Use of scanning electron microscopy for the classification of rocks of oil and gas reservoirs

Abstract

With the development of electron microscopy-based porosity measurement techniques, it is possible to devise new oil and gas reservoir rock classification schemes that would take the geometrical features of the pore space into account. This is associated with the fact that the structure of the pore space of reservoir rocks has a significant effect on the recovery of hydrocarbons upon reservoir processing. For several years, we have carried out microstructural studies of rocks from the productive strata of various fields using cathodoluminescence scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and porometric software for the analysis of SEM images. The investigations show that it is possible to classify reservoirs by the connectivity of pores and pore channels in reservoir rocks.