouping, has been presented and

superiority of the functional form is manifested by the statistical comparison

with other published methods. while treating diverse lithologies, this method

offers greater flexibility and accuracy than other methods, as exemplified for

selected Australian offshore fi elds'

18

llyt¡¡'nr,¡rc FIo¡v Zttttc Llnit Clturucletisutiott rtnl tllrtppittg fttr +lustruliutt Gcologicul Dc¡tositionul Envírotttttcttts

Rcseurch Overvieu'

Notes:

a In Figures 6 and 7 from the 'Research Overview' section, the family of curves ts

labelled aS ,FZIJ, (not the ,FZI,) aS FZ| represents the flow Zone indicator value

for a particular sample, whefeas FZU indicates the flow zone unit vaiue for the

whole interval with simil ar FZI values and depositional envifonments' The

family of curves uses this FZU value to generate the curve over the entire

interval.

In Paper One, page 183, Para 2, reference to the 'W' should be read as '&'

12'.

In Paper One, page 189, Para 2,last sentence - "SandStOnes afe very fine to

course...", 'course' should be read as 'coarset'

In Paper One, page 183, Para 2, Second sentence - "the Mardie Greensand

member, named so after an abundance of siderite in the upper-most zone"""

'siderite' should be read as 'g!ryþ]'

a

a

a

a In Paper Two, page 3, last Para, second sentence - "These two formations are

separated by the þfp-Valanginian unconformity'", 'Intra' should be read as

'Urp4.

In Paper Two, page 4, fifth Para, third sentence - "...zones within the range of

2656-2682 m, being lower deltaic plane deposition. ..",'plaÍte' should be read

as'plü.

In Paper Three, page 4, ninth Para, third sentence - "...is he height above

FWL...", 'he' should be read as '!þ]'

a

a

19

Hydruulic Flow Zone Ilnit Churrcterisaliott unl Mapping for Austrtlktrr Geologicul Depositíontl Environnents

Researclt Overview

References

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H¡,druulic Flot' Zttne UuiÍ Chtruclerisutiott und Mappittg for Australfutt Geological Depositíotrttl Environments

Resenrch Overview

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21

I.!¡,druulic FIow Zone Llnìt Chutucterisutiott und Muppìng for Austrulìun GeologÍcul Depositional Ettviron uenls

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8

20

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22

ll ¡vl nr u I i c F I o tv Z o tt c Lt n ít C I t u ru cl c ri çu r i o t t u t t d tll up p i t t g .fo r A ttst ru I iu tt Gcol ogicu I Dc¡trtsil ío nt I E n vi ro tt n ett ls

Reseurclt Overvien'

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t8-25

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23

J

Hydraulic Flow Zone Ilnil ChoructerísaÍion an d Muppíng.for ,4 ustru I Íu tt G eo I ogicu I D ep o sitio tt u I E n v iro n n enls

Reseurch OvervieY'

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October 5-8'

24

Hyrlraulic Flotv Zone Unìt Churucterisution untl Mupping for Austrtlittrt Geologicul Deposìtiounl Et'vi''onnet'ts

Reseurclt Overview

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6-9

25

Ílyilrttulic Flot' Zone Llnir Churacterisulion und iVlupping.for Austrulittt Geologìcul Dcposìlionnl Envirottuents

CHAPTER 4

CHARACTERISATION OF CLASTIC DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

AND ROCK PORE STRUCTURES USING THE CARMAN-KOZENYEQUATION:AUSTRALIANSEDIMENTARYBASINS

Behrenbruch, P. and Biniwale, S

Australian School of Petroleum,

The university of Adelaide, Adelaide, sA. 5005 Australia.

Journal of petroleum Science and Engineering 2005; Volume 4713-4,175-196'

H),druulic Fltnt, Zone IJnil Clruructcrisuticùt urtd Ùluppittg.for rluslruliun Gaologicul Depositit¡tttl Envirottucttls

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

CHARACTERISATION OF CLASTIC DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

AND ROCK PORE STRUCTURES USING TIIE CARMAN-KOZENYEQUATION: AUSTRALIAN SEDIMENTARY BASINS

Journal of Petroleum science ønd Engíneer¡ng 2005; volume 47/3-4, 175-196.

Biniwale, S. (Candidate)

performed analysis on all the samples, interpreted data, wrote partial manuscript and

acted as co-author.

zSigned Date

Behrenbruch, P.

Supervised work, helped in data interpretation, wrote partial manuscript

and acted as author

Signed Date.

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com JourNArof

PsrnoruuScmrcr &Excn¡rrutc

www. el sev ier. co m,/locate/petrol

€¡"f ENc = @DrREcro

ELSEVIER Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175- 196

Characterisation of clastic depositional environments and

rock pore structures using the Carrnan-Kozeny equation:

Australian sedimentary basins

P. Behrenbruch*, S. Biniwale

The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia

Rcccived l0 June 2004; accepted l9 January 2005

Abstract

The Carman-Kozeny formulation is used to generalize concepts for classifoing clastic depositional environments for

At¡stralian formations, and to explore rock lypes and their diagenetic features. The interest is not so much to derive single

hydra'lic unit relationships for specific geological zones, but to introduce a model for the purpose of classiôring the

characteristics ofgeologiciepositional environments and associated pore structures. The paper demonstrates how this approach

may be used for data validation and integration, and in applications of "reverse modelling", allowing estimation of pore

structure parameters, porosity and permeabiliry for a particular geological situation'

O 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The pore structure of clastic rocks is a function ofprovenance and transport, depositional environment

and subsequent alteration or diagenesis, resulting from

a varied series of geological processes. As such, the

evolution of rocks is rather complex, resulting in large

variation in pore structure characteristics, responsible

for a considerable range in static and dynamic

reservoir characteristics.

* Corresponding author' Tet.: +61 I 8303 8020; fax: +61 8 8303

8011.

E -mai! addres s: peter. [email protected]

(P. Behrenbruch).

09204105/$ - see front matter O 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved'

doi: 1 0. l 0 l 6/j.petrol.2005.0 l.009

While geoscientists have traditionally classified

rocks according to porosity, grain characteristics, and

pore structure motphology, reservoir engineers tend to

emphasize the dynamic behaviour of rocks. To bridge

the gap between the geoscientist's world of real rocks

and the engineer's world of average hydraulic

behaviour, the hydraulic radius-based Carman-

Kozeny (C-K) equation may be used to compare

various geological situations and rock characteristics.

Practitioners have used the C-K equation in a

specific and often mechanistic fashion to facilitate the

identification of similar rocks for the purpose ofreservoir modelling and simulation. In this papeq a

more systematic "hydraulic flow zone unit''(HU/FZU)approach is outlined with the purpose of classiffing

176

rocks and related pore structure parameters for Aus-

tralian clastic rock situations. Hydraulic units are

defined here simply as lithologically uniquc geological

layers or lithofacies (or simply facies), as manifested by

petrological characteristics, and as correlatable in terms

of hydraulic radius. It is emphasized that the geology

should form the basis for the analysis, not the other way

around, where the C-K equation has been applied in a

mechanistic fashion and geology subsequently super-

imposed. A fully integrated approach, comparing

hydraulic facies with lithofacies and electrofacies is

recommended, and examples are given.

The methodology outlined may analogously be

compared to estimating the size of geological bodies'

However, for HU defined, depositional environments,

a more comprehensive statistical treatment is still under

development. While knowledge to date has been based

on thousands of actual core-plug measurements and

hundreds of pore structure images, the development ofa more universal system is ongoing. To outline the

concepts for such a classification system, detailed

analyses are presented for four offshore Australian

fields, situated in the Bonapafie and Carnarvon basins'

Many additional fields are currently under study with

the aim to validate the proposed model, the final goal

being a universal sYstem.

2. Previous investigations

The idea of geological zonation in terms ofvariation of facies has been well established for some

time, (see Ebanks, 1987). It has also been recognised

that a synergistic approach for the integration of core'

log-derived and other (geological) data is necessary to

fully characterise a geological formation or sequence;

see for example (Amaefule et al.' 1988). This

integration and characterization of rocks may be

facilitated by using the C-K equation and the method-

the HU concept and the logarithmic form of the C-K

equation. HU methodology has also been used in the

correlation of various other rock characteristics, for

example with NMR measurements (Ohen et al', 1995)

and seismic velocity (Prasad, 2002). For a statistical

treatment involving HUs, including carbonates, see

for example Abbaszadeh et al. (1996). Particularly for

P. Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale / Jottrnal of Petroleum Science and Engineerirtg 47 (2005) 175-196

carbonates, which tend to be more variable, alter-

native empirical or statistical methods may be more

satisfactory, see for example (Chilingarian et al.,

1990). Svirsþ et al. (2004) have proposed a simple

regression approach for "Flow Zone Indicator" (FZI)

prediction, which could predict free water level(FWL) depths in most logged wells and could be

useful for the construction of reservoir compartmen-

talisation and modelling of FWL'While the C-K equation encompasses an expres-

sion linking permeability to other pore structure

parameters, it represents not necessarily the best

formulation for predicting permeability for clastic

rocks, as described in a comparative study by Dias

and Jing (1996), and more recently by Shang et al.

