Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Heterogeneity analysis of reservoir porosity and permeability in the Late Ordovician glacio-fluvial Sarah Formation paleovalleys, central Saudi Arabia

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Arabian Journal of Geosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Late Ordovician glacio-fluvial Sarah Formation is an important tight gas reservoir target in Saudi Arabia. This study uses statistical methods to characterize the petrophysical heterogeneity of the paleovalleys of the Sarah Formation that crop out in central Saudi Arabia. Four paleovalleys were studied: Bukayriyah, Hanadir, Sarah, and Khanasir Sarah. Several lithofacies were identified in each that vary in texture, porosity, permeability, and facies abundance that reflect periods of ice advance and retreat. The heterogeneity analysis is based on three statistical measures, namely, the coefficient of variation, the Dykstra-Parsons coefficient, and the Lorenz coefficient. The coefficient of variation values is in the 0.62–1.94 range, indicating an extremely heterogeneous distribution. The Dykstra-Parsons coefficient values are in the 0.56–0.88 range, suggesting very high to extremely high heterogeneity in the reservoirs. The Lorenz coefficient correlates well with the Dykstra-Parsons coefficient for paleovalleys of the Sarah Formation. The heterogeneity parameters studied here indicate that the outcrops of Sarah Formation paleovalleys represent heterogeneous to very heterogeneous reservoirs, which may be attributed to complex depositional and diagenetic variations that have affected the porosity and permeability distribution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdulkadir IT, Sahin A, Abdullatif OM (2010) Distribution of petrophysical parameters in the Cambro-Ordovician Dibsiyah member of the Wajid sandstone, SW Saudi Arabia. J Pet Geol 33:269–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abdullatif OM (2011) Facies, depositional environment and sandstone composition of the Late Ordovician glacio-fluvio Sanamah Member, Wajid Formation, South West Saudi Arabia. Paper presented at the EGU General Assembly 2011, Vienna, Austria, 03–08 April 2011

  • Abdullatif O, El-Deek I, Abdulrazaq A, Osman M, Bashiri M (2013) Sedimentary facies and architecture of the outcropping Late Ordovician glacial paleovalley of north and south western Saudi Arabia. Paper presented at the 30th IAS Meeting of Sedimentology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2–5 September 2013

  • Abdullatif O, Makkawi M (2010) Virtual outcrop models: case study from the Paleozoic sandstone reservoir and aquifer analogs, Saudi Arabia. In: 72nd EAGE Conference and Exhibition-Workshops and Fieldtrips

  • Adams EW, Grélaud C, Pal M, Csoma AÉ, Al Ja'aidi OS, Al Hinai R (2011) Improving reservoir models of cretaceous carbonates with digital outcrop modeling (Jabal Madmar, Oman): static modeling and simulating clinoforms. Pet Geosci 17:309–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed T (2010) Chapter 4–Fundamentals of Rock Properties. In: Reservoir Engineering Handbook. Gulf Professional Publishing, pp 189–287

  • Al-ajmi MF, El-Daoushy A, Ashkanani F, Saleh I, Pathak A, Hamadi H (2011) Innovative Pattern Balancing and Waterflood Optimization of a Super Giant Carbonate Mauddud Reservoir, Raudhatain Field, North Kuwait. In: SPE Digital Energy Conference and Exhibition. Society of Petroleum Engineers

  • Ali SA, Clark WJ, Moore WR, Dribus JR (2010) Diagenesis and reservoir quality. Oilfield Review 22:14–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Mahmoud MJ Al-Ghamdi I (2010) An Overview of Tight Gas Reservoirs in Saudi Arabia. In: Second EAGE Middle East Tight Gas Reservoirs Workshop

  • Al-Zayer A, Mesdour R, Al-Faleh K, Basri M, Utaibi A (2013) Practical Well Testing Analysis Considerations in Heterogeneous Sandstone. In: SPE Saudi Arabia Section Technical Symposium and Exhibition. Society of Petroleum Engineers

