Reservoir Heterogeneity

2015

Heterogeneity and
Anisotropy

Homogeneous
Properties same at
every point
Heterogeneous
Properties different at
every point
Isotropic
Properties same in
every direction
Anisotropic
Properties different in
different directions

Often results from

stratification during
sedimentation
K horizontal K vertical
www.usgs.gov

Homogeniety means single constant

value independent of space

Reservoir Heterogeneity
Lateral

2 , k2
1 , k1

3 , k3

4 , k4

1 , k1

Vertical (Layer)

2 , k2
3 , k3
4 , k4
5 , k5

5 , k5

Flow Unit Geometry and Heterogeneity

Thickness, lateral extent and geometry are deduced from
heterogeneity and outcrop studies
Statistical correlations relate lateral dimensions to thickness

Reservoir Heterogenity Type

SWO

Mato
a

Klalin

Kasi
m

Satyana (2003,
2007)

Microfacies of Kais Carbonate

Reservoirs

Walio

Heterogeneity as a Function of Scale

Vertical Heterogeneity Seismic Scale

Vertical Heterogeneity Log Scale

Vertical Heterogeneity Core Scale

A - Typical upper unit of

the Navajo Sandstone,
from the Federal No. 17-3
well (slabbed core from
6669 feet), Covenant
field, showing crossbedding in fine-grained
sandstone deposited in a
dune environment.

B - Representative photomicrograph (plane

light) from the lower unit of the Navajo
Sandstone showing bimodal distribution of
subangular to subrounded quartz sand and
silt. Note a few fractured and corroded Kfeldspar grains are present. Blue space is
intergranular porosity. Federal No. 17-3 well,
6773 feet, porosity = 14.8 percent,
permeability = 149 millidarcies based on
core-plug analysis.

Vertical Heterogeneity Ct Scan Scale

Limestone's CT data: example of one 2D slice (a) and its corresponded profile
(b) and 3D model (c), for limestone 1 (I), limestone 2 (II) and limestone 3 (II).

Lateral Heterogeneity

Compartmentalization within the Mississippian

dolomite reservoir was due to reservoir
heterogeneity, karst processes, and actual structure

Capillary pressure and heterogeneity

Impact of Sandstone Heterogeneity on

Permeability & Sw Distribution

Impact of Heterogeneity on Steamflood Response

STATISTICS

Statistics: A set of tools for collecting, organizing, presenting and analyzing

numerical facts or observations.

1. Descriptive Statistics: Procedures used to organize and present data in a

convenient, useable and communicable form.
2. Inferential Statistics: procedures employed to arrive at broader generalizations or
inferences from sample data to populations.

Data: Characteristics or numbers that are collected by observation.

Population: A complete set of potential observations.
Parameter: A number describing a population characteristic; typically inferred from
sample statistic.
Sample: A subset of population selected according to some scheme.
Random Sample: A subset selected in such a way that each member of the
population has equal opportunity to be selected.
Variable: A phenomenon that may take different values.

STATISTICS
Measures of Central Tendency
- Mean: The point in a distribution of measurements about which the summed
deviations are zero

x
i 1

1 n
x xi
n i 1

(Population Mean)

(Sample Mean)

-Weighted Mean: Sum of a set of observations multiplied by their respective weights,

divided by the sum of the weights
G

w x
i 1
G

w
i 1

-Median: Observation in a set that divides the set so that the same number of
observations lie on each side of it.
- Mode: Observation that occurs with the greatest frequency

STATISTICS
Measures of Dispersion
- Sum of squares: deviations from the mean, squared and summed
SS

(x

x )2

- Variance: The average of square differences between observations and their mean

1
N

(x
i 1

1 n
s ( xi x ) 2
(Sample Variance)
n i 1
2

) 2 (Population Variance)

- Standard Deviation: Square root of the variance

1
N

(x
i 1

- Covariance: For a bivariated distribution

)2
1
Co
N

(x
i 1

x ) * ( yi y )

STATISTICS
Probability
Probability of occurrence of event A
p(A) = # of outcomes of the event A / #total outcomes

Type of Events:
1. Exhaustive: two or more events are said to be exhaustive if all possible outcomes
are considered. p (A y B) = 1
2. Mutually exclusive: Events that cannot occur simultaneously.
p (A y B) = 0, p (A o B ) = p(A) + p(B)
3. Non mutually exclusive: Events that can occur simultaneously.
p (A o B ) = p(A) + p(B) p(A y B)
4. Independent: Events whose probability is unaffected by occurrence or
non occurrence of each other
5. Dependent: Events whose probability changes depending upon the occurrence
of each other

