SHALE PETROPHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Kashy Aminian
Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering
West Virginia University
INFUSE
February 29, 2016
KEY RESERVOIR CHARACTERISTICS
Porosity

Permeability

The Reservoir Rock Contains a 3-D Network of

Interconnected Pores which allows for to
Storage and Transmission of Fluids.
 KEY RESERVOIR CHARACTERISTICS

Vp

Vb
Vb Bulk Volume
Vp Pore Void Volume
THE OPEN SPACE CREATED BETWEEN
GRAINS DURING DEPOSITION IS REFERRED
TO AS THE VOID, OR PORE, SPACE.
 KEY RESERVOIR CHARACTERISTICS
PERMEABILITY IS DEFINED BASED ON AN EQUATION, DEVELOPED
BY HENRY DARCY:

qL
k
A p1 p2

q Flow Rate through the Porous Medium

A The Area across which the flow occurs
Fluid Viscosity
L Length of the Medium.
 KEY RESERVOIR CHARACTERISTICS
1 cp
1 cc/sec 1 cm
qL
k 1 darcy
A p1 p2
1 cm2
1 atm
One darcy is a relatively high permeability and millidarcy
(md) is commonly used as the permeability unit.

1 darcy = 1000 md
PERMEABILITY MEASUREMENT
GAS SLIPPAGE
Low Pressure High Pressure
UNCONVENTIONAL RESERVOIRS
SHALE GAS RESERVOIRS
 LANGMUIR ISOTHERM
GAS STORAGE CAPACITY

VL p
GS
PL p

Gs = Gas StorageCapacity
VL = Langmuir Volume Constant
PL=Langmuir Pressure Constant
p = Pressure, psia

PRESSURE
 MEASUREMENT OF
SHALE PETROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PORE VOLUME PORE SIZE DISTRIBUTION
Low-pressure gas pycnometry MICP
High-pressure mercury injection NMR
SEM/STEM
Low-temperature adsorption Low-temperature Adsorption

PERMEABILITY ADSORPTION
GRI Method Gravimetric
Pressure Pulse Decay Volumetric
 SHALE PERMEABILITY MEASUREMENT
IT IS NOT PRACTICAL TO MEASURE THE PERMEABILITY OF
SHALE BY CONVENTIONAL (STEADY-STATE) TECHNIQUES
BECAUSE OF LOW PERMEABILITY.

GRI METHOD (CRUSHED SAMPLE)

UNSTEADY-STATE METHODS
PRESSURE PULSE DECAY
 CRUSHED SAMPLE PERMEABILITY
DEVELOPED BY GAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND IS REFERRED TO AS "GRI" METHOD.

No Standard Protocol

Inconsistent Results
Particles in the 20-35 US mesh size
range (0.85 to 0.5mm)
PRESSURE PLUS DECAY

DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS

COMPLEX AND TEDIOUS CALCULATIONS

 CHALLENGES
GAS SLIPPAGE CORRECTION

IMPACT OF GAS ADSORPTION

IMPACT OF STRESS
 PRECISION PETROPHYSICAL
ANALYSIS LABORATORY (PPAL) AT WVU

MEASUREMENT CAPABILITIES
PERMEABILITY (NANO-DARCY RANGE).
PORE VOLUME (0.1% ACCURACY).
ABSOLUTE PERMEABILITY (GAS PRESSURE CORRECTION)
IMPACT OF STRESS (RESERVOIR CONDITIONS).
IMPACT OF ADSORPTION
PORE STRUCTURE CHARACTERIZATION

ACCURATE, CONSISTENT, AND REPEATABLE RESULTS

 ABSOLUTE PERMEABILITY
1000
Helium 1000
y = 90090x - 66.106
800 Nitrogen
Permeability, nD

R = 0.9865 800 y = 8E+06x + 154.3

Permeability, nD
R = 0.9603
600 600

400 400
y = 5E+06x + 155.51
200
y = 57377x + 11.06
200 R = 0.9705
R = 0.9992
0 0
0.0E+00 2.0E-03 4.0E-03 6.0E-03 8.0E-03 1.0E-02 0.0E+00 2.0E-05 4.0E-05 6.0E-05 8.0E-05 1.0E-04
Inverse of Pressure, Psia-1 Inverse of Pressure Squared, Psia-2

Traditional Klinkenberg Analysis

Gas Slippage Modified Klinkenberg Analysis
Gas Double Slippage
ADSORPTION
 ADSORPTION ISOTHERM
70

104 F, TOC: 1.2% (Published Data)

60

50 79 F, TOC: 0.8% (PPAL)

Gs, SFC/ton

40
Crushed Sample (Commercial Lab)
30 169 F, TOC: 0.8%

20

10

0
0 1000 2000 3000
Pressure, psia
IMPACT OF STRESS

13
k ko

lnp po
 Series1
SEQUENTIAL STRESS
340
250
Series2
290 230 Series1
Permeability, nD

Permeability, nD
210 Series2
240 190
170
190
150

140 130
110
90 90
500 2500 4500 6500 8500 500 2500 4500 6500 8500
Net Stress, Psia 1
Net Stress, Psia

Series1
Series2
0.9
Series 4

0.8

ln p po
0.7
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
 ADSORPTION ISOTHERMS
Micromeritics ASAP 2020

Multilayer Adsorption
Nitrogen Adsorption
Slit-like pores at Low Temperature