Characterization of porosity inside limestone as a reservoir of oil using neutron tomography

Abstract

As it is well known, limestone is a type of sedimentary rock that has a function as a reservoir of oil and gas. One of the factors that affect fluid saturation of the reservoir is the distribution of porosity inside the limestone that represents a percentage of the total available space for the oil and gas to fill in. Since hydrogen and carbon have strong attenuation to the thermal neutron, the oil-filled in the porosity can be investigated by the neutron tomography technique. Therefore, neutron tomography can be used to visualize the distribution of the porosity of the limestone. In this work, we report the characterization of the porosity inside the limestone obtained from the oil and petroleum gas institution of Indonesia using the neutron tomography technique. Characterization of the porosity using X-ray tomography technique also has been done in order to compare the results. The results show the neutron tomography technique is useful to visualize and characterize the porosity inside the limestone.