Natural heavy oil reservoirs porosity and saturation coefficients estimation based on wavelet analysis of X-Ray computed tomography histogram

With the development of unconventional resources the standard task of evaluation the porosity and oil saturation needs new approach. Heavy oil and bitumen can act as cement in many sand reservoirs, which excludes the use of standard measuring techniques. A new method for estimating the porosity and oil saturation of heavy oil reservoirs, based on wavelet X-ray computed tomography histogram analysis, was proposed. Its advantages are the ability to work with loose sand reservoirs, for which it is not possible to use standard assessment methods. A comparative analysis of the proposed method with a standard method for estimating porosity based on sample saturation with kerosene showed that the values of the porosity coefficient in the tomography resolution range 5-15 μm differed by 3-7% in the direction of the wavelet analysis method. This effect is due to the presence of transient voxels – mixels. (paper)