Petrophysical Measurements From Drill
Cuttings: An Added Value for the
Reservoir Characterization Process
P. Egermann, N. Doerler, M. Fleury, J. Behot, F. Deflandre, and R. Lenormand, Inst. Français du Pétrole (IFP)
Summary
Permeability and porosity are necessary for reservoir characteriza-
tion, and cuttings can provide quick information using dedicated
measurement techniques. In this paper, we present the first appli-
cations of these techniques on real reservoir characterization cases
and the comparisons with logs and core data.
The method of permeability measurement from cuttings is
based on a pressure pulse applied to a cell filled initially with
cuttings saturated with viscous fluid in the presence of trapped gas.
The permeability is derived from the transient response of the oil
invasion into the cuttings by using a numerical approximation of a
mathematical model. The porosity of dry drill cuttings is measured
using the routine helium technique. These methods were tested and
validated by using various samples of crushed rock of known
permeability and porosity. Both measurement techniques are fast,
require light conditioning, are applicable over a large range of
permeability, and need only 1 mL of sieved rock to be carried out.
In this paper, we present a field application of an integrated
drill cuttings measurement program [permeability, porosity,
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) T2 distribution] on a carbonate
reservoir. Various drilling conditions [including water-based mud
(WBM) and oil-based mud (OBM)] and lithologies have been
investigated to develop the different techniques that are presented
in the paper. The question of whether measurements on cuttings
are representative of the native reservoir is of primary importance
and was checked by comparing the consistency of the porosity
measurements obtained from cuttings with other data (cores or
logs). The overall results demonstrate the added value of k and ␾
measurements from cuttings in addition to the data that are com-
monly collected.
Petrophysical Methods in the Reservoir
Characterization Process
The early determination of rock petrophysical properties is one of
the main concerns during the reservoir characterization process
because it directly impacts the hydrocarbon in place (porosity,
saturation) and the well deliverability (permeability). If these prop-
erties are available during the drilling process, they also can be
used for drilling steering. Logs generally provide a good estimate
of porosity and saturation along the well, but permeability is more
difficult to obtain because this parameter refers to conductance of
the reservoir rock to flow.
Routine Cuttings Analysis. Cuttings are used routinely by mud
loggers to build the “master log,” in which the geological descrip-
tion of the drilled formation is reported. Hydrocarbon indices also
are determined from cuttings to identify the reservoir rock. Al-
though cuttings rock material is coming directly from the reservoir,
few applications of permeability characterization are reported in
the literature. The published works can be divided into two cat-
egories: direct and indirect evaluations.
Copyright © 2006 Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper (SPE 88684) was first presented at the 2004 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum
Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 10–13 October, and revised for publication. Original
manuscript received for review 7 December 2004. Revised manuscript received 17 May
2006. Paper peer approved 30 May 2006.
302
Indirect Permeability-Evaluation Methods From Cuttings.
The permeability is derived using empirical correlations with prop-
erties related to pore-size distribution, pore connectivity, or the
spatial correlation between the pores. These parameters are evalu-
ated from capillary properties (mercury porosimetry) by NMR or
image analysis.
Several approaches have been proposed to derive permeability
from mercury porosimetry curves (Purcell 1949; Thomeer 1960,
1983; Swanson 1981; Katz and Thompson 1986). Kamath (1992)
performed a comparison between these methods and concluded
that the best result is obtained with new correlations based on the
Swanson characteristic length. In addition, Kamath and Swanson
each reported a possible use of mercury porosimetry curves ob-
tained from cuttings.
Many papers have been published on permeability evaluation
from NMR measurements, but very few refer to its application on
cuttings. A major effort was conducted by Chevron, which resulted
in prototype equipment fitted for rig conditions (Nigh and Taylor
1985). The cuttings are first prepared (cleaned and dried) and
placed in a portable NMR tool. The porosity is derived from the
measured volume of water, and permeability is evaluated from the
whole T2 relaxation signal using the Timur law (Timur 1968).
Recently, this approach has been subject to further developments
(Mirotchnik et al. 2004).