  • Boggs S (2006) Principles of sedimentology and stratigraphy, 4th edn. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

  • Briner A, Hulver M, Azzouni A Harvey C (2010) Regional Reservoir Quality of a Tight Gas Play: the Ordovician Sarah Formation in the Rub'Al Khali Basin of Southern Saudi Arabia. In: Second EAGE Middle East Tight Gas Reservoirs Workshop

  • Clark-Lowes DD (2005) Arabian glacial deposits: recognition of palaeovalleys within the Upper Ordovician Sarah Formation, Al Qasim district, Saudi Arabia. Proc Geol Assoc 116:331–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dykstra H, Parsons R (1950) The prediction of oil recovery by waterflood. In: Secondary recovery of oil in the United States, vol 2. American Petroleum Institute. Division of Production, New York, pp 160–174

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Deek I, Abdullatif O (2013) Characterization of reservoir quality from the outcrop analog for the Palaeozoic Sarah Formation glacial and fluvial reservoirs, Qaseem area, Saudi Arabia. Paper presented at the KFUPM Graduate Research Day 2013, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Feb 03–04, 2013

  • El-Deek I, Abdullatif O, Al-Ramadan K, Korvin G (2013) Reservoir heterogeneity and quality of the Late Ordovician Sarah Formation: outcrop analog for tight gas sandstone, Saudi Arabia. Paper presented at the 10th Meeting of the Saudi Society for Geosciences (Geosciences for Sustainable Development), King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, April 15–17, 2013

  • El-Deek I, Abdullatif O, Korvin G, Al-Ramadan K (2014a) Diagenesis and reservoir heterogeneity of the Sarah Formation tight gas sandstones in central Saudi Arabia: a petrographical approach. Paper presented at the 2014 LIPE & AAPG Northern Arabia Geoscience Conference and Exhibition, Beirut, Lebanon, 27–29 May 2014

  • El-Deek I, Abdullatif O, Korvin G Al-Ramadan K (2014b) Inetegration of Sedimentology, Petrophysics and Statistics for Characterizing the Reservoir Heterogeneity of the Late Ordovician Sarah Formation, Central Saudi Arabia. In: EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Vienna, Austria

  • Evans D, Lathon R, Senalp M, Connally T (1991) Stratigraphy of the Wajid Sandstone of Southwestern Saudi Arabi. In: Middle East Oil Show. Society of Petroleum Engineers

  • Fitch P, Davies S, Lovell M, Pritchard T (2013) Reservoir quality and reservoir heterogeneity: petrophysical application of the Lorenz coefficient. Petrophysics 54:465–474

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitch PJ, Lovell MA, Davies SJ, Pritchard T, Harvey PK (2015) An integrated and quantitative approach to petrophysical heterogeneity. Mar Pet Geol 63:82–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gier S (2000) Clay mineral and organic diagenesis of the Lower Oligocene Schöneck Fishshale, western Austrian Molasse Basin. Clay Miner 35:709–717

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grammer GM, Harris PM, Eberli GP (2004) Integration of outcrop and modern analogs in reservoir modeling: overview with examples from the Bahamas. AAPG Mem 80:1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Higley DK, Pantea MP, Slatt RM (1997) 3-D reservoir characeterization of the House Creek oil field, Powder River basin, Wyoming. Data series no. 33, V1.00. edn. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston

  • Jennings J Jr, Ward W (2000) Geostatistical analysis of permeability data and modeling of fluid-flow effects in carbonate outcrops. SPE Reserv Eval Eng 3(04):292–303

