Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C546563/1
Title:	The Behaviour of Hydrocarbon Reservoir Sands and Sandstones
Principal Investigator:	Coop, Professor MR
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	BP
Department:	Civil & Environmental Engineering
Organisation:	Imperial College London
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 August 2005	Ends:	31 January 2007	Value (£):	100,616
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Ground Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Construction
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Most new oil and gas reservoirs around the world and in the North Sea are discovered in weak sandstones. The behaviour of such materials has traditionally been examined within the context of rock mechanics. Recent research within the soil mechanics community, including work by the applicant, has shown how soil mechanics principles can be applied to the behaviour of weak sandstones, resulting in a new framework for their behaviour. However, there are a number of basic discrepancies between the soil and rock mechanics approaches as has been highlighted by the applicant in a pilot project carried out for BP and published in a recent paper (Coop & Willson, 2003). The proposed research seeks to resolve these discrepancies, which to some extent may arise from differences in testing apparatus and techniques, but also may result from be the very large degree of unloading that the petroleum sandstones undergo as they are sampled, which is believed to damage their cement.The project aims to build upon and complete current research. Artificial sand samples will be cemented under pressure in a high pressure triaxial apparatus, and then unloaded to atmospheric pressure prior to being used in a series of tests to examine their behaviour after unloading. The behaviour will be compared with the behaviour of the same sand cemented under pressure but not unloaded. This will be followed by a series of tests on reservoir sands/sandstones and analogue materials but using soil mechanics apparatus, transducers and techniques. These tests will resolve the question of to what extent these factors influence the data, but will also result in a set of data better suited than existing commercial data to examine the applicability of existing models and frameworks of behaviour.
Key Findings
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Organisation Website:	http://www.imperial.ac.uk