CHARACTERIZATION OF SUBTERRANEAN FORMATION PROPERTIES DERIVED FROM QUANTITATIVE X-RAY CT SCANS OF DRILL CUTTINGS

摘要

A method and a system are provided to characterize subterranean formations, which includes extracting drill cuttings from a drilling fluid, and grouping the drill cuttings into a group of cuttings based on a time of arrival of the drill cuttings at the Earth's surface, wherein these steps can be repeated at least once to provide a plurality of groups of drill cuttings that arrive sequentially at different recorded times that correspond to different downhole locations. A multi-energy X-ray CT scan of the groups of drill cuttings can be performed to generate digital images of the drill cuttings of the groups of drill cuttings, and then the bulk density and effective atomic number as data pairs can be estimated for each of the scanned grouped cuttings, from which a reconstituted core can be assembled, and the reconstituted core can be used to determine at least one rock or formation parameter associated with a subterranean location, and this can be done for multiple sequential downhole locations to provide a log type result that can be displayed.