  • Jensen JL (2000) Statistics for petroleum engineers and geoscientists, 2nd edn. Elsevier, Amesterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Kassab MA, Teama MA, Cheadle BA, El-Din ES, Mohamed IF, Mesbah MA (2015) Reservoir characterization of the Lower Abu Madi Formation using core analysis data: El-Wastani gas field, Egypt. J Afr Earth Sci 110:116–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ketzer JM, Morad S, Evans R, Al-Aasm I (2002) Distribution of diagenetic alterations in fluvial, deltaic, and shallow marine sandstones within a sequence stratigraphic framework: evidence from the Mullaghmore Formation (Carboniferous), NW Ireland. J Sediment Res 72:760–774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khalil MH (2012) Reservoir Sweet Spots in the Arabian Petroleum Basin; Types and Controls. In: GEO, 2e012

  • Konert G, Afifi AM, Al-Hajri S, De Groot K, Al Naim A, Droste H (2001) AAPG Memoir 74, Chapter 24: Paleozoic stratigraphy and hydrocarbon habitat of the Arabian Plate 483–515

  • Lake L, Jensen J (1991) A review of heterogeneity measures used in reservoir characterization. In Situ 15(4):409–440

  • Lorenz MO (1905) Methods of measuring the concentration of wealth. Publ Am Stat Assoc 9:209–219

    Google Scholar 

  • McClure H (1978) Early Paleozoic glaciation in Arabia. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 25:315–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGillivray J, Husseini M (1992) The Paleozoic petroleum geology of central Arabia (1). AAPG Bull 76:1473–1490

    Google Scholar 

  • Miall AD (1996) The geology of fluvial deposits: sedimentary facies, basin analysis, and petroleum geology. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Milliken KL (2001) Diagenetic heterogeneity in sandstone at the outcrop scale, Breathitt Formation (Pennsylvanian), eastern Kentucky. AAPG Bull 85:0795–0816

    Google Scholar 

  • Morad S, Al-Ramadan K, Ketzer JM, De Ros L (2010) The impact of diagenesis on the heterogeneity of sandstone reservoirs: a review of the role of depositional facies and sequence stratigraphy. AAPG Bull 94:1267–1309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morton-Thompson D, Woods AM (1993) Development geology reference manual: AAPG methods in exploration series, no. 10. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa

  • Moscariello A, Spaak P, Jourdan A, Azzouni A-H (2009) The Ordovician glaciation in Saudi Arabia - exploration challenges Part 1: Geology (outcrop, subsurface, analogues). Search and Discovery Article #50175, adapted from oral presentation at AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa, October 26–29, 2008 http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/pdfz/documents/2009/50175moscariello/presentation.pdf.html

  • North CP, Prosser DJ (1993) Characterization of fluvial and aeolian reservoirs: problems and approaches. Geol Soc Lond Spec Publ 73:1–6. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1993.073.01.01

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters EJ (2012) Advanced petrophysics: geology, porosity, absolute permeability, heterogeneity, and geostatistics, vol 1. Live Oak Book Company, Austin

    Google Scholar 

  • Pranter MJ, Reza ZA, Budd DA (2006) Reservoir-scale characterization and multiphase fluid-flow modeling of lateral petrophysical heterogeneity within dolomite facies of the Madison Formation, Sheep Canyon and Lysite Mountain, Wyoming, USA. Pet Geosci 12:29–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Razzaq W, Abdullatif O, Sahin A Hariri M (2014) Sedimentological and Petrophysical Heterogeneity of Glaciogenic Paleovalley, Late Ordovician Sarah Formation, Central Saudi Arabia. In: EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Vienna, Austria

  • Sahin A, Saner S (2001) Statistical distributions and correlations of petrophysical parameters in the Arab-D reservoir, Abqaiq oilfield, eastern Saudi Arabia. J Pet Geol 24:101–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahoo H, Gani MR, Hampson GJ, Gani ND, Ranson A (2016) Facies-to sandbody-scale heterogeneity in a tight-gas fluvial reservoir analog: Blackhawk Formation, Wasatch Plateau, Utah, USA. Mar Pet Geol. doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2016.02.005