(2003). It is well recognised that strictly speaking the

C-K cquation only holds for a uniform pore size

distribution and that is the reason why (integrated)

capillary pressure based methods tend to be superior

in predicting permeability. Researchers have also

pointed out deviations from the C-K equation, leading

to modified C-K equations or alternative models' a

recent example being (Civan, 2003). Nevertheless, the

C-K methodology can be very useful in comparing

different rock pore structures.

The C-K equation in its basic form tends to be

popular with practitioners because it requires a

minimum of parameters þorosity and permeability)

from readily available, conventional core measure-

ments. Other pore struchrre information may then be

used where available, to further characterise the

domain of the C-K space (defined below), differ-

entiating diverse pore structures. There have been

several studies that compare HU derived zonation

with geological zonation (lithofacies) or petrophysical

log zonation þetrofacies or electrofacies), see for

example (Porras et al., 1999; Perez et al., 2003).

3. The Carman-KozenY equation

As is often the case, methodologies used by the

petroleum industry have had their origins in other

fields, in this case with the reported work by Kozeny

(1927) and C an (1938). Amaetule et al. (1993)

described a more specific formulation for petroleum

applications. The basic equation and definitions are

briefly summarised in Appendix A for reference.

4. Geological aspects

4.1 . Praperties of clastic formations

The main factors and features that contribute to

the overall globat properties of clastic reseryoirs

may briefly be outlinecl: size, geometry orientation,

and particularly pore structure aspects, refer Nagte-

gaal (1980). Basically, there are three global factors

that give rise to the properties of clastic forma-

tions:

l. Provenance and transPott,

2. Depositional environment,3. Diagenesis.

The size and type of depositional systems is

largely determined by plate tectonic position and

climate, that is the general orientation of the resulting

deposits, and the composition and maturity of the

clastic assemblage. The composition of the clastic

assemblage is an important variable, allowing litho-logic corelation, and also influencing diagenetic

behaviour and thus reservoir quality at depth.

Secondary aspects directly controlling the occurrence,

size and geometry of depositional environments is the

influence of changes in sea level during deposition,

and also the processes often associated with uncon-

formity surfaces, such as erosion and leaching,

phenomena that are known as epidiagenesis, if the

rock was actually exposed.

Grain-size characteristics and sorting for clastic

reservoirs are directly tied to the depositional

environment, with breakdown into stratigraphic sub-

division and individual facies. Diagenesis, the third

major factor controlling the quality of clastic reser-

voirs, by definition leads to changes in the deposits

from the moment they are laid down. The earliest

changes are environmental-related and involve oxi-

dation-reduction reactions, clay-mineral authigenesis,

and the precipitation of the first cements. Subsequent

changes occur during burial and usually more

strongly influence the porosity and permeability

through compaction, pressure solution, cementation,

clay-mineral authigenesis and leaching. Table I

outlines typical diagenetic effects for quartz arenites,

after Nagtegaal (1980), which are coÍtmonly found in

offshore, northern and western shelf areas, of

t77

Australia. The properties and the quality of clastic

reservoir rocks in the subsurface are thus the outcome

of a long and highly varied series of processes that

operate successively in the provenance area, in the

depositional area, and during burial. V/hile diagenetic

affects may be very varied, the single most impoftant

factor contributing to a reduction of porosity and

permeability with depth is compaction. Manyresearchers have investigated this behaviour; for a

good summary see Buryakovskiy et al. (1991).

4.2. The Bonaparte and Carnarvon basins

The West Australian super-basin consists of the

northern and western shelf areas of Australia.

Bradshaw et al. (1988) described the geology for

this region in tletail, the Carnarvon and Bonaparte

basins. Fig. I itlustrates the main structural elements

of the Northem Carnarvon basin, after Jenkins et al.

(2003), and Fig. 2, likewise, shows the same for the

Bonaparte basin, after Mclntyre and Stickland(1ee8).

Changes in the depositional regime over the area,

described by Bradshaw et at. (1988), are related to

climatic controls, covering glacial, humid tropical to

more arid environments, sea level changes, and

tectonism accompanying the breakup of Northwest

of Western Australia. These involved basin initiation:

a sag phase, compression, and the separation ofAustralia and Antarctica, and the impacts from the

neighbouring African and Indian plates. The young-

est sediments are Cenozoic carbonates, which overlay

Mesozoic fluvio-deltaic sands and marine shales,

lying unconformably above Permian tills. A trans-

gressive peak is recorded in the early Triassic and a

progressive landward shift in the Late Jurassic and

early Cretaceous periods.In general, the stratigraphy over the Bonaparte

basin bears some similarity to that over the Northem

Camarvon basin. Recent Quaternary and Tertiary

carbonates, shales and marls, including some sands

and siltstones, overlie Cretaceous claystones, provid-

ing an important seal, and are underlain by further

sands. This situation reflects a transitional delta and

fluvial marine depositional environment' The under-

lying sequence consists of submarine sandstones and

siltstones, turbidites and deltaic shallow marine clay-

stones and mudstones. This sequence overlies the

p. Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale / Journal of Petroleum Scíence and Engineering a7 Q005) ]75-196

Environment Related

Diagenesis

Depth

Shallow

lntermediate

Deep

Note: assuming amPle cations and an

average geothermal gradien, less than

l07o feldspar and less than 107¿ lithics'

Refe¡ence: Modified after Nagtegaal

Vitrinite Fixed Ca¡bon Content: É 55

Porosity (7o): lO 5þl 25

Permeability(md): 5 5 k: 100+

VFCC: 55 - 65

<-

VFCC 65 - 95

. Pedogenic clay minerals

. Soils, calcrete, silcrete, ferricrete, laterite

. Authigenic goethite, hematite, Mn oxides

. Auth. calcite, dolomite, siderite, sulphides

. Authigenic glauconite, chamosite

. Peat, organic matter

. Mechanicalcompaction

. Grain breakage and healing

. Minor cementation

. Minor quartz overgrowth

. Kaolinite, mixed layers, auth' montmorillonite

. Potential leaching

PS Level (- start of solution)

. Grain breakage and healing

. Pressure solution

. Quartz overgrowth

. Various cements

. Authigenic kaolinite, mixed layers, illite

. Potential

. Pressure solution

. Quartz overgrowth

. Various late cements

. Authigenic illite, chlorite

. Potential leaching

IC Level (illlte and chlorite crystallised)

. 2M illite, chlorite, PYroPhilite,paragonite, chloritoid, margarite

. Stress shadows quartz grains, loss

classic texture

Meteoric WaterLeachingCementationOxydation

SurfaceDiagenesis Epidiagenesis

oçoàod

F

Metamorphism(-8-10,000) metres)

CT Level (montmorillonite transformed,

kaolinite

p. Behrenbrnch, S. Biniwale / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineerins 47 (2005) 175 196

Diagenetic zonation: fine-medium grained, well sorted quarlz arenite

178

Table I

Triassic pre-rift deposition, occuffing under manne

transgression. The stratigraphy of the Vulcan sub-

basin is also similaç although Cretaceous volcanics

are also noted. Carbonates pass into siltstone and

sandstones reflecting the changes from shelf to slope

facies and passive margin deposition' Diagenetic

alteration in the Vulcan sub-basin indicates an

association between diagenesis and fault zones'

Deposition in asin accom-

panied periods extensional

òr transtension outlines the

stratigraphic elements for both basins, modified after

Korn et al. (2003).

