Impacts of Mineralogy on Petrophysical Properties
Lima, Maira C.O.; Pontedeiro, Elizabeth M.; Ramirez, Mateus G.; Favoreto, Julia; dos Santos, Hélisson N.; van Genuchten, Martinus Th; Borghi, Leonardo; Couto, Paulo; Raoof, Amir
(2022) Transport in Porous Media, volume 145, issue 1, pp. 103 - 125
(Article)
Abstract
Because of their extreme heterogeneity at multiple scales, carbonate rocks present a great challenge for studying and managing oil reservoirs. Depositional processes and diagenetic alterations of carbonates may have produced very complex pore structures and, consequently, variable fluid storage and flow properties of hydrocarbon reservoirs. To understand the impact of
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mineralogy on the pore system, we analyzed four carbonate rock samples (coquinas) from the Morro do Chaves Formation in Brazil. For this study, we used thin sections and XRD for their mineralogical characterization, together with routine core analysis, NMR, MICP and microCT for the petrophysical characterizations. The samples revealed very similar porosity values but considerably different permeabilities. Samples with a relatively high quartz content (terrigenous material) generally had lower permeabilities, mostly caused by more mineral fragmentation. Samples with little or no quartz in turn exhibited high permeabilities due to less fragmentation and more diagenetic actions (e.g., dissolution of shells). Results confirm that carbonate minerals are very susceptible to diagenesis, leading to modifications in their pore body and pore throat sizes, and creating pores classified as moldic and vug pores, or even clogging them. For one of the samples, we acquired detailed pore skeleton information based on microCT images to obtain a more complete understanding of its structural characteristics.
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Keywords: Carbonate rocks, Coquinas, Heterogeneity, Permeability, Petrophysical properties, Pore scale, Catalysis, General Chemical Engineering
ISSN: 0169-3913
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Note: Funding Information: This research was carried out in association with ongoing R&D projects registered as ANP 19027-2, “Desenvolvimento de infraestrutura para pesquisa e desenvolvimento em recuperação avançada de óleo – EOR no Brasil” (UFRJ/Shell Brasil/ ANP) setting-up a advanced EOR Lab facility for R&D in Brasil, and ANP 20163-2, “Análise experimental da recuperação de petróleo para as rochas carbonáticas do pré-sal brasileiro através da injeção alternada de CO2 e água”, with samples provided by Project SACL (Análise geológica sedimentar de sucessões carbonáticas do Cretáceo em uma bacia sedimentar brasileira (ANP n.18993-6), all sponsored by Shell Brasil under the ANP R&D levy as “Compromisso de Investimentos com Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento”. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior- Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001, and carried out with the support of CNPq (National Council of Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil). We acknowledge Prof. Rodrigo Bagueira (UFF-LAR) for helping with saturating the samples and use of the NMR equipment. We further acknowledge CETEM (Centro de Tecnologia Mineral) for the XRD analysis. We also thank the research teams of LRAP/COPPE/UFRJ and LAGESED/UFRJ. Funding Information: This research was carried out in association with ongoing R&D projects registered as ANP 19027-2, “Desenvolvimento de infraestrutura para pesquisa e desenvolvimento em recuperação avançada de óleo – EOR no Brasil” (UFRJ/Shell Brasil/ ANP) setting-up a advanced EOR Lab facility for R&D in Brasil, and ANP 20163-2, “Análise experimental da recuperação de petróleo para as rochas carbonáticas do pré-sal brasileiro através da injeção alternada de CO e água”, with samples provided by Project SACL (Análise geológica sedimentar de sucessões carbonáticas do Cretáceo em uma bacia sedimentar brasileira (ANP n.18993-6), all sponsored by Shell Brasil under the ANP R&D levy as “Compromisso de Investimentos com Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento”. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior- Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001, and carried out with the support of CNPq (National Council of Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil). We acknowledge Prof. Rodrigo Bagueira (UFF-LAR) for helping with saturating the samples and use of the NMR equipment. We further acknowledge CETEM (Centro de Tecnologia Mineral) for the XRD analysis. We also thank the research teams of LRAP/COPPE/UFRJ and LAGESED/UFRJ. 2 Funding Information: This work was supported by Shell Brasil in association with ongoing R&D projects registered as ANP 19027-2 (UFRJ/Shell Brasil/ ANP) setting-up an advanced EOR Lab facility for R&D in Brasil, and ANP 20163-2. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
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