Petrofísica e caracterização mineralógica de rochas carbonáticas do Nordeste brasileiro.

Abstract

Carbonate rocks are characterized by its high complexity, mainly due to its high level of compositional heterogeneity. In this work fifteen samples of carbonate rocks from the Northeast of Brazil are analyzed: four from the Santana Formation (Araripe Basin), five from the Riachuelo Formation (Sergipe-Alagoas Basin) and six from the Jandaíra Formation (Potiguar Basin) in order to analyze the mineral composition of these rocks through digital analysis of CT images and investigate the effect of this composition on petrophysical rock properties. The petrophysical analysis consisted of conventional plugs tests where porosity (), grain density (g), total density (b), and compressional wave (VP) and shear wave (VS) velocities were determined. The results of the mineral composition, done on plug subsamples,by CT were compared with the results obtained by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The results obtained through CT indicate that the samples are mainly composed of calcite and/or dolomite. In general, the results of the XRD analyzes confirmed the mineral composition indicated by CT, except for amorphous minerals and for those with small mineral content (accessory minerals). The results show that the main minerals control the petrophysical properties, specially grain density and elastic velocities. However, other factors may significantly affect elastic velocities, such as porosity, porosity type (if intergranular or vugular) and the proportion of microporosity present in the rock.