HOLA14 - 166

Modeling of Pore Throat Radio using Pittman Modified

Equation for Carabobo Area in the Faja Petrolfera del
Orinoco
J. Rivas, H. Busnego, C. Bejarano, (Petroindependencia), R. Meza (ARC Solutions)
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ABSTRACT
The production performance of a reservoir depends on
the interaction of rock and fluid properties, such as
porosity, permeability and viscosity. Irreducible water
saturation (Swi) is an important parameter to describe
these interactions, as for the productivity estimation of
a given reservoir. Knowing the rock pore throat radio
(PTR) it is essential to measure Swi; therefore, it is
highly helpful to determine the pore geometry and its
aperture size. Usually mercury injection technique is the
most common method to generate a PTR profile.
Characterization of the unconsolidated sands of the Faja
Petrolfera del Orinoco (FPO) reservoir is the key to
select its appropriate exploitation plans. Not properly
estimate of Swi has been a common practice in the area,
leading to discarding important pay zones in the
production plans. This paper presents a methodology to
obtain the Pittmans equation a, b, and c constants for
the Carabobo Area of the FPO, aiming to obtain a
representative distribution of type of rocks and a more
reliable curve for Swi, for the study area.
Capillary pressure data from mercury injection and
centrifuge methods of different wells inside Carabobo
Area were analyzed with simple statistics techniques, as
box plots, to finally obtain a representative input range
of data leading to the best suitable equation to represents
changes in PTR.

Different constants sets (a, b, and c) were generated to

adapt Winlands Equation to Carabobo Area conditions.
The results from Pittman Apex Plot were compared to
PTR from each core sample, to obtain the best set of
constant that describe the reservoir properties.
The procedure described above, allows the modeling of
sedimentary facies changes which were difficult to be
characterized by common techniques and the estimation
of the new Swi was closer to values obtained from no
conventional logs, improving reservoir production
potential estimations.
Keywords: Irreducible Water Saturation, Pore Throat
Radio, Faja Petrolfera Del Orinoco, Carabobo Area,
Petrophysical Rock Type, Winlands Equation,
Pittmans Equation.
INTRODUCTION
Petrophysical rock type (PRT) is a classification of
reservoir quality to characterize productive intervals,
and to build development plans. PRT depends on pore
aperture size and pore aperture size distribution. Rock
properties like porosity and permeability are useful to
determine pore throat radio size, using Winland R35
method, which is based on the relationship between
both rock properties and PTR at 35% mercury
saturation in capillary pressure measurements. Despite
the fact that Winland equation works for almost all
sandstone type reservoirs, it is common for some
sandstones to present pore volume interconnected more
or less 35 %, contributing to flow capacity.

The study area is Carabobo Block located in the Faja

Petrolifera del Orinoco. The main reservoirs of the
Carabobo Area, are the unconsolidated sandstones of
the Morichal Members of the Lower Oficina Formation.
These unconsolidated sands are intercalated with shales
and silts, being deposited under the action of fluvial
currents and fluvial deltaic environments. The latest
with a well-developed tides signature. These
sedimentary environments of deposition led to the
formation of complex facies changes in a lateral and
vertical profile; as described for the reservoir of the
Morichal Medio Member, which are not possible to
determine using conventional logs because those
variations are imperceptible to major type of them.
Geological events like bioturbations and dispersed,
laminar shale have high impact in resistivity logs
reading, however, this effect is difficult to see with
gamma ray, density and neutron logs; these readings can
be confused with changes in fluid, increasing water
saturation evaluation and decreasing reservoir potential
forecast. Running an advanced set of petrophysical logs,
as NMR, facies change zones were highlighted and
taken into account for development plans.
Several tests made using Winland and Pittman
equations showed there is a correspondence between
pore size distribution and main facies variation;
however, the observed results indicated it is
recommendable to perform a better way to define the
facies change imperceptible to conventional techniques
described above. For the purpose to represent those
variations just visible to special logs, using
conventional log data, this investigation work attempts
to construct a linear regression correlation based on
Winlands and Pittmans equations.
A total of 36 samples with capillary pressure data were
used from 4 wells inside Carabobo Area to figure out
the best combination of a, b and c coefficients for
Pittman Modified Equation representative of the area
conditions. The linear regression found it improved
results for estimation of PTR as well as for estimations
for irreducible water saturation.
PREVIUOS WORK
Several methods are available to measure capillary
pressure, most known are Porous Plate, Centrifuge and
Mercury Injection methods. Different systems are
involved in that techniques, air-brine, air-mercury, oilbrine.
Centrifuge is a technique to measure capillary pressure
using a cleaned and dried sample saturated with brine
(wetting phase). The sample is placed in a centrifuge
and rotated of a series of incremental speeds. As a result
brine is expelled and replaced by air (non-wetting