In terms of petrology, grain size and clay content

have had a significant influence on perrneability, with

horizontal permeability primarily related to grain stze

and sorting, and vertical permeabilily related to

bedding structure, grain orientation and diagenetic

variation. Grain size control is related to depositional

facies. Regionally the flow direction is parallel to the

structural grain and the basin margins, towards the

onshore and upwards to the shallower aquifer

systems. Clay horizons and local faults are observed

to provide hydrocarbon seals. Diagenetic alteration

such as burial cementation, dolomitization and

introduction of silica or carbonate cement has

affected sediment porosity. In general, the Bonapaúe

basin and other shelf areas exhibit formations that

tend be clay rich, particularly kaolinite. Sandstones

rypically show quartz overgrowth, which, together

- - Llmlt of Northcrn Bonæartc Bâsln

T¡ r

o 50 lo0t_----t .l

llIAN

o

Tlmor IPm

JPDA

FlðmlngoSyncllna

IìI

Dan¡ln

t0.s

stn

Klmberlcy Block

W,A. N.T

'{ SH

Arch

t25(E

lrrdonesiaALJstrdlic

ssyn

Biówsc Basln

North SavuBasln

BâthurstTcrrace

AshmoÍcPlatlorm

FetrelSub-8asln

Refcrcncc: Modlfl¿d aft crMclntyrc and Stlckland

p. Behre,bruch, S. Bíniwale / Jonrnal of Petroletm Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175-196

Fig. l. Bonaparte basin: structural elements and field location map'

179

with other diagenetic features, have led to moderate

porosily at dePth.

5. Hydraulic unit analysis of clastic depositional

environments and rock types

5.1. The Carman-Kozeny space, depositionaL

envelopes and reverse modelling

Traditionally, the accepted view is that the high

quality formations, compared to those of lesser quality,

exhibit different trends on the traditional log-perme-

trends with considerable data scatter (less uniformi-

these data clusters may be translated into the C-K

space.

According to Eq. (4), data points for individual

or PG), as lines with 45" slopes. Data trends that are

attributable to the same depositional environment

may be grouped by drawing a "depositional enve-

lope", encompassing all relationships, for a particular

field, all helds in a basin, or depicting a more global

situation. Fig. 5 conceptually shows such an

envelope.While the purpose and hence definition of deposi-

tional envelopes may vary, a number of generic

characteristic features may be outlined. A depositional

envelope may firstly be more precisely defined by an

upper and lower (reservoir) quality limit' More

quantitatively, hydraulic envelope indices may be

Jetermined, the intersection of the above mentioned

quatity lines with the zero vertical line for the porosity

group. Furthermore, the envelope is defined by an

upper and lower limit of porosity (porosify group on the

piot). The envelope may be dehned for a very specihc

15. 00'

adl6r

sub€aslnlnve

Sub€a¡lnBrnow

l-l early Cretaccot¡s Depoccntre

El Jurasslc to Early C¡ctaccous Oepoccntra

f--l Late Jurassic DePoecnhc

Early to Mlddlc Jurassic

I t¡" 00'

AN

50km

t>Dampler

LcwisTrough

Modlllcd atlcr Jonklns er al.

WosternAustraliaCurvicl

Abyssal Plain

180 p. Behrenbrrch, S. Biniwale / Jottrnal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175-196

Fig.2. Camawon basin: structural elements and freld location map'

situation, covering a limited depth range, hence limited

diagenetic variation, where variations are primarily

relaìed to grain size and sorting, a function of the

particular depositional nsidera-

iion ("high and low en e global

anaþsis may include ¿ Shallow

to deep formations, in which case diagenetic features'

mainly compaction, will tend to show the largest

variation.

further insight, it is instructive to "reverse modell'HU

trends, 45' lines in the C-K space' shown as curyes indemonstrates that there

of what is traditionallY

ots and what can be

predicted. This means that by selecting an appropriate

àepositional envelope and expected geological char-

acieristics, porosity, permeability and related proper-

ties may be estimated, with greater clarity than

working with just conventional plots'

Statistically, a particular depositional envelope may

be characterised in terms of the density of HU

relationships, similar to the size classification ofgeological objects in terms of statistical distributions'

As such, the outlined methodology may be used as a

prediction tool for the case of a new geological

province, where a particular geological environment

has a certain chance of occurrence and a specific

envelope may be considered to identiff possible

formation characteri stics.

5.2. Laminaria field analysis-Bonaparte basin

The Laminaria field is located in the Timor Sea

. 2) and is the largest oil-producing field in the

aparte basin. The Laminaria field is of particular

interest in that it exhibits a large number of different

geologic depositional environments. There is also an

ãxtensive data set available, with a number ofcomprehensive studies reported previously (Barr,

2000; Ban et al., 2001).

In terms of geology, there is an association with

coastal facies, and deltaic and interdeltaic, linear

coastal sequences, as well as marine clastic facies,

involving shallow marine sequences. Clastic zones are

mainly represented by fine to moderate, well-sorted

qlartz arenite, being of intermediate burial depth'

Diagenesis, as exhibited by scanning electromicro-

graph irnages indicate grain-breakage and healing,

pres sure so lution, qlartz overgrowth, various cements,

authigenic kaolinite, minor illite and some leaching'

The clay transformation level has typically not been

reached, so that rarely other clays are present. Porosi-

ties are typically 10-25% and permeability ranges from

a few millidarcies to more than a thousand millidarcies'

Table 2 summarises the available conventional core

measurement data for the Laminaria and Corallina

fields, while Fig. 6 shows this data graphically' Ofnearly a thousand data points, about l0% was excluded

from detailed analysis, of which about half was non-

reservoir and the other half was deemed as atypical, as

further explained below. Figs' 7-9 give an overview

and summary of the HU analysis carried out in this

sfudy. Fig. 7 shows the HU analysis for one of the key

wells, Laminaria-2, which has been cored extensively'

l8l

A large number of different depositional environments

are represented, and overall HU correlation is excellent,

particularly for the higher energy depositions. Fig. 8

represents the f,rrst level of integration where, for

example, all "bat''depositional environments for the

entire field are compared. This hgure indicates differ-

ent types of bars, as well as their relative quality. The

final field level of integration attempted is shown in

Fig. 9, where four major depositional environments

have been grouped for comparison: channel (without

eshrrine), esfurine, bar and deltaic environments. It can

be seen that different depositional environments cover

different parts of the C-K domain.

In order to give some appreciation for the applied

methodology, Figs. l0-12 have been included. Figs. l0and 11 show an example where the geological facies

description could not be supported and the HU analysis

indicated in fact two lithofacies' Figs. ll and 12 also

show so-called outliers, i.e' atypical data points for this

zone. Table 3 shows the aclual core measurement data

and zonation calculations for the top part of the se-

quence, highlighting seven of the outliers. As evident,

P. Behrenbruclt, S. Biniwale / Jotrnal ofPetroleum Science and Ertgineeríng 47 (2005) ]75-196

Fig. 3. Stratigraphic column of the Noftlìern Bonapade basin and Northem Camawon basin.

å¡t!

't¿IG

r,t

È'Ió

Northern Carnarvon Basln

w Rock Unlts ER¡¡rtltrT¡e¡rl Pê-qtlùtJ![¡!f-s-!t9!

Northern BonaParte BaslnRock Unlts

Wangârlu

LowÊrG6¡rlr Siltshonr

Windalla (,)

'{tqr.!g_rg¡'

Drrvrln

=ÐIo¿

ÈÉèo

ËÉ

Il

ËF

Age

0n

Aptlan

Ur

oo(J(g(l,

fJ

o(úJ

campanlül

Santonlan

Turofllancanomânlan

I tlnôntlnKlmm¡rldglan

T.- t-,{,

Echuco Shocls

Flamln¡o Group

Frio¡ta Sh¡laOxlordlanfait tun

oG'

J

Bathonlan

Callovlôn

?ìi::l:1

EÉ,Ê

=

HÊtI¡NOIAN

\-f

PlovEr

uou,G'

?

Norlan ChalllsNomt

Pollard

o(E

camlan

Ladlnlan Osprry

¡¡ung¡rooFormatlon

= Anlslan

North Carnarvon Ba¡lnMaln Tectonlc Events

lnlllrl Spllttlng ol [ìdlttl¡nd ÀugtrJllJn Pl¡tes

M¡ln C onünent¡l Br.lkuPot NW Auelr¡llrn M¡rginonsel of BfG¡kuP ol NwAustr¡llJn Mlrg¡n

Flrsr onset of Rift¡ng inth. B¡rtow - D¡mPl.rSub-Brsin9

Rclcrcnc c:

Modlll¡d al¡r Kom at al

Ê

at

Eo

oA

ELockar Shalafvlt. Goodwyn

.9Ur,nG'

t- t¡¡ Scylhlan

',fèt)útô

a

',2a

a

/

,I

,

tt,

/'

a2

a

Ë

+¡Í

l4¿rI

t.Zz& ¿

182 p. Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale / Jotrnal of Petroleum Science and Engineeríng 47 (2005) 175-196

Porosity (o/o)

10 15

Fig. 4. Conventional core data plot: concept of "reverse modeling"

Porosity GrouP-0.8 -0.7s -o'7

2510000.00

1000.00

10.00

1.00

0.10

-0.65 -0.6 -0.55 -0.50.6

200

-1

5

!o3o!tq

=cL

00.001

0.01

-0.95 -0.9 -0.85

0.4

Ð0.2 E

oe

09,ocgt

-0.2 =5CL

-0.4 (Dx

-0.6

A(permea¡¡llty, poroslty) 15 Porosity (%) 20

Fig. 5. Sedimentology and hydraulic unit concepts: hydraulic unit envelope.

