A New Multi-Scale Method to Evaluate the Porosity and MICP Curve for Digital Rock of Complex Reservoir

Ting Xiong, Ming Chen, Yuan Jin, Wei Zhang, Haipeng Shao, Guanqun Wang, Ethan Long and Wei Long ()
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Ting Xiong: School of Earth Sciences, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China
Ming Chen: Zhanjiang Branch, CNOOC Co., Ltd., Zhanjiang 524057, China
Yuan Jin: College of Geophysics and Information Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100190, China
Wei Zhang: Shenzhen Branch, China Oilfield Services Limited, Shenzhen 518071, China
Haipeng Shao: ICORE GROUP INC., Shenzhen 518057, China
Guanqun Wang: ICORE GROUP INC., Shenzhen 518057, China
Ethan Long: ICORE GROUP INC., Shenzhen 518057, China
Wei Long: ICORE GROUP INC., Shenzhen 518057, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-16

Abstract: The evaluation of rock porosity and the mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) curve is fundamental for oil and gas exploration and production. Digital rock (DR) technology, incorporating 3D micro-CT imaging and numerical methods, has been widely employed to predict these properties. However, analyzing the pore structure of heterogeneous rocks, such as fractured rocks or glutenite, solely through single-scale DR analysis poses challenges. Existing upscaling methods have limitations in fully representing the complete range of pore structures at different scales, with limited comparison to experimental data. To address this, we propose a novel method that upscales porosity and simulates the MICP curve from nano-scale to core scale by merging results from micro-CT (at resolutions of 35 μm and 2 μm) and SEM (at resolutions of 6.5 nm and 65 nm). We validate the developed DR model by applying it to sandstones, glutenite, and igneous rocks, and achieve excellent agreement between the experimental data and the multi-scale DR model across 67 samples. The results demonstrate that the multi-scale model effectively captures the porosity and pore structures across the entire range. In contrast, the single digital rock (DR) model underestimates the porosity measurements for both homogeneous sandstones and heterogeneous cores. While the MICP model based on a single DR proves suitable for homogeneous rock samples, it introduces noticeable discrepancies when applied to heterogeneous rock samples. The developed multi-scale method significantly enhances the confidence in using DR to assess the pore structure of complex rocks.

Keywords: porosity; pore distribution; upscale modeling; mercury injection curve; digital rock; heterogeneous (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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