Bp America

The Standard Oil Company

Patricia K Hunt

Steven J Waisala

Charles Blaha

Bernard Zemel

Michael J King

An apparatus and method for conducting and imaging vertical flow tests through a sample of porous material on-line in a CT scanner, characterized by a sample of porous material, such as a core sample, having a vertical axis and a transversely extending horizontal axis defining a scan plane to be imaged by the CT scanner. The sample is of uniform transverse width in the scan plane and has top and bottom end surfaces and opposite transverse side surfaces. The invention is further characterized by opposite filler bodies, of a material having an X-ray attenuation characteristic similar to the X-ray attenuation characteristic of the sample, juxtaposed against the side surfaces of the sample, respectively. The filler bodies have inner surface adjacent the sample and outer side surfaces that are round in the scan plane for forming with the sample a round shape for scanning in the scan plane. Also provided are top and bottom end pieces in fluid communication with the top and bottom surfaces, respectively. The end pieces include flow passages for passage of fluids into and out of the sample at the top and bottom end surfaces thereof. Provision is also made for securing together the sample, filler bodies and end pieces.

Vertical core flow testing apparatus and method with computed tomography

A method of determining the invasion of drilling mud filtrate into a core sample from a borehole in a subterranean rock formation, comprising using a drilling mud which forms a filter cake during coring of the borehole thereby to limit invasion of drilling mud solids into the subterranean rock to an extent less than invasion of the base fluid in which the mud solids otherwise are normally suspended, dissolving a dopant in the base fluid of the drilling mud to form a solution having an X-ray attenuation characteristic different from the X-ray attenuation characteristic of the connate fluids in the subterranean formation, obtaining a core sample from the borehole using the doped drilling mud with the dopant remaining in solution in the base fluid under subterranean conditions at the core sample depth, scanning the core sample with a computed tomography scanner to determine the attenuation characteristics at a plurality of points in a cross-section in the core sample, and determining from the attenuation characteristics for the plurality of points the depth of invasion of the dopant-base fluid solution into the core sample.

Method for identifying drilling mud filtrate invasion of a core sample

Mineral samples are sealed in a nitrile barrier resin which prevents alterations in a sample between the time the sample is taken and the time the sample is analyzed. This resin provides chemical resistance to a core sample and good water vapor barrier properties and excellent oxygen barrier properties. The resin may be laminated with other materials to improve various properties.

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Solon, OH, United States of America

Patricia K Hunt