NEW ASPECTS OF CORE MICROTOMOGRAPHY

Compared to many other technologies of laboratory studies of core samples, the modern «digital core» technology is a rather young scientific and industrial direction, but for decades it has attracted close attention of a wide range of scientists and specialists of the oil and gas industry (geologists, sedimentologists, lithologists, geophysicists, developers, geological modelers, hydrodynamicists, physicists). For many specialists of practical sphere new methodical techniques and methods of such researches remain little known. If earlier computer X-ray microtomographs in the Russian Federation were the prerogative of only academic structures or service organizations, nowadays many subsoil users have started to equip their own laboratory and research centers with the corresponding specialized equipment, understanding that without these data it is hardly possible to build high-quality geological, petrophysical, tectonic-physical, rheological, hydrodynamic and geological-field models of the studied sediments, as well as to prepare progragmatic models of the studied sediments. In this article the authors made an attempt to study and analyze the current state of development of «digital core» technology.Using extensive factual material the accumulated experience of special studies in the field of full-size core tomography is summarized, estimates of absolute permeability of low-permeability complex sediments are made, results of studying cores in frozen and unfrozen state are given, detailed analysis of fracturing at different stages of sample preparation and ongoing studies is carried out, and specific problems for which a solution using the technology is expected in the near future are formulated In this article the positive and negative sides of poroset and direct methods of modeling of filtration properties by digital core model are studied. Particular attention is paid to the need for large-scale studies to obtain statistically reliable data samples, which can be used to select the most qualitative methods of research and application of algorithms for processing of initial geological and geophysical information.