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SPE-175968175968-MS

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/CSUR Unconventional Resources Conference held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2022 October 2015.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the
written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words;
illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
The Montney Formation, a tight unconventional reservoir in Western Canada, has been explored for the
past two decades and over the last 10 years has moved towards being a primary exploration target.
Qualitative and quantitative petrophysical analysis of the Montney Formation has always been a
challenge to researchers. Reservoir characterization is generally hindered by lab-based methods for
permeability estimation, proper estimation of the pore size distribution and development of correlations
between the rock properties and hydraulic flow.
This report examines results from permeametry, mercury porosimetry, helium pycnometry and scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) images performed on 53 samples of the Montney Formation to understand
the complicated pore network structure of the rock and study the predictive power of a permeability
prediction model.
Pulse-Decay permeability is measured on cores at effective reservoir pressure. Crushed samples are used
to obtain mercury capillary pressure, pore size distribution curves, GRI and mercury porosity and matrix
permeability. SEM images are used to study pore development and porosity as well as investigating the
presence of microfractures. The permeabilities of these samples range from 10 nanodarcies to 0.1
milidarcies and porosities range from 2-10 percent. Due to high surface intrusions in the mercury
porosimetry tests, extraction of pore size distributions and capillary pressure curves are problematic and
cut-offs are applied based on the derivative of the capillary pressure curve to help understand the
complicated pore network of the rock and correlate it with permeability.
This study shows that mercury porosimetry results can be used to categorize the rocks into subcategories
for further analysis. Different methods correlating rock properties to permeability are examined. The
results specifically indicate that pulse-decay permeability is influenced by over-burden pressure and the
presence of microfractures and that the appropriate pore diameter shows consistent correlation with the
derivative of the capillary pressure curve.

Introduction:
During the past 25 years shale formations have changed their reputation from an unwanted troublesome
reservoir feature to one of the larger oil and gas reservoirs. Extensive study has been done on the
producibility of shale gas and oil reserves, and with the help of new drilling and production techniques,
shale production has spiked up. There are 8 active shale plays in Canada and it is estimated that these

SPE-175968-MS

reserves contain 1,100 trillion cubic feet of shale gas and over 32 trillion barrels of tight oil. Producing
these reserves can have a major effect on the Canadian economy.
The Montney formation is one of the largest tight reservoirs in western Canada, extending from northcentral Alberta to northeastern British Columbia. It is estimated to have 2,300 trillion cubic feet of gas in
place and 136 billion barrels of original oil in place with the Alberta portion being mostly home to the
oil reserves and the BC portion mostly home to the gas reserves according to the Unconventional
Resources Guidebook (2012, 2013 and 2014).

Sample description and preparation

The Alberta Geological Survey (2010) characterises the Montney formation as fine-grained shoreface
sandstones, shelf siltstones and shales, fine-grained turbidites and organic-rich phosphatic shale. The
Montney trend also includes the Doig formation that overlies the Montney formation and is composed of
agrillacious siltstone and dark calcareous shale.
Montney Formation samples were collected from archived core within Northeastern British Columbia.
Wells were selected to represent the main exploration corridor of the dry gas Montney zone. Several
wells were selected in the deep basin area and off of the Primary Montney fairway. Given the
availability of continuous core sections, efforts were made to obtain representative samples within the
upper, middle and lower Montney; however, the majority of samples are from the upper Montney.
All of the analyzed wells were logged to identify basic lithology, facies and zones of high bioturbation.
From the initial logging, intervals were selected to represent zones with broad geological similarities
which could be isolated and tested. Full core samples were removed and carefully preserved and
transported to the Trican Geological Solutions testing facility in Calgary. Each sample was examined to
determine an optimal location for cutting a 25.4 mm (1) diameter core plug. A direct drive core
plugging instrument with water as the circulating/cooling fluid was used to cut all plugs. Several
adjacent samples had been previously analyzed for clay properties to assess the potential for fluid
damage during the coring process and it was determined that only stable clay phases were present posing
little potential for fluid induced damage.
In order to provide a uniform testing standard, all samples were cleaned using a toluene solvent
extraction process. The samples are all within the dry gas zone of the Montney Formation and typically
a stage drying process would be applied to remove residual water. However, with the dominant use of oil
based drilling fluids, the decision was made to extract all samples to eliminate the potential effects of
drilling fluid invasion. After extraction, MICP samples were crushed and sieved to a size of 5 to 10 mesh
(2-4 mm) which provides suitable area to facilitate intrusion in tight rocks. The samples were then dried
at 100oC for 24 hours in a vacuum oven to evacuate all connected pore space.

