Abstract
In this paper, we present a procedure for high pressure resin impregnation of microporous rock. This procedure produces the high- quality pore casts that reveal the fine details of the complex pore space of micritic carbonates. We carefully test our resin impregnation procedure and demonstrate that it renders the high resolution, 3D confocal images of pore casts. In our work, we use silicon micromodels as a reference to validate the key parameters of high-pressure resin impregnation. We demonstrate possible artifacts and defects that might develop during rock impregnation with resin, e.g., the resin shrinkage and gas trapping. The main outcome of this paper is a robust protocol for obtaining the high-quality epoxy pore casts suitable for rock imaging with Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM). We have implemented this protocol and provided the high resolution, three-dimensional (3D) imagery and description of microporosity in micritic carbonates.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | SPE Middle East Oil and Gas Show and Conference |
| Publisher | Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781613996393 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 15 2019 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: We thank Dr. Marijn Boone from Tescan-XRE for acquiring the micro-CT images. We thank Mr. Darweesh for the fruitful discussions on the epoxy curing mechanism. We are grateful to the Nanofabrication Core Lab team at KAUST, especially to Dr. Ulrich Buttner and Mr. Ahad Syed, for their support in fabricating the silicon micromodels. This project has been funded by KAUST through the Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center (ANPERC).