ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Solid Earth Geophysics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1551826
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Development of Underground ResourcesView all 51 articles
Microstructure characterization of tight reservoirs using micro-CT and FIB-SEM imaging technology
Provisionally accepted
Wei Liu1
Lin Shang1Guangliang Gao1Dan Li1Miao Wang1Wenshuang Geng1Qian Jia1Guodong Zhang1Pengfei Hao2Licai Peng2
Haixiang Zhang2*- 1Jidong Oilfield Exploration and Development Research Institute, Tangshan, China
- 2Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the intricate microstructural characteristics of tight reservoir rocks, utilizing advanced micro-CT scanning and FIB-SEM technologies. Micro-CT scanning technology was employed to obtain clear micro-pore structures and pore-throat size distribution patterns of four typical lithologies: dolomite, sandstone, mudstone, and conglomerate. Our findings reveal that the average pore-throat dimensions in tight reservoirs are confined to several micrometers, markedly diminutive by 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to their conventional counterparts. The FIB-SEM was used to obtain the distribution patterns of nanoand micrometer-scale pore-throats in tight cores. Nano-scale pores with equivalent diameters below 200nm accounted for 20% of the total pore area, contributing minimally to storage space and permeability, while the main storage space and flow channels were concentrated in micrometerscale pore-throats. Three-dimensional micro-CT scanning provides a comprehensive and intuitive digital rock structure for establishing permeability models, while nano-scale two-dimensional scanning yields finer microscopic pore-throat structures and size distribution patterns. The combination of both methods leads to measurement results closer to reality. Conclusively, we propose a mathematical formulation for predicting the absolute permeability of tight reservoirs, predicated on micro-scan data. This formulation is distinguished by its generality, computational simplicity, and its potential to furnish essential data for the design of reservoir development strategies.
Keywords: Microstructure characterization, Tight reservoirs, micro-CT, FIB-SEM, Permeability
Received: 26 Dec 2024; Accepted: 19 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Shang, Gao, Li, Wang, Geng, Jia, Zhang, Hao, Peng and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haixiang Zhang, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.