SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

A
Effective

Porosity, Producible Fluid and Permeability

Carbonates from NMR Logging

in

Dahai Chang and Harold Vinegar

Shell Development Company
Chris Morriss
Schlumberger Wireline and Testing
Chris Straley
Schiumberger-Doll Research

ABSTRACT
Producibility estimates in carbonate formations have always been a challenge for
log interpretation.
Broad pore size distributions in carbonates, from microcrystalline to
large vugs, have a large effect on productivity, permeability, and estimation of hydrocarbon saturation from resistivity logs. In mixed complex carbonates it is even difficult to
obtain accurate porosities from conventional wireline logs without calibration against core,
An experimental logging tool, the CMR* Combinable Magnetic Resonance tool,
has been evaluated in the Glorieta and Cleat-fork carbonates in West Texas. The logged
interval is complicated by significant amounts of separated vuggy porosity. The lithologies consist of dolomite, limestone, anhydrite and elastic material (silt containing quartz,
feldspar and clay).
The CMR porosity is derived independent of formation lithology.
In the clean
mixed carbonates, the CMR porosity is equal to total porosity. In the silt zones, the CMR
porosity measures the effective porosity because it is insensitive to microporosity associated with the elastic material. Using the CMR free fluid porosity, the producing oil-water
contact was identified in this well, which was difficult to determine using the conventional
wireline logs alone.
Twenty-seven core plugs from the well were analyzed by low field NMR (nuclear
magnetic resonance) and conventional core analysis.
Estimates of producible fluid
obtained from the T, distributions using a free fluid cutoff of 92 milliseconds agreed with
centrifugeable fluid from the plugs. Petrophysical properties depending on the relative
amounts of intergranular and vuggy porosity were found to be well correlated with the
long end of the NMR T, distributions.
Permeability estimation from the porosity with
T, < 750 msec using the relation k - $4 TZ2 was superior to that based on total porosity,
Finally, the cementation exponent m was found to increase with the fraction of long T,
porosity.
*Mark of Schlumberger

SPWLA 35th Annual Logging Symposium, June 1%22,1994

porosity. The productive interval is carbonate (dolomite or limestone).

The
presence of a small matrix of silt is closely
associated with low permeability zones
which act as good vertical flow barriers.

INTRODUCTION
Numerous Glorieta and Clear-fork
reservoirs on the Central Basin Platform
have been produced for many years.
Many of these fields are in a mature stage
of production through primary recovery
and water-flood. Some of the fields are
being CO, flooded and others are being
studied as potential CO2 flood targets.
Because of the complexity of the reservoirs, understanding the remaining hydrocarbon distribution and reservoir flow
characteristics is essential for achieving
advanced reservoir management.

Formation
evaluation
in the
Glorieta and Clear-fork reservoirs has been
dificult.
The main challenges are lithology identification, such as silt zone delineation, and porosity evaluation for determining net pay. The fluid distribution and
flow characteristics such as permeability
and producible fluid volumes are also
important as many of these reservoirs are
in secondary or tertiary recovery.

The main lithology of the Glorieta

and Cleat-fork formations in this field is
dolomite
with textures varying from
mudstone dolomite to grainstone dolomite. Various amounts of anhydrite are
distributed through the formation in a
range of size scales and modes from porefilling and matrix replacement to nodular
and fracture-filling.
Quartz, plagioclase,
K-feldspar, muscovite and illite, collectively called silt due to their fine particle
sizes, appear frequently.
These silty
zones are usually continuous laterally,
though variable vertically, thus providing
good markers for geological correlation.
In addition, limestone and calcite cement
are occasionally observed in the lower
section of the Cleat-fork formation.

In order to assist in formation

evaluation, the CMR logging tool was
evaluated in a Shell Western Exploration
and Production
Inc. (SWEPI) well in
West Texas across the Glorieta and
Clear-fork formations. In addition to the
CMR log, a complete logging suite was
run including DLL* - MSFL*, CNL* litho density tool* NGT* and EPT*. In
addition, 100 ft of conventional whole
core was taken in the lower section of the
Cleat-fork reservoir.
The CMR tool
presents a promising evaluation technique
for this complex carbonate
reservoir
because it provides
a lithology-independent porosity measure-ment, as well
as an estimate of producible fluid (free
fluid porosity).
Combined with other
logs, it was hoped the CMR log would be
able to determine the oil-water contact
@WC), which is difficult with conventional wireline logs.

