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R. Akkurt
NUAL4R, New Orleans. Loirisiana
M. G . Prammer
NUMAR. Mnlverii, Periiw~hariin
M. A. Moore
Shell Ojfihorebic., New Orlemu. Loirisiaiia
Abstract: Recently introduced NMR-based logging tech- There must be T I contrast between the hydrocarbon and
niques. such as the differential and shifted spectrum methods brine phases. This condition requires that the formation
and the time domain matched filter analysis. have added hydro- is water wet and that the hydrocarbon is relatively light.
carbon typing and calculation of near-borehole water saturation 0 There must be T. contrast between the gas and oil phases.
to the suite of available NMR applications. The keys to the new The T, contrast is introduced by the MRIL tnagnetic field
applications are the exploitation of the relaxation and diffusion gradient (typically in the order of 18 G/cni), which in-
properties of reservoir fluids by utilizing the single-valued
duces rapid depliasing in the gas phase.
magnetic field gradient and depth of investigation of the Mag-
0 The brine phase must be h l l y polarized.
netic Resonance Imaging Logging tool (MRIL).
Reservoir, fluid, and borehole properties determine the op- It is also assumed that the hydrocarbon phases relax
timum mode of operation for the MRIL. Temperature, pressure, uni-exponential]y.
hydrogen index, oil viscosity. mud type, and invasion charac- Assuming these requirements are satisfied, the next criti-
teristics can impact the information available from the log. This cal step is to ensure that the amount of signal left in the
complexity. considering the variety of the applications avail- differential spectrum is large enough to allow robust inter-
able from the MRIL log, requires the careful selection of opti- pretation. Recalling that the method utilizes the difference
mal acquisition parameters based on expected logging of two porosity measurements acquired with two different
conditions. wait times, the apparent hydrocarbon-filled porosity left in
The objective of this paper is to establish the background to the differential spectrum A$; is given by
develop basic guidelines that can be used to identify and screen
particular applications for reliable and robust MRIL-only inter- A$; HI. (e-w&h -e-lxlfqh 1 9 (1)
pretation. The mechanics of selecting the optimal acquisition
paranieters are demonstrated for a differential spectrum method where is the hydrocarbon-filled porosity, HI is the
application i n the Gulf of Mexico, where the primary objective hydrogen index of the hydrocarbon, T , , is the spin-lattice
is the detection and quantification of free gas by relying on relaxation time of the hydrocarbon, t,,,/ is the long wait time,
MRIL as the primary log. and f,, is the short wait time. Defining
temperature also affects tlie dii1tIieter of investigation of the cati be written to highlight the coupling between the forma-
measureinents :is well as the magnetic field gradient of the tion properties and tlie signal detected,
logging tool. The magnetic field gradient directly impacts
the ciiffiisive component of T, relaxation. There is a siiiiilar A+;) = 9,.
( 1 - S.,<,
) . H I . AU . (4)
chain of comples effects for the other parameters listed i n where 0 , is total porosity and S,,, is flushed-zone Lvater
E q i ~ t t i (~1 ~). i saturation. Ohviously, the signal detected decreases as the
Escept for the choice of the wait tiincs. most o f the product 0, . ( 1 S,,,) decreases, which limits the range of
~
and oil, and one has to use a much longer wait time for more speed, after ensuring the selected parameters will result i n
po 1ar iza t i on. an adequate number of nieasuretiieiits per foot, is to consult
Wait times longer than 8 s are not Imctical because the with a service representative who has access to speed
incrementnl gain i n polarization, which is in the order of charts. The speed charts address all the issues related to
I0l0, comes at tlie cost of reduced logging speeds (dis- logging speed and are specific to different tool contigurii-
cussed later). A practical choice for the long wait time t,,., is tions (outside diameter of the tool) and modes of operation
s s. (number of frequencies utilized). Operational constraints
Although it may appear from the xgtinient above that the such ;is pipe-conveyed logging arid slowest winch speed
ideal wait-time pair is 3 and 8 s. it can be seen from Figure available must also be considered before setting the logging
2 that 3 s is not optimal for gas detection. Figure 3 is ;i speed.
numerical simulation of Equation ( I ) and shows the appar-
ent hydrocnrbon porosity A+,' for gas and oil as a fitnction DEPTH OF INVESTIGATION AND INVASION
ofthe short wait time while keeping the long wait time fixed Invasion is a complex phenomenon controlled by a large
at 8 s. I t is clear from Figure 3 that A$,: for gas can be
number of variables that are mostly beyond the control of
doubled by lowering t,,., from 3 to 1 s. Therefore. the opti-
the user. Despite this, MRIL offers the user the tlexibility
mal wait-time pair for gas detection is to minimize the effects of invasion by increasing the depth
t,,, = 1 s, f,,, = 8 s. (8) of investigation (DOI) of the tool by varying the operating
frequency.
