Pore-scale Imaging and Characterization of Hydrocarbon Reservoir Rock Wettability at Subsurface Conditions Using X-ray Microtomography
File(s)Alhammadi_et_al_2018.pdf (1.81 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Alhammadi, Amer M
AlRatrout, Ahmed
Bijeljic, Branko
Blunt, Martin J
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In situ wettability measurements in hydrocarbon reservoir rocks have only been possible recently. The purpose of this work is to present a protocol to characterize the complex wetting conditions of hydrocarbon reservoir rock using pore-scale three-dimensional X-ray imaging at subsurface conditions. In this work, heterogeneous carbonate reservoir rocks, extracted from a very large producing oil field, have been used to demonstrate the protocol. The rocks are saturated with brine and oil and aged over three weeks at subsurface conditions to replicate the wettability conditions that typically exist in hydrocarbon reservoirs (known as mixed-wettability). After the brine injection, high-resolution three-dimensional images (2 µm/voxel) are acquired and then processed and segmented. To calculate the distribution of the contact angle, which defines the wettability, the following steps are performed. First, fluid-fluid and fluid-rock surfaces are meshed. The surfaces are smoothed to remove voxel artefacts, and in situ contact angles are measured at the three-phase contact line throughout the whole image. The main advantage of this method is its ability to characterize in situ wettability accounting for pore-scale rock properties, such as rock surface roughness, rock chemical composition, and pore size. The in situ wettability is determined rapidly at hundreds of thousands of points. The method is limited by the segmentation accuracy and X-ray image resolution. This protocol could be used to characterize the wettability of other complex rocks saturated with different fluids and at different conditions for a variety of applications. For example, it could help in determining the optimal wettability that could yield an extra oil recovery (i.e., designing brine salinity accordingly to obtain higher oil recovery) and to find the most efficient wetting conditions to trap more CO2 in subsurface formations.
Date Issued
2018-10-21
Date Acceptance
2018-10-01
Citation
Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2018, 140
ISSN
1940-087X
Publisher
Journal of Visualized Experiments
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Visualized Experiments
Volume
140
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Author(s). Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Sponsor
Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations (ADCO)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30394374
Grant Number
16312.01
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Engineering
Issue 140
Wettability
contact angle
X-ray microtomography
pore scale
multiphase flow
subsurface conditions
segmentation
CONTACT-ANGLE
CAPILLARY-PRESSURE
MIXED-WETTABILITY
SIZE DISTRIBUTION
MULTIPHASE FLOW
CRUDE-OIL
CURVATURE
RECOVERY
WET
SEGMENTATION
Hydrocarbons
Wettability
X-Ray Microtomography
Hydrocarbons
Wettability
X-Ray Microtomography
1702 Cognitive Sciences
0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology
1701 Psychology
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Article Number
e57915
Date Publish Online
2018-10-21