Imaging Unconventional Reservoir Pore Systems

This Memoir covers recent advances in the acquisition and application of high-resolution image data to unconventional reservoirs. The value of integrating multiple techniques is a common theme. Chapters address imaging methods, recognition of artifacts, and case studies that explore nanopore systems within particular depositional settings. The importance of mineralogy, organic matter content, and fabric to reservoir quality issues such as wettability, porosity, and formation damage are addressed. This volume will prove useful to anyone interested in the methods for observing and quantifying the pore systems that control hydrocarbon storage and flow in unconventional reservoirs. Unconventional reservoirs studied include Bakken, Barnett, Bossier, Eagle Ford, Geneseo, Green River, Horn River, Marcellus, Mississippi Lime, Monterey, Niobrara, Wolfcamp, and Woodford formations.
2-D Pore Architecture Characterization of a Carbonate Mudrock Reservoir: Insights from the Mid-Continent “Mississippi Lime”
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Published:January 01, 2016
Abstract
This study shows examples of how fundamental relationships between pore shape, porosity, permeability, and acoustic response differ in carbonate mudrocks with micro- to picoporosity (<62 μm diameter) compared to conventional carbonates with primarily macroporosity (256-4 mm diameter). Quantitative data show that some positive correlations exist between porosity and permeability, similar to those observed in conventional carbonates. However, several expected relationships between properties, such as pore shape and laboratory-measured porosity and permeability, are not readily apparent and appear to be complicated by the internal pore architecture coupled with diagenetic alterations and a multiscale fracture network. Additionally, there is a significant...
- acoustical methods
- carbonate rocks
- Carboniferous
- classification
- clastic rocks
- cores
- depositional environment
- diagenesis
- electron microscopy data
- geophysical methods
- lithofacies
- Midcontinent
- mineral composition
- Mississippian
- mudstone
- observations
- Oklahoma
- Osage County Oklahoma
- Paleozoic
- permeability
- petroleum
- physical properties
- porosity
- qualitative analysis
- quantitative analysis
- reservoir rocks
- sedimentary rocks
- SEM data
- sequence stratigraphy
- thin sections
- two-dimensional models
- United States
- wackestone
- well logs
- X-ray diffraction data
- north-central Oklahoma
- Mississippi Lime