A thin section also can be obtained from cuttings to evaluate
the porosity and the permeability using image analysis. The po-
rosity corresponds to the fraction of voids, whereas the permeabil-
ity is derived from an empirical law (Coskun and Wardlaw 1993;
Ioannidis et al. 1996) or from Carman-Kozeny type laws (Fens
et al. 1998).
Direct Permeability-Evaluation Methods From Cuttings. Few
methods exist to measure permeability directly from cuttings. San-
tarelli et al. (1998) proposed imbedding cuttings into disks of
acrylic resin. The disks are surfaced and mounted in a core holder
to measure permeability under constant-flow or transient-flow
conditions. Another method, which is based on gas pressure dif-
fusion, was proposed by Luffel (1993). Cleaned and dried cuttings
are placed in a cell at atmospheric pressure. The cell is then placed
in communication with another cell under pressure, and the de-
crease of the pressure in the latter is interpreted in terms of per-
meability. The principle is similar to well testing, using gas instead
of liquids. However, because of the low viscosity of gases, this
method can be used only on very-low-permeability rocks.
Recently, we presented an original method to measure the per-
meability directly from drill cuttings (Egermann et al. 2005). The
proposed method does not require specific conditioning, is easy to
apply, and provides results consistent with core analysis and with
typical ranges of reservoir permeability.
In this paper, we present how to integrate these direct petro-
physical measurements from samples of drill cuttings with other
data (e.g., logs, core) obtained during the reservoir characterization
process. In the first part of the paper, we recall the principles of our
permeability-measurement technique and the latest improvements
that were introduced to allow the measurement on small volumes
of cuttings (on the order of 1 mL). Then, some results related to the
porosity measurement from cuttings using existing techniques are
shown. The general approach to integrate the measurements from
cuttings with other available data is then described and applied to
a real case in the last section. The results confirm the added value
August 2006 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
of the measurements from cuttings provided that they are repre-
sentative of the native reservoir.
Petrophysics From Drill Cuttings
Permeability-Measurement Technique. Principle of the
Method. The main issue in determining permeability from cuttings
is to establish flow into the rock itself rather than in intercuttings
space. The originality of the proposed method is to achieve an
effective flow inside the cuttings by compression of residual gas
that they contain. Viscous oil is used as displacing fluid to decrease
the pressure-diffusion kinetics into the rock. It enables measure-
ment of permeability values corresponding to reservoir rocks,
which are not accessible from the gas pressure test (Luffel 1993).
The method has been tested and validated with an experimental
prototype and interpretation software to derive permeability values
from the experimental data (Egermann et al. 2005).
Dealing With Small Volumes of Cuttings. The original appa-
ratus described in the previous section enabled us to develop the
method but required a significant volume of cuttings (50 mL). It
appeared from our first measurements on real cuttings that this
volume should be significantly reduced for several reasons:
• The available volume and number of drill cuttings at the
wellhead in the desirable range of size (2 to 3 mm) can vary widely
according to the nature of the rock, the drill bit, and the type of
well (vertical, slanted, or horizontal). Therefore, only a few mil-
liliters of cuttings are often retrieved from the well over several
meters of drilled reservoir.
• The raw cuttings coming out from the well need to be cleaned
from the mud. This operation may be time consuming depending
on the mud type. Whereas water-based mud cuttings require only
a simplified cleaning procedure with synthetic brine, oil-based
mud cuttings need the use of solvents to remove the oil phase from
the pore space. Because of the simplicity of the technique, it is our
experience that the time spent to clean the cuttings thoroughly can
be as long as the time spent to run the measurement itself. A
reduction of the cuttings volume is then important to reduce the
costs associated with the measurement.
• A mixing of several lithologies is sometimes observed after
the cleaning process. This can result from the presence of lamina-
tions, mixing, or patchy lithology. A sorting process is then needed
before measurement. Such sorting cannot be handled on large
volumes of cuttings.
• The technique also has a wide field of application on sets of
old cuttings, although the available volumes are often very limited.
The main emphasis of the present approach was the develop-
ment of a new system with improved accuracy and flexibility and
less sensitivity to the ambient conditions (mainly the temperature
that affected the calibration of the previous system, which was
based on the measurement of pressure drop in a capillary tube). In
Fig. 2—Experimental results with 1-cm3 cuttings.