The
Glorieta
and
Cleat-fork
(Permian) formations are low porosity
and low permeability reservoirs.
The
porosity typically ranges from non-porous
to 25 p.u. The air permeability varies
from approximately 0.01 md to more than
1 Darcy, illustrative of the heterogeneity
of the formation.
The pore geometry
varies through the entire formation and
many zones have a large amount of vuggy

Lab NMR measurements on the

core were directed towards obtaining
petrophysical properties in a section of
*Mark of Schlumberger

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

A
particularly vuggy dolomite. NMR measurements before and after centrifitgation
of the core were used for determining the
producible fluid. Point counting thin sections showed up to 50% vuggy porosity
in this zone. Because the vugs in this
section are separated, they contribute only
weakly to fluid or electrical flow. Thus it
was expected that eliminating the vuggy
porosity in the petrophysical correlations
for permeability and cementation factor
would improve the fit.

bonates compared
sandstones.

NMR IN POROUS MEDIA

NMR measurements
on watersaturated cores result in a distribution of
T2 values that correspond to the distribution of pore sizes. T2 distributions have
been used to estimate both permeability
and producible
porosity,
two petrophysical parameters that are influenced by
pore size (Kenyon, 1992; Straley et al.,
1991). In sandstones the T2 cutoff for
producible fluid has been shown to be
about 33 msec; however, the weaker surface relaxivity in carbonates results in a
longer value for T,. One of the purposes
of the lab NMR study reported here is to
establish the T2 cutoff for the free fluid
index in a dolomite lithology.

cm/set for

Equation (1) shows that T2 is

proportional to V/S which in turn is proportional to pore size. For example, for a
spherical pore S/V = 3/r, where r is the
radius of the pore. In a carbonate, if the
bulk fluid is mud filtrate with a T,, of 2
set, and if p2 = 0.0005 crn/sec, then a
pore diameter of 60 microns would have a
T2 of 1 sec.

Pulsed NMR measures the magnetization (MO) and transverse relaxation

time (T2) of hydrogen nuclei contained in
the pore fluids. M, is proportional to the
number of hydrogen nuclei in the sensitive
region, and may be scaled to give an
NMR porosity ($=).
For fluids confined in pores, T2 values can be shorter
than for the bulk fluid if the fluids interact
with the rock surface which promotes
NMR relaxation. In the fast diffusion
limit, the measured T, values are given
by:

+=,2

to -0.0015

($)+[$) (l)

CMR TOOL AND OPERATION

The CMR tool is an experimental
pad-type
pulsed
magnetic
resonance
logging tool employing two permanent
magnets to generate the static magnetic
field.
The details of the experimental
logging tool have been outlined in an
earlier publication (Morriss et al., 1993).
The depth-of-investigation
is about 1 in.
The commercial tool has a similar hardware design, but will have deeper depthof-investigation
and significantly higher
signal-to-noise ratio than the experimental
prototype.

where S is the surface area of the pore; V

is the volume of the pore; T2, is the bulk
fluid transverse relaxation time; and p2 is
the surface relaxivity, which is a measure
of the rock surfaces ability to enhance
relaxation (Kenyon, 1992). The value of
p2 depends on surface mineralogy and
pore fluid type. Previous investigations
have shown p2 is weaker in carbonates
than in sandstones (Timur, 1972). Lab
data suggest p2 -0.0005 cm/set for car-

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-Z

1994

amounts of silt are present in the top section from 5,900 to 5,960 ft. Moderate
amounts of anhydrite, ranging from 20%
to 40%, are observed from 6,140 to 6,200
ft. In Figure 2, dolomite is the dominant
lithology with small amounts of anhydrite.
Below 7,260 ft, however, both limestone
and dolomite are present. This lithology
interpretation is confirmed by core in this
and nearby wells.

The CMR log was run using a

pulse sequence with a 1.3 second wait
time followed by the acquisition of 600
spin echoes with an echo spacing of 320
microseconds.
The spin echo sequences
are collected in pairs, called phase-alternated pairs (PAPS).
Hence the total
acquisition time for 1 PAP was 3 seconds.
A maximum logging speed of 600 ft/hr is
required to ensure that a new PAP is
acquired during each 6-in. sample interval.