Even though this set of wait times enhances the possibil-
I n dual-frequency mode. the MRIL excites two shells
ity of Icaving brine signal in the differential spectrum,
that are a few niillinieters apart and are concentric with tlie
incomplete polarization of brine becomes a secondary issue
borehole axis. The shells operate ;it f'.+ Af and f , . - A f
when the main n1,jectivr of the logging progriim is the
kHz. where varies from 600 to 900 kHz and A f is on the
fk.
Depth of investigation is defined as The effect of increased depth of investigation can be seen
d, - bS in Figure 3. The DO1 is 2 in. for the log on the left and
DOI = - (12) approximately 3 in. for the log on the right. Although the
2
porosities are comparable, more gas is detected when the
where bs is the bit size.
DO1 is 3 in. The average gas saturation computed from
Figure 3: Gas detection as a function of depth of investigation. The first set of logs on the left was acquired with a 750-kHz
tool where the DO1 was approximately 2 in. The MRlL effective porosity is broken into its fluid components in track 3 (G for gas,
0 for OBMF, B for brine). Logs from a comparable zone from the well studied in this paper are shown on the right. The operating
frequency for the MRlL log in this case is 600 kHz and the DO1 is approximately 3 in. The deeper DO1 has resulted in detection
of more gas.
MRIL is significantly higher in the second case. All the Table 3: Transverse relaxation times.
formation and drilling parameters (such as depth, mud type,
mud fluid loss, drilling rate, temperature, overbalance, po- Fluid T2 (ms)
rosity, N G ) are almost identical. The only difference be- Gas 60
tween the two logs is the depth of investigation.
Native oil > 1000
Tz CONTRAST OBMF 700
Brine < 500
There must be sufficient T2contrast between the gaseous
and liquid phases in the differential spectrum so that hydro-
carbon typing can be done unambiguously. Although this
requirement is usually satisfied in most applications, it is there is a good chance that the gas signal may be inter-
still recommended practice to estimate the T2values before preted as oil because of the long T2values. Highly pres-
deciding on an application. sured reservoirs logged with short interecho times are
There are three relaxation mechanisms that contribute to candidates for this complication.
transverse relaxation: If the T2 of gas can not be adjusted to be within a
reasonable range by varying either the operating frequency
_1 ---+-+-,
1 1 1 or the interecho time, the application should be deemed an
& G B T2S G D inappropriate DSM candidate.
The transverse relaxation times for the fluids listed in
where the subscripts B, S, D refer to bulk, surface, and Table 1 are given in Table 3. The interecho time is 1.2 ms.
diffusiye relaxation, respectively. The diffusive component The sources for the estimates are identical to those of Tl and
of transverse relaxation time is given by HI. One can see that there is good separation between the
1L gas and liquid phases (oil or OBMF).
GD =
-
(y G. Te)2.D INCOMPLETE POLARIZATION OF BRINE
where D is the diffusion coefficient, and G is the magnetic Figure 4 shows the amount of polarization as a hnction
field gradient. The magnetic field gradient of the MRIL of T2 for a water-wet rock when the wait time is I s. It is
depends on the operating frequency f, and the diameter of assumed in this figure that the Tl/T2ratio for the brine phase
excitation d,: is 1.5 (Kleinberg et al., 1993). It can be seen from Figure 4
that polarization is in excess of 95% for T2 I 250 ms, while
G = 0.37-,f,
(15) loss in polarization may be as much as 25% for a T2 com-
de ponent of 500 ms.
where G is in gausshentimeter, f ,is in killohertz, and d, is If the formation is 100% wet and the T2 distribution
in inches. The range of G is 15 to 25 gauss/cm for a
6-in.-diameter tool operating at 750 kHz.
