On formation compaction and energy balance law for liquid-saturated porous media reservoirs

In most treatments of liquid flow through porous media, it is assumed that the pore fluid and formation motions are decoupled except that porosity φ is taken to be a function of fluid pressure. This article examines the conditions under which such a decoupling is valid. More specifically, it is shown that the usual statements of the energy balance law ignore the work performed by the overburden as the formation compaction progresses. This work term is shown to be negligibly small in practical cases.