Ternary rock typing: A novel solution to multi-scale multi-discipline rock typing for carbonate rocks

Carbonate reservoir rocks exhibit property alterations due to depositional texture, diagenesis and fracturing. Superposition of these processes results in a heterogeneous rock and a complex pore system. The workflow proposed addresses the independent ternary interrelationships between porosity, permeability and irreducible water saturation in carbonate rocks. A novel Ternary Rock Typing (TRT) application focuses on these parameters in the shape of a 3D ellipsoid. The change of rock fabric, diagenesis and fracturing changes the ellipsoid characteristics. The complex interaction of rock, pore and fluid affect the location, shape, orientation and relative position of the three-parameter ellipsoid. The three measurements are extracted from wireline-logs, routine and special core analysis. The TRT can be used as a solely data driven or as a guided “sedimentologically” data driven approach. Saturation-height modelling becomes an integral part of the quality control of the TRT application. This paper tests TRT and eight other standard rock-typing methods by quantifying the hydrodynamic observations with respect to cumulative oil produced, water cut and oil production rate. The test data is derived from a Miocene age of restricted lagoonal environment applying two strategies: the first is an active bottom water drive and the second is using one injector and one producer.