Porosity measurement of heavy oil sands

Porosity measurement is an important step for petrophysical characterization of reservoir rocks, as porosity is essential for analysing elastic properties and estimating the capacity of rocks to hold hydrocarbon resources. Commonly used porosity measurement methods fail to work on heavy oil sands, because of the loose fragile sand frame and solid-like irreducible heavy oil. We develop three methods to measure the porosity of heavy oil sands, which are feasible and affordable in most laboratories. Method 1 involves calculating the bulk volume of the sample by measuring its physical dimensions directly. Method 2 uses calibrated sample weight and volume (after removing the protecting foil cover and metal clips). Method 3 first applies pressurizing on samples and then measures the weight and volume of the bare samples. The measurement results of the three methods are then compared and method 3 is determined as the most reliable, which is also verified by the porosity log. Finally, an analysis of the potential sources of errors associated with method 3 is performed.