A new model for evaluating water saturation in shaly sand reservoirs using quantitative x-ray diffraction and cation exchange capacity cliff head field, Western Australia

Interpretation problems are commonly associated with calculating water saturation in nonhomogenous shaly sand reservoirs. Redefining petrophysical properties based on well logs in shaly sand reservoirs by using fundamental geologic attributes is an important tool in developing subsurface hydrocarbon resources. Studies of the electrical anisotropy of shaly sands have shown that the level of our understanding and our ability to correctly evaluate low resistivity and low contrast pay can be greatly improved.The model developed in this thesis is similar in form to the shaly sand Dual Water model by Clavier et al. (1984). It is an experiment based model designed to directly assess and quantify the mineralogical and electrical effects of clay minerals in heterogeneous reservoirs. Clay minerals usually have multiple effects on petrophysical properties obtained from geophysical well log measurements. The total expansible clay model evaluates these effects via direct measurement of independent mineralogy and conductivity of clay minerals within reservoir sands.This model integrates the following as an effective basis for characterizing shaly sand reservoirs:• Rietveld based Siroquant assay for quantitative X-ray diffraction, used in determining mineral percentages from standard XRD trace patterns, • Cation exchange capacity, used to determine the quantity of cations involved in the exchange at the shale-water interface,• Porosity, permeability, density and resistivity measurements, • Thin section petrography, used in identifying mineral patterns, visible porosity and reservoir quality.Overall, application of correlations drawn from the model yields improved results for water saturation which appeared consistent with those earlier calculated using known water saturation models (Clavier et al Dual Water model, 1984, Juhasz, 1981). A total of twenty three samples from two wells in the Cliff Head field were analyzed for this study