Effects of fluid displacement pattern on complex electrical impedance in Berea sandstone over frequency range 104–106 Hz

To better understand the effect of fluid distribution on the electric response of rocks saturated with oil and brine, we conducted experimental studies on the complex electrical impedance in a Berea sandstone, together with in situ acquisitions of oil distribution images employing a high‐resolution medical X‐ray computed tomography. We performed two tests of brine displacement by oil under high (10 MPa) and low (5 MPa) pressures, which were accompanied by fingering and stable displacement patterns, respectively. The measured complex impedance data were fitted to the Cole model to obtain the resistance, capacitance, peak frequency of the imaginary impedance, and the exponent α of the rock–fluid system. With increasing oil saturation, the resistance showed an increasing trend, whereas the other three parameters decreased. The fingering displacement exhibited lower resistance and capacitance than the stable displacement. The analysis of the resistance changes using a simple parallel connection model indicates that there are more components of residual brine in parallel connections in the fingering pattern than in the stable displacement pattern at the same saturation. We also interpreted the normalised changes in the capacitance (or apparent dielectric constant) with respect to the oil saturation via an analysis of the shape factor of fluid distribution based on the Maxwell–Wagner–Brugermann–Hanai model. The changes in the shape factor suggest that the pinch‐off of the brine in parallel connection by the oil is a dominant mechanism reducing the capacitance. In the stable displacement, most of the connections in the brine phase are immediately pinched off by oil displacement front at a local oil saturation of 65%. Conversely, in the fingering displacement, there is a transition from the bulk or layered brine to the pinched‐off at a local oil saturation below 60%. The analyses indicate that the difference in the fluid distribution under different fluid conditions is responsible for the non‐Archie behaviour.     

Study on anisotropy of Longmaxi shale using hydraulic fracturing experiment

Hydraulic fracturing reservoir reconstruction technology is crucial in the development of shale gas exploitation techniques.Large quantities of high-pressure fluids injected into shale reservoirs significantly alter compressional(P)and shear(S)wave velocities,rock mechanical parameters,and anisotropic characteristics.In this study,differentiated hydraulic fracturing petrophysical experiments were carried out on Longmaxi Formation shale under pseudo-triaxial stress loading conditions.The effects of stress loading methods,and water-rock physical and chemical reactions on P-and S-wave velocities and rock mechanical parameters were compared.The experimental results showed that isotropic stress loading may increase the P-and Swave velocities and Young’s modulus of dry shale kldnsample.Furthermore,it may lead to a weakening of the corresponding anisotropy.In contrast,differential stress loading was able to improve the anisotropy of Young’s modulus and accelerate the decrease in the compressive strength of shale in the vertical bedding direction.The water-rock physical and chemical reactions prompted by hydraulic fracturing was found to"soften"shale samples and reduce Young’s modulus.The influence of this"soften"effect on the compressional and shear wave velocities of shale was negligible,whilst there was a significant decrease in the anisotropy characteristics of Thomsen parameters,Young’s modulus,and Poisson’s ratio.The negative linear relationship between the Poisson’s ratios of the shale samples was also observed to lose sensitivity to stress loading,as a result of the"soften"effect of fracturing fluid on shale.The results of this study provide a reliable reference point and data support for future research on the mechanical properties of Longmaxi shale rocks.     

A field experiment of walkaway distributed acoustic sensing vertical seismic profile in a deep and deviated onshore well in Japan using a fibre optic cable deployed inside coiled tubing

A two-dimensional walkaway vertical seismic profiling survey using distributed acoustic sensing was conducted at an onshore site in Japan. The maximum depth and the deviation of the observation well were more than 4,000 m and 81 degrees, respectively. Among the several methods for installing fibre optic cables, we adopted the inside coiled tubing method, in which coiled tubing containing a fibre optic cable is deployed. The signal-to-noise ratio of the raw shot gather was low, possibly due to poor coupling between the fibre optic cable and the subsurface formation resulting from the fibre optic cable deployment method and the existence of considerable tubewave noise. Nevertheless, direct P-wave arrivals, P–P reflections and P–S converted waves exhibited acceptable signal-to-noise ratios after careful optimization of gauge length for distributed acoustic sensing optical processing and the application of carefully parameterized tubewave noise suppression. One of the challenges in current distributed acoustic sensing vertical seismic profile data processing is the separation of P- and S-waves using only one-component measurements. Hence, we applied moveout correction using two-dimensional ray tracing. This process effectively highlights only reflected P-waves, which are used in subsequent subsurface imaging. Comparison with synthetic well seismograms and two-dimensional surface seismic data confirms that the final imaging result has a sufficiently high quality for subsurface monitoring. We acquired distributed acoustic sensing vertical seismic profile data under both flowing conditions and closed conditions, in which the well was shut off and no fluid flow was allowed. The two imaging results are comparable and suggest the possibility of subsurface imaging and time-lapse monitoring using data acquired under flowing conditions. The results of this study suggest that, by adopting the inside coiled tubing method without drilling a new observation well, more affordable distributed acoustic sensing vertical seismic profile monitoring can be achieved in fields such as CO₂ capture and storage and unconventional shale projects, where monitoring costs have to be minimized.