phase). At each stage, brine volume is measured and the

process will continue until equilibrium is reached
between centrifugal and capillary forces. The rotational
speed is converted to capillary pressure and liquid
production can be converted to saturation using the pore
volume measured.
Porous plate is also called diaphragm technique. A
cleaned and dry cylindrical sample is saturated with a
wetting phase fluid, usually brine, and then the sample
is placed on a semi-permeable membrane in a chamber
filled with gas (non-wetting phase). The pressure of the
non-wetting fluid is increased stepwise forcing gas to
displace brine through the porous plate. The equilibrium
is reached at each pressure step; which is determined by
non-wetting phase production. Once this occurs the
rock sample is taken away from the chamber and
saturation changes are measure gravimetrically. To
continue with the experiment, the sample is placed
again in the pressure cell and a higher pressure is
applied.
One of the most effective to measure capillary pressure
is called Mercury Injection, which consists in to inject
by pressure a non-wetting phase fluid (mercury) to
displace air. This method has been extensively used to
obtain pore structure. The measurement principle
consists in a cleaned and dried sample is evacuated and
then it is injected with mercury at stepwise pressure
increments. The volume of mercury entered is
measured.
Washburn (1921) was the first investigator to propose
the use of mercury to determined pore geometry and its
aperture size distribution. W. R. Purcell (1949) (Ref.1)
designed an apparatus to measure capillary pressure
with mercury injection technique and he proposed a
methodology to estimate permeability from mercury
measurements.
Pc = 2 cos / r [Eq 1]
Where Pc is capillary pressure, is the mercury/air
interfacial tension (normally 480 dynes/cm), is
mercury/pore wall contact angle and r is pore throat
radio expressed in microns.
Other authors proposed different correlations to
estimate permeability from capillary curves. Thomeer
(1960) (Ref 2) observed that when capillary pressure
and bulk volume of non-wetting phase are plotted on log
log graphic, data approximated a hyperbola. He
developed an empirical correlation to calculated
permeability from capillary pressure data.
Swanson (1981) (Ref. 3) (1977, p. 2498) noted that the
mercury saturation expressed as percent of bulk volume

is indicative of that portion of the space effectively

contributing to fluid flow. Swanson (1977)
determined that on a mercury injection curve, this point
corresponded to the apex of the hyperbola of a log-log
plot (Ref 4).
Katz and Thompson (1987) (Ref 5), worked on an
equation to relate conductivities on the rock and
saturation fluid, with absolute permeability and pore
radio.
Winland (1972) combined data from routine core
analysis with capillary pressure data and developed an
empirical relationship between porosity, air
permeability, and the pore throat size equivalent to a
mercury non-wetting phase of 35% (R35). Winland
worked with 82 low permeability samples including 56
sandstones and 26 carbonates corrected for gas, and 240
uncorrected permeability samples. He ran multiple
regression analysis for 30%, 35%, 40% and 50% of
mercury saturations and figured out that the best
correlation fits with pore throat size at which 35% of the
pore volume was filled with mercury. Kolodzie (1980)
(Ref 6) published Winland Equation:
Log R35 = 0.732 + 0.588 (Log Kair) 0.864 (Log
PHI) [Eq 2]

information; however, it is advantageous for any

numbers of data to obtain predictive trends and identify
previously hidden patterns.
Univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical
analysis were performed to study behavior of porosity,
permeability and pore throat radio, in order to
understand the relationships between them and the
effect of each one on definition of quality of reservoir.
The process described above, were useful to eliminate
points out of range (outliers) and work with the most
fitting data.
First of all data from centrifuge and porous plate
techniques (air-brine system) was converted to capillary
pressure of mercuryair system. (Not all capillary
pressure data is from mercury injection technique).
Once all points were expressed as mercury injection
capillary pressure, the next step was build apex plots,
that is a plot of ratio between mercury saturation and
capillary pressure Vs. mercury saturation as showed in
Figure 1, to obtain the inflexion point of hyperbola for
each sample. Then, a semi log plot of PTR Vs. mercury
saturation, was used to read PTR values for each
inflexion point obtained. Same procedure was used to
read off R35, R40, R45, R50 and R55 for each sample.