One of the main difficulties in

formation
evaluation
in this complex
lithology is deriving lithology-independent
porosity for accurate hydrocarbon saturation and volumetric estimation.
Track 3
of Figure 2 shows three different porosity
curves: $m
is the CMR porosity; $c0N
is the porosity based on SWEPIs multilog evaluation technique; and $ooRE is the
porosity measured from 2 in. o.d. x 2 in.
long core plugs. The plugs were regularly
sampled at 1 ft spacing and the measured
porosity was smoothed over 1.5 fi to
approximate logging tool resolution.
A
similar presentation is given in track 3 of
Figure 1. Considering the heterogeneity
of the reservoir, there is good agreement
among porosity logs even though the
amounts
of dolomite,
anhydrite,
and
limestone vary considerably.
Thus the
CMR log provides a good lithology-independent porosity for this complex carbonate reservoir.

A bland salt water drilling mud

was used in this well. Lab NMR measurements of the mud filtrate show a T, of
2.06 sec. The bottomhole temperature is
110OF. The produced oil is an intermediate gravity crude with a 3OOAPI gravity.
The logarithmic mean T, for the crude oil
at 1 lOoF is about 120 msec. Residual oil
saturations in the core range from 10 to
30%.
Due to its shallow depth-of-investigation, the CMR tool is assumed to
be measuring a zone flushed with mud
filtrate.
LOG INTERPRETATION
Figures 1 and 2 show logs and
near the top of the
interpretations
Glorieta formation and at the lower section of the Clearfork reservoir. The interpretation is based on a core-calibrated
technique
developed
by
evaluation
SWEPI for the Glorieta and Clear-fork
formation (Clerke, 1993). This evaluation
scheme uses NGT/Iitho density tool/DLL
logs and solves for lithology, porosity,
and water saturation.

The only disagreement occurs in

the silty zones indicated in track 2 of
Figure 1 where $NMR is lower than $cON.
Through core calibration and production
data, it is known that the silty zones are
Conventional
porosity
non-productive.
logs such as density, neutron and sonic
overestimate the formation porosity in
these zones due to associated microporosity and different matrix properties. The

As illustrated in track 2 of both

Figures 1 and 2, significant lithology
variation occurs across the Glorieta and
Cleat-fork formations.
In Figure 1, large

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

A
CMR log is insensitive to the microporosity in the silty zones not only
because of the very small pore size but
also because of the enhanced T, surface
relaxivity of the silt matrix.
Since the
CMR log is insensitive to very short
relaxation times (T2 < -1 msec), it fails to
detect this microporosity.
Hence the
CMR porosity can be interpreted as an
effective porosity. Although no core was
obtained in the silty intervals in this well,
these low values for effective porosity are
consistent with core in the silt zone in
nearby wells.

phase relative permeability measurements.

Utilizing the free fluid porosity, a moveable water volume, MOVWAT, is computed. As shown in track 5, the CMR log
indicates an increasing volume of movable
water below 7,240 ft. From the EPT log,
residual oil saturation is evaluated assuming the EPT log measures the flushed
zone.
A comparison
to in-situ oil
saturation derived from deep resistivity
logs leads to an estimate of movable oil
volume, MOVOIL, as shown in track 5.
Combination of both movable water volume and movable oil volume clearly suggests that a significant water production
would be encountered below 7,240 ft.
This was consistent with field experience
and was later confirmed by production
data from this well. In addition, the CMR
interpretation suggests a possible correlation between the OWC and the lithology
transition
from dolomite/anhydrite
to
dolomite/limestone matrix.

CMR free fluid porosity

($F)
measurements
provide reasonable estimates for the permeable zones. Based on
NMR laboratory data on the core discussed below, FFI is obtained using a T,
cutoff of 92 msec. As illustrated in track
4 of Figure 1, permeable zones are indicated by a large $F. In this example, they
correspond to non-silty zones with porosity above 3-4 p.u., which is consistent
with the porosity-permeability relationship
in this field. In silty zones, however, $F is
low. This suggests non-permeable zones
with very small effective porosity, as discussed above. In addition, a small $F in
conjunction with high apparent porosity
from conventional porosity logs can be
used as an indicator of silt.