August 2006 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
Fig. 1—Experimental apparatus working with small volumes of
cuttings.
the prototype apparatus, the cuttings cell was pressurized to 10 bar
using a large volume of nitrogen in the pressurized cell. Now, we
use a nitrogen volume of the same order as the trapped gas to
compress in the cuttings cell (Fig. 1). It pressurizes the cuttings in
two steps. Initially, the pressure in the cuttings quickly reaches 10
bar (the initial pressure in the nitrogen) owing to the instantaneous
compression of the intercuttings space filled with liquid. Then, the
pressure decreases and finally stabilizes with the pressure diffusion
inside the cuttings, which compresses the trapped gas inside.
Therefore, this procedure
• Still enables us to pressurize the cuttings with viscous oil.
• Permits easier calculation of the volume of oil injected from
the volume of the gas cap, which is a direct function of the re-
corded pressure (Boyle’s law).
• Simplifies the apparatus because only one absolute pressure
gauge is needed to evaluate the volume of oil injected as a function
of time.
• Makes the interpretation process easier to handle because the
pressure variation at the edge of the cuttings is recorded.
• Requires smaller volumes of cuttings for measurements; con-
sequently, only 1 mL is necessary with the new procedure.
Fig. 2 illustrates the cumulative oil injected as a function of
time using the new apparatus. It is now possible to work with a
smaller volume of oil injected on the order of 0.03 cm3, which is
two orders of magnitude lower than what was required in the
previous apparatus.
Fig. 3 shows the good agreement between the core permeability
and the cuttings permeability obtained from crushed core samples
(size 2–3 mm) using the new apparatus.
303

Fig. 3—Comparison between core and cuttings permeability
with small volumes of cuttings.
Porosity-Measurement Technique. We followed an approach
similar to that reported by Meazza et al. (1996) to measure the
porosity and the grain density (Marsala et al. 1997). We followed
the classical methods of standard core analysis. The solid volume
was determined using the gas expansion method. The grain density
is then obtained from the weight of the dry cuttings. The total
volume of the cuttings was measured with a powder pycnometer
(Micromeretics). The principle of the method relies on the use of
a size-calibrated powder, which can occupy all the space between
the cuttings (Fig. 4). The volume of powder is first measured for
calibration. Then, the cuttings are introduced into the piston, and
the total volume is deduced by difference with the preliminary
calibration test. For 2- to 3-mm cuttings, the apparatus needs ac-
curate calibration with nonporous rocks of similar shape and size
to provide consistent results. The cuttings porosity is then derived
from the associated solid volume obtained with helium.
This approach was tested with measurements on crushed core
cuttings. The good agreement obtained with the core porosity val-
ues confirmed the results found by Meazza et al. (1996). All the
measurements made from the cuttings fall within a 2-porosity-unit
(P.U.) error bar (Fig. 5).
NMR Measurement From Cuttings. The NMR technique can
provide both a porosity measurement and the main value of T2,
which is widely used for log interpretation for permeability esti-
mation. The cuttings were saturated with 20 g/L NaCl brine before
the NMR measurement. The cuttings samples were prepared care-
Fig. 5—Comparison between core and cuttings porosity.
304
Fig. 4—Principle of the powder pycnometer.
fully to remove all brine located in the intercuttings space; other-
wise, this would have led to erroneous evaluation of porosity and
incorrect values of the T2 peak. This was achieved by capillary
desorption using a semipermeable membrane.
Before the measurement, the total volume of the cuttings is
measured with the powder pycnometer for porosity assessment.
Then, the saturated cuttings are introduced in the NMR tool, and
both the volume of brine contained in the rock and the T2 distri-
bution are obtained. The volume of brine corresponds to the pore
volume, leading to the determination of porosity using the total
volume method. The T2 distribution obtained from cuttings is very
similar to the one obtained from a core (Fig. 6). This feature is
particularly interesting for permeability estimates from T2, as
pointed out by Mirotchnik et al. (2004).
