Digital Rock Physics and Challenge in Formation Evaluation of Carbonate Reservoir, Case Study

Abstract

Abstract A project study has been performed in order to evaluate a number of reservoir characterization and petrophysical parameters using Digital Rock Physics (DRP) technology in complex carbonate reservoir, on-shore Abu Dhabi. High-resolution images (X-ray micro-tomographic) of the rock's pores and mineral grains were obtained, processed and the rock properties were evaluated by numerical simulation of the physical processes of interest at the pore scale. The selection of core samples in carbonate reservoir was performed with considering reservoir rock type, logs and routine core analysis data for validation and application phase. A set of special core analysis (SCAL) data were acquired earlier on the core samples in different carbonate reservoir rock types of varying levels of heterogeneity, lithology, porosity, and absolute permeability. This set of measurements formed the baseline for our validation study, then similar DRP approach and improvement is applied for non-SCAL cores. This process is used in DRP study to evaluate cementation exponents ‘m’, saturation exponents ‘n’, water-oil relative permeabilities, capillary pressures and elastic parameters such as compressional/shear wave velocities. An integration of core and logs data in particular carbonate reservoir has been used to provide accurate and reliable results in the validation phase of DRP. It has been observed in DRP that connected micrite phase conductivity contribution has been determined for improvement approach by assigning a finite conductivity σmic to the micrite phase to get reliable formation factor, cementation and saturation exponent. DRP and core J-capillary were integrated to provide reliable saturation-heights in this carbonate reservoir. The integration of formation evaluation in this case study has provided improvement, reliability in DRP results for formation evaluation and the potential to improve the quality and timeliness of carbonate reservoir characterization.