Pittman (1992) (Ref 7) developed, as an alternative

Winland method, series of equations corresponding to
mercury saturations from 10% to 75%. Pittman worked
with 196 sandstones samples. Pittamn method is also
called apex method, because is based on the apex of
the hyperbola of the plot of ratio of mercury saturation
and capillary pressure Vs. mercury saturation. He, as
Winland, figured out that a more reliable quality of
reservoir indicator is at 36% saturation of the nonwetting phase, assuming interparticle porosity and
relatively uniform particle sizes.
METHODOLOGY
A total of 36 samples from four different wells inside
Carabobo Area were analyzed. All of them have
capillary pressure tests calculated with centrifuge,
porous plate and mercury injection techniques. Data
was examined using simples tool of statistical analysis
corresponding to frequency histogram, boxplots,
normal probabilistic plot, as part of data mining process.
Data mining is the analysis step of KDD (Knowledge
Discovery in Database) process; it uses artificial
intelligence and statistical techniques to extract
information (cluster analysis, unusual behavior
detection, association rules, etc) of a set of data, analyze
and convert in appropriate structure to be used. Data
mining usually works with a large amount of

Figure 1. SHg/Pc Vs. SHg For Well A and B

In order to achieve a database representative of the
reservoir properties, a series of cross plots of logarithm
of porosity, permeability and R(inflexion) were
performed to evaluate data determining points out of
range and trends. The result of this step showed
experimental values of well D were not characteristic of
the rest of the data. Figures 2, 3 and 4 present this
behavior.

trend, we decided to take away this well from the

objective.
Frequency histograms of inflexion points were utilized
to assess trends, as is showed in Figure 5. As seen in
the plot, a different quality of reservoir was sampled. It
is confirmed by porosity and permeability values (see
Figure 4). In order to know if data has a normal behavior
a normal probabilistic plot was constructed. As seen in
Figure 6, points are close to a straight line suggesting a
normal distribution.

Figure 2 Log-Log plot of R at inflexion point Vs

Porosity

Figure 5 Frequency Histogram for inflexion points

Figure 3 Figure 2 Log-Log plot of R at inflexion point

Vs Permeability

Figure 6 Normal Probability Plot.

Figure 4 Log-Log plot of Permeability Vs Permeability

The same quality control was employed using R35,
R40, R45, R50 and R55, and same results were
obtained. Since points of well C are completed out of

Data mining as well as 3D adjust process to generate a

linear regression correlation was made with MATLAB
R2006a (MathWorks Inc., Natick, Massachusetts,
USA), as mathematic software. Logarithmic values of
measured pore throat radio at inflexion points and
corresponding permeability and porosity logarithmic
values were programmed using the Polyfitn tool
devolep by DErrico (2014), finding a Winland type
equation (Equation 3):

LogR(inflexion) = a +b log Kair c log (PHI) [3]

Where:

Figure 8 Figure 7 PTR calculated with Pittmans R40

versus estimated from mercury injection capillary
pressure data

a= -0.9470
b= 0.7847
c=0.2823
Coefficient of determination (R2)= 0.9418
Adjust R2=0.9322
Root-mean-square error (RMSE)=0.092

To determine the most suitable equation for pore

aperture size, plots of PTR from capillary pressure
measurements versus PTR from Winland and Pittmans
equations, called one to one plots, were generated for
R35, R40, R45, R50 and R55. Figure 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11
demonstrates that R50 equation better fits with core
capillary pressure experimental data.

Figure 7 PTR calculated with Winlands R35 versus

estimated from mercury injection capillary pressure
data

Figure 9 PTR calculated with Pittmans R45 versus

estimated from mercury injection capillary pressure
data

Figure 10 PTR calculated with Pittmans R50 versus

estimated from mercury injection capillary pressure
data

Figure 11 PTR calculated with Pittmans R55 versus

estimated from mercury injection capillary pressure
data

Figure 13 Box Plot for Log Permeability

Knowing this different tests were performed to find two

additional linear regression correlations varying
R(inflexion) to R35 and R50 from capillary pressure
data.
As part of data mining procedure an iterative process
was achieved using box plots and histograms per each
one of the dependent and independent variables. This
was made to clustering similar info and to eliminate
points with inhomogeneity behavior. Figures 12, 13
and 14 show the box plots constructed for each
variable.
Figure 14 Box Plot for Log R50 from Capillary pressure
data
RESULTS
R35 Winlands equation does not correctly represent
petrophysical rock type distribution and facies change.
Results were improved working with R50 from
Pittmans equation, however, facies change were not
replicated.

