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A modified experimental approach to determine formation porosity from rock cuttings

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Abstract

As a cost-effective method for formation evaluation, analysis of rock cuttings provides essential information on petrophysical rock properties that help reservoir engineers to understand the reservoir’s behavior. Gradually, researchers have started paying greater attention to utilizing rock cuttings for formation evaluation, as it is a cost-effective substitute for collecting subsurface core samples. This work focuses on porosity measurement from rock cuttings. The proposed objective of obtaining representative porosity values from rock cuttings was achieved by comparing porosity data from different sizes of cuttings to reference porosity values measured from core samples. Seven different sandstone core samples were considered for the study, and reference porosities were measured. Additionally, rock permeability values were determined for the core samples to investigate the effect of permeability on porosity derived from rock cuttings. The cuttings were then classified according to their permeability and sieve sizes. The cuttings’ porosity was measured using their grain and pore volumes, which, in turn, were estimated using grain density and gravimetric method, respectively. A systematic comparison of cutting-derived porosity and reference porosity values with desaturation time was made in the end, using the sieve size of cuttings as a sensitivity parameter. The results were also analyzed for rock permeability sensitivity, using permeability values from initial data. The results demonstrate that the method utilized for estimating porosity using rock cuttings in this study yields practically acceptable values that are in close agreement with reference porosities from core samples. However, the size of cuttings significantly affects porosity determination, with deviation from reference values increasing as the size of cuttings decreases. Also, the interstitial saturation fluid is responsible for greater deviations as smaller cuttings have a greater surface area-to-volume ratio. The study results show that rock permeability affects porosity determination from cuttings and should be considered during such analyses.

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Abbreviations

A:

sample area, cm2

k:

permeability, mD

L:

sample length, cm

P:

pressure, psig

Q:

flow rate, cc/sec

V:

volume, cm3

W:

weight, g

r:

radius

h:

sample height

ϕ :

porosity (fraction)

ρ:

density, g/cc

μ:

gas viscosity, cp

a:

step 1

b:

step 2

c:

step 3

b:

bulk

c:

billet removed (common billet)

d:

dry

disp:

displaced

eff:

effective

f:

final

g:

grain

i:

initial

p:

pore

r:

Reference

s:

saturated

sub:

submersed

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51674282), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 17CX06006), the Graduate Innovation Funding Project from China University of Petroleum (East China) (YCX2017022), the National Oil and Gas Major Projects (No. 2016ZX05056004-003), and the Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research (IRT 1294 and 1086/14R58).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Petroleum & Gas Engineering, University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

    Semab Tariq & Habib Ur Rehman

  2. Department of Petroleum & Gas Engineering, BUITEMS, Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan

    Zeeshan Khan, Allah Bakhsh, Syed Jamal ud Din & Azizullah Shaikh

  3. The State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

    Rashid Sher Muhammad

  4. School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong, China

    Liang Zhang

Authors
  1. Semab Tariq
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  2. Zeeshan Khan
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  3. Allah Bakhsh
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  4. Syed Jamal ud Din
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  5. Azizullah Shaikh
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  6. Habib Ur Rehman
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  7. Rashid Sher Muhammad
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  8. Liang Zhang
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Correspondence to Zeeshan Khan or Syed Jamal ud Din.

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Responsible Editor: Santanu Banerjee

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Tariq, S., Khan, Z., Bakhsh, A. et al. A modified experimental approach to determine formation porosity from rock cuttings. Arab J Geosci 16, 493 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11602-y

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