Geological controls of variograms in a complex carbonate reservoir, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

To derive meaningful results from a geostatistical study, it is extremely important to establish the relationship between geology and variograms. However, it is not always easy to establish such a relationship, mainly because of the inadequacy of quantitative or qualititative information from a complex carbonate reservoir located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia provided an ideal case study of the relationships between geology and variograms. The reservoir under consideration is in the form of a gently dipping, elongated anticline and consists of three productive zones which have been subdivided into several lithologically distinct layers. Results, which indicate an excellent match between geology and porosity variograms, are summarized as follows: 1) use of stratigraphic distances resulted in considerable improvement in the behavior of variograms; 2) structurally controlled geometrical anisotropy is the most obvious feature of variograms, and 3) layers consisting of more complex lithologic framework provided variograms with relatively greater nugget variances and shorter ranges. These results provide further insight into geology and form a meaningful basis for estimation and simulation of the reservoir. They also could be used as a general guide in the geostatistical study of the similar carbonate reservoirs.