TITLE:
Experimental Study of Induced Polarization Effect in Unconventional Reservoir Rocks
AUTHORS:
Vladimir Burtman, Haiyan Fu, Michael S. Zhdanov
KEYWORDS:
Unconventional Energy Resources, EM Exploration, Induced Polarization, Effective Medium
JOURNAL NAME:
Geomaterials,
Vol.4 No.4,
September
18,
2014
ABSTRACT: Unconventional hydrocarbon reserves substantially surpass those of conventional resources and therefore are extremely economically attractive. However, exploration and production of uncon-ventional reserves is challenging. This paper demonstrates that one can observe significant induced polarization effects in shale reservoir rocks, which can be used in exploration for unconventional reserves. The generalized effective-medium theory of induced polarization (GEMTIP) was used to model the complex resistivity of shale rocks. We demonstrate that GEMTIP modeling provides an evaluation of mineral composition and volume fractions in rock samples. We have conducted spectral induced polarization (IP) measurements using different types of shale rocks to test the feasibility of the IP method and GEMTIP modeling for studying unconventional hydrocarbon (HC) reservoir rocks.