Petroleum Reservoir Engineering Practice

Chapter 1. Porosity of Reservoir Rocks

1.1 Introduction

Porosity is defined as a measure of the capacity of reservoir rocks to contain or store fluids. The fluids stored in the pore spaces within the reservoir rocks could be gas, oil, and water. High porosity values indicate high capacities of the reservoir rocks to contain these fluids, while low porosity values indicate the opposite. Consequently, porosity data are routinely used qualitatively and quantitatively to assess and estimate the potential volume of hydrocarbons contained in a reservoir. For instance, in a discovery well that shows the presence of hydrocarbons in the reservoir rocks, the set of data that is reviewed at least qualitatively to evaluate reservoir potential is porosity ...