Challenges in the Petrophysical and Dynamic Characterization of Deepwater Turbidite Deposits of the Colombian Caribbean Offshore–A Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-174
Author(s):  
Juan Alejandro Angel Restrepo ◽  
◽  
Ricardo Andrés Gómez-Moncada ◽  
Carlos Alberto Mora Sánchez ◽  
Ricardo Bueno Silva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Dynamic Characterization ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Throat Radius ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Mercury Injection ◽  
Vertical Heterogeneity

The Colombian Caribbean region has become an important exploratory target, and recent discoveries confirm its potential as a gas province to overcome the expected near-future gas deficit. A petrophysical and dynamic characterization workflow was implemented for this challenging deepwater play, where the depositional environment is the result of turbidity current processes. The reservoirs consist mostly of thin to very thin sand layers, corresponding mainly to the Ta, Tb, and Tc divisions of the Bouma sequence as observed in the cored intervals. Bouma divisions Td and Te are related with the lowest rock quality and represent the nonreservoir intervals. The greatest challenge in the characterization of this particular reservoir is the vertical resolution, given the very low thickness of the layers, which becomes very difficult to detect using standard resolution logs. Thus, tomography images, resultant CT-scan curves, and their integration with routine and special core analyses were used to reveal the true nature of this complex reservoir. The proposed methodology focuses on the integration of routine and special core analysis for the petrophysical and dynamic characterization of the reservoir, where the pore-throat-radius distribution from high-pressure mercury injection becomes the basis of the differentiation between what is considered reservoir and what is not. Pore-throat radius estimated from high-pressure mercury injection (R35) correlates extremely well with textural features and clay content in the rock; therefore, this parameter (R35) was used to define the different classes for rock typing. The approach taken was to develop a multilinear regression model of R35 as a function of very high-resolution tomography outputs in the cored zones and then see how it may be extrapolated to the uncored zones using available high-resolution logs. Special petrophysical analyses, such as NMR low field, porous-plate capillary pressure, electrical properties, and relative permeability curves (steady state), showed correlation with the defined rock types and, in turn, allowed for a determination of the gas accumulation potential of the area. Finally, rock and fluid (dry-gas) properties have been used to build a single-well radial model to design initial well tests (DST) and predict production performance from each interval (selective tests). The simulation model represents the lateral and vertical heterogeneity related to the geological environment (turbidites). The final results have defined the flow and shut-in times during tests to optimize the budget.

scholarly journals An improved method to characterize the pore-throat structures in tight sandstone reservoirs: Combined high-pressure and rate-controlled mercury injection techniques

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 2389-2412
Author(s):  
Wenkai Zhang ◽  
Zejin Shi ◽  
Yaming Tian
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Tight Sandstone ◽  
Throat Radius ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Mercury Injection ◽  
Rate Controlled ◽  
Sandstone Reservoirs

The pore-throat size determines the oil and gas occurrence and storage properties of sandstones and is a vital parameter to evaluate reservoir quality. Casting thin sections, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-pressure mercury injection and rate-controlled mercury injection are used to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the pore-throat structure characteristics of tight sandstone reservoirs of Xiaoheba Formation in the southeastern Sichuan Basin. The results show that the pore types include intergranular pores, intragranular dissolved pores, matrix pores, intercrystalline pores in clay minerals, and microfractures, and the pore-throat sizes range from the nanoscale to the microscale. The high-pressure mercury injection testing indicates that the pore-throat radius is in range of 0.004–11.017 µm, and the pore-throats with a radius >1 µm account for less than 15%. The rate-controlled mercury injection technique reveals that the tight sandstones with different physical properties have a similar pore size distribution (80–220 µm), but the throat radius and pore throat radius ratio distribution curves exhibit remarkable differences separately. The combination of the high-pressure mercury injection and rate-controlled mercury injection testing used in this work effectively reveals the total pore-throat size distribution in the Xiaoheba sandstones (0.004–260 µm). Moreover, the radius of the pore and the throat is respectively in range of 50–260 µm and 0.004–50 µm. The permeability of the tight sandstones is mostly affected by the small fraction (<40%) of relatively wide pore-throats. For the tight sandstones with good permeability (>0.1 mD), the larger micropores and mesopores exert a great influence on the permeability. In contrast, the permeability is mainly influenced by the larger nanopores. Furthermore, the proportion of narrow pore-throats in tight sandstones increases with reducing permeability. Although the large number of narrow pore-throat (<100 nm) makes a certain contribution to both reservoir porosity and permeability, they have contribution to the former is far more than to the latter.

