Measuring and modeling wettability of the Montney/Doig resource play and investigating its functional dependence on other petrophysical properties

水平钻井和多级水力压裂的最新进展为加拿大和美国的石油和天然气开采提供了非常规碳氢化合物资源。成功和可持续地开发这些资源需要正确描述储层特性。了解渗透率、孔隙度和润湿性等性质对于储量估计、产量预测以及设计最佳压裂液和处理液至关重要。具体而言，储集岩的润湿性是用于估计可开采的烃类以及用于理解储集岩与压裂液之间的相互作用的关键参数。然而，测量非常规岩石的润湿性和其他岩石物理性质是具有挑战性的，因为它们的渗透率（流导）非常低，并且它们通常含有粘土矿物和有机材料。巨大的非常规资源的一个例子是位于加拿大西部沉积盆地的Montney地层。拟议的研究的目的是确定的润湿性的Montney形成，其功能依赖于其他岩石物理和岩相学性质。研究将分五个阶段进行。第一阶段将解释在实验室测量的Montney岩心样品的性质，包括矿物学、总有机碳和孔隙结构，以及井下测井工具测量的参数。阶段2和阶段3将通过进行接触角和吸液实验来评估样品的润湿性。第4阶段将调查润湿性和其他岩石物理数据之间可能存在的相关性。最后，在第5阶段，将进行比例分析，以放大测量的自吸数据，从而估算压裂作业后关井期间逆流自吸导致的油田规模采油量。这项研究的结果将有助于工业界估计Montney地层中的初始可采油气，并优化压裂水的配方，以最大限度地减少水的消耗和最大限度地提高油气采收率。

Recent advances in horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing have unlocked unconventional hydrocarbon resources for oil and gas recovery in Canada and the United States. The successful and sustainable development of such resources requires correct characterization of the reservoir properties. Knowing the properties such as permeability, porosity, and wettability is critical for reserve estimation, production forecasting, and designing optimum fracturing and treatment fluids. Specifically, the wettability of reservoir rock is a critical parameter for estimating the recoverable hydrocarbon in place and for understanding the interactions between reservoir rock and fracturing fluids. However, measuring wettability and other petrophysical properties of unconventional rocks is challenging since their permeability (flow conductance) is very low, and they commonly contain clay minerals and organic materials. An example of enormous unconventional resource is the Montney Formation located in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The objective of the proposed research is to determine the wettability of the Montney Formation, and its functional dependence on other petrophysical and petrographic properties. The research will be conducted in five phases. Phase 1 will interpret the properties of the Montney core samples, measured in the laboratory including mineralogy, total organic carbon, and pore structure, and also the parameters measured by downhole logging tools. Phase 2 and 3 will evaluate wettability of the samples by conducting contact angle and imbibition experiments. Phase 4 will investigate the existence of possible correlations between the wettability and other petrophysical data. Finally, in Phase 5 a scaling analysis will be performed to upscale the measured imbibition data to estimate field-scale oil recovery as a result of counter-current imbibition during the shut-in periods after fracturing operations. The results of this research will help the industry to estimate the initial recoverable hydrocarbon in the Montney Formation, and to optimize the formulation of fracturing water for minimizing water consumption and for maximizing hydrocarbon recovery.