Diffusion is the dominant transverse relaxation mecha-
nism for gas and results in short T2 values, typically in the
30- to 60-ms range. This is mostly due to the high diffusion
coefficient of gas as well as the large G of the MRIL. Given
that the formation is water wet, bulk relaxation is the domi-
nant mechanism for oil. The transverse relaxation times for
oil are in the order of several hundred milliseconds, pro-
vided the Tl of the oil is also long. Therefore, there is
usually sufficient T2 contrast between the gaseous and liq-
uid phases. Nevertheless, there are two cases when one
must be careful:
0 If D is high, and/or Te is long, T,, for gas may be very
short and robust gas detection may be problematic. This
is typically the case for shallow gas reservoirs where Figure 4: Effects of incomplete brine polarization. The wait
pressures are low. time is 1 s and the TilT2 ratio is assumed to be 1.5.
0 If D is low, and/or Te is short, T2Dfor gas may be very Polarizationis in excess of 95% for T2 I 250 ms, while it is less
long. Although gas detection is not an issue in this case, than 75% at 500 ms.
I
0
I , ' I
200
t
62
a
0
1
.. .
100
. . ~ . ~
10000
Tirne(rns)
nP
N
distribution is smeared and blurred in (d) because of the noise. -
I-
contains components that are longer than 250 nis, one may 0
mistakenly interpret the signal in the differential spectrum
as oil. Also, if the formation is partially saturated with oil,
T2 T2 T2
all the signal in the differential spectrum may be mistakenly
interpreted as oil. resulting in unrealistically low values of Figure 6: Time-domain versus Tz domain processing: (a)
s,,,. echo train from the 8-s wait time measurement, (b) echo train
from the I-s wait time measurement, (c) difference of the echo
SIGNAL PROCESSING trains, (d)Tz distribution of the 8-s wait time measurement, (e)
T2 distribution of the I-s wait time measurement (b), (f) the
The differential spectrum method. by definition, implies differential spectrum. Although gas is very hard to identify in
interpretation in the T2 domain. The echo trains are first (f), t h e sharp decay resulting from gas is obvious in (c).
converted into T, distributions by inversion and subtracted
from one another.
The data acquired always contain noise, which results i n at 375 nis. The signals from 8- and 1-s wait time nieasure-
line-broadening as shown in Figure 5. The echo train in nients are shown in the lefttnost and middle echo trains in
Figure 5a contains a noiseless signal decaying at 32 Ins. the top row, respectively. Each echo train is actually the
The associated T, distribution is shown in Figure 5b. All the stack of data contained within a 1 0 3 window. A 10-ft win-
energy in Figure 5b is concentrated around 32 ms. dow has been chosen here for display purposes only. Typical
The echo train in Figure 5c is identical to that in Figure window sizes for actual time-domain processing is about 4 ft.
5a except that it contains noise. The additive noise is zero- The T, distribution associated with these echo trains is shown
mean Gaussian. Its T, distribution is shown in Figure 5d. immediately below them. The differential spectnirn is shown
Because of line-broadening. the energy in the T. distribu- on the right. The OBMF dominates the differential spectnitn
tion of Figure 5d is not focused anymore. The signal is and there is no clear evidence of gas.
smeared into the adjacent bins and the distribution is The echo train on the right in the top row provides the
blurred. hint for the solution of this problem. This echo train is the
The effects of line-broadening can be severe when A$; difference of the two echo trains shown to its left. One can
is small. The signal may be smeared unequally into ad-jacent clearly see the short decaying signal from gas and the long
bins and the differential spectrum may appear to contain no decaying signal from OBMF. A detailed description of the
hydrocarbon signal. In some cases, the differential spec- principles that form the basis of time-domain processing
trum may even contain negative energy, which is a theoreti- can be found in Pranimer et al. (1995).
cal impossibility. Since TI domain signal processing in the first well
Figure 6 illustrates the problem by using real data from logged yielded unsatisfactory results, it was decided to
the well considered in this paper. The zone analyzed in this switch to time-domain processing and the results shown in
tigure contains gas decaying at 60 ins and OBMF decaying the next section have been obtained in the time-domain. A
detailed coinparison of time versus T, domain processing array of factors that influence the NMR tiie;isurciiietit und
from the first well in the program can be foiuid i n Muore the variety of the answer products available, job screening
and Akkurt ( 1996). and acquisition parameter selection are of critical impor-
tance for robust and reliable interpretation.
