Effects of nanoporosity and surface imperfections on solid bitumen reflectance (BRo) measurements in unconventional reservoirs

• Reports the effect of bitumen surface nano-porosity on bitumen reflectance measurements (BRo)
• Reports the effect of probe size on the bitumen reflectance values
• Provide the optimum probe size for BRo measurements for acceptable level of standard deviation in measurements

Bitumen reflectance (BRo) is an alternative maturity indicator to vitrinite reflectance (VRo) in Lower Paleozoic and marine rocks where few higher plant macerals can be found. In unconventional petroleum rocks, locally exuded and/or migrated oil are retained in the tight rocks and thermally and diagenetically consolidated into solid bitumen and pyrobitumen. Finding suitable bitumen macerals for BRo measurements pose a challenge in indicating the proper thermal maturity. This study reports the effects of surface imperfections caused by nanoporosity, surface granularities, and impurities on measuring BRo in core samples from the Jurassic Nordegg Shale (shale oil) and the Triassic Montney siltstone (tight gas) in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. The degree that bitumen's surface imperfections influence any given reflectance measurement was controlled by changing the probe size area. The larger the measuring probe, the higher the degree of surface imperfections is included in BRo readings. The effect is quantified in this paper, showing up to 27% diminishment of mean BRo values when the probe size increased from 0.31 to 5.85 μm2. The mode in which bitumen accumulates within the rock has a strong influence on the degree of surface imperfections. Bitumen which is disseminated within clay matrix introduces a high degree of nanoporosity and mineral interference and hence will result in lowest BRo. In contrast, inclusions of high reflecting micrinite or diagenetic minerals such as pyrite result in higher BRo. These effects can vary at the microscopic scale leading to multiple populations of reflectance readings and difficult interpretations of thermal maturity.