Experimental investigations on the geometry and connectivity of pore space in organic-rich Wufeng and Longmaxi shales

The nano-scale pore systems of organic-rich shale reservoirs were investigated from Upper Ordovician Wufeng and Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formations in southeast Sichuan Basin. These two formations are the most important target plays of shale gas development in China. The purpose of this article is to assess the geometry and connectivity of multi-scale pore systems, and to reveal the nature and complexity of pore structure for these over-mature gas shales. To achieve these objective, total organic carbon, mineralogy, image analyses by focused ion beam-SEM, low pressure nitrogen adsorption, mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) and spontaneous fluid deionized (DI) water and n-decane] imbibition were performed.Most of the visible pores from SEM work in Wufeng and Longmaxi shales are within nm- and μm-size regimes and belong to organic matter (OM) pores. The shapes of OM pore in Longmaxi samples are elliptical, bubble-like, irregular or rounded. Wufeng pores are mainly irregular, linear and faveolated, even though two shales have small depth difference, as well as similar thermal maturity, kerogen type and TOC content. Nano-scale pores in Longmaxi are mainly associated with narrow platelike or slitlike pores with pore size of 3–50 nm; while inkbottle pores are dominant in Wufeng samples and over 88% of the pore volume is contributed by pores with diameter <20 nm. Overall, porosity, pore volume and surface area values from Wufeng samples are much higher than those in Longmaxi, which is mainly correlated with the different TOC contents and mineral compositions. MICP tests show that a total of 5 inflection points (indicative of different connected pore networks) are identified in all pressure regions for Longmaxi, while only 2 for Wufeng in high pressure region with the associated permeability at nano-darcy range. Imbibition curves of n-decane are divided into three stages: the initial stage (Stage Ⅰ), linear imbibition stage (Stage Ⅱ) and late imbibition stage (Stage Ⅲ), and the slopes of linear imbibition stage are around 0.5, suggesting well-connected pore spaces for n-decane. In contrast, imbibition curves for DI water are divided in two stages with linear slopes of between 0.25 and 0.5, indicating moderately-connected pore networks for the movement of DI water. This is consistent with the mixed-wet nature of these shales, with observed weak wettability for hydrophilic, while complete wetting for hydrophobic fluids.