Study on pore structure evaluation of shale gas reservoir-Taking the Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation in the Cenggong Block, Guizhou Province as an example

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Fuqiang Lai ◽  
Haiyan Mao ◽  
Jianping Bai ◽  
Daijan Gong ◽  
Guotong Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Pore Structure ◽  
Structure Parameters ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Throat Radius ◽  
Volume Percentage ◽  
Nmr Logging ◽  
Mercury Intrusion ◽  
Niutitang Formation ◽  
Structure Evaluation

The storage and seepage space of shale is mainly composed of pores and fractures, while the microscopic pore structure and fracture distribution are very complicated. The accuracy of calculation of pore structure parameters is related to whether the reservoir evaluation is correct and effective. Taking the Niutitang Formation in the Cengong area of Guizhou as the research object. Firstly, based on the Archie formula, the process of the wellbore mud intrusion is approximated as the process of the laboratory high pressure mercury intrusion, combined with conventional and nuclear magnetic resonance logging data. The formula deduces a new model for the T2 spectrum conversion pseudo-capillary pressure curve. Then the model is calibrated by the high pressure mercury intrusion experimental data, and the pore structure parameters such as reservoir pore size distribution curve and maximum pore throat radius are calculated. The results show that the maximum pore throat radius and total porosity data calculated by NMR logging are relatively reliable, the median radius error is general, and the displacement pressure and median pressure error are relatively large. The pore volume percentage of 1-10 μm is up to 60%, and the micro-cracks are relatively developed, which is beneficial to the fracturing of the reservoir. Therefore, the use of NMR logging data combined with conventional logging can better reflect the pore structure characteristics of reservoirs, which provides a strong support for complex reservoir identification and qualitative prediction of productivity, and has a good application prospect.

scholarly journals Pore throat characteristics of tight reservoirs by a combined mercury method: A case study of the member 2 of Xujiahe Formation in Yingshan gasfield, North Sichuan Basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1174-1186
Author(s):  
Youzhi Wang ◽  
Cui Mao ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
Wei Jin ◽  
Simiao Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pore Structure ◽  
Distribution Range ◽  
Contribution Rate ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Tight Sandstone ◽  
Throat Radius ◽  
Xujiahe Formation ◽  
Mercury Injection ◽  
Tight Reservoirs ◽  
Sandstone Reservoirs

Abstract The complex pore throat characteristics are significant factors that control the properties of tight sandstone reservoirs. Due to the strong heterogeneity of the pore structure in tight reservoirs, it is difficult to characterize the pore structure by single methods. To determine the pore throat, core, casting thin sections, micrographs from scanning electron microscopy, rate-controlled mercury injection, and high-pressure mercury injection were performed in member 2 of Xujiahe Formation of Yingshan gasfield, Sichuan, China. The pore throat characteristics were quantitatively characterized, and the distribution of pore throat at different scales and its controlling effect on reservoir physical properties were discussed. The results show that there are mainly residual intergranular pores, intergranular dissolved pores, ingranular dissolved pores, intergranular pores, and micro-fractures in the second member of the Xujiahe Formation tight sandstone reservoir. The distribution range of pore throat is 0.018–10 μm, and the radius of pore throat is less than 1 μm. The ranges of pore radius were between 100 and 200 μm, the peak value ranges from 160 to 180 μm, and the pore throat radius ranges from 0.1 to 0.6 μm. With the increase of permeability, the distribution range of throat radius becomes wider, and the single peak throat radius becomes larger, showing the characteristic of right skew. The large throat of the sandy conglomerate reservoir has an obvious control effect on permeability, but little influence on porosity. The contribution rate of nano-sized pore throat to permeability is small, ranging from 3.29 to 34.67%. The contribution rate of porosity was 48.86–94.28%. Therefore, pore throat characteristics are used to select high-quality reservoirs, which can guide oil and gas exploration and development of tight sandstone reservoirs.

scholarly journals Characterization of Microscopic Pore Structures of Rock Salt through Mercury Injection and Nitrogen Absorption Tests

Geofluids ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianwen Chen ◽  
Erbing Li ◽  
Jin Luo
Keyword(s):  
Pore Structure ◽  
Pore Size ◽  
Rock Salt ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Injection Rate ◽  
Pore Channel ◽  
Nitrogen Absorption ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Throat Radius ◽  
Mercury Injection

Microscopic pore structure of rock salt plays a dominant role in its permeability. In this paper, microscopic pore structure of a set of rock salt samples collected from Yunying salt mine of Hubei province in China is investigated by high pressure mercury injection, rate-controlled mercury penetration, and nitrogen absorption tests. The pore size distribution is further evaluated based on fractal analysis. The results show that pore size of rock salt varies from 0.01 to 300 μm with major concentration of pore size smaller than 1.00 μm. The pore’s radiuses are mainly distributed within a range between 15 and 50 nm. The research further reveals that the pore channel size of rock salt is randomly distributed, but the distribution of pore throat radius fits very well with fractal law. By analysis of permeability, it is found that the maximum and medium radius of the pore throat have significant impacts on permeability. Porosity is not apparently related to the permeability of rock salt. The higher the fractal dimension is, the higher the impacts on permeability of the small throat are detected and the lower the influence on permeability of the big throat is exhibited. It indicates that the small throat determines majorly the permeability of rock salt. The findings obtained from this study provide an insight into understanding the characteristics of microscopic pore structure of rock salt.

