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The flow of hydrocarbons and water in oil-bearing formations and aquifers takes place in porous media. The objective of this chapter is to describe porous media and fluid and rock properties at the macroscopic level. For wireline formation testers (WFTs), it is crucial to understand porous media, and fluid and rock properties to comprehend formation pressure gradients and fluid distributions, and to interpret steady-state and transient pressure tests. Before any reservoir modeling and estimation of its parameters, fluid and rock properties must be determined and understood.

Porous media consisting of a bicontinuous structure of voids and solids are naturally encountered in aquifers, oil and gas reservoirs, and geothermal sources. Fig. 3.1 shows some basic rock types for sedimentary formations. In addition to geological characteristics (e.g., unconformities, faults, and fractures), a porous medium is characterized by its microscopic and macroscopic properties (e.g., pore shape, pore-body and pore-throat-size distributions, porosity, and permeability), and mechanical properties (e.g., bulk and shear moduli). Quantitative characterization of pore size and distribution depends on the delineation of pore boundaries and varies with the characterization method. The physics and the subjective definitions have to be understood to compare one method with another. For heterogeneous media, additional descriptors such as correlation statistics will be needed. In bicontinuous media of practical relevance, a negligible fraction of porosity is isolated. It is possible to estimate this fraction from mineral constituents and from the density of the medium.

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