PETROLEUM EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Volume 44, Issue 6, December 2017

Online English edition of the Chinese language journal

Cite this article as: PETROL. EXPLOR. DEVELOP., 2017, 44(6): 941–947. RESEARCH PAPER

Petrophysical characteristics and logging evaluation of

asphaltene carbonate reservoirs: A case study of the
Cambrian Longwangmiao Formation in Anyue gas field,
Sichuan Basin, SW China
LAI Qiang*, XIE Bing, WU Yuyu, HUANG Ke, LIU Xinggang, JIN Yan, LUO Wenjun, LIANG Tao
Exploration and Development Research Institute, PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gas Field Company, Chengdu 610041, China

Abstract: The petrophysical and logging response characteristics of asphaltene carbonate reservoirs were examined based on the meas-
urement of porosity and permeability, density, compressional and shear wave slowness, resistivity and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
transverse relaxation time (T2) of cores before and after the bitumen dissolving. The results show that (1) the asphalt can damage the pore
structure of the reservoir and cause reduction of effective reservoir space and permeability; (2) with the increase of asphalt content, the
compression and shear wave slowness generally decrease while the density and resistivity increase; (3) with the increase of asphalt con-
tent, the compressional wave slowness and density change less, while the shear wave slowness and resistivity change larger; and (4) the
T2 values of asphalt are generally less than 3 ms, and the higher the maturity of the asphalt, the lower the T2 value. Based on these ex-
periments, a method based on conventional and special logging methods was presented to evaluate asphalt content, effective porosity and
water saturation in asphaltene carbonate reservoirs. The method has already been applied to 80 wells in the Longwangmiao Formation of
the Anyue gas field in the Sichuan Basin to pick out zones rich in asphalt on the plane, which has effectively guided the selection of well
location in the gas reservoir development.

Key words: Sichuan Basin; Cambrian Longwangmiao Formation; asphalt; carbonate reservoir; nuclear magnetic resonance logging;
petrophysical properties; logging evaluation

Introduction the difference of shale volume calculated by GR and neu-

Asphalt in reservoirs is highly viscous and in liquid to solid
state under formation conditions. It occupies part of pore
space and destroys the pore structure, causes reduction of the
reservoir porosity and permeability[1], and impair the physical
characteristics and productive capacity of the reservoir. So the
identification of asphalt and its content estimation are very
important for the logging evaluation of asphalt-bearing reser-
voirs.
Previous researches on asphalt in reservoirs mainly focused
on the formation mechanism, origin identification, geochemi-
cal characteristics, distribution characteristics and influence
on reservoir storage property[1-8]. However, there are few re-
searches on the petrophysical characteristics of and logging
evaluation methods for asphaltene carbonate reservoirs.
Zhang et al. studied the impact of asphalt on rock-electro pa-
rameters in sandstone reservoirs and established correction
formula for rock-electro parameters[9]. Chen et al. proposed
tron-density cross-plot could be considered as relative asphalt
content, and established the correction model for effective
porosity and permeability of sandstone reservoir[10]. These
logging evaluation methods of asphalt have played an impor-
tant role in the oil and gas exploration of asphalt sandstone
reservoir, but these methods have limited applicability for
asphaltene carbonate reservoirs.
This study presents a method to evaluate asphaltene car-
bonate reservoirs by combining conventional and special log-
gings. It is applied to the Cambrian Longwangmiao Formation
in the Anyue gas field, Sichuan Basin, to guide logging data
collection and selection of gas testing zones, and the deploy-
ment of development wells in gas reservoirs.
1. Petrophysical characteristics
We selected 16 pieces of core samples containing bitumen
from the carbonate reservoirs in Cambrian Longwangmiao
Formation in the Anyue gas field, Sichuan Basin. Porosity,

Received date: 03 Mar. 2017; Revised date: 09 Jun. 2017.

* Corresponding author. E-mail: laiqiang@petrochina.com.cn
Foundation item: Supported by the China National Science and Technology Major Project (2016ZX05015-003; 2016ZX05052-001).
Copyright © 2017, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina. Published by Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.
 LAI Qiang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2017, 44(6): 941–947

permeability, density, P/S wave transit time, resistivity and
nuclear magnetic resonance before and after asphalt dissolu-
tion were tested to find out the petrophysical characteristics of
asphaltene carbonate reservoir.
1.1. Physical properties
Table 1 shows the porosity and permeability before and af-
ter asphalt dissolution of the 16 core samples, it can be seen
that both the porosity and permeability of the samples in-
creased remarkably after asphalt dissolution. The porosity
increased by 0.25%2.20%, on average 1.01%, that is 19% in
increment amplitude. The permeability increased by 0.003
0.092×103 μm2, on average 0.04×103 μm2, that is 67.3% in
increment amplitude. The results in Table 1 reveal that asphalt
has strong impact on reservoir physical property, not only
reducing the reservoir effective porosity, but also greatly im-
pairing the permeability.
1.2. P/S wave transit time property
Table 2 shows the P/S wave transit time before and after

Table 1. Comparison of the porosity and permeability before and after asphalt dissolution.