LAB NMR TESTING

Twenty-seven core samples were
cut parallel to bedding and cleanned in a
Dean Stark extraction with toluene. Even
after several months of extraction, some
color remained in the effluent, indicative
of a small amount of oil not fully
extracted from the core.
Porosity and
grain density were determined by hydrostatic weighing in toluene.
The samples
were dried in a vacuum
oven and
unstressed
Klinkenberg-corrected
air
permeability measurements
were made.
Optical photographs were taken to establish qualitatively the sample texture and
the degree of vuggy porosity. The samples were then brine saturated and measured by NMR before and after centrifirgation.

Our drilling and production experience in this field have suggested a possible producing oil-water contact (OWC)
at approximately
7,250-e in Figure 2.
Lateral variation of this OWC has also
been observed.
Our previous evaluation
method based on conventional wireline
logs fails, however, to detect any OWC in
this well as track 4 indicates zones with
water saturation less than 60%, an empirical water saturation cutoff based on two-

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-Z&1994

brine equivalent capillary pressure.

As
can
be
seen,
the
largest
pores
(predominantly vugs) have been drained
by centrifugation. In order to achieve this
result, the samples were centrifuged for
three days. Figure 5 shows a time-lapse
study of the drainage of the largest pores
in three samples which indicates a long
spinning time is required for complete
drainage in these tight rocks.

measurements
were made
on 1 in. o.d. x 1.5 in. long core samples
The
using a 2 MHz lab spectrometer.
NMR measurements were made at 25OC.
frequency
and pulse
The operating
sequence for the lab equipment are similar
to the logging tool. For the lab measurements, a ten second wait period is used to
allow for complete polarization of the
hydrogen nuclei. Immediately following
the wait period, 4,095 spin echo amplitudes are measured
using a CPMG
sequence with a 400 microsecond interecho spacing. As in the logging tool, the
spin echo sequences are collected in
PAPS.
NMR

Figure 6 compares the NMR free

fluid porosity with the centrifugeable
water
for
the
Clear-fork
samples.
Analyzing the laboratory NMR measurements shows that the optimal T2 cutoff
for these carbonate samples is 92 msec,
about three times longer than the T,
cutoff for sandstones. This conclusion is
based on Figure 7, which shows the error
in estimating the volume of centrifugeable
water, averaged over 70 samples from the
Clearfork and two other suites of carbonate samples from international
oil
fields, as a function of the T, cutoff value.

Porosity
Figure 3 compares the porosity by
The
weight with the NMR porosity.
agreement is very good except the NMR
porosity is on average about 1.4 p.u.
higher. This is believed due to a small
amount of unextracted heavier hydrocarbons in the cores. NMR measurements
on a core sample vacuum-dried at 1 10C
continued to show this amount of residual
signal.

Vuggy Porosity
Carbonates often contain vuggy
porosity in addition to intergranular and
fracture porosity.
Vugs are cavities
formed in the matrix by diagenesis, typically by dissolution processes and can
range in size from -100 microns to cavern
The distinguishing feature is an
size.
enlargement in the pore geometry relative
to the average intergranular pore size.
Vugs may often be detected by a second
peak at the long end of the T2 distribution
as pores larger than 100 microns diameter
have T, values greater than -1 sec.
However, if the intergranular porosity has
large pore sizes, there may be insuffrcient
separation
between
the intergranular

Producible Fluid Porosity

We want to establish a T2 cutoff
in the T2-distribution which will provide a
good estimate of centrifugeable water in
this carbonate lithology. Previous studies
in sandstone showed a T, cutoff of 33
msec on the logs agrees well with centrifugeable water measured in the laboratory.
Figure 4 shows T2-distributions
for the 27 core plugs before and after
centrifugation for three days at a rotational speed equivalent to 100 psi air-

SPWLA 35th Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-22,1994

A
As shown in Table 1, if one compares the six samples with porosities in
the range 8.6 to 10.9 p.u_ (12a, 19, 22,
38, 39, 41), the permeabilities vary by a
factor of 6.5, from 0.2 md for sample 12a
to 13 md for sample 39. The poor correlation between porosity and permeability
is presumably due to the presence of
large, separated vugs. Hence we would
expect permeability to correlate better
with pore volumes that do not include the
This reduced pore volvuggy porosity.
ume can be approximated from the T,
distribution by including only those pore
sizes below a certain T, cutoff as
described below.

porosity and the vugs, resulting in a unimodal distribution.

