Digital core laboratory: Properties of reservoir core derived from 3D images

M. A. Knackstedt*, C. H. Arns, A. Limaye, A. Sakellariou, T. J. Senden, A. P. Sheppard, R. M. Sok, W. V. Pinczewski, G. F. Bunn

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

    58 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A facility for digital imaging, visualizing and calculation of reservoir rock properties in three dimensions (3D) is described. The facility includes a high resolution X-ray micro-computed tomography system capable of acquiring 3D images made up of 20003 voxels on core plugs up to 5 cm diameter with resolutions down to 2 μm. Subsets of four sandstone reservoir core plugs (5 mm in diameter) from a single well of a producing gas field are imaged in this study. The four cores exhibit a broad range of pore and grain sizes, porosity, permeability and mineralogy. Computational results made directly on the digitized tomographic images are presented for the pore size distribution, permeability, formation factor, NMR response and drainage capillary pressure. We show that data across a range of porosity can be computed from the suite of 5 mm plugs. Computations of permeability, formation factor and drainage capillary pressure are compared to data from a comprehensive SCAL laboratory study on 70 cores from the same well. The results are in good agreement. Empirical correlations between permeability and other petrophysical parameters are made and compared to common correlations. The results demonstrate the potential to predict petrophysical properties from core material not suited for laboratory testing (e.g., drill cuttings, sidewall core or damaged core) and the feasibility of combining digitized images with numerical calculations to predict properties and derive correlations for individual reservoir rock lithologies.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages105-118
    Number of pages14
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2004
    EventSPE Asia Pacific Conference on Integrated Modelling for Asset Management, "Maximising Value Through Effective Asset Management" - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
    Duration: 29 Mar 200430 Mar 2004

    Conference

    ConferenceSPE Asia Pacific Conference on Integrated Modelling for Asset Management, "Maximising Value Through Effective Asset Management"
    Country/TerritoryMalaysia
    CityKuala Lumpur
    Period29/03/0430/03/04

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