Luis Quintero, Javier Miranda, Joshua Oletu, Cecilia Flores, George Dames, Philip Gibbons, "Petrophysics", Guidelines for Application of the Petroleum Resources Management System
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Petrophysics (from the Greek πέτρα, petra, “rock” and φύσις, physis, “nature”) may be defined as the study of rock properties (physical, electrical, chemical, and mechanical) and their interaction with fluids (gases, liquid hydrocarbons, and aqueous solutions) (Archie 1950, 1967; Tiab and Donaldson 2004; Chen and Pagan 2013). Petrophysical, or formation, evaluation (used interchangeably; Archie 1967; Asquith and Krygowski 2004) is thus a practice that integrates knowledge from several disciplines, including, but not limited to, geology, geochemistry, geophysics, physics, chemistry, and reservoir and production engineering.
The discipline of petrophysics provides key parameters (e.g., net pay thickness, porosity, and saturation) used in the volumetric estimation of petroleum initially in place (PIIP), helps to determine reservoir fluid type, and characterizes the ability of the fluid to flow (permeability); these properties are critical in assessing the potential and development of any petroleum resources or reserves. The fluid type can be characterized with properties such as density, hydrogen index, and viscosity, among others. All these properties are the subject of wireline electrical logs, formation testing/fluid sampling devices, and core sampling.
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