Comprehensive Laboratory Core Analysis at CPGR IPE RAS

The article presents a complex of laboratory core analyses conducted at the Center for Petrophysical and Geomechanical Research, Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences (CPGR IPE RAS). The complex provides for multiscale studies of the elastic properties, microstructure, composition, and porosity and permeability properties of rocks. The laboratory studies determine the dynamic and static elastic moduli, rock strength and creep parameters, and acoustic emission characteristics; 2D and 3D microstructure analysis is also performed. Dynamic elastic moduli are determined both under normal and reservoir-simulating conditions. Under normal conditions, multilevel ultrasound examination of samples is carried out; its results, together with those of microstructure analysis, are then used to determine the degree of inhomogeneity of the elastic properties of a sample, to reveal the anisotropy of these properties, and to compare the elastic properties of rocks at different scales. The results of geomechanical rock tests are necessary for constructing geomechanical models of reservoirs. The elastic parameters determined under normal and reservoir conditions are the basis for constructing correlation dependences that allow the geomechanical properties and principal stresses under reservoir conditions to be forecasted from well log data. Data on the elastic properties and microstructure of samples are used to construct different-scale models of the elastic properties of rocks under normal and reservoir conditions using petrophysical methods; these models further serve as a basis for petroelastic modeling of hydrocarbon fields and for predicting the viscoelastic behavior of rocks.