Events

Speaker:  Dr. Matthew Andrew, Scientist/Imaging Technologist at Carl Zeiss X-Ray Microscopy

Title of Seminar: “Organic hosted and intergranular pore networks: Topography and Topology in Grains, Gaps &. Bubbles”

Abstract: The advent of shale production has transformed the energy industry, however to date a generic pore scale recovery mechanisms (governed by pore network structure) has been lacking. Two qualitatively different pore systems were compared and contrasted using scale independent techniques, finding organic hosted porosity (nanometer scale and common in unconventional reservoirs) to be much better connected than intergranular porosity (micrometer scale and common in conventional reservoirs). This contrast is explained by variations in pore shape, caused in turn by variations in the geological processes responsible for pore network genesis. These processes were examined by creating a suite synthetic pore geometries with strong statistical agreement between imaged and synthetic pore networks. Synthetic pore networks were then used to examine how connectivity changes with porosity (as may arise by varying degrees of shale maturity, or by reservoir diagenesis), showing that network connectivity, needed for effective capillary imbibition, is much easier to achieve in organic-type pore networks than in the intergranular-type pore networks. We then review how such techniques might be applied to solve problems within the petroleum industry, including the development of new pore-scale core analysis techniques and the application of wellsite imaging to aid production operations.

Biography:  Dr. Matthew Andrew currently directs development of high resolution imaging technologies for the Oil and Gas Industry and the Geosciences within ZEISS microscopy. He completed his PhD at Imperial College London, where he developed the first pore scale core analysis system capable of imaging multiple fluid phases at reservoir conditions, which he used to examine a range of petrophysical properties including wettability, capillary pressure, flow dynamics and trapping behavior. His current research interests include the use of multiscale experimental methods for the investigation of multiphase flow, the integration of multimodal high resolution analysis with modern data science tools, the application of automated high resolution imaging technology to petroleum operations problems and the integration of data science techniques with petroleum production.