Petrophysical and Geomechanical Characteristics of Canadian Tight Oil and Liquid-Rich Gas Reservoirs
Authors: Ghanizadeh A. , Aquino S. , Clarkson C. R. , Haeri-Ardakani O. , Sanei H. 
Published: September 2014

The results from an ongoing laboratory study investigating petrophysical and geomechanical characteristics of the Montney and Bakken formations in Canada are presented. The primary objectives are to 1) fully characterize the pore network (porosity, pore size distribution) and fluid transport (permeability) properties of these formations in areas with limited datasets; 2) investigate the interrelationship between petrophysical and geomechanical characteristics of these fine-grained tight reservoirs; and 3) analyze the effects of different geological factors on porosity, pore size distribution and permeability. The techniques used for characterization include: Rock-Eval pyrolysis (Tmax, TOC); bitumen reflectance; petrography (grain size); helium pycnometry; low-pressure gas (N2) adsorption (surface area, pore size distribution); pressure-decay profile permeability, pulse-decay and crushed-rock gas (N2, He) permeability; fracture permeability and mechanical hardness tests.

Rock-Eval analysis and microscopic observations indicate that most samples are organic-lean (average TOC content: 0.3%), ranging from fine-grained siltstone to very fine-grained sandstone (grain size: 31.8-53.7 μm). The measured pulse-decay and crushed-rock permeability values increase significantly with increasing porosity (2.1-14.1%), ranging between 1.1·10-6 and 7.3·10-2 mD. For the plugs analyzed ("as-received"), profile (probe) permeability values (9.1·10-4 - 6.7·10-3 mD) are consistently higher than pulse-decay (1.6·10-5 - 9·10-4 mD) and crushed-rock (1.1·10-6 - 5.4·10-5 mD) permeability values. Corrected profile (probe) permeability values for "in-situ" effective stress (5.3·10-5 - 1·10-3 mD) are, however, comparable with the pulse-decay (1.6·10-5 - 9·10-4 mD) permeability values. Unpropped fracture permeability, determined using an innovative procedure in this work, can be significantly (up to eight orders of magnitude) higher than matrix permeability under similar effective stress conditions. The grain size and mechanical hardness data are correlated to permeability. The dominant pore throat diameter controlling fluid flow is estimated for all samples using Winland-style correlations; these values agree with those obtained from low-pressure N2 adsorption analysis.

Applying multiple innovative analysis techniques on a large number of samples (26 m of slabbed core, 22 core plugs and their accompanying cuttings), this study provides a roadmap to fully characterize the fluid storage and transport properties of fine-grained tight oil and liquid-rich gas reservoirs. We demonstrate that pore structure, large- and fine-scale (cm-size) permeability heterogeneity, and mechanical characteristics of tight oil and liquid-rich gas reservoirs can be suitably-characterized using the methods we have used with application to flow-unit identification and mechanical stratigraphy determination. We further present useful correlations between petrophysical and geomechanical properties for the reservoirs studied.