Chevron Australia Improved Gas-Water Krel Studies by CSIRO Measurements and RRT Digital Core Simulation
Farlin Mohideen
It is often heard that digital rock physics gives results that are not acceptable and we often hear it is a technology that will eventually work in the future. Some say it's a decade away from becoming a mainstream technology. Our study with Chevron Australia demonstrates that the technology can give mineralogy, porosity, poresize, throatsize, Pc(Sw) and Kr(Sw) without measuring anything from the lab except contact angles. Even contact angles were assumed to be fixed values for gas-water systems. Furthermore it is noted that unsteady state SCAL measurements from conventional laboratories were not even close to steady-state SCAL and our results agreed so well with steady state SCAL performed by experts in the field. Furthermore we propose a testing framework for the progress of the field that conferences should adopt. Our blind testing procedures by sharing microCT and SEM images allows technologies to be compared and contrasted in a fair and reasonable way so that the field can progress without the current disastrous reputational crisis.