Figure 8 shows photographs of six
core plugs and their associated TZ-distributions. It is clear there is a good correlation between the physical appearance of
the plugs and the Tz-distributions.
Plugs
with large visible vugs have long T2 components in the Tz-distribution, i.e. T, > 1 sec.:
l

Sample 43 has no visible vugs and

unimodal T2 values less than 100 ms
indicating relatively small pore sizes.
The matrix of the sample appears to
have a smooth texture which indicates
fine grained matrix. Also visible on
the photograph
is a throughgoing
fracture in the plug.

Permeability

Estimation from NMR

Permeability estimation by NMR

is based on the fact that permeability has
dimensions of length-squared,
and uses
the pore size obtained
from NMR
(S eevers, 1966; Timur, 1968, 1969a,
1969b, Kenyon, 1988). Previous studies
in sandstones with intergranular porosity
have used the following estimate:

Sample 39 has few visible vugs but

appears to be coarse grained. In this
case the long T, values are associated
with the intergranular porosity.
The
Tz-distribution is not bimodal.
Sample 38 has intermediate values of
T, with no bimodality. No vugs are
visible and the texture is intermediate
between samples 43 and 39.

K - $4T12

(2)

where T, is the mean logarithmic value of

the Tz-distribution.

Three of the samples (12A, 22, and

44) have visible vugs on the photographs and also have bimodal T2-disThe vugs appear to be
tributions.
imbedded into a fine grained matrix.
The low T2s correlate well with the
low T,s observed in sample 43. The
long T2s (l-3 set) are associated
with the vuggy porosity. These samples have comparable porosities to the
non-vuggy samples but much lower
permeabilities.

In carbonates we expect a similar

expression to Equation (2) for the intergranular portion of the porosity.
For
these samples the intergranular pore volume may be approximated by excluding
components with T, values above a certain cutoff. That is, both the pore volume
and logarithmic mean T2 is calculated
from that fraction of the T, distribution
below a cutoff value. The error in the
estimated permeability was calculated for
various values of the cutoff. The results

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

are shown in Figure 9. The best correlation with Equation (2) occurs with a T,
cutoff of 750 msec.

between m, intergranular porosity

total porosity (Myers, 199 1):

Figure 10 shows the best correlation of air permeability versus Equation

(2) while Figure 11 shows the best correlation of air permeability versus total
porosity.
Four samples with fracture
porosity have been excluded. Clearly the
correlation
between
permeability
and
Equation (2) is better than with total
porosity alone. (The standard deviation
decreases from a factor of 3.5 to 2.6.)
Whereas Equation (2) has a fixed exponent of 4, the best fit with porosity alone
occurs for a porosity exponent near 5.
The prefactor in Equation (2) is 4.75,
which is similar to results in sandstones.

This relation is used by SWEPI in

conjunction with point count estimates of
intergranular porosity.
Electrical resistivity measurements
were made on a subset of 13 brine-saturated plugs at 25OC. Three-point salinity
measurements were made and a straight
line fit through the origin was used to
measure the formation resistivity factor.
Figure 12 shows there is a good correlation between ml from resistivity and m
from the pore combination model (PCM)
using the fraction of vuggy porosity computed from either a 1 set T2-cutoff for
samples with unimodal T, distributions or
a 642 ms cutoff for samples with bimodal
T, distributions. The values of m range
from 1.74 to 2.21, whereas conventionally
a value of m=2 would be assumed for this
reservoir.
In particular the sample with
no visible vugs (#43) and no long T,
components has the lowest m value, and
the sample with the most visible vugs
(#22) has the highest m value.
The
anomalously low m value in sample 43
is due to the through-going fracture.