Dlagenesls TrendHU Depositlonal EnveloPeupper qualw fim¡t

Deposítion Trends

Sorting GrainSize

:a6 a

a

ofst*

o.tj-om¿

fsI

I

A : lo9t{(per¡l

ShallowFormat¡ons

riÌ4o

10

-0.8

Well name and

number

Corallina I CorallinaEast I

LaminariaEast I

Laminaria2

Laminaria3

Laminaria3STI

Laminaria4

Total

Depth range(m)

TB

3r74325t

3377

34'13

32833312

32083369

32983317

35593514

3225

3372

Data points before

validation

217 94 97 361 47 42 l3l 989

Data points after

validation

198 90 87 316 40 36 t28 895

Porosity range(7o)

7.4-23.9 2.t-21.8 o;7-20.3 6-24 10.3-8.7 6.8-18.1 4.8-23

Permeabilityrange (md)

0.4-7356 0.0264490 0.001-4780 t.3-2361 57-1772 0.24-t't.6 o.08-2220

p. Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale / Journal oJ'Petroleum Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175 196

Laminaria and Corallina fields, summary of conventional core analysis DataTable 2

all except two of these data points are at the interface offacies. This manifestation is quite coÍrnon, where

diagenetic affects are associated with this boundary

such as leaching, cementation, bioturbation, etc'

The opposite type of situation is shown in Fig' 9,

two cases where geological facies could be reasonably

combined into common HUs. This figure also shows

the standard deviation for each facies, with 'R2

in the

range of 0.374.72. At this point one may question:

what should the rules be for establishing HUs? While

they may vary depending on the amount and qualiry

r83

of data, as well as the purpose of the analysis, the

rules and steps adopted here were as follows:

1. validation of data, excluding non-reservoir units

and outlyin g data, as determined by HU trend

analysis;2. splitting of reservoir units, as previously defined

from geological facies or electrofacies analysis,

provided a minimum shift in HU trend was

observed, in this case a shift in reservoir quality

index of 0.15 RQl units;

15 20 2510000

1000

100

10

0.1

50

Porosity (%)

10

1

!o3oA¡g

3CL

¡l

q¡{ .¡ a

irnt.

I a

a

^ !+ at

ì:t¡:?'¡ I

ì.t.f'l¡t

ItI

a

a

l f

tIÊta

rtÌ.

I0l: r

.F

Total No. of SamPles:

Before Validation - 989

AfterValidation - 895

Excluded Data - 9.5%

.l f'4

ata¡,. l,

tl . aaa

aa

aa

o

¡I

t ¡lI ¡orf'Ò

I

I

':l Ilr.l

Fig. 6. Laminaria and Corallina helds: "validated'core data'

0.01

Before Validation - 361

AfterValidation - 316Excluded Dala'12"/"

6

3

11

5

7

Prox Est Ghannel

10 a

t Point Bar Channel11

InterdistributarY BaY: 1o¡

1

¿ -to

a

(4.4)

o

+

t¡L'a

a atF

8

ata

Ò

aa

¡ò

& Fluvi & Prox Est

6

I

a

a

a

2 aat a.4

o

aa

ô

¿

12

rE.

Oa

À

À

Fluviaf Channel (4.6, 4.71

Strm Mouth Bar

& Dist Channel:1s¡Outer Est Bay

& Dist-Prox Strm Mouth Bar: 1z.t' 2.3'2-41Strm Mouth Bar, Dist Est Channel,

(6'2)

3 FluvialChannel(4.2,4.s1

FluvialSheet:

(4.5)

Prox Est,- Prox Est:

(1.1, 1.2)

('t.2-21

a

o

aat

& Prox Est Channel'Prox Est Channel: e.2,5l1

5Deltaic -!nterdistr¡butaryBay: (s)

7

r84 p. Behrenbntch, S. Biniwale / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175 196

Porosity Group-1 -0.9 -0.8-1.4 -1.3 -1.2 -1.1

-1.3 -1.2 -1.1

t FC 4.2 + FSMB 4.3o L3- Barrier Bar 1.2- L3ST-All 2 sMBx LE1-SMB s(2)+6

-o.7 -0.6 -0.5 -0.4

x PB-SMB 2.5I L3ST-SMB+ LE1-DC2.1 +

0.6

0.4

0.2

0

ÐoU,o

o='oÊP.

foox

-o.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

-1

3. merging of HUs, as defined geologically or petro-

physically, provided HU trends are from adjacent

units, or from the same geolo gic unit in differentwells ;

Fig. 7. Laminaria field: Laminaria-2, hydraulic zonation.

Porosity GrouP

-0.9 -0.8

o ÍIPSMB 2.3 +2.4a L3- Stream Mouth Bar 2.2o tidal baro LE1-PSMB 5(1)

4. defining HUs in statistical terms: adequate amount

of data, a minimum of 5 or 6 points per trend, and

minimum corelation (R2 > 0.5).

-0.7 -0.6 -0.5 -0.4

ÐoØo

9.

otr!¡_

foox

0.6

0.2

-o.2

-0.6

-1+PB7+lDB6

I2

34

5

6

Bars.""""'Fluvial- Channel SMBDistal- FluvialSMBSMB - Barrier BarPoint Bar and Tidal Bar(Combination)Stream Mouth Bars

2

4a

1

+

3I

¿-x

q

6

.LI

¡¡..'

+

Fig. 8. Laminaria field: all welts, hydraulic zonation for bar depositions

MDC22 (2)+SM84

P. Behrenbntch, S. Biniwale / Journal ol'Petroleum Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175 196

Fig. 9. Laminaria field: Laminaria wells, hydraulic unit envelopes'

185

-0.7 -0.51

HUs, while Fig. 14 shows that eight HUs were

required to accommodate the same data with a rock

ffpe classification. The authors of this study favour

the highest-level classification by depositional envi-

ronment, with rock lype being secondary. Rock type

can then be addressed with the parameters indicated

in Fig. 14: grain size, sorting, bedding' and

diagenesis. In reality, in the limit' the two classi-

o.17 0.19 o.2110000

-1.5

0.07

Porosity Group-0.9-1.3

0.09 0.11

-1.1

Ðooo

9.

øcg

JCLox

0.6

0.2

-o.2

-0.6

-1

The final aspect covered for Laminaria involves

a comparison of two alternative classification

schemes: by depositional environment and by rock

Fig. 13 indicates the depositional grouping into nine

Porosity0.13 0.15

1000 !oJo¡

1oo g

fCL

10v

1

. Proximal Estuarine 1.1 I Fluvial and Proximal Estuarine 1'2

Fig. 10. Laminaria field: example of fluvial and proximal estuarine channel.

Bars ^

Deltaic

Comparison withBuffalo Field: - 'FC - Fluvial Channels,DC - Distr¡butarY ChannelsPDC - Proximal

D¡str¡butarY Channels

l\ll e haitnels

i\@ Channels(without esturine)

E Estur¡ne,1

*'Í'T

a.)'{a

c.JÊB

4

n)a(:-r- "4g

31

7

51

/g)

--4,.^ l al1JJ

Outlier

3750 it¡:G)5r

Outliers

//

Outliers:at

52,

o34

r26

8331.30

¿ ol5

Proximal Esturine (3-271(interval outliers 4, 7, 141

o25

r35

Fluvial (30-51)(interval outlier 36)

186 p Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale / Journal of Petroletm Scíence and Engineering 47 (2005) ]75 196

-1 -0.95 -0.9 -0.85

-0.8s -0.8

o fluvial to st¡eam mouth bar channel 4.3

: fluvial sheet flow 4.5

o fluvial & proximal estuarine 1.2o fluvial channel 4.6 + 4'7

PorositY GrouP

-0.8 -0.75 -0.7

Porosity GrouP-0.75

-0.65 -0.6 -0.55 -0.50.15

0.1

0.05

-0.1

-0.15

where the output from such an analysis may be

used for detailed geological modelling and reservoir

simulation, and average parameters (porosity, per-

-o.7 -0.65 -0.6

¡ tluvial channel 4.4, proximal estuârine 1.1+fluvial proximal estuarine 1'2

e fluvial channel 4.2

Ðooo

9.

ocP.

fCLox

0

-0.05

. Pfoximal Estuarine 1,1 + Fluvial & Proximal Estuaf¡ne 1'2 r Fluvlal & Proximal Estuarine 1'2

- - proximal Estuarine 1.1 + Fluvial & Proximal Estuarine 1.2 -

Fluvial & Proximal Estuarine 1'2

Fig. ll. Laminaria field: example of hydraulic zonation, fluvial and proximal estuarine channel'

fications amount to the same, if every lithotype is

analysed separately, i.e. before any grouping'

Indeed, this is the best scheme for detailed analysis

-0.9 0.6

0.5 ¡o0.4 g

0.3 õ.

