Vol. 10(1), pp. 1-13, January, 2019
DOI: 10.5897/JPGE2018.0300
Article Number: D049C7059749
ISSN: 2I41-2677
Copyright ©2019
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article
http://www.academicjournals.org/JPGE
Journal of Petroleum and Gas
Engineering
Full Length Research Paper
Analysis of shaly sand reservoir rocks in the eastern
Niger Delta Basin using geophysical well logs
Fozao K. F.
1,2*
, Djieto-Lordon A. E.
1
, Ali E. A. A.
1
, Agying C. M.
1
, Ndeh D. M.
3
and Zebaze Djuka M. K.
1
1
Petroleum Research Group, University of Buea, P. O. Box 063, Buea, Cameroon.
2
Department of Petroleum Engineering, School of Engineering (NAHPI), University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon.
3
Arab Center for Engineering Studies (ACES)-Abu Dhabi, Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) 1, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Received 7 October, 2018; Accepted 29 November, 2018
Shales in the reservoir causes complications for the petrophysicist because they generally are
conductive and mask the high resistance characteristic of hydrocarbons. Data from a suite of well logs
were used to estimate the effect of reservoir shaliness on petrophysical parameters of some reservoir
rocks of the eastern Niger Delta Basin. The log section was digitized using Neuralog software.
Delineation of the productive clean and dirty formations, as well as mapping of the fluid contents of the
possible reservoir zones was carried out using Interactive Petrophysics software. Fifteen shaly sand
bodies were identified. It was observed that, shale correction leads to a significant change in
petrophysical parameters. The results obtained indicate that, the Simandoux and Indonesian models
used for the study are both suitable for water saturation, and hydrocarbon saturation analysis in shaly
sands of this part of the Basin. The porosity results for the Indonesian and Simandoux models gave,
respectively 0.14-0.23 and 0.22-0.28, while the hydrocarbon saturation results are 0.650-0.908 and 0.650-
0.911 with permeabilities values of 1487.442-8881.697 mD and 1568.532-7451.592 mD for uncorrected
and corrected permeability, respectively. Thomas-Stieber model shows that shale distribution in sands
of the eastern Niger Delta Basin is mainly structural with few of disperse and laminar ones.
Key words: Reservoir rock, Shaly sands, petrophysical parameters, well logs, models.
INTRODUCTION
The present local and global increase in demand for
energy has placed both pressure and greater challenge
to increase energy supply. Most of this energy is derived
from hydrocarbon resources. In an oil prone area like the
Niger Delta, even though hydrocarbons are within the
subsurface, they cannot impulsively gush to the surface
when penetrated by a production well (Aigbedion and
Iyayi, 2007). On the contrary, most reservoir
hydrocarbons reside in the pore spaces or open fractures
of sedimentary rocks like sandstones. To produce them,
detailed geological, petrophysical knowledge and data
are needed to guide the placement of the well paths (Stat
Oil Research Group, 2003). This can consequently help
to optimize hydrocarbon recovery, and to improve
*Corresponding author. E-mail: kfozao@gmail.com. Tel: +237 675 397 789.
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