Although the permeability correlation with total porosity is relatively

good for this suite of cores, the porosity
exponent will in general not be known
unless core is available.
This suggests
another advantage in using Equation (2)
since the exponents of both porosity and
T, are predetermined.
Cementation

and

Factor m

Another petrophysical parameter

which depends on the fraction of vuggy
porosity is the cementation factor m in
Archies relation,

Core-Log Synthesis
F = $-m

(3)

In Figure 13, the lab data is used

to synthesize a log of permeability and
vuggy porosity.
The left hand track in
Figure 13 shows the CMR permeability
calculated using

since the vuggy porosity

contributes
weakly to electrical flow.
Thus one
expects m to increase with the relative
amount of vuggy porosity.
Previous
studies
(pore
combination
modeling,
PCM) have established a relationship

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

The right hand track shows the

CMR porosity (solid line) and the pore
volume with T, > 750 msec shows a high
degree of correlation with vugs observed
in the core.
The average fraction of
vuggy porosity from point counting the
vuggy intervals (26%) agrees with the log
average over this interval.

In complex carbonates,

NOMENCLATURE
F

formation resistivity factor

cementation

M0

magnetization
nuclei

pore surface area

of
presence
productive
estimates
to the productivity in this reservoir.
can
identified by
NMR
in conjunction

of

log mean T2 calculated from

that portion of the distribution
with T2 < 750 msec

pore surface volume

total porosity

Silty
the
V

computed based on
ume and the water

NMR transverse relaxation

time for bulk fluid

T2B

T2,750

can
bound fluid
msec

to
optimal for
as well as
two international
oil reservoirs. The CMR tool enabled
OWC to be detected in this well, which
not possible
the conventional
log interpretation.

of hydrogen

NMR transverse relaxation

time

the CMR

In
of pay.
nonin
the CMR porosity

factor

0 buoy

core porosity by weight

4 cent

centrifugeable

porosity

as

conventional porosity based

on SWEPIs multilog evaluation technique

0 con

+f( 92)

free fluid porosity using cutoff

of 92 msec

intergranular porosity

for permeability and cementation factor

the NMR T,
containing
samples
carbonate
for
of separated vuggy
porosity.

NMR porosity
750

P2

Nh4R porosity with

T2 < 750 msec
surface relaxivity

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-22,1994

Complex Pore
Dallas, TX.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
D.
Rossini
of
We
thank
Schlumberger-Doll Research for performing
the
lab NMR
measurements,
M. Myers of Shell Development Co. and
P. Dryden of Schlumberger-Doll Research
for resistivity measurements, R. Shew of
Shell
Development
Co.
for
point
counting,
and J. Rohan
of Shell
Development Co. for centrifugation.

Systems,

SPE

22662,

Morriss, C. E., MacInnis, J., Freedman,

R., Smaardyk, J., Straley, C., Kenyon,
W. E., Vinegar, H. J., Tutunjian, P. N.
(1993), Field Test of an Experimental
Nuclear
Magnetism
Tool,
Pulsed
SPWLA 34th Annual Logging
Symposium Proceedings, Paper GGG.
Seevers, D. 0. (1966)
A Nuclear
Magnetic Method for Determining the
Permeability of Sandstones, Paper L, 7th
Annual
Logging
Symposium
Transactions: SPWLA, Ll-14.

REFERENCES
Clerke, E. A., Williams, K. W., and
Pearce,
L. A. (1993)
The DAK
Foundation
Evaluation Model for the
Permian Basin Clearfork, SPE 26264,
Houston, TX.

Straley, C., Morriss, C. E., Kenyon,

W. E., Howard, J. J. (1991) NMR in
Partially
Saturated
Sandstones:
Laboratory Insights into Free Fluid Index,
and Comparison with Borehole Logs,
SPWLA 32nd Annual Logging
Symposium Proceedings, Paper C.

Howard, J. J. and Spinler, E. A. (1993)

NMR Measurements of Wettability and
Fluid Saturations in Chalk, SPE 26471,
Houston, TX.

Timur, A. (1968), An Investigation of

Permeability, Porosity and Residual Water
Saturation Relationships
for Sandstone
Reservoirs, The Log Analyst, July-Aug.

Kenyon, W. E., Day, P. I., Straley, C. and

Willemsen, J. F. (1988) A Three-Part
Study of NMR Longitudinal
Relation
Studies of Water-Saturated
Sandstones,
SPE Formation Evaluation 3, 622-636.

Timur, A. (1969a), Producible Porosity

Permeability
of
and
Sandstones
Investigated through Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance Principles, The Log Analyst,
Jan-Feb, 3 - 11.

