ErDouSi Tight Oil

High resolution microscopic imaging is a tool for unconventional resource prospecting, exploration and production, due to the nano-scale hydrocarbon storage units and their complexity. However, balancing the appropriate high resolution detail with a representative, large-enough field of view has always been a challenge. Focusing on Chang-7 member of Ordos basin, Northwest China, we use both FIB-SEM and a 2D large field of view SEM imaging as inputs to our multi-scale numerical modeling framework. The predicted 3D rock physical properties from FIB-SEM at nanometer pore-scale are integrated with laboratory measurement data on mineralogy and geochemistry to enable direct numerical simulation of petrophysical properties on 2D SEM images. The corresponding properties at larger and facies-representative scale are computed with nano-scale properties factored in. The systematic upscaling approach allows us to investigate the high potential shale oil play in the prospected area in an unprecedented timely and economic manner.