On-line microscopic imaging investigation on oil charging characteristics in tight reservoirs

Abstract

The reservoir space of tight reservoir with low-permeability is controlled by micro and nano scale pores, making the influence of capillary force significantly enhanced. Therefore, understanding the microscopic charging characteristics of oil and gas is the basis for analyzing the migration and accumulation of reservoirs. In this paper, the self-developed on-line three-dimensional microscopic imaging system for core fluid displacement is used to observe the oil charging process of two tight reservoir samples, and core-level and pore-level quantitative analysis methods for oil content characteristics are proposed. Taking the on-line nuclear magnetic resonance testing with the same process of displacement as a contrast, it is revealed that the average difference of on-line 2D DR (Digital Radiography) images at different times can be used to evaluate the overall oil content change of the sample. The calculation method of pore level fluid saturation based on high-precision pore network extraction algorithm realizes the quantitative evaluation of oil charging degree of the CT resolved pores and pore throats. The combination of multi-level data and different methods can meet the different needs of different researches on dynamic feature capture, pore resolution and imaging field of vision. The analysis results show that the oil saturation of two rock samples from different tight reservoirs in the Ordos Basin increases rapidly at the beginning and slows down later with oil injection increasing. At the same injection flow rate, the oil saturation of the sample with higher permeability increases faster at the initial oil charging stage, making its final oil saturation higher. With the increase of oil injection, the oil saturation of macropores in the sample with higher permeability continuously increases, while that of macropores in the sample with lower permeability shows a U-shaped change, showing the characte-ristics of repeated occupation of pores by oil and water.

Keywords

• on-line microscopic imaging
• oil charging
• digital radiography(dr)
• pore network
• tight reservoir