Abstract

Carbonate rock characterisation has been a challenging task in reservoir studies due to their complex pore structure and various diagenetic evolutions. Proper understanding of physical and chemical characteristics of rocks facilitate more accurate analysis. As a matter of fact, understanding the evolutions of sediments is a key to characterize the current state of the rock. One of the essential rock properties is porosity, which is typically a naive function of depth (overburden) in most sedimentary rocks, known as compaction trend. However, porosity in carbonates doesn’t necessarily follow a uniform compaction trend, because of various physical and chemical processes that take place hand in hand with the physical rock deformation due to stress. It is imperative to assess the stress-sensitivity of carbonate rocks to be able to validate any analysis that relies on compaction. The conclusion is that density and porosity doesn’t necessarily correlate with depth or overburden stress, making carbonate rocks much less stress-sensitive than other sedimentary rocks. In this paper, a holistic review of literature is conducted to document the deposition and sedimentation of carbonate rocks, then explain the diagenesis and various forms it takes. Then, stress-sensitivity of carbonate rocks is examined, and implications are discussed.