Hydrodynamic resistance of pore–throat structures and its effect on shale oil apparent permeability

Oil transport is greatly affected by heterogeneous pore–throat structures present in shale.It is therefore very important to accurately characterize pore–throat structures.Additionally,it remains unclear how pore–throat structures affect oil transport capacity.In this paper,using finite element(FE)simulation and mathematical modeling,we calculated the hydrodynamic resistance for four pore–throat structure.In addition,the influence of pore throat structure on shale oil permeability is analyzed.According to the results,the hydrodynamic resistance of different pore throat structures can vary by 300%.The contribution of additional resistance caused by streamline bending is also in excess of 40%,even without slip length.Fur-thermore,Pore–throat structures can affect apparent permeability by more than 60%on the REV scale,and this influence increases with heterogeneity of pore size distribution,organic matter content,and organic matter number.Clearly,modeling shale oil flow requires consideration of porous–throat structure and additional resistance,otherwise oil recovery and flow capacity may be overestimated.

Pore throat structure and classification of Paleogene tight reservoirs in Jiyang depression,Bohai Bay Basin,China

The pore throat structure characteristics of Paleogene tight sandstone and sandy conglomerate in the Jiyang depression are studied using cast thin section,conventional mercury injection,constant rate mercury injection and micro CT scanning data,and a reservoir classification scheme based on pore throat structure parameters is established.The material composition and structural characteristics of tight reservoirs are analyzed by casting thin section data.The pore throat structure characteristics of tight reservoirs are studied by conventional mercury injection,constant rate mercury injection and micro CT scanning.Ten pore throat structure parameters are analyzed by cluster analysis.Based on the classification results and oil test results,the classification scheme of Paleogene tight reservoirs is established.The Paleogene tight reservoirs in the Jiyang depression have the characteristics of macropores and microthroats,with pores in micron scale,throats in nano-submicron scale,and wide variation of ratio of pore radius to throat radius.The permeability of the tight reservoir is controlled by throat radius,the smaller the difference between pore radius and throat radius,and the more uniform the pore throat size,the higher the permeability will be.The lower limits of average pore throat radius for the tight sandstone and tight sandy conglomerate to produce industrial oil flow without fracturing are 0.6μm and 0.8μm,respectively.Reservoirs that can produce industrial oil flow only after fracturing have an average pore-throat radius between 0.2-0.6μm,and reservoirs with average pore throat radius less than 0.2μm are ineffective reservoirs under the current fracturing techniques.Different types of tight sandstone and sandy conglomerate reservoirs are classified and evaluated,which are well applied in exploratory evaluation.

Pore-throat Structure of Tight Sandstone in Yanchang Formation of Huangling Mining Area Based on Scanning Electron Microscopy and Mercury Porosimmetry

Based on scanning electron microscopy and mercury porosimmetry,a large number of experimental data of pores and pore throats of tight sandstone reservoirs are obtained,and the characteristics of pore types,capillary pressure curves and quantitative parameters of pore throats of Yanchang Formation in Huangling mining area are studied.The results show that the main reservoir space types of Yanchang Formation sandstone are primary intergranular pores and feldspar dissolution pores.The pore-throat structure is medium-small pore and thin-small throat type,and the sorting is good to medium.The mercury porosimmetry curve shows a slightly coarse-thin skew.Combining the morphological characteristics of the mercury porosimmetry capillary pressure curve and the quantitative parameter characteristics of pore throats,the Yanchang Formation s micro pore structure is divided into types I,II,III,and IV.Tight oil reservoirs with type I and II pore structure characteristics are favorable.This study has reference significance for the later evaluation of tight sandstone reservoirs in Huangling mining area.