Digital Rock Analysis is a new technology that can assist oil and gas companies improve their understanding of their reservoirs and provide essential data for accurate reservoir characterisation.

Direct imaging of the rock matrix, pores, fractures, fluids, minerals and wettability provides qualitative and quantitative information that enhances understanding of pore-scale phenomena and macro behaviour.  Core-to-pore imaging technologies permit the construction of accurate rock models from which petrophysical and flow properties can confidently be derived.

Digital Rock Analysis involves a succession of image acquisitions and sample selections that often starts at the core-scale (cm-scale) and descends to the pore-scale (nm-scale).  At each point, the imaging provides important information about the distribution of ‘rock types’ at that resolution and aids in the selection of smaller samples for the next iteration. This sequence of imaging is necessary because it is impossible to resolve the fine detail of the rock structure that controls its petrophysical and flow properties in a single image that also captures a representative volume of core material close to log-scale.