INTERPRETATION The flexibility provided by the design of the MRIL (such
The logging program for this \\..ell consisted of LWD as choice of operating frequency, range of wait times avail-
ganima-ray, resistivity, and neutron logs. MRIL \vas the able. etc.) provides the user with choices that expand tlic
only wireline log in the program. A formation tester \vas range o f applications to cases where the objectives sotiglit
kept at standby for the case of inconclusive results from the may initially appear tinacliievable. Close cooperation be-
MRIL. Tlie data from MRlL \\:ere processed at tlie well-site tween the client and tlie service company that results in
and interpretation w i s completed bttt'ore tlie tool was rigged well-defined formation evaluation objectives and optimnl
down. The forniatioii tester was Ihen rtin only to establish acquisition parameters is often the key to sticcess.
i~eservoi r pressures, Altliottgli tlie emphasis here is i n acquisition, i t is clelir
Tlic LWD gainmu-ray and resistivity logs are shown i n there ;ire choices to be made i n processing and interpret:i-
the lirst t\vo tracks i n Figure 7. Effective porosity from tion. For example. time-domain processing is preferred
M R I L. ob t ii i tied from t i ni e-do mui ii nnul y sis. is shown in the c) ver con ve 11 t i n tia I 'r, do m ; i n processing , 1x1r t i c ti 1:I r I y in
i
third track. l h e gasioil and oiliwater contacts identiiicd by npp 1 i c a t i o ti s i ti vol v i ii g tli e detect i oti a t i d qua tit i tic:) t i oti c) f
MRIL are also shown in Figure 7. gas.
rence plot in Figure 7a is representative of Tlie focus of this paper is on DSM because of its wiclc
the signal i n the gas-bearing zone. There are two fluids i n acceptance and ease o f implenietit,?tioii. The DSM exploits
Figure 7;i. a short decay from gas and ;i longer decay from tlie T , contrast of the reservoir fluids and the reader should
the OBMF. Although the T, for gas is 60 ins ;is expected, not forget that exploitation o f the diffusion properties p r ~ ) -
tlie T, o f t h e OBMF, which is iiboiit 375 nis. is much shorter vides a wealth of information that may be unique as well ;IS
tlinn espected. This is not a suprise since the OBMF con- c.oiiiplementary to that available from DSM. As a result o f
tains gas dissolved i n solution (1. F r e e i i i ~ i ,personal com- the advances being made in the ;ireas of hardu.are and
munication, 1996) and dissolved gas lowers the viscosity of interpretation. i t is not unreascinable to speculatc that tlic
the OBMF. which in turn increases the diffiision coefficient i nd 11stry is ready for itlea sure me ti t s t hnt s i 111ii 1 t a i i e 11~s I y
:II 1d sti o r t e n s the apparen t T, . exploit the relaxation and diffusion properties of resenjoir
Figim 7b is a stacked echo difference plot from tlie oil flu ids.
leg. I.lnlike Ilie gas-bearing zone. there is only one fluid in
tlic oil leg. The decay time ofthe fluid is in tlie order of250 .A CK N OW L ED G EM EN TS
ins. shorter than tlie O B M F and much shorter than what was
The :iuthurs thatik the tii:inagenlcnt of Shell C)ffshure Inc. rind
cspccted from tlie criide oil. The csact reason for the shorter
Murphy Oil for tlie irelease ofthe clata. as \veil ;is NLJMAK empluy-
than expected T, in the oil leg is still under investigation. ccs Charlie Siess iind S t e w Sark for their active invulwmcnt.
Dissolved gas i n the OBMF and changes in wettability are
t\vo of the possibilities being considered. REFERENCES
.An echo-difference plot froiii the wet zone is shown in
Figure 7 c . Again. the decay in this zone i s iini-exponeiitinl; Akkiirt. R.. 1900. Effccts ufmotiun in pulsed NMR lugging. PhD
i.c.. tlierc is only cine tluid. Howc\,er. unlike tlie oil leg, tlie thesis: Colorado Scliuol uf hlincs.