0.2 ?g.

0.1 .ã

0d.ox

-0.1

-o.2

t¡a

These may be combined R2 = o.sz

-¡tl

R2 = 0.68

R'?= 0.60

rÈl

a

I ¡¡o ¡

aoo

ox

'L

!

I

R2 = 0.60o

tt -vú6

ta

l

^-O .

ooÉAfter merging R2 = 0'62 ood

6O ÔÞ

!-- Oo

IR2 = 0.58

af 'R2 = O]2a

These maY be combined

';ì'?= 0.37

After merging R2 =\0'68

Fig. 12. Laminaria field: atl fluvial depositions, merging of hydraulic units'

Plugnumber

Depth(m) Porosity Permeability(md)

Geologicalfacies

Geologicalunit

PorosityGroup, X

Res

lndex, YLog X Log Y

I23

45

67

3204.353204.603204.903205.203205.s'7

3205;78??oÁ oR

0.1430.1820.1320.146o.r'740.165o.089

602.00274.46

5.702t6.12

20.0028.8127.OO

proximalestuarineestuarineestuar1ne

estuanne

estuarineestrarine

1.1

l.ll.l

0.167o.2220.1520. 171

o.2ll0. t98o og8

2.037t.2t90.2061.208

0.337

0.415o 505

-o.778-0.653-0.818

-0.767

-0.676

-0.704-r.olo

0.3090.086

-0.685

0.082-0.473

-0.382

-o).s1

8

9

t0t1

t2l3t415

T6

t718

t9202T

2223

2425

2627

28

29

3206.423206.783206.953201.323207.603207.903208.213208.49

3208.803209.1O

3209.363209.703209.903210.25321O.60

3210.9032lt.I532lL.60321 t .85

3212.lo3212.653212.95

0.1980.2030. t940.t970.1 89

0.1900.201

0.1970.1950.1980.191

0.1840.1850.1 86

0.1840.1820.1850.1460.1670.18 1

0.1680.175

137. l92l I .00

|4.21167.00

13s.48

r99.00'1o.74

83.00t20.t5t72.OO

t32.92147.00

t47.48r02.00t36.34138.00

1s6.94

43.0097.35

232.00234.59352.00

fluvial and proximalestuarineestuarineestuarlne

estuanneestuarineestua¡ineestuanneestuarineestuarlneestuanneestuarineestuarineestuarlneestuarineestuarlneestuanneestuarineestuailneestuarineestuarineestuanne

t.2t.2t.21,2

t.2t.21.2

t.2t.2t.2t.21,2

r.2t.2t.2t.21.2

t.2t.2t.21.2

t.2

0.247o.255o.z4l0.245o.233o.235o.2520.245o.2420.2470.236o.2250.227o.228o.2250.222o.2270. 171

0.200o.221

o.202o.212

0.827t.012o.7620.9140.841

l.0160,5890.645

0.779o.9250.828

0.888

0.887

0.7360.8560.86s0.915

0.5390.758

t.124r.t731.408

-0.608-0.594-0.619-0.610-0.633-0.630-0.599-0.6 t0-0.616

-0.608-o.621

-0.647

-0.644

-o.642-0.648-0.653

-0.644-0.16'l-0.698-0.6s6-0.695-0.673

-0.083

0.005-0.1 l8-0.039-0.07s

0.007-0.230-0, 191

-0.108-0.034-0.082-0.o52-0.052-0.133

-0.068-0.063-0.039

-o.269-0. 120

0.051

0.0690.149

p. Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale/Journal ofPetroleum Science and Engineerins 47 (2005) 175-196

Table 3

Laminaria field: example of core measurements and zonation calculations

r87

meability, initial saturation, etc.) are determined for

each lithofacies. These ideas are further developed

for the next field example.

A more detailed analysis may be presented for one

of the wells, Corallina East-l, and Fig. 16 shows the

HUs for this well. Six of these HUs have been reverse-

modelled, as shown in Fig. 17, supporting the concepts

explained above. Fig. l8 shows the same HUs and

individual lithofacies in a bar chart. For the purpose ofgeological modelling and simulation, similar lithofa-

cies have only been combined if they are adjacent in

sequence. Fig. 19 summarises the alternative for

comparison, classification by rock fype, from Barr et

al. (2001). To gain more insight into this comparison'

hows a direct comparison, the original

classification with that of the depositional

on, as well as the rock type classification' As

evident, the overall sequence may be defined with

different schemes, but overall there is agreement.

5. 3. Corallina field analYsis

The Corallina field geology is overall similar to

that of the Laminaria field and the two fields are part

of the same offshore development. For further details

of the geology see Barr et al. (2001). Fig. 2 shows

again the location of the field, and surnmarises

the available data. Overall, HU results are

summarised in Fig. 15, for the two wells cored for this

field, and correlation is excellent. A considerable

number of distinct HU trends aÍe again exhibited the

result of varied depositional environments.

II

2.1 - 2.2

Distal Delta Front 5,6.1

Proximal Delta

Distributary Channels 2.6

Distributarychannels 2.6 Distributary

Channels2.7,2.4

OislributaryChannels

2,2.11,2.12Distributary

Channel2.11

FluvialChannel

13

TidalBar 9

CrevasseSplays

7.1,7.2,7.3Proximal Delta

Front 4.2

Mouth Bar /Distal

DistributaryChannel I

DistalDeltaFront

6.4

Front 4.1, 3

Distributary Channels

188

5.4. Bulfalo and GrilJin Jiekls

A third example is for the Buffalo field, also

located in the Bonaparte basin. The geological setting

for the Buffalo field involves the upper Elang

formation and the lower Plover formation, the latter

40

being reduced to about half its thickness when

compared to the Laminaria flteld, down to 80m' Fig'

2 shows the location for this field.

The Plover formation was deposited during the

early extension or onset of the NE-SW trending

rifting phase, as mentioned above. The Elang for-

p Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale / Journal of'Petroleum Science and Engineeríng 47 (2005) 175 196

HU-Q4HU-05HU-Q9HU-Q2HU-Q6HU.Q8HU.03HU-Q1HU-Q7Poorest Qual¡ty -'-'-'-'->

Fig. 13. Lantinaria fietd: Laminaria-4, hydraulic zouation by depositional envirotrment and quality'

35

30

25 'nol¡206fo

15 -<

10

5

0

High QualitYHUl

Low QualityHU8HU2 HU3 HU4 HU5 HU6 HU7

100%

8O7"

600/o

4Oo/"

20%

oC0)

=EElJ.

Sm: fine / coarse ss

Sgran: granule-rich, variable ss

Hi-laminated: sandy upp / low fine ss

Gms: graded matr¡x-supported conglomeratessfine grained Sb

Fig. 14. Laminaria tield: Laminaria-4, hydraulic zonation by sandstone type and quality.

Barrier Bar or Prox Strm Mouth Bar 2

.Transverse Bar 3.1 & Esturine Channel 4¡ Prox Mouth Bar 5'1 & Dist Strm Mouth Bar 6'1

- Transverse Bar 3.2r Prox Strm Mouth Bar 6.2

D¡st Strm Moulh Bar 6.3 & DSS 7.1

^Prox Strm Mouth Bar 6.4

Delta Slope of Lower Shoreface IDist Channel 8.1 & Strm Mouth Bars 5.2,6.5lnterdistributary BaY 12

. Dist Chânnel & Proximal Delta FrontÀ D¡st Delta Front 3.2+3'3

l1-2.5&5.2,3&8É D¡st Channel 2.6

I ail 1-4

o

II

L

I

t

f

a

t

tI

/¿ /-'

-a

al

) a |J

p. Behrenbruch, S. Biniwale / Journal of Petroletm Scíence and Engineering 47 (2005) 175-196 189

PorositY GrouP

-0.9 -0.8 -o.7 -0.6 -0.5 -0.4-1.2 -1.1 1

-1.4 -1.3 -1.2 -1.1

Fig. 15. corallina field: corallina-l and corallina East-1, hydraulic zonation'

0.4

depositional environment is varied, extending from

fluvial to marginal marine and distal delta sediments'

In this case, the Frigate marine shales form the seal' In

terms of petrology, framework grains are dominated

by q,nrtz (over 90%), with minor lithic fragments and

accessory minerals. Sandstones are very fine to course

0.6

o.2

0

-o.2

-0.4

-0.6

¡ooo9.

otrP.

