Author(s)

Vladimir Burtman^1,2*, Haiyan Fu¹, Michael S. Zhdanov^1,2,3

¹Geology and Geophysics Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.
²TechnoImaging LLC, Salt Lake City, USA.
³Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia.

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.

Unconventional Energy Resources, EM Exploration, Induced Polarization, Effective Medium

Burtman, V. , Fu, H. and Zhdanov, M. (2014) Experimental Study of Induced Polarization Effect in Unconventional Reservoir Rocks. Geomaterials, 4, 117-128. doi: 10.4236/gm.2014.44012.