Petrographic Image Analysis, I. Analysis of Reservoir Pore Complexes

ABSTRACT There exists a need to relate the petrology of reservoirs (pore geometry, surface areas of mineral phases and pores) to geophysical and petrophysical data. The end result is improved assessment of reservoir quality as well as better interpretation of well logs and seismic data. Petrographic Image Analysis (PIA) was developed from the beginning to interface with petrophysical/geophysical data. PIA relies upon computer-based image analysis using pattern recognition/classification programs, and so information can be obtained very rapidly--the rate simply tied to sophistication of the computer in use. PIA consists of a critical mix of hardware and software which perform four separate functions: 1) image acquisition; 2) image digitization; 3) image segmentation; and 4) image analysis. A sp cial effort has been made to characterize the geometry of the pore complex. Separate spectra related to pore size and pore roughness are generated from each image. In addition, surface area per unit volume of pore can be estimated. Pore spectra can be decomposed and classified using pattern recognition/ classification algorithms or used directly to estimate physical parameters.