JCLox

mation is the hydrocarbon bearing formation, as it isfor most of the neighbouring helds in the region:

Laminaria, Corallina, Elang, Kakatua and Bayu-

Undan. The Elang formation occurs at the initial

onset of marine waters entering the basin, inundating

the Plover delta system. As stated above, the

Porosity GrouP

-1 -0.9 -0.8 -o.7 -0.6 -0.5 -0.4

0.6

0.4

0.2

0

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

Toano

9.

ocg

=clox

Fig l6 coratlina fietd corallina East-1, hydraulic zonation by depositional environment

5

Distributary Channel 2.6

Proximal Delta Front 5.2Distributary Channel 2.5, Delta Front 5.3 &

Proximal Delta Front IDistributary Channel 2.4 & Proxirnal Delta Front 5'1

Distal, D¡str¡tlutary Channel Delta Front all 1-4 .

1

2

¡

6

4

5Distal Delta Front 3.2

Distal Delta Front 3.3

3

1

5

4

4

5

-b

L Ó.4

3

190 p. Belyerbruclt, S. Biniwale / Jotrnal of Petroleun Science ancl EttgineerinT 47 (2005) 175-196

PorositY (%)

10.0 15.0

OeltaFront

s O¡sttlOelta Front

20.0 25.00.0 5.0

1 00000

1 0000

1 000

100

10

1

0.1

0.01

0.001

!o3oÐg

3CL

grained, with the majority being fine to medium

grained. Grains are sub to well rounded and with

moderate sorting. The detrital matrix is relatively low,

less than l0%, being more abundant in the poorer

quality sandstone, with only trace amounts in the

better quality sandstone. Authigenic qrtatlz is again

the dominant cement, present as quartz overgrowth'

Variable amounts of pyrite cement are also found'

Permeability and porosity are similar to that observed

Fig. 17. Corallina hetd: Corallina East-1, reverse modelling'

Channels, Oelta Front

2.3Channels& AÞandon

s 3 Proximal

z { DistributarYClrannels

Moolh 8ar,D¡stal oF

for Laminaria and Corllina. For other core-related

analyses see also Behrenbruch (2000).

Fig.2l gives the HU classification for Buffalo-2'

As is evident, the analysis has resulted in six HUs,

with the better quality environments being represen-

tative of channels. The envelope for these channels

has been superimposed on Fig' 9, for cotnparison with

Laminaria, demonstrating good agreement' Such

integration among other fields is currently in progress'

Channcls, BarsDlstal Dalta FrontDlstributary

ChannelsProxlmal

60% 11

ror. õ.ct

ro"r" f;.or. f,

3,2

100./.

90"/o

80"/"

70%

200h

10"/o

o%

2.2 Oistr¡butaryChannolDelter

Front 5l

ta

D¡stalOcltâ Front

Orstrlbut¡ryChannel

2.1

11 Estu í rinoChannels

HU:7g5214qualityi Q1(best) Q2 q3 a4 Qs 06

Fig. lg. Corallina field: Corallina East-1, hydraulic zonation by depositional enviroument.

6

Q7(poorest)

3.3

3.'l

DeltaFront

DoltîFront

z ø Dlstr¡butarychannols

5.2

p. Beltrenbruch, S. Biníwale / Journal o['Petroleum Science ancl Engineerirrg 47 (2005) 175 ]96

Hydraulic UnitHUz HU4 HUs HU7 HU8

t9l

HUIBest Qua

HU3lncreas

HU6

-Þ PoorlY Sorted ) Bioturbated

oo=Eo¡-tr

D

Coarse --) Medlum 4 Flne ---_*

very Flne

Sand Sorting: wetl Sorted

fl sttfne/uppmedss

Sgran: granule+ich, variable ss

5,061.062.O4

Srn: fine / coanie ss

Sb: bioturbated uPP / low fine ss

Fig. 19. Corallina field: coLallina Eastl, hydraulic zonation by sandstorre quality

Layel-T,hic"þesE-(rn) Facies

1:E84.062.82

! sit veryfine/line ss

[-'l xi-taminated: sandy upp / low fine ss

De¡:tlt (tn)

339ê

100

90

80

70

Ê60,t.tl

Ë50.t(,Eß

30

n

l0

Distal Estuarine Channel ID¡strtbutary Cha nnel 2, I

Dlstal Oclla Front 3.1Oistributary Cha nnel 2.2

Mouth Bar , Oistal Delta Front 4Drsrflbulârv Channel & Abândonment 2.3óiiiri¡utaú chiìnnel & Ab¿ìndonmont 2 3'2

Proxrmal Delta Front 5 I

Orstnbutary Channels 2 4

Proxrmal Oclta Front 5 2

Dislal Oelta Front 3.2Prodclt¿ì 6 & Tldal Channol 7

Distnbutiìry channels 2,5Proxrmal Dolta Front 5 3

Distîl Ocltî Front I

oastal Oella Front 3 3

Distr¡butary Channels 2 6

:J176 2

3388'l

?,,t28 f

344fi 7

3.151 5

7j5

Facie GrouPs (Rock tYPe)

I

u

I

n

I

'r

21.78

'to.75

3.294.652.311.753.335.83

10.06

10.90

0Hydraulic Units Group Geological Facies

H

HU1

F

EHU2

HU5

U

AHU7

Fig. 20. corallina field: coraltina Easrt, hyd|aulic zotratiou and lithofacies.

Comparason w¡thLaminaria Field:FC - Fluvlal Channels,DC - DistributarY ChannelsPDC - Proximal

DlstributarY Channels

rt

It¡

91

0.62

0.57

I

E

=053

It R2 = 0,74

t92 P. Behrenbrtrch, S. Biniwale / Jottrnal of Petroleum Science and Engineering a7 Q005) 175-196

-1.4Porosity GrouP

-1.2 -1 {t.8 4.6-1.6

5.5. Grffin area Jields-Cqrnarvon basin

From a commercial standpoint, the Camarvon basin

is currently Australia's most important basin, in terms

for the Bonaparte basin, the Birdrong formation being

of relatively poor quality and very diverse petrology'

The location of the fìelds is shown in Fig. l 'The so called Grifhn area fields consist of the

commercial Griffin and Scindian-Chinook fields, and

lie along a northeast-southwest Triassic high trend

known as the Alpha arch' Hydrocarbons have been

trapped in Early Cretaceous sediments of the Mardie

Grèènsand member, named so after an abundance ofsiderite in the upper-most zone, the Birdrong formation

and the Zeepard formation sequences. The Birdrong

formation sequence appears to have been deposited in a

shallow marine shelf environment, with a slow

sedimentation rate and low clastic influx, but covering

a relatively large area' Petrophysical logs and core

exhibit the interval to be a series of thin, alternating

{t.4

7ooo?9,aÐcÐ

=CLox

0

4.8

-1.2

-1.6

I EiÐOF5 ¡ Èoxrml Osributary Chãmds 2'4 ¡ ALL 3 PCF

- Low Sinuos¡ty Flwial channels I ' Ûe'/ass€ SPlays 6 Â ALL æ,f IBS 4

- - - Linear(oEt+ocF5t

-Lnear(ftoxiÍEl

ost.ibt¡trychannels 241

-lJîeaf

(ALL 3PCF)

- -. - Linear (Lo/ Shuosrty Flwial Chanriels 8)

-

LiæÜ (qevasse Splays 6f - - Linear (ALL æ+ IBS 4)

Fig. 21. Buffato held: Buffalo-2, hydraulic zonation'

being characterised by abundant bioturbation' The

sandstones are predominantly very fine to hne-grained

sands, and are poorly sorted with a common to

abundant detrital clay matrix and carbonate cemented'

Accessory minerals include variable amounts ofglauconite, pyrite, coal/carbonaceous fragments and

iare chert. Reservoir quality of the Birdrong formation

is thus relatively poor and highly variable' The

formation has been cored in several wells and core

permeability varies from 2 to 300 md, core porosity

from 8% to l0o/o, with a high shale fraction of up to

50%. The Zeepard formation underlies the Birdrong

formation and forms the primary reservoir. In contrast

to the latter, the Zeepatd formation is a high quality

formation, having good porosity and permeability,

consisting of massive, clean sands with aminimal shale

fraction, ranging from 0.05 to 0.15, and minor volumes

of potassium feldspar and pyrite. Occasional carbona-

ceous streaks have also been detected. Porosity is in the

range of 0.ll-.0.24 exceed a

darcy. The HU maPP ation is in

many tù/ays similar ¡ Corallina

and is not presented here. Overlying the Birdrong

formation is the actual Mardie Greensand, which tends

to be a non-net interval over most of the region and

forms the seal, together with the thick Muderong shale'

p. BehrenbrLtch, S. Biniwale / Journal of Petrolerm Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175 196

150 2000

193

Mafdle Gfeensand

ZeepaardFormatlon

6. Discussion of results

2625

Depth (mD)

Fig.22. Griffin field: Griffin-2, Birdrong sub-units'

GeologicalZonat¡on

MuderoRg Shale

PctrologryLegend:

1:1.r (M)

2: 1.2 (D,M)

3: 2.r (A)

4i2.2lÀl

5: 2.3 (F2,4)

6: 3.2 (R,K)

7: 3.3 (K)

8: 3.5 (K)

B1

82

B3

84

22 shows both, the geological zonation for the

Gr -2 well, Birdrong formation, and the more

possible but the quality of relationships has deterio-

iated due to greater data scatter, directly attributable to

the greater heterogeneity over a relatively small

interval.