Kenyon, W. E. (1992) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

as a Petrophysical
Measurement, Nucl. Geophys. 6, 153171.

Timur, A. (1969b),
Pulsed Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance Studies of Porosity,
Movable
Fluid and Permeability
of
Sandstones, JPT, 246, 775-786.

Kleinberg, R. L., Straley, C., Kenyon,

W. E., Akkutt, R., Farooqui,
S. A.
(1993) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of
Rocks: T, vs T,, SPE 26470, Houston,
TX.

Timur, A. (1972)
Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance Study of Carbonate Rocks,
The Log Analyst, Vol. 13, No. 5, 3-l 1.

Myers, M. T. (1991) Pore Combination

Modeling: A Technique for Modeling the
Permeability and Resistivity Properties of

10

SPWIA

35th Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-22,1994

A

Table 1. Summary of lab measurements.

12
18
19
20
z
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
:5
54
55
66

7265
7259
7258
7255
7257
7248
7242
7241
7240
7239
7238
7237
7236
7234
7233
7232
7231
7230
7229
7228
7227
7226
7225
7224
7223
7222
7211

10.9
13.6
8.6
11.8
8.7
3.9
5.9
7.1
4.0
10.2
11.9
3.7
8.5
E-r,
610
2.8
7.1
16.3
5.4
12.2
5.0
3.5
1.9
1.1
1.5
11.2

11.0
14.4
9.3
12.6
9.9
4.6
6.9
8.0
5.3
11.5
12.9
4.6
9.5
6.5
7.8
7.2
4.7
8.6
18.2
6.6
13.1
6.0
4.3
3.6
3.1
3.5
12.4

5.5
12.0
3.7
9.4
5.7
4n:;
4.8
1.8
8.8
10.7
2.0
7.2
1.7
4.9
n.a
1.7
5.3
16.0
4.1
10.0
2.5
2.1
0.7

11

6.4
11.5
5.9
9.3
7.9
1.9
4.2
z
6:s
11.4
2.0
ii*:
5:3
4.4
2.3
6.4
16.3
5.0
10.9
2.8
2.6
2.0
1.8
1.3
7.6

156.5
235.9
219.7
220.6
527.6
61.9
143.8
220.4
71.9
91.4
534.2
62.1
251.5
15.7
310.8
137.2
76.8
314.9
346.1
328.0
304.8
75.1
145.5
84.9
119.3
50.5
122.9

0.240
32.000
2.100
20.000
0.690
fracture
0.230
0.063
0.040
12.000
13.000
fracture
4.300
0.480
0.069
0.890
0.038
1.100
150.000
0.064
7.500
0.045
fracture
0.027
0.041
0.026
5.600

2.11

2.02

2.10
2.00
2.19

2.07
1.98
2.17

2.05

2.05

2.02

2.04

1.73
2.09
1.95

1.92
2.10
2.00

2.13
2.03

2.07
1.99

1.93

1.97

1.95

1.92

SPWLA

35th Annual
Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

P
T
1

. daAL_L
.
IL&

----p,,.
Lb4
--

Figire 1. Comparison of CMR and conventional porosity logs from Glorieta

formation (5,900-6,200 ft) showing lithologic variations. The NMR porosity agrees
with the conventional porosity interpretation except in the silty zones. In the silt
zones all the NMR porosity appears to be bound fluid.
12

..........................................
.......................LIME
,..................................... ...................PHINMR
1
0 .2
0
---------------. CFlL
15
DEPTH

ANHY
5

CR

200

7150

----------_--__.SILT
0

PHICORE
---------------.
.2

,
I
:

.2

\
I

00

(..

7200

i
x
--__
..c - *

..,.,::.::
:

I
I

-=-P

.,s -c

_,::,_.
_<

7250

_
,,.....,

7300

---:s
-=z.
.,;;:y
.......,:> _ >
..:..-.A

I
I

S!.

. .._. ~ . . . . . ..
,...:i
..I.

1.1.

I
I
,

I _ 1.

I
I

I
,

_ 1

.2

MOUWRT

SW

I.. . . .y

I L

..>
.=-.-..;+,
-,:
2.
s
PHICON

MOUO
---------------.
0

.2

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

CL*tg/

4
o&

cd-

9 /

/
I

OO.

