Volumes, Types, and Distribution of Clay Minerals in Reservoir Rocks Based on Well Logs

Abstract

Abstract Reliable evaluation of hydrocarbon resources encountered in shaly clastic reservoirs of low porosity and low permeability is an important although difficult task. Log-derived estimates of the volume, type and distribution modes of various clay minerals, determination of cation exchange capacity (CEC) and Qv (CEC per unit of total pore volume), and properly selected water saturation calculation models assist formation evaluation. Since shaly clastic reservoir rocks require extensive core sampling for CEC and Qv analysis, which is tedious, time consuming, and expensive, attempts have been made to correlate such CEC and Qv data with one specific or a combination of several well logging measurements. The latter include the spontaneous potential, gamma ray, natural gamma ray spectral data, dielectric constant and acoustic-, density-and/or neutron-derived porosity, etc. Constraints associated with these concepts will be reviewed. Discussed in this paper, is an innovative digital shaly sand evaluation approach (CLASS), which provides information on total and effective reservoir porosity, total and effective fluid distribution based on the Waxman-Smits equation, reservoir productivity, silt volume, and volumes, types and distribution modes of clay minerals present in subsurface formations.