The Earth Tide Effects on Petroleum Reservoirs
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The gravitational attraction between the sun, moon, and the earth gives birth to oceanic tides which are visible and sometimes large, and to earth tides whose amplitudes are very small due to the low compressibility of the earth compared to that of water. Tidal effects are observed quite often in open pits. Bredehoeft (1967), Bodvarsson (1970), and Robinson and Bell (1971) have shown the existence of a relation between rock characteristics and the amplitude of the response of an open well aquifer system. Johnson (1973) described the behavior of such a system in detail. It was observed that tidal phenomena also exist in closed well reservoir systems. (Khurana, 1976; Strobel et al., 1976). The purpose of this study was: (1) to develop a theory which describes the pressure variations in closed well reservoir systems caused by the earth tides, (2) to be able to recognize the important parameters which determine the amplitude of the response, and (3) to inspect different cases of real field data for gas and oil reservoir systems for which accurate pressure information is available. The four principal results of this research are: (1) A new expression for the pressure induced at the borehole by a periodic tidal stress was derived. This work shows that the important parameters for the amplitude response of a closed well reservoir system are the permeability, the porosity, and the rock and fluid compressibilities. The amplitude of the pressure response varies between zero and unity for frequencies varying between zero and infinity. (2) The frequency at which the response starts to die is the critical frequency, w. When the critical frequency increases, the system becomes frequency independent, and the amplitude response to the diurnal component is equal to that of the semidiurnal component. (3) For a given rock formation, the largest response is obtained for the more compressible saturating fluid, and for a given saturating fluid, the largest response is obtained for the less compressible formation. (4) The amplitude of the pressure response increases with an increasing 'value of bulk system compressibility when the system is frequency dependent. The pressure amplitude increases with increasing values of the difference in fluid and solid compressibility if the system is frequency independent.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 1978 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Arditty, Patricia C. |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Ramey, Jr., Henry J. |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Petroleum Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Arditty, Patricia C. (1978). The Earth Tide Effects on Petroleum Reservoirs. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/hd605dv8585
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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