Permeability Measurement:
Throughout the years, methods have been developed for permeability estimation for tight sands on both
crushed samples and plugs (Luffel and Guidry, 1989; Luffel and Hopkins, 1993; Egermann et al. 2003;
Cui et al. 2009; Yang and Alpine, 2010; Clarkson et al. 2012). Clarkson et al. and Yang and Alpine
developed methods for profiling permeability using core plugs while others focused on crushed samples.
Measuring pulse-decay permeability of plugs has its own obvious benefits, such as sampling a larger and
perhaps more representative section of the reservoir and the possibility of testing the effect of changing
confining and pore pressures on permeability (Heller et al. 2014). The disadvantage of using crushed
samples is the elimination of fractures and the inability to observe the rock in its intact form. Heller et
al. argued that although fracture permeability would dominate reservoir performance during the initial
phase of the production, it is matrix permeability that controls the performance of a reservoir in the long
run.

Matrix Permeability:

SPE-175968-MS

A helium pycnometer was used to measure the skeletal density of the crushed sample. Helium was
used to maximize penetration of pore space and minimize potential reactions with the samples (Cui et al,
2009). The helium pycnometer is comprised of sample and reference cells of known volume and a
pressure transducer. The crushed sample was loaded into a sample cell and sealed. The reference cell
was filled with helium and after the pressure within the reference cell had equilibrated, the pressure was
recorded. The reference cell and sample cell are then opened to each other, allowing the helium from the
reference cell to enter the sample cell. By recording the pressure after the system has reached a new
equilibrium, the volume of the system can be calculated using Boyles gas law (P 1V1=P2V2). The
difference between the known volume of the sample cell and the measured volume of gas is equal to the
skeletal volume of the sample. Skeletal density was then calculated from the weight of the sample.
Permeability was measured on the crushed and sieved sample. Screens of mesh sizes 20 and 35 were
used to sort the sample to a uniform particle size (approximately 0.67 mm). The same procedure as
described above (for skeletal density) is used to collect pressure decay data during the analysis. The late
time pressure decay data was used to calculate permeability via a method refined from ResTech (1996)
and Luffel et al. (1993). Permeability was calculated at ambient conditions and, although widely quoted
in industry, was not calibrated to in situ conditions. Reported values are therefore to be used only for
comparative purposes.

Pulse-Decay Permeability:
Plugs of approximately 30.00 mm (1.18) diameter were drilled, using water as the coolant and air as
the circulating fluid, from the preserved core. The plugs were cut to approximately 15.00 to 20.00 mm
(0.6 0.8). Before assembly into the apparatus the samples were end trimmed, with no circulating fluid
or coolant, to ensure two parallel ends 90 to the plug axis. Each plug was cleaned to remove free fluids
(oil and water). A modified Hoek cell was used for carrying out the permeability experiments. The
sample was placed inside the membrane jacket of the Hoek cell and held tight between two steel pistons
with inlet and outlet gas flow fittings. Biaxial confining pressure was applied to create an isotropic stress
field. Specific confining stress is defined by the pressure conditions at the depth at which the formation
was sampled. The same pore pressure was used for all samples. The first confining pressure level was
reached in five stress increments by applying radial and axial confining pressures separately. Throughout
the analysis the pressures in the system were recorded using digital pressure transducers. After the
desired confining pressure is obtained, the assembly is connected to the pulse-decay measuring unit and
data was continuously logged at a prescribed time interval. Data was acquired and analyzed using Trican
Geological Solutions proprietary software.
Permeability samples was measured with helium using a variation of the pulse-decay technique as
described in studies by Jones (1997) and Cui et al (2009). The pulse-decay method involves creating a
pressure difference between the tightly jacketed sample and upstream and downstream reservoirs
collecting pressure pulse-decay data from the upstream reservoir and the corresponding increase in the
downstream reservoir. Permeability measurements were made using helium gas. Helium was used in
order to minimize the potential adsorption of the test gas into the sample organic matter, which would in
turn have an effect on the measured permeability (Cui et al, 2009).
Pulse-Decay measurements were carried out as per the general procedures detailed in Jones (1997)
and Cui et al. (2009). The upstream, downstream and differential pressures data were processed using
the following equation to calculate the permeability of the sample using:
(1)

SPE-175968-MS

where

is the effective permeability to gas in mD,

is the slope of the linear equation,

the viscosity of gas in cP, L is the of the cylindrical core plug in cm,
correction factor,
plug in cm2,

is

is the gas compressibility

is the mass flow correction factor, A is the cross sectional area of cylindrical core
is the mean absolute pore pressure in psi,

and

are volumes of upstream and

downstream reservoirs respectively in cc.

Initially, permeability values determined from the two methods were compared. Pulse-Decay
measurements are mostly affected by the possible fractures present in the rock body while GRI
permeability only observes the matrix permeability (Clarkson et al. 2012). Figure 1 is a comparative plot
of permeability measured using both methods. Both values are in milidarcies and as is shown in Figure
1, all GRI permeabilities fall in the nanodarcy range while there is a wide range to pulse-decay
permeabilities. From Figure 1, it could be concluded that matrix permeability for most samples fall
within the 10-100 nanodarcy bracket while, possibly due to the presence of micro-fractures (either
induced or natural), pulse-decay permeability results differ greatly from that of the matrix. Pulse-Decay
permeability tends to be highly affected by fractures, because due to the decreased resistance against
flow, flow through fractures dominates the total flow through the plug. In Figure 1, only a handful of
samples show proximity between pulse-decay and matrix permeabilities which could be either because
the plugs are fracture-free or the fractures were closed as a result of applied overburden pressure. These
plugs, as seen in the graph, all have low permeabilities (in the nanodarcy range).
An electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was done as a complimentary study to observe the structure
of the samples. The SEM analysis (Figure 2) reveals the presence of microfractures in the samples which
as explained before, can have a significant impact on flow properties of the rock.

Figure 1 A comparison between Matrix and Pulse-Decay permeability measurements for the 53 samples. Pulse-Decay permeability
is measured on plugs under reservoir conditions and Matrix permeability is measured on crushed samples (known as the GRI
method). The dashed line is the one-to-one line on which permeabilities measured using the two methods are equal.

To verify the validity of the measurements, results of another study done by Derder (2009) were
investigated. In his study, Derder performed profile permeability measurements using pulse-decay
permeameters at confined pressure (to correct for in-situ conditions) on samples from unit C of the
Lower Triassic Montney formation. He reported measured permeability values of 0.0008 to 0.03 mD.

SPE-175968-MS

These values fall close to pulse-decay permeability values measured in current study on the 53 samples.
Derder then correlated permeability and porosity with pore size distribution.

Figure 2 A magnified image of one of the samples. The image highlights the presence of micro-fractures in the Montney rock (red
arrows). These fractures could be either natural or induced.

Researchers have proposed various correlations to relate permeability with porosity and pore size
distribution. Based on the method developed by Winland (1972) and Pittman (1992), a representative
pore throat diameter was defined which corresponds to a mercury saturation of 35% and is known as
R35. Derder concluded that using Winlands equation as follows:
(2)
R35 values fall between 0.05 and 0.1 m. In Winlands equation, k is permeability in mD, R 35 is in
microns and is in decimal. The same method was used in this study to calculate R35 and compare the
results with reported values of Derder, the results are shown in Figure 3.

SPE-175968-MS

Figure 3 Winland plot of correlating permeability and porosity with a representative pore diameter (R35). In this plot blue dots are
permeability values measured using the pulse-decay technique while red dots are matrix permeability values measured using the
GRI method.

For this purpose, both pulse-decay and matrix permeabilities were used along with helium porosity to
correlate permeability and porosity with pore diameter. As can be seen in Figure 3, as expected, pulsedecay permeability cover a wider range of R 35 values due to the presence of microfractures, ranging
from about 2 nanometers to 1 micrometer, while matrix permeabilities, falling over a smaller range of
values, correspond to a smaller range of R35 values lying between 1.5 and 10 nanometers. This analysis
indicates that the nano-pore size dominates and impacts production from the Montney formation, just as
Derder concluded.

Mercury Porosimetry:
Since Washburn proposed his popular method for correlating entry pressure with pore radius in 1921,
mercury intrusion has been widely used by the petroleum and geoscience community for rock
characterization and pore throat size distribution (TSD) analysis; however its use is not limited to the
evaluation of pore volumes or TSD analysis only (Leon 1998). Compared to other characterization
methods, mercury porosimetry has proven to be a lot faster and more importantly, covers a wider range
of pore sizes, from larger macropores to finer mesopores of up to 3.6 nanometers in diameter based on
current available commercial porosimeters (Chalmers et al., 2012; Leon 1998; McEnaney, 1995).
Mercury intrusion has been used as a characterizing tool in the petroleum industry for decades and has
been developed greatly since it was first introduced by Purcell in 1949. The emergence of shales as
potential oil and gas plays in North America has encouraged the industry to modify the methods used on
conventional reservoir rocks to help characterize shale plays (Comisky 2011).
In the current study, mercury porosimetry was carried out on 53 samples using a Micromeritics Autopore
IV 9500 series porosimeter and a 5 cc solid sample penetrometer. The intrusion process starts with a
vacuum stage which evacuates the penetrometer and pore space within the sample. The penetrometer is
then flooded with mercury and low pressure is applied up to 207 KPa (30 psi). The penetrometer is
removed from the system and is weighed to record the penetrometer + sample + mercury mass which is
used to calculate the bulk density of the sample. The penetrometer is then loaded into a high pressure
port and pressure is applied using oil in a series of incremental pressure steps up to a maximum of 414
MPa (60,000 Psi). The volume of mercury intruded is measured as a function of the change in the
electrical capacitance of the penetrometer stem as mercury is displaced out of the stem and into the

SPE-175968-MS

sample. The diameters of the pores the mercury is intruded into at a given pressure step are calculated
from the Washburn equation:
(3)
where D is pore diameter, P is applied pressure,

is surface tension and

is contact angle.

Triple distilled mercury is used to ensure optimum test conditions and consistent physical properties.
Testing under these conditions assumes a mercury surface tension of 485 dynes/cm and a contact angle
of 130o.
Once the mercury injection has reached the maximum pressure of 60,000 psi, the test is stopped and
both porosity and bulk density are determined using (Comisky, 2011):
(4)

and
(5)
where

is the bulk density in g/cm3;

and

are the weight of the sample, weight of

the apparatus including the sample and mercury, and weight of the empty penetrometer respectively, all
in grams;
is the volume of the penetrometer in mL;
is the total volume of the mercury
injected at 60,000 psi in mL and

is the conformance volume which is a critical term for

calculating the bulk density and porosity and analyzing the capillary pressure data.
Conformance is defined as a measure of the amount of mercury required to envelope a sample before it
starts entering the actual pore network and was first discussed by Wardlaw and Taylor (1976) and
Sneider et al. (1997) and later implemented by Shafer and Neasham (2000) and Webb (2001) as a source
of error when calculating petrophysical properties of rocks. Bailey (2009) and Comisky (2011) were
among the first to address conformance in mercury porosimetry tests done on crushed samples. In
crushed samples, because of the increased surface area, conformance has a greater presence when
running mercury porosimetry tests. In the current study, the approach discussed by Comisky and Bailey
was used to recalculate porosity values form the MP test and these values were then compared with the
original porosities from the MP test and GRI porosity. Results of this comparison are shown in Figure 4.
Compared with original MP porosity, conformance corrected porosities shrunk an average of 0.5
porosity unit; however, there is significant disagreement between mercury derived porosity and GRI
porosity (for both original and conformance corrected porosities). Average GRI porosity is 5.9 % which
is more than twice the average conformance corrected mercury porosity of 2.7 %. It could be concluded
that more than half the pore network is not accessible to mercury.
The contrast between MP and GRI porosity contradicts the findings of Olson and Grigg (2008) and can
be correlated with the fine size of the pore structure. As was discussed earlier, only pores of 3.6 nm and
bigger are accessible to MP while all pores larger than 0.3 nm are accessible to GRI pycnometry. As
discussed earlier (Figure 3) due to the very fine nature of the pore network of the crushed samples, the
contrast between the two porosities is expected.

SPE-175968-MS

Figure 4 Comparing original and conformance corrected mercury derived porosity with GRI porosity

The same conformance analysis was performed to correct the capillary pressure data derived through
mercury porosimetry. The rationale behind this correction, as ComisKy (2011) and Bailey (2009) put it,
is because of two phenomena that occur during the mercury porosimetry test. Before any mercury enters
the pore network, as pressure increases mercury tends to fill the volume between the crushed particles
during the low pressure cycle. As pressure increases, more mercury is injected into the penetrometer and
this volume increase is attributed to samples being compressed as a result of pressure increase (Bailey
2009). Comisky (2011) claims that the first actual intrusion into the pore network happens at pressures
greater than 1000 psi for tight shales. For this analysis, a pore volume compressibility factor introduced
by Bailey (2009) was calculated as:
(6)

Here,

is the compressibility factor in psia-1 and

is the mercury pressure in psia.

for one of

the samples is shown in Figure 5.

In other words,
is a representative of how intrusion volume changes with an increase in pressure.
This could also be observed by plotting the derivative of the capillary pressure curve. The derivative of
the capillary pressure curve represents the change in intrusion volumes as intrusion pressure increases.
Once the first pores are intruded, the rate with which pressure increases for the rate of intrusion volume
to stay the same drops until all the pores accessible by mercury are occupied. Figure 5 and Figure 6
illustrate how conformance and intrusion pressures can be identified using the compressibility and the
derivative of capillary pressure curve. In Figure 6 the same conformance and intrusion pressures used in
Figure 5 are plotted to show how the derivative curve can be used for conformance and intrusion
pressure analysis. Conformance pressure can be used as a cut-off for pore volume studies because it
depends surface pores which are exposed due to crushing the samples. Intrusion pressure, on the other
hand, can be used for connectivity and deliverability studies because the surface pores do not contribute
to flow properties of the sample. Figure 7 shows what the capillary pressure curve would look like after
being corrected for intrusion and conformance pressures.

SPE-175968-MS

Figure 5 Plot of compressibility and incremental intrusion as a function of injection pressure. Conformance and intrusion
pressures are marked on the graph with the red and purple vertical lines respectively.

Figure 6 - Plot of capillary pressure curve and its derivative as a function of mercury saturation for the same sample depicted in
Figure 5. Conformance and intrusion pressures are marked on the graph with the two red and purple vertical lines respectively.

10

SPE-175968-MS

Figure 7 A plot of the original, conformance corrected and intrusion pressure corrected capillary pressure derived through the
mercury porosimetry test. The same conformance and intrusion pressures used in Figure 5 and 6 are used for corrections.

When analyzing MP data, it was noticed that the capillary pressure curves follow two distinct patterns.
With type A, intrusion occurs at pressures well above 1,000 psi (close to 6,000 psi in the case shown in
Figure 8). Once intrusion happens, the capillary pressure curve flattens and keeps increasing with a fixed
slope until injection pressure reaches the maximum value (60,000 psi in the curent study). Type B
however, behaves differently. In Type B, intrusion occurs at pressures well below 1000 psi (Close to 100
psi in the case shown in Figure 8). After the larger pores are filled with mercury, pressure keeps building
up and a second round of compression occurs. This is confirmed by a compressibility comparison
between the two types, shown in Figure 10. A second round of intrusion into the finer pores (if present)
could occur as injection pressure increases resulting in a bimodal pore size distribution; however, in the
current study a second round of intrusion didnt happen for any of the samples. As the porosity study
showed earlier, a large portion of the pore network is not accessible to mercury, which indicates the high
probability of Type B samples being bimodal. Figure 9 illustrates the throat size distribution for the two
sample types.

Permeability Prediction:
The petroleum literature is replete with models that use mercury porosimetry data to predict flow
properties of the rock (Purcell, 1949; Swanson, 1981; Winland, 1980; Katz-Thompson, 1986; Pittman,
1992). A comprehensive comparison of these methods on tight gas sands is done by Comisky (2007) in
which Klinkenberg-corrected permeability is measured in 63 tight gas sand cores. Various available
mercury porosimetry based models are then used to predict permeability and results are compared with
measurements. Measured permeabilities for the samples range from 0.0001 mD to 0.2 mD, well above
the range of permeability in the current study. Comisky concludes that all the models fail to make
reasonable predictions for the sample set. Comisky attributes this to the fact that none of the models
were developed exclusively for tight reservoirs.
In the current study, an REV model developed by Ruth et al. (2012) is used as the predictive model. The
model simulated the pore network with non-interconnected Representative Elemental Volumes (REVs).

SPE-175968-MS

11

Figure 8 A comparison between the two type of samples based on how they react to the mercury porosimetry test. Type A samples
are believed to be unimodal while Type B samples are believed to be bimodal.

Figure 9 Comparing throat size distribution for the two types of samples. Normalized incremental intrusion is achieved by dividing
incremental intrusions by total intrusion for each sample to correct for different pore volumes. As it is shown, Type B samples have
larger throats as intrusion occurs at a lower pressure; however, with the increase in pressure, what is believed to be a second round
of compaction occurs.

12

SPE-175968-MS

Figure 10 - A compressibility study on the two types of samples. As seen in red, a second round of compression occurs between
1,000 and 10,000 psi in the type B sample shown here. Type A samples are believed to be unimodal while Type B samples are
believed to be bimodal.

Comparing Poiseuille flow with Darcy flow in the simulated network, the model correlates permeability
with a representative tube diameter and a mean tube length, calculated through tortuosity, as follows:
(7)
Here,

is the porosity,

is a representative tube diameter,

et al. use Purcells method (1949) for calculating

is tortuosity, and k is permeability. Ruth

from mercury porosimetry data as follows:

(8)

where

is the interfacial tension,

is the contact angle,

is the saturation of the vacuum and

is

the capillary pressure. They also use Archies principle to correlate tortuosity with electrical properties
of the rock, such that:
(9)
where a and m are saturation exponent and cementation factor respectively, and are calculated from
electrical tests or through formation factor studies.
The REV method has been tested against gas permeability and has been compared with other predictive
methods previously (Ruth et al., 2012; Salimifard et al., 2015). It has proven to make better predictions
on conventional rocks compared to other popular methods. In this study, the method is used for the first
time to predict permeability of tight shale rocks. As a first step, to calculate a representative tube
diameter, intrusion-corrected capillary pressures were used. Intrusion pressure for each sample is
determined using the peak of the capillary pressure curve. In this stage, 3 samples (samples 21, 34 and
44) were removed from the suite of samples because we were unable to determine a cut-off point to
correct for intrusion either by analyzing the capillary pressure curve or by using compressibility or

SPE-175968-MS

13

incremental intrusion data. Capillary pressure, derivative of capillary pressure, incremental intrusion and
compressibility for these samples are illustrated in Figure 11and Figure 12.

Figure 11 - Capillary pressure data and derivative of capillary pressure analysis for samples 21, 34 and 44

When calculating tortuosity, in the absence of electrical data, Ruth et al. suggested that values of 1 and 2
can be used for a and m respectively as a general rule of thumb. Because the size of the helium atom is
closer to the molecular size of the gases that are produced from the Montney formation, helium porosity
was used in calculations of tortuosity as it accesses more of the pore network compared to mercury
porosity. Finally, the REV method is used to estimate permeability for the 50 remaining samples. These
estimations are compared with matrix (GRI) permeability for two reasons: first, both GRI permeability
and mercury porosimetry measurements are performed on crushed samples, and both focus on properties
of the matrix and disregard the presence of microfractures. Second, the REV method implements
Poiseuilles and Darcys principle for flow in porous media, both of which are not developed for
fractured media. This makes the REV model incapable of simulating fractured media. The result of this
comparison is illustrated in Figure 13.

