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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
DOI: 10.1306/01111716095
Capillary fluid dynamics within unconventional rocks investigated by scanning electron microscopy
Shawn Zhang,1 Lyn Canter,2 and Mark Sonnenfeld3
1DigiM Solution LLC, 67 South Bedford Street, Suite 400 West, Burlington, Massachusetts 01803; Whiting Oil & Gas Corporation, 1700 Broadway, Suite 2300, Denver, Colorado 80290; [email protected]
2Whiting Oil & Gas Corporation, 1700 Broadway, Suite 2300, Denver, Colorado 80290; [email protected]
3Whiting Oil & Gas Corporation, 1700 Broadway, Suite 2300, Denver, Colorado 80290; [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Fresh cores from tight-rock samples of subsurface hydrocarbon reservoirs retain mobile fluids. These fluids have 
complex
chemical compositions and a large spectrum of molecules with different diameters and polarities. When investigated using high-resolution field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the imposed vacuum over hours of time causes pore fluids trapped in the rock sample to flow and interact with the mineral matrix. This paper reports the capillary fluid dynamics effect observed on freshly milled cross sections of tight chalk at high resolution. Multiphase fluid dynamic simulations confirm the aggregation of heavier fluid molecules on the geometrical irregularities of the pore space. As a consequence of this pitfall, the differentiation of solid organic matter versus variably viscous hydrocarbons from SEM data is subject to a fundamental revision.
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