In Rosneft Oil Company the digital core study technology (Digital Core) is being mainly developed by the Tyumen Petroleum Research Center (TNNC) which is a part of the corporate scientific and industrial complex. According to the Rosneft’s 2022 strategy, the Company’s technological advantage in the upstream segment will be ensured by rolling out the existing technologies and accelerating the development of breakthrough technologies, including digital ones. The “breakthrough” digital projects include the control and management of well construction (industrial internet and robot-assisted rigs), as well as operational monitoring and reflexive field management systems (unified information environment). Among the goals set by Rosneft, one of the primary tasks for the corporate research and design complex (CRDC) is to develop technologies in the field of digital core studies including new software products to support the digital core technology.
Solving these tasks will allow to improve the efficiency of geological exploration, reduce the error in estimated indicators, and increase hydrocarbon production through high-quality selection of technologies for developing hard-to-recover reserves and reducing the production costs.
The paper describes the development of the Digital Core technology in TNNC, including the existing projects developed to date. TNNC has a set of modern laboratory equipment used for digital core studies. A CT-scanner has helped to build 3D digital images of hundreds of core samples taken from various types of reservoirs, and to scan and digitize over 5 kilometers of full-size core from the Company's fields. Digital images obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are also studied. In the process of cooperation with Russian companies, TNNC has acquired experience in micro- and nano-tomographic core studies. A unique CT-scanning-based experiment conducted to measure displacement ratios of complex carbonate vuggy-fractured rocks allowed us to visually confirm the flow rates effect on final oil recovery factors in vuggy reservoirs.
The paper also describes the TNNC experience in the field of mathematical flow modeling for several liquid phases at micro level in digitized and modeled rocks, as well as the creation of software products to support the Digital Core technology.
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