WELCOME TO

CRAIN'S PETROPHYSICAL

HANDBOOK

Please be fair to the author. Pay your Shareware Fee HERE and receive a copy of CPH by download.

CORING and CORE POROSITY

CORING METHODS
Porosity, permeability, grain density, and mineralogy of reservoir rocks are
important elements in a reservoir description. We can estimate these
properties from well logs or measure them from rock samples in the
laboratory. The rock samples are obtained by cutting a piece of rock from the
well bore; the process is called coring.
Conventional cores are cut using a specialized subassembly at the bottom of
the drill string. This consists of a coring drill bit (usually a diamond bit), a
core barrel to hold the recovered core, and fingers in the core barrel to hold
the core in place while the coring assembly is pulled out of the hole. At the
surface, the core is retrieved from the core barrel and placed in transport
boxes, which are transported to a laboratory for further study.
If coring while drilling is impractical, small cores can be taken on wireline
using a sidewall core gun or a sidewall rotary coring tool. The sidewall core
gun uses black powder explosives to fire a steel bullet into the rock adjacent
to the tool. The hollow bullet captures a small piece of rock that is pulled to
the surface by the tool. Such guns can recover up to 48 samples in one trip
in the hole. Depth control is monitored using a gamma ray log to correlate to
previous logs run in the well.

Training Materials

Topic Index

THIS PAGE
Coring Methods
Core Cleaning
Porosity Definitions
Measuring Bulk Volume
Direct Method
Archimedes Method
Calibrated Displacement
Measuring Grain Volume
Assumed Value
Fluid Displacement
Boyle's Law
Measuring Pore Volume
Boyle's Law Method
Summation of Fluids
Dean-Stark Method
Tar Mass Calculations
Porosity from CT Scans
Examples

SEE ALSO
Water Chemistry Analysis
Core Analysis Basics
Coring and Core Porosity
Core Saturation
Core Permeability
Wettability
Capillary Pressure
Relative Permeability
Rock Compressibility
Electrical Properties A,M,N
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD)
X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF)
Infra-Red (FTIR)
Thin Section Petrography
Averaging Core Data
Core Analysis Lab Manual

Coring assembly on bottom of drill string and coring bit

The rotary coring tool uses an electrically driven diamond bit to drill a small core from the formation adjacent

to the tool. Several cores can be taken at different depths before the tool is brought to the surface.

Rotary core drill on wireline

Sidewall core gun with steel bullets

Core slab, core plug, full diameter, and whole core definition

Core photo of slabbed core

Taking core plugs for horizontal and vertical rock properties requires care and attention to dipping beds,
fractures, lithology variations, and porosity heterogeneity. Do NOT high-grade the selection of core plugs by
choosing only good porosity points - this will not provide useful information to control petrophysical
evaluations, reserves, productivity or other performance calculations.

CORE CLEANING METHODS

Before measuring porosity and permeability, the core samples must be cleaned of residual fluids using
solvents, then thoroughly dried. There are numerous lab techniques available to do this. Most methods also
provide the oil and water saturation of the core samples on an as-received basis.
The number of cycles or amount of solvent which must be used depends on the nature of the hydrocarbons
being removed and the solvent used. Often, more than one solvent must be used to clean a sample. The
solvents selected must not react with the minerals in the core. Toluene and benzene are most frequently used
to remove oil and methanol and water is used to remove salt from interstitial or filtrate water. The cleaning
procedures used are specifically important in special core analysis tests, as the cleaning itself may change
wettability.

Page Views 9701 Since 01 Jan 2015

SITE NAVIGATION
Crain's Petrophysical Handbook
Petrophysical Training
Petrophysical Services
On-Line Handbook IndexPay
Courses
Consulting
Shareware FeeOrder Handbook
Course DatesIn-House
ServicesClient
DownloadDownload Free
CoursesOrder Audio-Visual ListProject ListFree
SpreadsheetsDownload Free
CoursesOrder Video
PublicationsSearch This
PublicationsWebsite
CoursesOrder Audio-Visual SiteContact Us
TestimonialsAbout The AuthorTerms LecturesOrder Reference Design and Content
Copyright 2015
of UseWhat's New or Updated
ManualsBecome An
E. R. (Ross) Crain, P.Eng.
What's Popular
Associate Instructor
Single-User, Corporate,
Academic
and Associate Instructor
Licenses
Are Available
Corrections, Updates, Technical Contributions Are Welcome