Connate Water in Oil and Gas Sands

SEVERAL investigators1-8 have reported evidence of the existence of native or connate water in oil-and-gas-bearing strata. Both water and salt have been detected in cores of oil sands that yielded oil and gas exclusively when produced. Electrical logs often reveal unexpectedly low resistivity through oil and gas sands, indicating the presence of some material that is a considerably better conductor of current than oil and gas. Furthermore, calculations9 of the oil and gas content of reservoirs based upon production and reservoir-pressure decline data indicate appreciably lower values than are arrived at under the assumption that the pore space is occupied completely by oil and gas. ORIGIN AND OCCURRENCE OF CONNATE WATER IN OIL-AND-GAS-BEARING FORMATIONS The view has been expressed,10-15 and is generally agreed upon, that the expulsion of oil and gas material from source beds and the subsequent migration and accumulation occurred in the presence of salt water. As the strata that usually form reservoirs for oil and gas were laid down by, or in the presence of, ancient seas, the pore space within the strata must have been saturated with salt water before the entrance of the oil and/or gas. Thus, the accumulation of oil and/or gas in the upper regions of structures suitable for reservoirs must have required displacement of the connate water therefrom. In the absence of any forces other than gravitational, it would be expected that the displacement of the connate water out of the zones finally occupied by gas and oil would be complete, and that the vertical distribution of gas, oil, and water in a reservoir would be strictly in the order of their densities. Apparently, however, surface and interfacial forces that will not permit complete segregation of the fluids are active within the capillary spaces comprising a reservoir. The effects of these forces on both accumulation and production of oil and gas have been the subject of study by a number of investigators. 16-37