Figure

3.

Comparison

6.

of porosity

10.

16.

by weight(@,,,)with

20.

NMR

porosity
is on average
1.4 p.u. higher suggesting
incomplete
hydrocarbons from the samples by the Dean Stark method.
14

: i.

porosity($,,).
extraction

of the

The

NMR

residual

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

SPWLA

June 19-22,1994

-------.

;;,
___..-----

------------

#*
2.8 pu
0.04 m&j/
,

-----.___ -.-

YS

YM

3.7 pu
frmd
y

---- --._-__ __

Y=
Et-!!

1.0

lo.0

loo.0

moo.0

wooO.0

I
1.0

T2 (ms=)

10.0

100.0

looo.0

1
moo.0

T2 b-4

T,-distributions for 27 water saturated samples before (line) and after (dash)
Figure 4.
Sample number, porosity and
centrifugation
at 100 psi air-brine capillary pressure.
Samples
are ordered by decreasing
permeability are indicated to left of the distributions.
permeability, from top left to bottom right.
15

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

50

12.2pu
7.5 md

1.0

100.0

10.0
T,

1000.0

10000.0

(msec)

Figure 5.
Time lapse NMR study of water drainage by centrifugation in samples 35, 47 and
50. T,-distributions
are for the samples water saturated (line), and after centrifugation for
1.5 hr. (short dash), 6 hr. (long dash) and 3 days (short-long dash).
16

SPWLA 35th Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-22,1994

.1' &s4
0

OO.

Figure

6.

Comparison

the volume of centrifugeable

between

10.

6.

16.

free fluid porosity

20.

26.

(q!~~(~~)),
using a cutoff

of 92 msec, and

water(Q,,,).

Free Fbii Cutoff Time (m)

The error in estimating

centrifugeable
water versus the T,cutoff
used to
Figure 7.
calculate free fluid porosity. The minimum error occurs at 92 msec. The data set includes 70
carbonate samples from the Clearfork and two international oil fields.

17

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

# 39
11.9 pu
13 md

1.0

lo.0

loo.0

noo.0

loooo.0

T, b-4
Figure
estimate

8.

Optical
of the vuggy

photographs
porosity

and

T,-distributions

and coarseness
18

for

six

of the grain structure.

samples

give

a qualitative

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-22,1994

a;

1000

10000

Upper Limit of hduded Diitribution (rnsec)

Standard deviation of permeability

estimation
using Equation (2), versus the
Figure 9.
upper limit of T,. The lowest standard deviation (i.e., a factor of 2.6) occurs at a cutoff of 750
msec.That

is,

porosity

portion of the distribution

and logarithmic

mean T,

in Equation

(2) are calculated

from that

that has T, less than 750 msec.

.
.
(9W60)4h60)2
(&).
The best
Crossplot of (@nmr,750
)4 (T2,750) versus measured air permeability
fit (i.e., the dashed line) has a slope of 0.95 and gives a prefactor of 4.75 for Equation (2).
Similar results have been obtained for sandstones.
Figure

10.

19

SPWLA

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

June 19-22,1994

Crossplot of NMR porosity (&,,,) versus measured air permeability

(I&).
Figure 1 1.
best fit (i.e., the dashed line) has a slope of 4.9. The standard deviation is a factor of 3.5.

The

-1.7
p? -1.8
P
p" -1.9
z
tii
3
-2
E
I

-2.1
-2.2
-2.2

-2.1

-2

-1.9

-1.8

-1.7

M Measurements

Figure
computed

12.

Correlation between
from the TZ-distributions

measured cementation exponent on 13 samples and values

using pore combination modeling.

20

SPWLA

Figure
750

13.

l.E+Ol
11111111

l.E+02
l lllllll

Log showing CMR porosity

msec (dashed

June 19-22,1994

Porosity (p.u)

K,, bd)
1X-01
l.E+OO
l
II I I llllll~

35th Annual Logging Symposium,

(solid line) and the pore volume with T, greater than

line). The CMR permeability

was calculated

Cored interval is indicated by the sketch to the right.

intervals for which vugs were observed in the core.
21

using 4.75(~nmr,750)4(T2,750)2.

Diagonal lines on the sketch

indicate