Technical Notes - Compressibility of Reservoir Rocks

The compressibility of reservoir rock is a factor which is generally neglected in reservoir engineering calculations. This is due in part to the fact that there is little published information on rock compressibility values for limestones and sandstones. Omission of rock compressibility is undoubtedly justified in calculations for saturated reservoirs; however, in under-saturated reservoirs,* expansion of the rock accompanying decline in the reservoir pressure may be of such magnitude as to affect materially the prediction of reservoir performance. The effect of rock compressibility will be of most importance in: (1) calculation of oil in place by pressure decline data in undersaturated volumetric reservoirs when the limits of the field are unknown or indefinite, and (2) studies of natural water drive performance. To estimate its importance in such cases, a series of laboratory tests were made to obtain usable values for reservoir rock compressibility. The total, or effective, compressibility of any reservoir rock is a result of two separate factors, namely, expansion of the individual rock grains, as the surrounding fluid pressure de-