FEI Company has announced a ‘core-to-pore’ imaging workflow for shale gas reservoirs. The petrographic workflow includes novel automated, high-resolution imaging of cores at scales ranging from centimeters to nanometers. Multi-scale imaging is key to relating the fracture network observed in core samples to the nanometer-scale distribution of pores.
Paul Scagnetti, VP of FEI’s Natural Resources unit explained, ‘The large data sets generated in the analysis preserve the spatial relationships between features at all scales. The relationship between permeability and pore network connectivity determines how hydrocarbon will flow to a fracture for production.’
The solution is implemented on an FEI scanning electron microscope systems by adding the modular automated processing system (MAPS) imaging software and Qemscan petrographic analyzer. A grid of high-resolution electron microscope images covering the sample surface, is stitched into a single data set. 3D structural data from a DualBeam system can be overlaid or indeed optical microscopy, micro-CT, or cathode-luminescence data. More from FEI.
© Oil IT Journal - all rights reserved.