A model for a general HU based classification

scheme has been outlined, for the purpose ofidentifliing the varied characteristics of (Australian)

formations and associated rock types, as demon-

strated by several field examples.

White considerable work remains to establish a

more universal system, results to date are encour-

aging. It is envisaged that the final classification

scheme would be for specific depositional environ-

ments, for example distributary channels, by basin

and Australia-wide. Individual depositional enve-

lopes would be described in terms of envelope

boundaries and statistical distributions, covering the

entire depth range. The HU composition inside each

exhibit distributions with greater variance (equal to

rock variability), hence uncefiainty for prediction

purposes.To accomplish the planned task, many other fields

have been examined or are under study, including

onshore fields. Apart from further defining the above-

mentioned scheme, related aspects, for example the

influence of rock compressibility in defining HUs, is

also being investigated, see Biniwale and Behren-

bruch (2004).

7. Conclusions

A generalised methodology for analysing flow

zone units has been presented, validated for Australian

data. However, the proposed model may be used to

systematically classiff clastic formations, for a field, a

basin, and is universally applicable:

(1) Hydraulic Units, as defined by the logarithmic

form of the Carman-Kozeny equation, present a

convenient way to characterise the variabiliry ofrocks.

ot!Eol¡.ElÉo!t6

PetrologYZonation

1

t94 p. Behrenbrtrch, S. Biniwale / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 47 (2005) 175-196

PorositY GrouP

.150.110.130.120.1.10.t¡0{1.90{l¡0{t.70.1¡.60 {t.50

03

o.r dtr,o{r?9.nrõÊ{59

4'7 =CIox

-1l

-t¡02- Ortffln-2, I .1- Llthofacle3 Oroup, M' Ll$ofacles

c2.r.r(Ð xG2-2.llAl ¡G2-2.2(A) oG2-23lF2Al -G2{2(R,K!':Gl't2(D,Mf ¡G2'!3lK) oO2{slKl

Fig.23. Griffin held: Griffin-2, hydraulic zonation of Birdrong formation.

(2) The concept of a characteristic "depositional

envelope" has been defined, a classification

system which allows the unique definition ofspecific geologic depositional environments'

Pore structure properties, as a function of detailed

depositional conditions and diagenesis, are then

defined within limits inside each envelope.

(3) The envelope methodology may be used in

"reverse modelling", where porosity, permeabil-

ity and related properties may be predicted for

an assumed depositional environment and

related geological conditions, for example for-

mation dePth or the amount of claY.

Acknowledgements

We wish to gratefully acknowledge the support ofour sponsors: BHP Billiton, ChevronTexaco, Santos

and Woodside Energy, for their financial support, the

field data and their permission to publish the analysis

results presented. The authors would also like to thank

Vanessa-Ngoc Pham for her assistance in preparing

the manuscriPt.

(r)

Dividing both sides of the above equation by the

effective porosity and taking roots: Ë:permeabiliry

¡tmz; þ.:effective porosity, fractional bulk volume;

F" : shape factor (2 for a circular cylinder); t : tortuos-

tortuosity; .Sru :surface area per unit grain volume,

pm-I.

o: (,+Í("ä)

.FL: ó' I :' I! ó" - (l - d") \.'/4'sr' /

Appendix A

(2)

Converting permeability, Æ, from micrometer

squared to millidarcies:

)

Flne gralncd ol clny m¡lrùOpcn grtln F¡m.worllVêry llnâÍnG gr.in?d, lemlnàl.dF¡nrfied¡um Ír¡inodM.dium gr¡¡ncdtled¡um{o¡r* gralned

Flncfladlum gr¡ln6dSllllon., v.rY llnG{lnt gralnÊd

sidGritc noduloc concrotion¡

f 1.21O,

2.2(At-_,.¡.àixi

Lithofacies Groug1 Pootly rorted, a

a

tpt

a ¡nM)

^lr

I

aI

La

ea3'st I

(R, f(r

rl

a

3 ;z.s 1rz,a¡a

¿.a' ¡(KX1.1 (M))

(2.1 (A))

af

conl¡ln3 coâfÊa gralns, ¡,1

gr¡nuhr ot Pcbblat E

2 wGll $dâd, A

cloân 3ânds BF2c

3 Slllyto mrdlum oð¡nod, K

vrry thlnly lâm¡nâtcd R

or burowQd S

Lithofaciê3

-o

H"."¡ly cd"rilc cem.nl.d

X -¿

0.0314k(md) ó. ( t:-

ó. - (l - 4"¡ lufitSev(3)

p Behrenbrttch, S. Biniwale / Jortrnal of Petroletrm Science and Engíneering a7 Q005) 175-196 l9s

Defining now the following, as in Barr and

Altunbay (1992):

RQI (pm):Reservoir Quality Index:0'0314f¡oa

v --r"þ,:Porosiry Group (pore volume to grain volume

;?îÌJ--,ì ow zoîerndicator: (*r)and substituting these definitions into Eq. (3), .and

taking logarithms:

logRQI : lo16, * logFZI (4)

The reservoir quality index, RQI, and porosity

group, @,, include only readily available parameters

suctras permeability and porosity. FZI, on the other

hand, includes pore throat shape factor, tortuosity and

surface area per grain volume, parameters which are

not usually available. The logarithmic form of the C-

K formulation given in Eq. (4) forms the basis for

establishing HUs for individual facies. While the use

of the hydraulic radius as a correlation parameter is

somewhat analogous to the Leverett J-function

approach in correlating capiltary pressure relation-

ships, the C-K formulation has the advantage ofinctuding surface area, as an additional parameter'

64285, Presented at the Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conf' Exhib',

Brisbane, Australia'

Barr, D.C., Altunbay, M., 1992. Identifring hydraulic units as an aid

to quantiffing depositional envirotrmettts and diagenetic facies'

Geology of Malaysia, Symp' Res. Eval./Form' Damage, Kuala

Lumpuç MalaYsia.

Barr, D.C., Kennaird,4.F., Fowles, J', Marshall, N.G', Cutten, V'L',

2001. Determining reservoir continuity in the Laminaria

formation by integrated geological study. APPEA J'' 415-428'

Behrenbruch, P., 2000. Waterflood residual oil saturation-the

Buffalo field, Timor Sea. SPE 64282, Presented at the Asia

Pacific Oil and Gas Conf. Exhib., Brisbane, Australia'

Biniwale, S., Behrenbruch,P',2004. The mapping of hydraulic flow

zone units and characterisation of Australian geological

depositional environments. SPE 88521, Presented at the Asia

Pacific Oit and Gas Conf. Exhib., Pefth, Australia'

Bradshaw, M.T., Yeates, A.N', Beynon, R.M', Brakel, A'T',

Langford, R.P., Totterdell, J'M., Yeung, M., 1988' Palaeography

evolution of the Northwest Shetf region. In: Purcell, P'G,

Purcell, R.R. (Eds.), The Sedimentary Basins of Western

Australia. Proc. WA Basin Symposium, Per1h, pp' 29 54'

Buryakovskiy, L.4., Djevanshir, R.D., Chilingarian, G'V'' l99l'Mathematical simulation of sediment compaction' J' Pet' Sci'

Eng. 5, 151 l6l.Carman, P.C., 1938. Fluid flow through granular beds' J' Soc'

Chem. Ind.57,225.Chilingarian, G.V., Chang, J., Bagrintseva, K.I , 1990' Empirical

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Sci. Eng. 5,317-322.Civan, F., 2003. Leaþ-tube permeability model for identification,

characterisation and calibration of reservoir flow units' SPE

84603, Presented at the Annu. Tech. Conf' Exhib', Denver,

Colo.Dias, 4., Jing, X.D., 1996. Permeability estimation from porosity

and pore size distribution: comparative case studies from fwo

North Sea fields. Advances in Petrophysics: 5 Years of Dialog,

pp. 84-87.Ebanks, V/.J., 1987. Geology in enhanced oil recovery' In: Tillman,

R.W., Weber, K.J. (Eds'), Reservoir Sedimentology, SEPM

Spec. Pub., vol.40, PP. 1-40'Jenkins, C.C., Maughan, D.M., Acton, J.H', Duckett, A', Kom'

8.E., Teakle, R.P., 2003. The Jansz gas field, Camawon basitr,

Australia. APPEA 1.,303 324.

