IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,488,486
Granted Patent B2
US 12,488,486 · App. 17/912,318 · Granted Dec 2, 2025

Method for estimating fluid saturation of a rock

Inventors: Nishank Saxena (Houston, TX); Faruk Ömer Alpak (Houston, TX); Amie Marie Hows (Houston, TX); John Justin Freeman (Houston, TX); Bochao Zhao (Houston, TX)
G06T7/62G01N15/088G01N33/241G06N3/084G06T7/11G01N2015/0846G01N2223/616G01N2223/649G06T2200/04G06T2207/10081G06T2207/20021G06T2207/20081
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,488,486
App. No.
17/912,318
Granted
Dec 2, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present invention provides a method for estimating fluid saturation of a hydrocarbon-bearing rock from a rock image. The image is segmented to represent either a pore space or solid material in the rock. An image pore volume is estimated from the segmented image, and a corrected pore volume is determined to account for the sub-resolution pore volume missing in the image of the rock. An image-derived wetting fluid saturation of the rock is estimated using a direct flow simulation on the rock image and corrected for the corrected pore volume. A backpropagation-enabled trained model can be used to segment the image. A backpropagation-enabled method can be used to estimate the fluid saturation using an image selected from a series of 2D projection images, 3D reconstructed images and combinations thereof.

Claims (13)

1 . A method for estimating fluid saturation of a hydrocarbon-bearing rock from a rock image, comprising:

obtaining a 3D image of a rock from the hydrocarbon-bearing formation in a field, wherein the 3D image is comprised of a plurality of voxels and the 3D image has a resolution;

processing the 3D image to segment the 3D image by selecting each voxel of the 3D image to represent either a pore space in the rock or solid material in the rock;

estimating an image pore volume of the rock from the segmented 3D image, the image pore volume lacking a sub-resolution pore volume of the rock;

determining a corrected pore volume adapted to account for the sub-resolution pore volume of the rock;

estimating an image-derived wetting fluid saturation of the rock using a direct flow simulation on the 3D image; and

determining a corrected wetting fluid saturation of the rock from the image-derived wetting fluid saturation, the image pore volume and the corrected pore volume of the rock.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the 3D image of the rock is obtained by x-ray computer tomography.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the rock is obtained from a hydrocarbon-bearing formation comprised of sandstone, carbonate, shale and combinations thereof.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the corrected pore volume of the rock is determined by laboratory measurement.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the corrected pore volume of the rock is determined by deriving a non-wetting liquid capillary pressure curve from the segmented 3D image of the rock; and determining the corrected pore volume from the segmented 3D image and the non-wetting liquid capillary pressure curve.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the non-wetting liquid capillary pressure curve is derived from the segmented 3D image of the rock at pressures of up to an image-limited pressure, where the image-limited pressure is the minimum pressure that can be applied on the non-wetting liquid to overcome the capillary pressure of the narrowest pore throat distinguishable from the segmented 3D image of the rock.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the 3D image is obtained from a cloud-based tool adapted to store and process 2D projection images from a pore-scale imaging technology.

Assignments (2)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jan 30, 2023
From: SHELL OIL COMPANY
To: SHELL USA, INC.
Reel/Frame 062540/0618 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 28, 2022
From: SAXENA, NISHANK; ALPAK, FARUK ÖMER; HOWS, AMIE MARIE; FREEMAN, JOHN JUSTIN; ZHAO, BOCHAO
To: SHELL USA, INC.
Reel/Frame 061238/0199 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63013683 · Apr 22, 2020
Related Publication 20230137288A1 · May 4, 2023
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