Tight Rock Core Analysis Course

Chris Clarkson

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Low-permeability ('tight') reservoirs are an important target of exploitation for the Canadian oil and gas industry, yet reservoir characterization methods for these reservoir types are still in their infancy. Cores, or more generally, reservoir samples, are a primary source of petrophysical, geochemical and geomechanical information, but analysis techniques are evolving and much debated in the industry. Read more...

This course on tight rock core analysis reviews the state-of-the-art methods currently used to derive key reservoir properties from reservoir samples. Application of "routine" core analysis techniques for determination of porosity, pore size distributions, and permeability will be discussed, and limitations highlighted. Special core analysis methods to obtain wettability (macro- and micro-wettability), liquid and relative permeability, incremental oil recovery (using surfactants and gas injection), and rock mechanical properties will be reviewed. Finally, a rigorous workflow for evaluating tight reservoir samples is reviewed and demonstrated using several tight/shale gas, oil and liquid-rich play examples from Western Canada and the U.S.

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Course contents

    Chapter 1 - Routine Measurements

    1.01 Intro to Tight Rock Core Analysis (19 min.)  Sample Lesson

    1.02 Workflows (14 min.)

    1.03 Core Preparation - Part 1 (25 min.)

    1.04 Core Preparation - Part 2 (12 min.) Quiz

    1.05 Porosity - Part 1 (6 min.)

    1.06 Porosity - Part 2 (Pore Types) (15 min.)

    1.07 Porosity - Part 3 (Measurement) (16 min.)

    1.08 Porosity - Part 4 (Grain Density/Bulk Volume) (18 min.)

    1.09 Porosity - Part 5 (GRI Method) (14 min.) Quiz

    1.10 Pore Size Distribution - Part 1 (8 min.)

    1.11 Pore Size Distribution - Part 2 (LPA) (20 min.)

    1.12 Pore Size Distribution - Part 3 (SANS/USANS) (11 min.) Quiz

    1.13 Permeability - Part 1 (16 min.)

    1.14 Permeability - Part 2 (Klinkenberg Correction) (13 min.)

    1.15 Permeability - Part 3 (Standards for Tight Rocks) (7 min.)

    1.16 Permeability - Part 4 (Measurement) (11 min.)

    1.17 Permeability - Part 5 (USS Perm. - Crushed-Rock) (16 min.)

    1.18 Permeability - Part 6 (Drill Cutting) (8 min.)

    1.19 Permeability - Part 7 (Drill Cutting - 2) (17 min.)

    1.20 Permeability - Part 8 (Slabbed Core) (20 min.)

    1.21 Permeability - Part 9 (Pulse-Decay) (14 min.)

    1.22 Permeability - Part 10 (Method Comparison) (16 min.)

    1.23 Permeability - Part 11 (Pore Throat Size) (6 min.)

    1.24 Permeability - Part 12 (Fracture Permeability) (24 min.) Quiz

    1.25 Stress Dependence - Part 1 (18 min.)

    1.26 Stress Dependence - Part 2 (Biot Constant) (6 min.)

    1.27 Stress Dependence - Part 3 (Facture Compressibility (10 min.)

    1.28 Permeability & Stress-Sensitivity Summary (12 min.) Quiz

    1.29 Mercury Intrusion Capillary Pressure (MICP) - Part 1 (23 min.) Quiz

    1.30 MICP - Part 2 (NUTECH Study) (18 min.)

    1.31 MICP - Part 3 (Characterizing Hydraulic Rock Types & Flow Units) (9 min.)

    Chapter 2 - Special Core Analysis

    2.01 Special Core Analysis Overview (7 min.)

    2.02 Wettability - Part 1 (18 min.)

    2.03 Wettability - Part 2 (Video Example) (13 min.)

    2.04 Wettability - Part 3 (Effect of Scale) (14 min.) Quiz

    2.05 Liquid Permeability - Part 1 (24 min.)

    2.06 Liquid Permeability - Part 2 (Gas vs. Liquid) (13 min.) Quiz

    2.07 Relative Permeability - Part 1 (12 min.)

    2.08 Relative Permeability - Part 2 (Dacy Method) (13 min.)

    2.09 Relative Permeability - Part 3 (Modified Dacy Method) (18 min.)

    2.10 Relative Permeability - Part 4 (Crushed Rock Methods) (19 min.) Quiz

    2.11 Imbibition (16 min.)

    2.12 Core-Flooding (25 min.)

    2.13 Additional Huff-n-Puff Studies - Part 1 (23 min.)

    2.14 Additional Huff-n-Puff Studies - Part 2 (Impact of Induced Fractures) (21 min.)

    2.15 Additional Huff-n-Puff Studies - Part 3 (Effect of Water Saturation) (26 min.) Quiz

    2.16 Mechanical Properties - Part 1 (7 min.)

    2.17 Mechanical Properties - Part 2 (Microhardness) (21 min.)

    2.18 Elastic/Mechanical Properties - Part 1 (Sonic Velocity) (12 min.)

    2.19 Elastic/Mechanical Properties - Part 2 (Montney/Duvernay Comparison) (20 min.)

    2.20 Elastic/Mechanical Properties - Part 3 (Ultrasonic) (23 min.)

    2.21 Mechanical Properties - Part 3 (Static Measurements) (6 min.)

    2.22 Mechanical Properties - Part 4 (Indirectly from Cuttings) (10 min.)

    2.23 Poroelasticity & Non-Darcy Flow (31 min.) Quiz

    Chapter 3 - Case Studies

    3.01 Case Study Introduction (2 min.)

    3.02 Case Study #1 - Part 1 (27 min.)

    3.03 Case Study #1 - Part 2 (26 min.)

    3.04 Case Study #2 - Part 1 (20 min.)

    3.05 Case Study #2 - Part 2 (14 min.)

    3.06 Case Study #3 - Part 1 (13 min.)

    3.07 Case Study #3 - Part 2 (21 min.)

    3.08 Case Study #3 - Part 3 (6 min.) Quiz