Added insight from image-based wettability characterization

Wintershall Holding GmbH, Germany

^* corresponding author: rudolf.held@wintershall.com

Abstract

Microtomographic rock and fluid imaging under in-situ conditions is applied for reservoir wettability characterization. The investigation entails careful sample preparation and cleaning of mini-plugs, operation with reservoir fluids, wettability restoration, centrifuge wettability testing cycles, repeated sample scanning and image analysis, parametrization of wettability and digital rocks simulation for input into reservoir modeling. The results are compared to conventional Amott testing performed in core laboratories. Determination of saturations from image analysis, instead of centrifuge production, allows the use of stock tank crude, rather than exchanged mineral oil. Doping of the synthetic formation water (here with 1 M sodium iodide) was applied for enhancement of the X-ray contrast. The digital imaging workflow offers insight on the liquid distributions from the plug scale down to the pore-scale, linked to applied pressure gradients and resulting pore fluid occupancies in the sequence of displacement states. An example is given with the investigation of a North-German oil field, where the image-based workflow led to a revised view of the reservoir conditions for spontaneous imbibition and drainage, and the overall wetting behavior.