QUESTION 2 B

Assumptions;

Only sandstone A and sandstone B compacts linearly and simultaneously at the same
rate
Compactions only occur on pore volume i.e. grains does not compact. Thus, under
compaction, grain volume does not change.

Calculation of volumes;
SANDSTONE A
Thickness: Thickness of Sandstone A

Area:

Bulk volume, Vb: Area x Thickness

Pore volume, Vp: Porosity x Bulk volume

(

Grain volume, Vg: Bulk volume Pore Volume

SANDSTONE B
Thickness: Thickness of Sandstone B

Area:

Bulk volume, Vb: Area x Thickness

Pore volume, Vp: Porosity x Bulk volume

Grain volume, Vg: Bulk volume Pore Volume

Compaction trend;
As the compaction is in linear trend, we can estimate the compaction rate on a year to year
basis;
Time (year)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40

Compaction (%)
0
1.25
2.5
3.75
5
6.25
7.5
8.75
10

Table 1: Compaction trend for a 40 years timeline

Compaction - time
Compaction (%)

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0

10

15

20

25

30

Time (year)

Figure 1: Compaction time linear graph

35

40

45

Using the compaction trend, changes in volume can be directly estimated;

Example of calculation;
Section: Sandstone A
Time: 5 years
Compaction: 1.25 %
New bulk volume, Vb(5): (1 Compaction %) x Bulk volume
(

New pore volume, Vp(5): New bulk volume, Vb(5) Grain volume, Vg

New porosity, : (New pore volume, Vp(5)) / (New bulk volume, Vb(5))
Time (year)

5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40

Compaction (%)

New bulk volume,

Vb(i) (km3)

New Pore
New
volume, Vp(i)
porosity,
3
(km )
SS A
SS B
SS A
SS B
SS A SS B
1.25
19.75
29.625
4.25
6.105 0.215 0.206
2.5
19.5
29.25
4
5.73
0.205 0.196
3.75
19.25
28.875
3.75
5.355 0.195 0.185
5
19
28.5
3.5
4.98
0.184 0.175
6.25
18.75
28.125
3.25
4.605 0.173 0.164
7.5
18.5
27.75
3
4.23
0.162 0.152
8.75
18.25
27.375
2.75
3.855 0.151 0.141
10
18
27
2.5
3.48
0.139 0.129
Table 2: Values for volumetric changes in reservoir due to compaction

Calculation of Primary-wave velocity;

Using the Raymer-Hunt-Gardner equation (Mavko et al 1949), porosity and Primary wave,Vp
can be calculated via;
(

The equation should suit the available data as both Sandstone A and B have porosity values
lower than 37%.

Assumptions;

Isotropic rock
Rock is fluid-saturated
The method is empirical
High enough effective pressure to be at terminal velocity

It is known that Vo for sandstone is 5715 m s-1 (Mavko et al 1949).

For brine water in Sandstone B, the P-wave velocity can be calculated using the equation;

Where;

Brine water has a density of 1.029 g cm-3 and Bulk modulus of 2.33 x 1010 dynes cm-2
(Dvorkin 2008). The shear modulus, of any fluid is 0 as fluids are not shearable.
Substituting the values into the equation above gives the V fl of brine water in Sandstone B;

For an oil with API value of 30, its corresponding value of density shall be 0.876 g cm-3. On
the other hand, the bulk modulus of oil, Kfl would be roughly around 1x1010 dynes cm-2 (Chen
at al 1991). Similar to water, oil has a shear modulus of 0.
Again, in order to calculate the P-wave of the oil, substitute these values into the equation.

Once all values of Vo, Vfl and are obtained, the P-wave velocity can be easily calculated.
Refering to the Raymer-Hunt-Gardner equation, all parameters are fixed except for the
porosity value. Thus from the porosity variations calculated in a 5 years interval above, we
can observe the pattern of P-wave velocity change in both Sandstone A and B.

Example of new P-wave calculation;

Section: Sandstone A
Time: 5 years
Porosity: 0.215
Vo: 5715 m s-1
Vfl: 1068 m s-1

(
(

)
)

New P-wave velocity (m s-1)

Time (year)

SS A

SS B

3749.85

3912.40

10

3829.93

3990.04

15

3913.31

4070.92

20

4000.14

4155.23

25

4090.62

4243.16

30

4184.96

4334.90

35

4283.37

4430.68

40

4386.08

4530.72

Table 3: Calculated values for new P-wave velocity with time variation

Vp versus time
5000
4500
4000

Vp (m/s)

3500
3000
2500
2000

Sandstone A

1500

Sandstone B

1000
500
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

Time (year)

Figure 2: Plot of P-wave changes against time

REFERENCES
1. Rock physics handbook
2. Dvorkin (Henris)
3. T Chen, DC Lawton & F Peterson, 1991, Physical parameter estimation for sandstone
reservoirs, CREWES Research Report, 19, 3.