STATISTICS
Histogram
Is an easy way to analyze the data. In this example the sample is divided in classes,
where a class is defined as a range of values. The number of measures that fall in
a class is called Class Frequency and the graph is called Histogram. The addition of
frequencies represents the cumulative frequency.
Class

Frequenc
y

% Cumulative

0.015

0.01

0.030

0.05

0.045

13

0.14

0.060

20

0.28

0.075

11

0.35

0.090

0.38

0.105

0.42

0.120

16

0.53

0.135

12

0.62

0.150

22

0.77

0.165

19

0.90

0.180

0.97

And
greate
r...

1.00

STATISTICS
Cumulative Frequency Distribution (cdf): Is analogous to cumulative relative
frequency distribution. Is the probability that a value of a random variable is less or
equal than a certain value.
F(x) = prob (X<x)

According with the graph there is about

50% probability that a variable X random
chosen will be less than zero.

STATISTICS
One of the most famous cdf in geology is this figure that shows the distribution of shale
Lengths in various geological environments.

STATISTICS
Probability Density function (pdf):
We consider next the probability distribution (or density) function or pdf, probably the
most familiar way of presenting the distribution of a random variable. This forms the basis
for interpreting f(x) as a probability of a value of x in the neighbourhood of x.
A typical continuous pdf is shown below

Specific Distributions - There are more than 100 probability distribution functions observed
in nature. We deal with only a few of these. When we speak of a frequency or probability
distribution function (a pdf or histogram) the first thing that naturally comes to mind is the
normal distribution in which a variable x is distributed with probability f according to the
normal distribution .

STATISTICS
Probability Density function (pdf) for normal distribution:

The quantities and are the mean and standard deviation of the distribution; this is a
two parameter distribution since it can be completely specified with only and . The
normal distribution is also known as a Gaussian distribution.

STATISTICS
Valores Z para Distribucion Normal
Desv Std
desde el promedio
-3.0
-2.9
-2.8
-2.7
-2.6
-2.5
-2.4
-2.3
-2.2
-2.1
-2.0
-1.9
-1.8
-1.7
-1.6
-1.5
-1.4
-1.3
-1.2
-1.1
-1.0
-0.9
-0.8
-0.7
-0.6
-0.5
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0.0

Probabilidad
Acumulada
0.0014
0.0019
0.0026
0.0035
0.0047
0.0062
0.0082
0.0107
0.0139
0.0179
0.0228
0.0287
0.0359
0.0446
0.0548
0.0668
0.0808
0.0968
0.1151
0.1357
0.1587
0.1841
0.2119
0.2420
0.2743
0.3085
0.3346
0.3821
0.4207
0.5602
0.5000

Desv Std
desde el promedio
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
3.0

Probabilidad
Acumulada
0.5000
0.5398
0.5793
0.6179
0.6554
0.6915
0.7257
0.7580
0.7881
0.8159
0.8413
0.8643
0.8849
0.9032
0.9192
0.0332
0.9452
0.9554
0.9641
0.9713
0.9773
0.9821
0.9861
0.9893
0.9918
0.9938
0.9953
0.9965
0.9974
0.9981
0.9987

F (z )

z
e 2 dz

Z is called a unit normal

variable with mean of zero and
a variance of one.

(x )

STATISTICS
The normal distribution is rather uncommon in nature. For example, while porosity
seems to be reasonably normally distributed, permeability distributes in a manner far
removed from the symmetry demanded by the normal distribution. Permeability
seems to be distributed commonly as log-normal. The following figure shows both
the cdf and pdf for a log-normal distribution

The variable X being characterized cannot be less than zero. There are a few very large
values of X; most of the values are small. Because of this the mode (the most likely
value) is less than the median which is less than the mean.

STATISTICS AND GEOSTATISTICS

Heterogeneity
Dispersion or Variability - Heterogeneity is the spatial variation of properties.
All reservoir properties are heterogeneous, but we focus on flow properties here,
especially permeability.
Heterogeneity measures fall into two categories:
1. Static
Coefficient of variation
Dykstra-Parsons coefficient
Lorenz coefficient
2. Dynamic
Channeling factors
Dispersivities

STATISTICS AND GEOSTATISTICS

Heterogeneity: Coefficient of Variation (CF)

The most direct measure of heterogeneity is the variance and standard deviation
Statistical Measures of Heterogeneity . . .
Coefficient of Variation (CF) = Standard deviation/ Mean
The standard deviation is, of course, the positive square root of the variance.
Both quantities have units but the coefficient of variation, CF, does not.

