Experimental characterisation of the hydrocarbon sealing efficiency of cap rocks

Characterisation of Gas Transport Properties of the Opalinus Clay, a Potential Host Rock Formation for Radioactive Waste Disposal

“…The low hydraulic conductivity of argillaceous rock significantly restricts the efficiency of this transport mechanism. Nevertheless, the general importance of diffusion and advection as slow background processes in all types of cap rock formations is beyond question and has been addressed in the context of many hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir engineering studies (Clayton and Hay, 1994;Krooss et al, 1992;Schlömer and Krooss, 1997). Figure 2 Classification and analysis of gas transport processes in Opalinus Clay: a) phenomenological description based on the microstructural model concept; b) basic transport mechanisms; c) geomechanical regime; and d) effect of gas transport on the barrier function of the host rock.…”

How well can we predict permeability in sedimentary basins? Deriving and evaluating porosity–permeability equations for noncemented sand and clay mixtures

“…The difference between observed and calculated permeability values and the calibrated model parameters is listed in Tables 2 and 3. As discussed by Tokunaga et al (1998), experimental permeability data for pure clays for porosities lower than 0.2 are scarce. Comparing calculated permeabilities to data on natural mixed clay types (Neuzil 1994) and mudstones predominantly composed of illite (Schloemer & Krooss 1997) shows that neither the power law permeability-void ratio equation nor the Kozeny-Carman equation can match the (A) (B) Fig. 3.…”

“…Permeability data for pure clays were obtained from Al-Tabbaa & Wood (1987), Mesri & Olson (1971), Olsen (1966), and Vasseur et al (1995). The figure also shows data on mixed clay types from Schloemer & Krooss (1997) and Neuzil (1994) that were not used to calibrate the porosity-permeability equations. See Table 2 for the fit statistics of the permeability equations and Table 3 for calibrated parameter values.…”

Estimation of hydraulic anisotropy of unconsolidated granular packs using finite element methods

“…Most of the observed variation in permeability of shale formations can be attributed to porosity variations [15,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27], grain size and pore size distributions [15,23,[25][26][27][28]. Furthermore, high anisotropy ratios observed in apparently homogeneous aquifers are caused to a lesser degree by orientation but caused mainly by micro-stratification [29].…”