Fig. 7 illustrates the variability of the T2 distribution obtained
from a set of cuttings samples that corresponds to different lithol-
ogies and permeabilities. It demonstrates that such measurements
on cuttings
• Can give a fast evaluation of key features of the rock.
• Can provide a useful link between the direct permeability
measurements made from cuttings and NMR logs of the reservoir.
Bringing these data together can improve calibration and confi-
dence in terms of permeability prediction from NMR.
Integration of Cuttings Measurements
Representativity Issue. From the moment the cuttings are gener-
ated downhole by the drilling tool until the moment at which they
are collected at the shakers, the representativity of the cuttings with
respect to the native reservoir can be lost for several reasons:
• The lag-time calculation is of primary importance to identify
which reservoir levels the cuttings are coming from. This calcu-
lation is often considered to be accurate for vertical wells (on the
Fig. 6—T2 distribution on core and cuttings.
August 2006 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering

Fig. 7—T2 distribution obtained on eight different cuttings
rock samples.
order of a meter) but can lead to significant errors in deviated and
horizontal wells.
• Depending on the nature of the rock (e.g., vuggy and uncon-
solidated rocks) and the type of drilling bit (PDC is very destruc-
tive), the cuttings retrieved from the well may not constitute a
representative elementary volume of the native rock. For these
reasons, 2- to 3-mm cuttings are recommended. This, however,
does not ensure that the representativity issue is respected.
• The raw cuttings are dirty because they have been contami-
nated by the drilling mud. The deposition of mud solid particles
can modify the rock structure and the petrophysical properties. The
presence of remaining fluids can also lead to erroneous results.
Therefore, a cleaning procedure tailored to the drilling-mud type
(OBM or WBM) must be conducted to restore the native properties
of the rock.
The efficiency of the cleaning procedure that has been devel-
oped through our experiences with field cuttings is shown in
Fig. 8. The top picture shows an example of the cuttings as re-
ceived in the laboratory from the field. The presence of a shell of
fine solid particules surrounding the rock can be observed easily
under the microscope. In this case, the cuttings were cleaned with
fresh synthetic reservoir brine and solvents. Then, the cuttings
Fig. 8—Cleaning process.
August 2006 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
were subjected to an ultrasonic apparatus. The bottom picture
shows the surface of the cuttings after this cleaning process. The
quartz grains that constitute the sandstone can be clearly identified,
and some open pores even appear visible.
Integration With Other Data. The integration of the cutting mea-
surements must be done with the help of all the other reservoir data
that are available. This is very similar to the quick-look approach
used to interpret the logs. Every log brings one piece of the infor-
mation to evaluate the consistency and representativity of the data.
For example, because porosity is a petrophysical property, which
is well-determined from logs in most cases, it can be used to check
the cuttings representativity.
Several other examples have been encountered. The cuttings
porosity log can exhibit the same shape as the traditional porosity
log but with a systematic shift. Here, it means that the lag-time
calculation needs to be revisited. If the porosity values differ sig-
nificantly from the logs, then the grain density can be very helpful
to identify if the differences result from insufficient cleaning (po-
rosity and grain density are different) or from the interpretation of
the logs. The rock description also can identify possible problems
related to the mixing of cuttings coming from several locations
within the reservoir (mixing during the drilling operation).
When the representativity control is successful, then the per-
meability measurements are conducted. It is possible to use these
direct measurements with other available data to identify the best pay
intervals to draw a permeability/porosity correlation according to the
rock types or improve the log calibration. Fig. 9 shows the general
workflow, which takes into account the cuttings measurements in
the calibration of the coefficients for NMR permeability prediction.
Field Application
The following field example concerns a carbonate reservoir drilled
with a WBM. A light cleaning procedure without solvents was
used to condition the cuttings. Porosity data obtained from cuttings
measurements are compared with NMR log data in Fig. 10 for two
different wells. A very good consistency was found in the two
cases; therefore, the cuttings were considered representative of the
native reservoir.
The NMR coefficients calibration approach for permeability
prediction was validated with a series of cores from this reservoir.
Eight samples belonging to the same rock type were taken from
cored intervals. The permeability, porosity, and NMR were first
measured on the cores. Then, each core was crushed, and the same
type of measurements were conducted on the cuttings. All the
results are gathered in Table 1.