  • Schmalz J, Rahme H (1950) The variation of waterflood performance with variation in permeability profile. Producers Mon 15:9–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Selley RC (1998) Elements of petroleum geology. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Senalp M, Al-Laboun A (2000) New evidence on the Late Ordovician glaciation in central Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco J Technol 11–40

  • Sun S, Shu L, Zeng Y, Cao J, Feng Z (2007) Porosity–permeability and textural heterogeneity of reservoir sandstones from the Lower Cretaceous Putaohua member of Yaojia Formation, Weixing oilfield, Songliao Basin, Northeast China. Mar Pet Geol 24:109–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Surdam RC, Crossey LJ, Hagen ES, Heasler HP (1989) Organic-inorganic interactions and sandstone diagenesis. AAPG Bull 73:1–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Thurmond JB, Drzewiecki PA, Xu X (2005) Building simple multiscale visualizations of outcrop geology using virtual reality modeling language (VRML). Comput Geosci 31(7):913–919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiab D, Donaldson EC (2004) Petrophysics: theory and practice of measuring reservoir rock and fluid transport properties, 2nd edn. Elsevier, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Tye RS (2004) Geomorphology: an approach to determining subsurface reservoir dimensions. AAPG Bull 88(8):1123–1147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaslet D (1987) Early Paleozoic glacial deposits in Saudi Arabia, a lithostratigraphic revision: technical record BRGM-TR-07, vol 1. Deputy Ministry for Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaslet D (1989) Late Ordovician glacial deposits in Saudi Arabia: a lithostratigraphic revision of the Early Paleozoic succession. Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Deputy Ministry for Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaslet D (1990) Upper Ordovician glacial deposits in Saudi-Arabia. Episodes 13:147–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson MD (ed) (1994) Reservoir quality assessment and prediction in clastic rocks. SEPM Publications, U.S.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Geosciences Department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) for their support and assistance. Finally, we thank Dr. Khalid Al-Ramadan, Geosciences Department at KFUPM, for his comments on this work.

Funding Source

We also acknowledge the funding support and help provided by the Deanship of Scientific Research for Project RCRG 1114 under the “Reservoir Characterization Research Group” at the Geosciences Department, KFUPM.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geosciences Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Islam El-Deek, Osman Abdullatif & Gabor Korvin

  2. Reservoir Characterization Research Group, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Osman Abdullatif & Gabor Korvin

Authors
  1. Islam El-Deek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Osman Abdullatif
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gabor Korvin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Islam El-Deek.

Appendices

Appendix 1 Calculations of the Dykstra-Parsons coefficient

Table 4 Frequency distribution for the permeability measurements in Bukayriyah paleovalley
Full size table
Table 5 Frequency distribution for the permeability measurements in Hanadir paleovalley
Full size table
Table 6 Frequency distribution for the permeability measurements in Sarah paleovalley
Full size table
Table 7 Frequency distribution for the permeability measurements in Khanasir Sarah paleovalley
Full size table

Appendix 2 Calculations of the Lorenz Coefficient

Table 8 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Bukayriyah paleovalley
Full size table
Table 9 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Bukayriyah paleovalley (continued)
Full size table
Table 10 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Hanadir paleovalley
Full size table
Table 11 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Hanadir paleovalley (continued)
Full size table
Table 12 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Hanadir paleovalley (Contd.)
Full size table
Table 13 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Hanadir paleovalley (Contd.)
Full size table
Table 14 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Sarah paleovalley
Full size table
Table 15 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Sarah paleovalley (continued)
Full size table
Table 16 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Sarah paleovalley (continued)
Full size table
Table 17 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Sarah paleovalley (continued)
Full size table
Table 18 Calculation of Lorenz coefficient for porosity and permeability measurements from Khanasir Sarah paleovalley
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

El-Deek, I., Abdullatif, O. & Korvin, G. Heterogeneity analysis of reservoir porosity and permeability in the Late Ordovician glacio-fluvial Sarah Formation paleovalleys, central Saudi Arabia. Arab J Geosci 10, 400 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3146-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3146-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation