Comprehensive Experimental Study on the Gas Breakthrough Pressure and Its Implication for the Reservoir Performance

Abstract

Abstract It is challenging to interpret the gas breakthrough mechanisms, controlling factors, and its relationships with the reservoir parameters for unconventional reservoirs such as the gas shale, due to the accumulation characteristics of source-reservoir integration. Take the typical marine shale gas of the B field for example, we use the step-by-step (SBS) test to measure the gas breakthrough pressure of the water saturated shales, and investigate the influential factors such as the pore size distribution, mineral composition, and organic geochemical properties. Moreover, the implication of the gas breakthrough capability for the reservoir quality such as the porosity, permeability, the gas content, and the gas occurrence state are addressed. Based on our work, it is observed that the gas breakthrough capability in shale is influenced by many factors. Generally, the gas breakthrough pressure is positively with the amount of ductile minerals such as the clay and the plagioclase, but negatively with the amount of brittle minerals such as the quartz. In addition, the gas breakthrough pressure is decreased with the increase of the pore radius and the specific surface areas. What is more, the influences of geochemical properties on the gas breakthrough capability should not be neglected. Due to the development of organic pores in the kerogen, the gas breakthrough pressure is found to decrease with the increase of the total organic carbon content (TOC) and the residual carbon content (RC). The breakthrough pressure can be used as the significant parameter to indicate the reservoir quality of the shale gas. It is shown that the breakthrough pressure is inversely with the porosity, permeability, the total gas content, and the adsorbed gas content. It is practical and meaningful to measure and estimate the breakthrough pressure for the formation evaluation in shale gas reservoirs.