Figure 12 Box Plot for Log Porosity

Several runs for R(inflexion), R35 and R50, were

carried out through an iterative process to refine data
and select the best option. Results for each one of the
found regressions were compared with core capillary
pressure data. Outcomes were also run into Petropysical
software (Geolog 7.1.from Paradigm) displaying a
layout (Figure 15) to compare R50 from Pittman, R35
from Winland with PTR from regressions. The equation
that better fits the core data and better reproduces the
facies change observed by special logs as NMR, is a
Modified R50 Pittmans equation (Equation 4).

regression correlation between porosity, permeability

and PTR at 50% mercury saturation from capillary
pressure experimental data. The following conclusions
can be mentioned:

Figure 15 Track 3. Comparison between Winlands

R35, Pittmans R50 (blue curve) and R50 (red curve)
estimated with the new equation

LogR (50)Carabobo Area=-0.947+0.785 Log K -0.282

Log PHIE [4]

Coefficient of determination (R2)= 0.9418
Adjust R2=0.9322
Root-mean-square error (RMSE)=0.092

Figures 16 and 17 illustrate examples of two new

stratigraphic wells showing the new irreducible water
saturation (Track 6) calculated using PTR from
Equation 4. Track 5 shows the previous irreducible
water saturation estimated using Winlands equation.
As it is observed, free water was overrated as seen on
NMR results (Tracks 7,8 and 9). The most important
accomplishment is the improvement for development
plan, because the signal for movable fluid is related to
oil and not to free water, decreasing uncertainties in this
type of zones.
Despite the new equation is the best model to reproduce
PTR distribution in Morichal Member, there are some
events that could not be represented as a consequence
of sampling lack. Geological features as bioturbations,
dispersed and laminar shale, chaotic deposits, changes
in tidal currents, are not always sampled, doing
impossible to have a characterization of the variations
in rock properties produced by those geological events.
CONCLUSIONS
Petrophysical rock types for Carabobo Area located in
The Faja Petrolifera del Orinoco, were performed using
a Modified Pittmans equation determined by a linear

Winlands equation does not represent pore

throat size distribution in Morichal Member.
Pittmans R50 equation is a better option;
however, not all facies changes are reproduced.
The new proposed equation modelled in a better
way the different PRT as a consequence of
facies changes.
A new irreducible water saturation was
performed using the new equation for PTR,
matching better with readings of the special
logs.
It is necessary to execute an exhaustive core
sampling program, including conventional and
special analysis; taking in account each one of
the geological events.
Both Winland and Pittman mostly worked with
data from consolidated samples; it is perfectly
understood that their equations do not work for
Carabobo Area.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors will like to thank Petroindependencia for
their support during the course of this job and for
allowing the publishing of this work. A special
acknowledgement to Miguel Exposito for his valuable
contribution and guidance provided.
REFERENCES
1 W. R. Purcell, Capillary Pressures Their
Measurement Using Mercury and The calculation of
Permability Therefrom. February 1949.
2 Thomeer, J.H.M. 1960. Introduction of a Pore
Geometrical Factor Defined by the Capillary Pressure
Curve. J Pet Technol 12 (3): 73-77. SPE-1324-G
3 Swanson, B.F. 1981. A Simple Correlation Between
Permeabilities and Mercury Capillary Pressures. J Pet
Technol 33(12): 2498-2504. SPE-8234-PA
4 Estimating Pore Throat Size in Sandstones from
Routine Core-Analysis Data.Edward D. Pittman.

http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/p
ittman/
5 Thompson, A. H., A. J. Katz, and R. A. Raschke,
1987, Estimation of absolute permeability from
capillary pressure measurements: Society of Petroleum
Engineers, 62nd Annual Technical Conference, Paper
SPE-16794, p. 475-481.
6 Kolodzie Jr., S. 1980. Analysis of Pore Throat Size
And Use of the Waxman-Smits Equation To Determine
OOIP in Spindle Field, Colorado. Presented at the SPE

Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas,

21-24 September. SPE 9382
7 Pittman, E. D., 1992, Relationship of porosity and
permeability to various parameters
derived from mercury injection-capillary pressure
curves for sandstone: AAPG
Bulletin, v. 76, p. 191-198.

8. DErrico, J. (2014, January 25). polyfitn - File

Exchange - MATLAB Central. Retrieved August 29,
2014,
from
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchang
e/file_infos/34765-polyfitn

Figure 16. Comparison between previous irreducible water saturation estimated with Winlands R35 and the new
irreducible water saturation estimated with new equation, for stratigraphic Well 2. It is shown the adjustment of the new
Swirr values with respect of NMR response, resulting in zones without free water (red ellipse)

Figure 17. Comparison between previous irreducible water saturation estimated with Winlands R35 and the new
irreducible water saturation estimated with new equation, for stratigraphic Well 2. It is shown the adjustment of the new
Swirr values with respect of NMR response, resulting in zones without free water (red ellipse)