--> Abstract: Numerical Simulation of Mineral Diagenesis as a Tool for Reservoir Appraisal, by E. Brosse, O. Bildstein, B. Bazin, and Y. Le Gallo; #90937 (1998).

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Abstract: Numerical Simulation of Mineral Diagenesis as a Tool for Reservoir Appraisal

BROSSE, ETIENNE, OLIVIER BILDSTEIN, BRIGITTE BAZIN, YANN LE GALLO, Institut Francais du Petrole, Rueil-Malmaison, France.

Summary

Mineral diagenesis can have strong effects on reservoir properties. When calibrated on available data, a modeling approach is able to disentangle the respective influence of the various parameters involved. It can thus provide guidelines for a better appraisal of reservoir quality and heterogeneity.

The modeling tool used here, DIAPHORE, solves the mass-balance equations of the chemical elements involved in the mineral system that is chosen for representing the reservoir rock during a defined, short-term diagenetic episode. Appropriate constitutive equations represent the Darcean advection and the diffusion-dispersion phenomena. DIAPHORE can apply to 3-dimensional, heterogenous reservoirs infiltrated by a given solution. It is able to feedback the mineral transformations on the porosity-permeability distribution, using empirical laws that can be calibrated on the available petrophysical data.

DIAPHORE is applicable to a large variety of diagenetic contexts. It is illustrated in the present abstract by two examples : i/ the precipitation of secondary anhydrite in dolomitic limestones at moderate burial depth; ii/ the formation of illite and quartz in sub-arkosic sandstone at relatively deep burial. The role of water for transferring dissolved mineral matter at the reservoir scale is more or less important according to the context. Dominant for anhydrite precipitation, it is more limited for illitization. Nevertheless it cannot be neglected, because it is able to determine even at depth significant heterogeneities of mineral composition, as shown by a case study from a single reservoir layer of the Dunbar field, in the Brent Province context.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90937©1998 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah