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Paper No. 175-3
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-5:30 PM
WETTABILITY CHARACTERISTICS, PORE CONNECTIVITY, AND MIGRATION BEHAVIOR OF TRACERS IN THE NEW ALBANY SHALE
The New Albany Shale (NAS) in the Illinois Basin is pivotal due to its significant potential for natural gas production and its role in enhancing our understanding of organic-rich shale reservoirs. The investigation of wettability characteristics, pore connectivity, and tracer migration in the NAS is crucial for sustainable hydrocarbon exploration and production, though challenges persist in accurately characterizing these properties due to the complex heterogeneity of the shale. This study aims to characterize the wettability, pore connectivity, fluid imbibition, and tracer migration in the NAS and 20 core samples were collected from four wells located at the margin and the center of the Illinois Basin. Mercury intrusion capillary pressure tests, N2 physisorption, contact angle, spontaneous imbibition, and mapped tracer migration using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. This study examines the coupled effects of pore structure (including geometry and connectivity) and wettability characteristics on fluid flow and tracer migration. The MIP results indicated pore throat diameters primarily falling within the range of 2.8 to 50 nm. The analysis of the N2 physisorption results indicates that the isotherms are type II. Based on the imbibition behavior towards API brine and n-decane, it is evident that hydrophobic pores exhibit superior connectivity compared to hydrophilic pore networks, as corroborated by the contact angle measurements. Organic-I moves much faster than organic-Re, as the top face shows similar concentration with the bottom face for organic-I. Much less imbibition and diffusive penetration were also observed for larger molecules of organic-Re to indicate the probable entanglement of slightly wider nano-sized molecules in nano pore spaces of tight shales. The petrophysical analysis of the NAS provides valuable insights into its pore structure and fluid dynamics, which are essential for enhancing production efficiency and performing accurate economic assessments.