Kom, 8.E., Teakle, R.P., Maughan, D'M., SifÏleet, P'B'' 2003' The

Geryon, Oftheus, Maenad and Urania gas frelds, Camanvon

basin, Westem Australia. APPEA J., 285-301'

Kozeny, J., 1927 . Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math'-Naturwiss'

KL136,271.Mclntyre, C.L., Stickland, P.J., 1998. Sequence stratigraphy and

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Amaefule, J.O., Kersey, D.G., Marschall, D'M', Powell, J'D',

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Tech. Conf. Exhib', Houston, Tex.

Amaefule, J.O., Altunbay, M., Tiab, D., Kersey, D'G', Keelan, D K',

I 993. Enhanced reservoir description: using core and log data to

identifu hydraulic (flow) units and predict permeability in

uncored intervals/wells. SPE 26436, Presented at the Annu'

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Barr, D., 2000. Reservoir description of the mid to late Jurassic

Laminaria formation: Laminaria./Corallina area, Timor Sea' SPE

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Ohen, H.4., Ajufo, 4., Manni, F, 1995. A hydraulic (flow) unit

based model for the determination of petrophysical properties

from NMR relaxation measurements. SPE 30626' Presented at

the Annu. Tech. Conf. Exhib., Dallas, Tex'

Perez, H.H., Datta-Gupta, A., Mishra, S., 2003' The role of

electrofacies, lithofacies, and hydraulic flow units in perme-

ability predictions from well logs: a comparative analysis using

classiftcation trees. SPE 84301, Presented at the Annu' Tech'

Conf. Exib., Denver, Colo.

Porras, J.C., Barbato, R', Khazen, L., 1999. Reservoir flow units: a

comparison between three different models in the Santa Barbara

and Pirital fields, North Monagas area, Eastem Venezuela basin'

SPE 53671, Presented at Latin America Caribbean Pet' Eng'

Conf., Caracas, Venezuela.

Prasad, M., 2002. Velocity-permeability relations within hydraulic

units. Annu. International Meeting of Soc. Expl' Geop',

Stanford, Catif., PP. 108 117.

Shang, 8.2., Hamman, J'G., Chen, H.L., Caldwetl, D'H" 2003' A

-od"l to correlate permeability with efficient porosity and

ineducible water. SPE 84303, Presented at the Annu' Tech'

Conf. Exhib., Denver, Colorado.

Svirsky, D., Ryazano¿ 4., Pankov' M., EB Y', Corbelt, P''

Posysoev, A, 2004. Hydraulic flow units rcsolve reservoir

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Presented at the SPE Asia Pacific Conf' On Inte' Mod' For Asset

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HJ,draulic Flott,Zone IJnít ChuructerisuÍiott untl rlluppittg.l'or Áustrulfun Gcologicul Depos it íonnl E tt viro tt u cnls

CHAPTER 5

THEMAPPINGOFHYDRAULICFLO\ilZONEUNITSANDCHARACTERISATION OF AUSTRALIAN GEOLOGICAL DEPOSITIONAL

ENVIRONMENTS

Biniwale, S. and Behrenbruch, P.

Australian School of Petroleum,

The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA' 5005 Australia'

Society of Petroleum Engineers 2004; SPE: 88521

fl¡'lrnu,rrt Iìlt¡¡v Zt¡ttc Llttìt Clttructcrisulitttt att¿ 14(PPing.fbr ''lustruliurt Geologiutl Dcposil io ttu I EL r¡ n ) tt,t, ttt, I s

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

THE MAPPING OF HYDRAULIC FLOW ZONE UNITS AND

CHARACTERISATION OF AUSTRALIAN GEOLOGICAL DEPOSITIONAL

ENVIRONMENTS

Socíety of Petroleum Engíneers 2004; SPE: 88521

Biniwale, S. (Candidate)

Performed analysis on all , interpreted data and wrote manuscript.

Signed Date

Behrenbruch' P.

Supervised of work, helped in data interpretation and manuscript evaluation'

Signed Date

Biniwale, S., & Behrenbruch, P. (2004, October). The Mapping of Hydraulic

Flow Zone Units and Characterisation of Australian Geological Depositional

Environments. Paper presented at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas

Conference and Exhibition, Perth, Australia.

NOTE:

This publication is included in the print copy

of the thesis held in the University of Adelaide Library.

It is also available online to authorised users at:

https://doi.org/10.2118/88521-MS

fl¡tr¡¡nu¡¡, FIttn Z¿ne [.Jnit Churucterisolìott unl Ùln¡spirtg,for zlttslrulitttt Gaologicul DeposìÍío nu I E tt vi rott ut cttls

CHAPTER 6

AN IMPROVED APPROACH FOR MODELING GEOLOGICALDEPOSITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FLUID SATURATION BY USING

HYDRAULICUNITS:AUSTRALIANOFFSHOREFIELDS

Biniwale, S. and Behrenbruch, P.

Australian School of Petroleum,

The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA. 5005 Australia'

society of Petrophysicists and well Log Analysts; 2005: submitted manuscript

p¡,lrnulic Floty Zole Llnit ChuructerisuÍi¿tt and i4uppirtg,fitr Austrulitrtt Geologicul Depositittnul Ettvìrontttettts

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

AN IMPROVED APPROACH FOR MODELING GEOLOGICALDEPOSITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FLUID SATURATION BY USING

HYDRAULIC UNITS: AUSTRALIAN OFFSHORE FIELDS

Socíety of Petrophysicrsls and Well Log Analysts; 2005: submìtted manuscr¡pt

Biniwale, S. (Candidate)

performed analysis on all the samples, interpreted data and wrote manuscript

Sígned

Behrenbruch' P.

Supervised of work, helped in data interpretation and manuscript evaluation.

Signed ...Date..

Biniwale, S., & Behrenbruch, P. (2005, June). An improved approach for

modeling geological depositional characteristics and fluid saturation by

using hydraulic units: Australian offshore fields. Paper presented at the

SPWLA 46th Annual Logging Symposium, New Orleans, Louisiana.

NOTE:

This publication is included in the print copy

of the thesis held in the University of Adelaide Library.

HJ,lruttlic Flott,Zutte IJttil Churactcrisutiott uttd tlluppittg for AusÍruliutt Geologicul Deposilíonul Ettvirott nt ents

CHAPTER 7

AN INTEGRATED METHOD FOR MODELING FLUID SATURATION

PROFILES AND CHARACTERISING GEOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTS USING

A MODIFIED FZI APPROACH: AUSTRALIAN FIELDS CASE STUDY

Biniwale, S. and Beluenbruch, P.

Australian School of Petroleum,

The University of Adelaide, Adelaide' SA. 5005 Australia

Society of Petroleum Engineers 2005; SPE International Student Paper Contest

Il¡,r¡ruu,,, Itlpu,Zone Llnit Churucl¿risuliott uttl iVlupping litr ¡lusÍrulitttt Geologicul Depositio ttul Ett vi ro n tn enls

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

AN INTEGRATED METHOD FOR MODELING FLUID SATURATION

PROFILES AND CHARACTERISING GEOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTS USING

A MODIFIED FZI APPROACH: AUSTRALIAN FIELDS CASE STUDY

Society of petroleum Engineers 2005; SPE Internatíonal Student Papet Contest

Biniwale, S. (Candidate)

Performed analysis on all samples, interpreted data and wrote manuscript'

Signed

Biniwale, S. (2005, October). An integrated method for modeling fluid

saturation profiles and characterising geological environments using a

modified FZI approach: Australian fields case study. Paper presented as part

of the student paper contest associated with the Annual Technical Conference

and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas.

NOTE:

This publication is included in the print copy

of the thesis held in the University of Adelaide Library.

It is also available online to authorised users at:

https://doi.org/10.2118/99285-STU