Assignment 1

A thin (2D) aquifer is tilted relative to the horizontal plane with angles
 x  43o ;  y  28o where x, y are orthogonal directions spanning the plane. These
directions are assumed to be the principal permeability directions. The permeability in the
x-direction is 0.30D and the permeability in the y-direction is 0.45D. The pressure
gradient in the x, y coordinate systems at a given point is [p / x, p / y ]  [0.20, 0.30] .
bar/m. The water viscosity is 0.96cp.

a) Determine the flux vector u in the x,y coordinate system.
b) Determine the angle the flux vector is making with the x and y axes.

c) Find the angle between p and u .
d) What is the condition for having these two vectors to be parallel, assuming gravity is
negligible?
e) It is later found that x and y directions are not the principal permeability directions,
although the angles  x ,  y and the given permeabilities in these directions are correct.
Therefore, an additional permeability K xy  0.12 D is determined. Determine the flux
vector in this case.

y
horizontal plane

x

II.

Two formulas are commonly used to calculate rock porosity, given that the bulk volume
does not change upon change in pore pressure:

1
 0
  0 [1  c p ( p  p0 )] ;  
1  c p ( p  p0 )
The reference porosity is 0  18% at a reference pressure p0  210bar and the pore
compressibility is 0.910-8 Pa-1.
a) Plot both formulas as a function of pressure p over the range 180 bar – 240 bar.
b) Calculate the maximum value of c p p over this range and explain why both
formulas are accurate using Taylor expansion.
1 1
c) Hint: e x  1  x  x 2  ... ; e  x  1  x  x 2  ...
2 2
d) The bulk volume of a carbonate rock is reduced by 0.1% when the pore pressure
drops 1.0 bar. At the same time, the porosity drops 0.3% upon the same change in
1 V p
pressure. Determine the pore compressibility defined by c p  where V p is
V p p
the pore volume.
e) The real gas law is pV  ZnR0T . Determine the compressibility of an ideal gas
f) Using the Standing-Katz chart on page 83, determine when the formula for
compressibility of ideal gases also can be used for real gases.

III.

The figure 1 below shows the cross section of an oil reservoir. The base line on the plot is
the water – oil contact (WOC). The areal cross section at any distance h (m) above the
WOC is circular. The reservoir has no gas cap. The porosity of the rock is increasing
upwards according to the formula

 (h)  0.18(1.00  0.0056h)

The water saturation as a function of h is

S w (h)  2.36 104 h 2  0.0283h  1.000

The Net-to-gross ration is constant and equal to 0.90, the oil formation volume factor is
1.46 and the solution gas oil ratio is 185 Sm3/Sm3.

a) Determine the STOIIP

b) Determine the STGIIP
c) The production profile for this field is shown in figure 2 below. Calculate the
NPV of the field at production start using an effective interest rate at 6.5 % per
year.
d) Determine the field recovery factor

2
Fig. 1

Fig. 2