評論
打印
Science and technology
科學技術
Prospecting for oil
石油勘探
Grains of truth
千慮一得之法
Putting rocks in medical scanners may help the search for oil and gas
采用醫學掃描儀對巖石樣本掃描，可幫助尋找石油和天然氣
STRIKING oil is one thing.
開采石油是一回事。
Getting it out of the ground in economic quantities is quite another.
然而從經濟角度考慮，能從地下開采出多少石油又完全是另一回事。
Doing so depends on understanding the granular structure of the rock it is trapped in,
要做到這點,人們需要對某些巖石的顆粒結構有所了解，而這些巖石是有石油困于其中的。分
and analysing that is a tedious business of placing countless samples in pressure vessels to assess their capacity to hold hydrocarbons and to estimate the flow rate of those hydrocarbons through them.
析巖石顆粒結構是極其枯燥乏味的事情，研究人員需要將無數個樣本放置在壓力容器內以評估它們含納碳氫化合物的能力并估計其中蘊藏的碳氫化合物的產量。
This can take years.
這可能需要花費數年的時間。
Help, though, is at hand.
然而可施之法即在眼前。
Computerised tomography scanning has been used in medicine for several decades.
計算機X線斷層照相掃描術在醫學領域應用已有幾十年時間。
Now it is being applied to geology.
目前它正被應用于地質學。
In alliance with electron microscopy, the geological use of CT scanning has given birth to a new field, digital rock physics.
在與電子顯微鏡配合使用下，CT掃描術在地質上的應用孕育了一個新的領域—數字巖石物理。
The field's proponents believe it will let oil companies decide far more quickly than they could in the past which strikes are worth exploiting, and which should be abandoned.
該領域的倡導者認為，該項技術能使石油公司較之以往更加快速地判斷哪些石油礦值得開發，哪些應該放棄。
One of those proponents is Amos Nur, chief technology officer at, a company based in Houston, Texas.
科技公司Ingrain總部設在得克薩斯州休斯敦，其首席技術官阿莫斯?努爾是該技術倡導者之一。
His firm is one of three independent digital-rock-physics laboratories in the world.
他所在公司是全球三家獨立數字巖石物理實驗室之一。
According to Dr Nur, the new technology is capable of creating three-dimensional pictures of a sample's structure with a resolution of 50 nanometres.
努爾博士表示，這項新技術能為巖石樣本結構創建分辨率為50納米的三維立體照片。
That is enough to work out how oil and gas trapped in the pores between the grains of such a rock might be expected to behave.
這足夠預測出困在巖石顆粒細孔間的石油和天然氣的表現方式。
Most of the samples analysed by Ingrain start as cylindrical cores brought up from deep below the Earth's surface by drills.
開始分析的大部分樣本都來自于地下深層鉆探得到的圓柱形巖石核。
A typical core is several metres long, so it is first subject to a rough and ready CT scan using a standard medical scanner.
典型的巖石核有幾米長，因此首先要采用標準醫學掃描儀對其進行粗略的CT掃描。
The scanner is fitted with calibration rods made of a proprietary material whose properties provide reference points for the creation of an image.
該掃描儀安裝了許多由專利材料制成的調校棒，這種材料有為圖像創建提供參考點的屬性。
This initial scan yields a picture that has a resolution of about 500 microns.
初始掃描會得到一張分辨率為500微米的圖片。
That done, sections of the core 2-3cm long, whose porosity is of particular interest, are subject to further study.
這些完成之后，將一些長度在2至3厘米間，其孔隙度有特殊研究價值的小巖石塊做進一步研究。
This involves scanning them in a special micro-CT machine, of a sort developed originally to look at computer chips.
這包括將巖石核樣本放入一臺特殊的微CT機進行掃描—微CT機原是為了觀察電腦芯片而研制的。
The sample is placed on a turntable and rotated inside this microscanner.
將小巖石核樣本放置在微掃描器內部的轉盤上并使其旋轉，
The result is a 3D image with a resolution of 40 microns.
結果得到一個分辨率為40微米的三維圖像。
This allows sections requiring further study to be identified.
這就使得需做進一步研究的小巖石塊能夠被標識。
These sections are dissected, using a laser, into slices a millimetre or less thick, and then scanned again, either with the micro-CT or with a scanning electron microscope.
采用激光將這些小巖石塊切分成一毫米或不太厚的薄片，然后用微CT機或電子顯微掃描鏡對其再次掃描。
That brings the resolution to half a micron, or 500 nanometres.
這樣便將圖象分辨率提高到了0.5微米或500納米。
Finally, the image is cleaned up by a computer program and the 50-nanometre-resolution picture emerges.
最后，將該圖像進行計算機降噪去斑處理，得到一張50納米分辨率的圖片。
This image, which shows the porosity of the rock, and the channels between the pores,
然后將能夠顯示巖石孔隙度和巖石內部毛孔間通道的圖像用計算機分析，
is then subject to a computer analysis that reveals how easily hydrocarbons will flow through it under pressure—and thus the likely productivity of a well dug at that site.
結果會顯示在有壓力情況下碳氫化合物在巖石塊內部流動的容易程度—從而得知樣品來源之處那口鉆探井的可能產量。
Whether digital rock physics will actually replace traditional methods is unclear.
“數字巖石物理”技術是否能夠取代傳統方法，目前尚無定論。
Sceptics, such as Anthony Kovscek of Stanford University, think the claims being made for it are exaggerated.
許多人對此持懷疑態度，斯坦福大學的Anthony Kovscek就是其中之一，他認為該技術的聲明有夸大成分。
Though analysis of a rock's structure in this way will, in his opinion, be able to tell you that a strike is unlikely to yield a commercial return,
在他看來，盡管采用這種方法得出的巖石結構分析結果能夠告知人們哪個鉆探點不可能產生商業回報，
the reverse is not true.
但其反面結論卻未必正確。
He does not believe that the technique can predict flow rates,
他不相信這種技術能預測石油的流量，
even from rock that contains a lot of hydrocarbons—and flow rates are crucial to an oil field's economics.
即使對于含有大量碳氫化合物的巖石也無法預測—石油流量是油田經濟中至關重要的指標。
The new discipline of digital rock physics has, nevertheless, attracted considerable attention within the industry.
但是“數字巖石物理”這門新學科在行業內引起了相當大的關注。
Smaller oil companies are using the facilities of Ingrain, Numerical Rocks and Digitalcore.
小型石油公司正在使用Ingrain、Numerical Rocks和Digitalcore的設備。
Larger ones, such as BP, Chevron and Shell, are setting up their own digital-rock-physics laboratories.
而大型石油公司—如BP、雪佛龍和殼牌正在創建自己的數字巖石物理實驗室。
As the supply of crude oil dwindles and the price thus rises, anything that makes the process of prospecting new wells cheaper is to be welcomed. This new technique may be such a thing.
當原油供應下降并導致價格上升之時，任何能使新井勘探成本更低的技術都將受到歡迎。“數字巖石物理”可能就是滿足此要求的新技術。