Layer-Heterogeneity Coefficients
Dykstra-Parsons coefficient VDP:
-- Referred to as permeability variation
-- Determined from a plot of log k versus % Greater than on probability
paper
-- Its value is between 0 and 1.0 with high values indicating
heterogeneity

Lorenz coefficient Lc:

-- Determined from a plot of flow capacity (kh) versus storage

capacity (h)
-- Its value = 2 x Area between curve and 45 line
-- Its value is between 0 and 1.0 with high values indicating
heterogeneity

Kovals factor HK:

-- Utilized as a heterogeneity parameter in calculating viscous fingering
effect
-- Can be approximated as: log(H K) = VDP / (1 VDp)0.2

STATISTICS AND GEOSTATISTICS

Heterogeneity: Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient (VDP)
A common measure of permeability
variation used in the petroleum
industry is the Dykstra-Parsons
coefficient VDP.

The DykstraParsons coefficient is

computed from a set of k data
arranged in increasing or decreasing
value. The values to be used in the
definition are taken from a "best fit"
line through the data when they are
plotted on a logprobability plot.
VDP takes values between 0 and 1.

STATISTICS AND GEOSTATISTICS

Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient

10000
1000

k/Phie

V DP = 0.84

100
10
1
0.1

10

20

30

50

70

Probability, % less than

80

90

95

98

99

Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient
for Layer Heterogeneity
Procedure
Arrange permeability (k) values in descending order
Calculate % Greater than as follows:
% Greater than = 100(2n 1) / 2N
Plot log k versus % Greater than on probability
paper
Draw best-fit line and Read k at 50 and 84.1%
Calculate VDP: VDP = (k50 k84.1) / k50

Example of Determining
Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient

Example of Determining
Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient
1000

100

Percent Greater
Than

Permeability
md
10

84.1%

50%
1

10

20

30 40 50 60 70

80

% Greater Than
VDP = (k50 k84.1) / k50 = (93 - 38) / 93 = 0.59

90

98

The equation for permeability variation V is included below.

Both of the above equations have been implemented into this routine.
The significance of the Log(k) at a probability value of 84.1% is that it is
the equivalent of one standard deviation away from the 50% probability value
assuming a log normal distribution (which permeability distributions often
displays this characteristic).
In 1950, Schmalz and Rahme proposed a single term for characterizing the
permeability distribution within a pay section. Referring to the chart below,
they defined the Lorenz coefficient of heterogeneity as the (area between the
green curve and the red curve) / (area between the red curve and the X axis).
The value of the Lorenz coefficient ranges from 0 to 1, a uniform permeability
reservoir having a Lorenz coefficient of zero. This calculation and display has
also been included within this routine.

Example of Determining
Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient

STATISTICS AND GEOSTATISTICS

Heterogeneity: Lorenz Coefficient (LC)

A less wellknown, but more general

measure of variability is the Lorenz
Coefficient LC. If A is the area under
the FC curve, the Lorenz coefficient
is defined as
LC = 2( Area between FC curve
and 45o line)
Just as does VDP, LC is 0 for
homogeneous reservoirs and 1 for
infinitely heterogeneous reservoirs.

Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient VDP:

Dykstra
and
Parsons
introduced the concept of
the permeability variation
V, which is designed to
describe the degree of
heterogeneity within the
reservoir. Values for this
coefficient range between
zero for a completely
homogeneous system and
one
for
a
completely
heterogeneous system.

To obtain the value of

permeability variation V,
the permeability dataset is
sorted from minimum to
maximum and displayed
on
a
chart
of
log
probability
scale,
as
shown below.

Flow-Storage Capacity Curve

Arrange data in descending order

of (k/)

Calculate: Fc = khup to n / khall

Cc = hup to n / hall

Plot Fc vs Cc
Lorenz coefficient:
Lc = 2AFC
Dykstra-Parsons coefficient:
VDP = (Slope0.5
Slope0.841)/Slope0.5

Example of
Flow-Storage Capacity Curve

Example of
Flow-Storage Capacity Curve
Area under curve =
0.17
Lorenz coefficient
Lc = 0.38
Slope0.5 = 1.15
Slope0.841 = 0.21
Dykstra-Parsons
coefficient
VDP = (1.15
0.21)/1.15
= 0.82

Fc

0.50.

Cc

0.841

Heterogeneity of Various Rocks

Coefficient of variation:
Cv = Standard deviation / Mean value