Neil Hurley is a Scientific Advisor with Schlumberger’s Dhahran Carbonate Research Center; he is currently seconded to Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC ARC group in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. His research interests include borehole images and all aspects of carbonate reservoir characterization. He worked for Conoco Inc. and Marathon Oil Company from 1978-1996, and he is an Emeritus Professor, retired from the Colorado School of Mines in 2006. He earned his BS degrees in geology and petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California in 1976, his MS degree in geology from the University of Wisconsin in 1978, and his PhD degree in geology from the University of Michigan in 1986. He is past Editor (1997-2001) and Vice President (2004-2005) of AAPG.

Abstract

Confocal Microtomography
Neil Hurley, Weishu Zhao, Tuanfeng Zhang, Guangping Xu Schlumberger

Various petrophysical techniques have been used to quantify microporosity, including mercury injection capillary pressure, nuclear magnetic resonance, and specific surface area measurements using gas sorption. Petrographic techniques include micro-computed tomographic (CT) scans and scanning electron microscopy coupled with ion-beam thinning.

A new workflow, based upon techniques drawn from the medical industry, uses transmitted laser scanning microscopy to provide high-resolution (down to 250-nm) physical pore models, which quantitatively capture porosity. From this we compute pore-size distributions and create 3D pore-network models to numerically determine capillary pressures, resistivity indices, permeabilities, and relative permeabilities.

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