Rock Physics Laboratory at the PIRC (rooms 1-121, B-185) Description: The Rock Physics Lab at The PIRC examines the properties of rocks throughout experimental, imagining and numerical techniques. It focuses in the study of carbonate rocks response to seismic and EM (electromagnetic) waves, using experiments, images and numerical modeling. The lab intends to better understand how carbonate texture and heterogeneity lead different geophysical and geomechanical responses under different conditions of pressure, temperature and fluid content. The Rock Physics Lab is provided with equipment to perform research at different scales that aim to be integrated with field formations. Objectives: The main objective of the Rock Physics Lab is to improve the understanding of the response of carbonate rocks to different geophysical techniques, which potentially allows to optimize the information obtained from seismic and EM waves in the field. This will translate to a better reservoir characterization and monitoring of carbonate hydrocarbon reservoirs and aquifers. Other objectives include: - To study the effect of heterogeneity in the scaling of rock properties. - To better understand the effect of variations of rock properties during changes of partial saturation in carbonates. - To study the effect of different environmental conditions in carbonate rock properties using different physical methods, such as seismic and EM waves. - To contribute with research on the evolution of porosity and permeability in corals and their relation with rock formation and climate changes. - To support PIRC research in porous media, geosciences and petroleum engineering. Capability: The Rock Physic Lab at the PIRC contains an upstanding capacity comparable and up to similar research labs worldwide. In the actual configuration, we can measure rock properties, seismic and EM waves, and imagining-numerical simulation of rocks at scales that go from nano to mm scale (using micro plugs) and scales of mm to cm scale (using core plugs). A summary of the actual equipment, associated experiments and applications are shown in Table 1. In addition, we envision to reach same capability that we have for small rock scales (nm to cm) to bigger scales (cm to m) with future planned equipment to come. This new equipment will be able to perform measurements from cm to dm scale (using slab cores), dm to meter scale (using whole core and outcrop rock samples), and at the meter scale (using physical modeling). With this addition, PIRC will count with one of the best and more complete Rock Physics Lab worldwide.
Table 1. Summary of the existing equipment in the Rock Physics Lab at the PIRC, associated experiments and applications. Specialized Equipment Name Brand & Model Micro-CT Scanner (Figure 1, 2, 3, 5) Acoustic Velocity System (Figure 4, 6, 7, 8) Helium Porosimeter (Figure 6) Gas Permeameter (Figure 7) Automate Saturator (Figure 8) Impedance analyzer and Interphase (Figure 9) Core Flooding Acoustic Velocity System (Figure 10) Gas Displacement Pycnometer Zeiss-XRadia 520 Versa NER Autolab 1000 Corelab UltraPore 300 CoreLab UltraPerm 600 Vinci Solatron 1260 Vinci Customized AVS 700 Micrometerics AccuPyc 1340 Associated Experiments Acquires 3D images resolution 25 to 0.4 m Measurements of acoustic velocities (one Vp, Vs1 Vs2), and permeability at different conditions of pressure, temperature and full fluid saturation. Measures porosity at ambient conditions Measures permeability at different confining pressure Saturate samples at high pressure Measures EM impedance, i.e. resistivity, dielectric constant, magnetic susceptibility. Simulates 4D-seismic in core plugs while changes in fluid saturation are performed at different pressure conditions. Measures volume and density of rocks samples of any shape Applications Reservoir Characterization Reservoir Simulation Predictive Modeling and Simulation of Complex Reservoir Fluids Phase Equilibria and Transport Properties Scaling of rock properties Innovative approaches for characterizing carbonate reservoirs from geophysics Quantitative/Qualitative Seismic and Sonic log Interpretation Monitoring of fluids changes using timelapse seismic Reservoir Characterization Reservoir Characterization Monitoring of fluids changes Reservoir Characterization Innovative approaches for characterizing carbonate reservoirs from geophysics Quantitative/Qualitative Dielectric log Interpretation Quantitative/Qualitative EM Interpretation Monitoring of fluids changes using EM Predictive Modeling and Simulation of Complex Reservoir Fluids Phase Equilibria and Transport Properties EOR Innovative approaches for characterizing carbonate reservoirs from geophysics Monitoring of fluids changes using timelapse seismic Quantitative/Qualitative Seismic and Sonic log Interpretation Reservoir Characterization Gravity surveys modeling and interpretation Innovative approaches for characterizing carbonate reservoirs from geophysics
FIGURES (a) Figure 1. Micro-CT scanner at PIRC B-185: (a) Equipment; and Example of Snapshots of 3D image acquisition
(e) Figure 2.Examples of Micro-CT scanner applications (Sun et al 2015): (a to d) Textural heterogeneity study in carbonate rocks; and (e) Anisotropy study that shows dissimilar fluid velocity distribution at different directions.
Figure 3.Examples of Micro-CT scanner applications: Multiscale analysis of rock images (Sun et al 2016).
(a) Figure 4. Autolab 1000 at PIRC 1-121: (a) Equipment and sketch (after Jing, 2016); and Application example: Vp and Vs measured at various differential pressure and two different fluids in sample A (Jing, 2016).
(a) Macropores in red (c) Micropores in red (d) Figure 5. Examples of combining thin sections, SEM and CT-scan images to better understand the seismic response of sample A in Figure 4b: (a) Thin section images analysis identifying macro-pores; SEM images zooming micro-pores; (c) SEM image analysis identifying micro-pores; and (d) 3D CT-scan of the core plug, size 441x441x441 voxels and resolution of 12.74 µm/voxel.
(a) Figure 6. Porosimeter at PIRC 1-121: (a) Equipment; and Application example that combines Vp and Vs measurements as function of porosity (Anselmetti and Eberli, 1993)
(a) Figure 7. Permeameter at PIRC 1-121: (a) Equipment; and Application example that combines Vp and Vs measurements as function of permeability (Jing, 2016).
(a) Figure 8. Saturator at PIRC 1-121: (a) Equipment; and Application example that combines Vp measurements as function of porosity and effect of type of fluid (data and plot courtesy of Xi Jing).
(a) Figure 9. EM equipment at PIRC 1-121: (a) Equipment; and Application example that uses and compares the results of dielectric constant and porosity to create a conceptual model of the Miami Oolitic limestone (data and draws courtesy of Sandra Vega).
(a) (i) (ii) Figure 10. Core Flooding Acoustic Velocity System at PIRC 1-121: (a) Equipment and sketch; and Application example that shows measurements of Vp as a function of partial water and oil saturation (experimental points in blue and red). (Courtesy of El Husseiny, 2017).
LIST OF REFERENCES Anselmetti, F. S. and Eberli, G. P. (1993) Controls on sonic velocity in carbonates, Pure and Applied Geophysics, 141(2-4), 287-323. Jing, X. (2016) Effect of texture on acoustic velocity in Jurassic carbonate rocks, Master thesis of Petroleum Geoscience, Petroleum Institute. Mokhtar, E-A. (2014) Impact of saturation changes on acoustic velocities of carbonate rocks, Master thesis of Petroleum Geoscience, Petroleum Institute. Sun, H.F., Vega S., Tao, G. (2015) Study on permeability anisotropy in carbonate reservoir samples using digital rock physics. SPE-77540-MS. Paper presented at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference held in Abu Dhabi UAE, 9-12 November, 2015. Sun, H.F., Vega S., Tao, G., Yong, H., Li, B. (2016) Estimation of Petrophysical Parameters of Heterogeneous Carbonate Rock Sample with Multi-Scale Images. SPE-183114-MS. Paper presented at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference to be held in Abu Dhabi UAE, 7-10 November, 2016.