The Kenyon expression was used to determine the permeability
value from NMR, as suggested by Fleury (2001).
k = C T 2a peak ␾b. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
The default parameters recommended for carbonate rock are
C⳱0.1, a⳱2, and b⳱4. The results obtained using these param-
Fig. 9—Calibration of coefficients for NMR permeability prediction.
305
 Fig. 10—Porosity logs from NMR and cuttings.
eters are gathered in Table 1 and plotted in Fig. 11. It can be
observed that the standard deviation from the core permeability is
on the order of one decade, which is not satisfactory in the context
of the reservoir characterization process.
The parameters were then optimized using both the T2 peak and
the direct measurement obtained from cuttings. The following val-
ues were determined: C⳱0.0086, a⳱1.15, and b⳱1.57.
The results obtained with the new parametrization show an
improved agreement with the core measurements. The standard
deviation decreases approximately to 0.25 decade (Fig. 12), com-
pared to one decade with the default parameters.
The optimized expression then can be applied to the whole log
NMR data set, where direct measurements on core or cuttings are
not available. Because the reservoir rocks frequently are divided
into rock types, the calibration process has to be repeated for each
of them to obtain accurate NMR permeability prediction over the
entire reservoir section.
Conclusions
In this paper, we have illustrated the application of a new perme-
ability-measurement technique on real cuttings and demonstrated
their added value in terms of petrophysical characterization. The
different types of measurements that are performed on the cuttings
(permeability, porosity, and NMR) enable assessment of the rep-
resentativity of the cuttings with respect to the native reservoir and
bring added value to other existing data.
Therefore, the proposed approach for reservoir characterization
with cuttings has many practical applications on new or existing
306
wells, such as completion design optimization, permeability/
porosity correlation, and log calibration. This last point is particu-
larly interesting in carbonate reservoirs for which NMR perme-
ability predictions are uncertain when standard calibration coeffi-
cients are used.
Nomenclature
⳱ coefficients of Kenyon’s law a, b, C
k ⳱ permeability
␾ ⳱ porosity
T2 ⳱ transverse NMR relaxation time
Acknowledgments
The authors want to thank IFP for permission to publish these results.
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SI Metric Conversion Factors
in.3 × 1.638 706 E+01 ⳱ cm3
Patrick Egermann is a research petroleum engineer with the
Inst. Français du Pétrole (IFP), currently working on multiphase-
flow and gas-injection processes, including CO 2 . e-mail:
patrick.egermann@ifp.fr. Egermann holds MS degrees in reser-
voir engineering (from the IFP school) and hydraulic/fluid me-
chanics (from ENSEEIHT) and a PhD degree in earth sciences
and environment from the U. of Toulouse. Françoise Deflandre
is a research engineer with IFP and is involved mainly in labo-
ratory studies focusing on NMR and resistivity measurements
and interpretations. Marc Fleury holds an engineering degree
in physics from the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (Switzer-
land) and a PhD degree in fluid mechanics from the Fourier U.
of Grenoble (France). Before joining the Inst. Français du Pé-
trole (IFP) in 1992, Fleury worked in the field of physical ocean-
ography at the Johns Hopkins U. in Baltimore, Maryland, and at
the U. of Victoria, Canada, studying turbulent mixing and
double diffusive instability. He is now working as a senior petro-
physicist in special core analysis; his main interest is in electric
and NMR properties of porous media. Roland Lenormand
worked in academic research at the CNRS in Toulouse
(France) for 10 years; his research was on the theory of mul-
tiphase flow in porous media, focusing on the use of network
modeling and percolation theory. e-mail: roland.lenormand@
ifp.fr. Afterward, he joined Schlumberger in Ridgefield and
Dowell Schlumberger in France, where he worked on carbon-
ate acidizing. Lenormand joined the reservoir department of
IFP in 1988 and has been involved in various experimental and
simulation aspects of petrophysics. His area of expertise also
includes heavy oils and upscaling. Lenormand holds a PhD
degree in theoretical physics from the U. of Paris. Bios for
N. Doerler and J. Behot were not available.
307