14

SPE-175968-MS

Figure 12 Incremental Intrusion data and Compressibility analysis for samples 21, 34 and 44.

Figure 13 Comparing the results of permeability predictions using the REV method with measured matrix permeability. The solid
line is the one-to-one line on which predictions match measurements. The two dashed lines are the 10 fold lines.

As illustrated in Figure 13, theres a general under estimation for Type A samples while Type B samples
are generally over estimated. The over estimation of Type B samples can be attributed to the fact that
mercury porosimetry only accesses the larger pores that are initially intruded by mercury at very low
pressures. As a result, when calculating the representative tube diameter using Purcells equation, a
larger tube diameter is calculated because the smaller pore network is not included in the calculations.
To resolve the problem, it was decided to choose a pressure larger than the intrusion pressure as the cutoff point on capillary pressure curve. To be consistent, the peak of incremental intrusion curve was used
as the new cut-off point for Type B samples. This pressure is slightly larger than the intrusion pressure
for most Type B samples. The new curves were used to recalculate the representative diameter and new
predictions were made using the REV method. As expected, the predictions fell closer to the one-to-one

SPE-175968-MS

15

line, improving the overall prediction results for the whole suite of samples. Updated predictions results
are illustrated in Figure 14.

Figure 14 - Comparing the updated results of permeability predictions using the REV method with measured matrix permeability.
Using the peak of incremental intrusion data as the new cut-off point improves the predictive power of the method for Type B
samples.

Conclusion:
In this study, the pore structure of the Montney Formation was examined using high pressure mercury
porosimetry, helium pycnometry, SEM imaging and pulse-decay permeametry. Based on the current
study the following conclusions can be made:
A comparison of pulse-decay and matrix permeability indicated the presence of microfractures in
the medium which is a typical characteristic of the shale formations and SEM images confirmed
the presence of microfractures.
A study on Winlands R35 indicates that a significant portion of the pore network in the sample
set that was studied has pore radii of few nanometers.
Comparing mercury porosity and helium porosity indicate that in average, more than half of the
pore network for this sample set is not accessible to mercury at applied pressure.
Study of the capillary pressure indicates that the derivative of capillary pressure curve can be
used along with the compressibility factor to find appropriate cut-off values for conformance and
intrusion pressures.
Capillary pressure analysis along with compressibility factor analysis indicated the presence of
two groups of samples with different behavior in the sample set. The study suggests that Type B
samples are bimodal based on their behavior in mercury intrusion test.
A permeability predictive method was used to estimate permeability for the two groups of
samples. The predictions for Type B samples are improved when a smaller pore diameter is
chosen based on the incremental intrusion data.
The REV method, while not being exclusively developed for tight sands, makes interesting
predictions. It should be taken into account that electrical properties were not available for the
current study and Ruth et al. showed that the availability of electrical properties can improve the
predictions. It should also be considered that the REV method does not use any fitting parameter

16

SPE-175968-MS

and only used rock properties collected through experiments and does not use any fitting
parameter.
Mercury porosimetry and helium pycnometry have proven to be strong experimental methods that
provide us with valuable information about the structure of the pore network. There are various available
methods that provide similar information. As Saidian et al. (2014) discuss, each method is based on a
unique physical phenomena and measures a different portion of the pore space. Combining the results of
these methods can provide us with similar yet supplementary information that can improve our
understanding of the pore network. For the current sample set, due to the very fine nature of the pore
network, gas adsorption techniques can provide valuable information about the pore size distribution. N 2
adsorption technique has been used on mudrocks (Saidian et al., 2014; Clarkson et al., 2012) and has
proven to be an efficient technique for characterizing fine-grained rocks.

Acknowledgement:
The authors would like to thank Trican Geological Solutions for providing the authors with the test
results and granting permission to publish the information presented in this study. We would also like to
thank National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for funding this research.

References:
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