The bitumen development effect on the pore structure and electrical resistivity of carbonate reservoirs in the Sinian Dengying Formation

Abstract

Abstract In the Sichuan Basin, bitumen widely distributes in the carbonate reservoir, and the bitumen occurrence morphology affects the pore structure and petrophysics. Two types of bitumen, boundary-filled and centre-filled, were reconstructed using a pore morphology-based method based on dolomite carbonate digital cores from X-ray computerized tomography. The pore structures of the reconstructed bitumen-filled digital core models were determined using an extracted pore network model. The finite element method simulated the electrical resistivity of the digital core model. The investigation showed that (i) boundary-developed bitumen increases the pore size whereas centre-developed bitumen decreases the pore size, and bitumen development increases the shape factor while reducing the coordination number; (ii) for electrical resistivity, boundary-filled bitumen increases the porosity exponent with increasing pore size, whereas centre-filled bitumen decreases the porosity exponent. Bitumen development caused a negative correlation between the porosity exponent and pore shape factor, a logarithmic increase between the porosity exponent and coordination number, and a power increase between the porosity exponent and porosity. Subsequently, a new porosity exponent model related to porosity was proposed based on the curve-fitting method. This new porosity exponent combines the Archie equations to calculate the saturation of the carbonate reservoir in the Sinian Dengying Formation in the Penglai gas area on the northern slope of the central Sichuan paleo-uplift, which fits the sealed core plug saturation well and provides the basis for further reservoir evaluation and fluid identification in the Penglai gas area.