Compressibility is a relative volume change of a fluid or solid in a response to a pressure change. We can relate this into a reservoir engineering aspect. Overburden pressure is rock weight and it typically has a gradient of 1 psi/ft. Rock metric and formation fluid in pore spaces supports the weight of rock above. When petroleum is produced from reservoir rocks, pressure of fluid in pore space decreases, but overburden is still the same. This will result in the reduction of bulk volume of rock and pore spaces. The reduction on volume in relation to pressure is called “pore volume compressibility (cf)” or “formation compressibility” and it can be mathematically expressed like this.