Quality grading system for tight sandstone reservoirs in the Quantou 4 Member, southern Songliao Basin, Northeast China

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. T503-T522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenbiao Huang ◽  
Shuangfang Lu ◽  
Salad Hersi Osman
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle Measurement ◽  
Angle Measurement ◽  
Grading System ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Tight Sandstone ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Throat Radius ◽  
Mercury Injection ◽  
Quality Grading ◽  
Sandstone Reservoirs

A grading system for tight sandstone reservoir quality is needed to predict tight oil enrichment areas and assess the resources. To explore the establishment of the grading system, a variety of research methods, such as rate-controlled mercury injection, conventional mercury injection, contact angle measurement, and the mechanical equilibrium principle, are integrated to determine the upper and lower limits of the porosity, permeability, and pore-throat radius of tight sandstones and to establish a quality grading system. Based on the porosity [Formula: see text], permeability [Formula: see text], and pore-throat size [Formula: see text] properties of the studied samples from the [Formula: see text] Member, five sandstone classes have been identified. Three of these classes are tight sandstone reservoirs and include (1) high-quality tight sandstone reservoirs ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]), (2) effective tight sandstone reservoirs ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]), and (3) low-quality tight sandstone reservoirs ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]). Sandstones with [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] parameters higher than the high-quality tight reservoirs are deemed to be conventional reservoirs, whereas those with parameters lower than the low-quality tight sandstone reservoirs are considered as nonreservoir sandstones. It is also noted that oil saturation of the tight sandstone reservoirs correlates positively with the throat radius rather than with the pore size. High-quality tight sandstone reservoirs are usually developed in the distributary channel sand bodies near faults and/or fractures, and they are capable of producing more petroleum.

scholarly journals Influence of different pore structure types on the occurrence features of movable fluid in Chang-10 reservoir in Wuqi–Ansai Oilfield

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1609-1620
Author(s):  
Yong-li Gao ◽  
Pan Li ◽  
Teng Li
Keyword(s):  
Pore Structure ◽  
Water Movement ◽  
Ordos Basin ◽  
Pressure Curve ◽  
Type I ◽  
Type Ii ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Throat Radius ◽  
Type Iii ◽  
Mercury Injection

AbstractChang-10 reservoir in Wuqi–Ansai oilfield of Ordos Basin is restricted by its strong microscopic heterogeneity, complicated microscopic pore structure and unclear oil–water movement rules. The technology of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an excellent method to quantitatively evaluate the reservoir fluid of different pore structure types, and the microscopic experiments such as cast thin slices, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and high-pressure mercury injection were also used to analyze the differences in the occurrence features of fluid of different pore structure types and their influencing factors. The experimental results show that the sandstone types of Chang-10 reservoir in Wuqi–Ansai Oilfield are mainly medium-fine arkose and lithic arkose. The pore types are mainly intergranular pore, feldspar pore, turbiditic zeolite pore and cuttings pore. The combination type of pore-throat belongs to mesopore–micropore and microlarynx–microlarynx. By mercury injection experiment analyzed the characteristic of capillary pressure curve, Chang-10 reservoir in Wuqi–Ansai Oilfield pore structures is classified into Type I, Type II, Type III and Type IV due to the different movable fluid occurrence features. The occurrence features of movable fluid are obviously controlled by the pore-throat, and the orders of control effect from strong to weak are from Type I, Type II, Type III to IV The saturation of movable fluid gradually becomes low when the pore-throat radius decreases.

scholarly journals Characterization of Pore Throat Size Distribution in Tight Sandstones with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and High-Pressure Mercury Intrusion

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongjun Xu ◽  
Yiren Fan ◽  
Falong Hu ◽  
Changxi Li ◽  
Jun Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ◽  
High Pressure ◽  
Pore Throat ◽  
Tight Sandstone ◽  
Mercury Intrusion ◽  
Linear Conversion ◽  
Conversion Method ◽  
Conversion Coefficients ◽  
Nonlinear Conversion

Characterization of pore throat size distribution (PTSD) in tight sandstones is of substantial significance for tight sandstone reservoirs evaluation. High-pressure mercury intrusion (HPMI) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are the effective methods for characterizing PTSD of reservoirs. NMR T2 spectra is usually converted to mercury intrusion capillary pressure for PTSD characterization. However, the conversion is challenging in tight sandstones due to tiny pore throat sizes. In this paper, the linear conversion method and the nonlinear conversion method are investigated, and the error minimization method and the least square method are proposed to calculate the conversion coefficients of the linear conversion method and the nonlinear conversion method, respectively. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of these two different conversion methods are discussed and compared with field case study. The research results show that the average linear conversion coefficients of the 20 tight sandstone core plugs collected from Yanchang Formation, Ordos Basin of China is 0.0133 μm/ms; the average nonlinear conversion coefficient is 0.0093 μm/ms and the average nonlinear conversion exponent is 0.725. Although PTSD converted from NMR spectra by the nonlinear conversion method is wider than that obtained from linear conversion method, the nonlinear conversion method can retain the characteristic of bi-modal distribution in PTSD.

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