Akkurt. K.. Vincgor. H. J.. Tutunjian. P. N.. and Gitillory. A. .I.
decay time is much longer. The T, in Figure 7 c is in excess
1995. N M R logging of natural gas reservuirs. paper N. iu 3htli
01' 5 0 0 nis. This signal origiiiates from the OBMF. sup-
Annual Logging Sympositiiii Transactioiis: Society of Prufes-
porled by the presence of an invasion profile i i i the LWD sional Well Lug .Analysts.
resistivity logs. The T, o f tlie O B M F in this zone is longer Chandler. R. N.. Drrick. E. 0.. Miller. M .N..and Praniiiier. M.(3,.
cotiip;ired to the other zones because the OBMF contains 1994. Inipro\/ed log quality with a tlual-frccluency pulsed N M R
much Icss dissolved gas. tool. SPE-28365: Society of Petroleum Engineers. prtlsented at
the 69th Annual Tcchnical Conference a i c 1 Esliihition.
CONCLUSIONS Klcinberg. R. L.. Straley. C.. Kenyon, \V. E.. Akhutt. K.. a1111
Farooqui, S. A.. 1 YQ3. Nuclear inagnetic resonance o f r o c k s : T ,
The single-valuccl mugnutic field gradient and deeper vs T,. SPE-2b370: Society o f Petroleum Engineers. prcscnted
depth-of-investigation of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging a t the 68th Anntial Technical Conferencc and Eshibitioti.
Logging tool ( M R I L )allo\v direct typing and quantification Miller, M. N., Palticl, Z., Gillen. M. E.. Ciranot. J., nnd Hutiton. .I.
of hydrocarbons in the near-borehole region by exploiting C.. 1 9W. Spin eclio ningnctic resonance logging: porosity :lncl
I 11 c i r re I;I s;I t i u t i and d i ifu s i o ti p ropert i cs . G i ve ti the c o ti117 I e Y ticc fluid index detemiinatiun. SPE-105(;1: Suclety of Pctru-
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rot1 00 I
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d o 0 I
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lot300 1
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Wet zone
lot400
time
20 120 0.2 20 30 15 0
Figure 7 : LWD gamma ray and resistivity in tracks 1 and 2; PHIE from MRIL broken into gas, oil, and brine components in
track 3. Echo difference plots: (a) gas zone, (b) oil zone, (c) wet zone.
leum Engineers, presented at the 65th Annual Technical Con- ABOUT THE AUTHaRS
ference and Exhibition.
Moore, M. A. and Akkurt, R., 1996, Nuclear magnetic resonance Ridvan Akkurt is a senior research scientist with NUMAR in
New Orleans. Prior to NUMAR, Ridvan worked for Shell Offshore
applied to gas detection in a highly-laminated Gulf of Mexico
Inc. as a geophysicist, for Schlumberger in Africa as a wireline
turbidite invaded with synthetic oil filtrate, SPE-3652 1: Soci-
field engineer and later in the US in research, and also for GSI in
ety of Petroleum Engineers, to be presented at 71st Annual
the Middle East as a field seismologist. He has a BS in electrical
Technical Conference and Exhibition.
engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a
Prammer, M. G., Mardon, D., Coates G . R., and Miller, M. N.,
PhD in geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Akkurt
1995, Lithology-independent gas detection by gradient-NMR
is a member of SPWLA.
logging, SPE-30562: Society of Petroleum Engineers, pre-
Manfred G. Prammer received the Diplom-Ingenieur degree
sented at the 69th Annual Technical conference and Exhibi-
in electrical engineering and a PhD in the technological sciences
tion.
from the University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, in 1982.
Vinegar, H. J., 1995, Short course notes, SPWLA short course on
From 1980 to 1985 he held research positions with Siemens A.G.
NMR: Society of Professional Well Log Analysts, Houston,
and from 1987 to 1991 he was assistant professor at the University
Texas. of Pennsylvania. His research interests include image and signal
processing; MRI, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and super-
'
computer applications. Dr. Prammer joined NUMAR Corp. in
1991, where he currently serves as vice president, Research.
M. Andrei Moore is a senior petrophysical engineer working
in the Deepwater Division of Shell Offshore Inc. (SOI). His current
role includes rock and fluid properties predictiodseismic calibra-
tion for the maturation of prospects and formation evaluation
planning and execution in deep water of Gulf of Mexico explora-
tion and development wells. Prior to joining SO1 in 1990, he
worked in the tertiary recovery steam floods of the southern San
Joaquin Valley in California for Shell Western Exploration and
Production Inc. Andrei has a degree in physics from the State
University of New York College at Potsdam. He is a member of
SPE and SPWLA.