Sample Porosity/% Increment Permeability/10−3 μm2 Increment

No. Before After Increment amplitude/% Before After Increment amplitude/%
M-1 4.82 6.45 1.63 33.8 0.073 0.092 0.018 24.7
M-2 6.41 7.33 0.92 14.4 0.043 0.095 0.052 120.9
M-3 4.15 6.09 1.94 46.7 0.08 0.09 0.01 12.5
M-5 3.83 4.88 1.05 27.4 0.122 0.176 0.055 45.1
M-9 3.92 5.2 1.28 32.7 0.024 0.087 0.063 262.5
M-10 6.02 7.96 1.94 32.2 0.09 0.115 0.025 27.8
X-5 6.56 8.76 2.20 33.5 0.081 0.122 0.041 50.6
X-9 3.14 3.39 0.25 8.0 0.059 0.061 0.003 5.1
X-10 4.08 4.87 0.79 19.4 0.081 0.093 0.012 14.8
X-11 3.93 4.79 0.86 21.9 0.017 0.071 0.054 317.6
X-13 4.85 5.14 0.29 6.0 0.019 0.032 0.013 68.4
X-15 3.15 4.14 0.99 31.4 0.008 0.079 0.07 875.0
X-17 2.83 3.51 0.68 24.0 0.01 0.079 0.07 700.0
X-18 5.69 6.13 0.44 7.7 0.041 0.064 0.023 56.1
X-19 10.41 10.88 0.47 4.5 0.153 0.244 0.092 60.1
X-20 9.25 9.67 0.42 4.5 0.05 0.092 0.041 82.0

Table 2. Comparison of the P/S wave transit time before and after asphalt dissolution of samples fully water saturated.

Sample P wave transit time/(μs·m1) S wave transit time/(μs·m1)

Increment amplitude/% Increment amplitude/%
No. Before After Before After
M-1 155.0 156.0 0.6 336.0 368.7 9.8
M-2 194.0 195.3 0.7 397.3 421.0 5.9
M-3 165.3 168.0 1.5 332.0 371.7 11.9
M-5 181.7 184.7 1.6 324.7 361.7 11.4
M-9 172.7 174.3 1.0 355.3 382.0 7.6
M-10 165.0 165.7 0.5 325.0 349.7 7.6
X-5 153.3 154.3 0.7 327.0 338.3 3.4
X-9 155.0 159.0 2.6 334.0 374.7 12.2
X-10 156.0 158.7 1.7 324.0 346.3 6.9
X-11 180.3 181.3 0.6 372.7 402.7 8.1
X-13 193.7 195.0 0.6 378.3 424.0 12.1
X-15 190.0 191.0 0.6 386.0 416.7 7.9
X-17 156.0 157.7 0.9 332.0 347.0 4.4
X-18 159.0 159.7 0.4 296.0 324.7 9.7
X-19 191.3 193.0 0.9 358.3 391.0 9.2
X-20 171.0 173.3 1.3 352.3 372.3 5.6

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 LAI Qiang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2017, 44(6): 941–947

asphalt dissolution of the 16 core samples fully saturated with
water. Both P wave and S wave transit time increase after
dissolution of asphalt. The P wave transit time increases a
smaller amplitude of less than 1%, while the S wave transit
time increases by an average 8.4%. Clearly, the asphalt in
reservoirs has a smaller influence on P wave, but a greater
influence on S wave.
1.3. Density and resistivity property
The density of bitumen in the Longwangmiao Formation
tested in laboratory is around 1.3 g/cm3, falling in between
that of formation fluid and matrix. Besides, bitumen is
non-conductive hydrocarbon with high resistivity. The densi-
ties of these core samples decrease by 0.009 to 0.032 g/cm3
after dissolution of bitumen, that is 0.3% to 1.1%, which il-
lustrates that the asphalt has slight influence on density. The
resistivities of these core samples after dissolution of bitumen
reduce significantly by 24.1% to 86.5%, suggesting that as-
phalt has strong influence on resistivity.
1.4. NMR T2 spectrum features
NMR transverse relaxation time T2 was tested on three
types of asphalt samples with different maturities. Since bitu-
men is heavy hydrocarbon, and thus has relatively short T2
value, so in order to detect the nuclear magnetic resonance
signals of the asphalt samples, the parameters of NMR ex-
periment were optimized at 0.2 ms echo spacing, 6 s waiting
time and 256 scans. The experimental results are shown in Fig.
1, the NMR transverse relaxation time T2 of asphalt is usually
less than 3 000 s, with the main peak of less than 1000 s,
which overlap partly with the T2 spectrum of clay bound water.
Moreover, the higher the maturity of asphalt, the shorter the
time of T2 spectrum will be. Therefore, it can be inferred that
the effective porosity of NMR reflects the real effective res-
ervoir pore space, not including the information of asphalt.
The above experimental results show that asphalt has dif-
ferent influences on logging responses, specifically, smaller
influences on P-wave transit time and density, and stronger
influences on S-wave transit time and resistivity. The T2 value
of NMR of asphalt decreases with the increase of asphalt ma-
turity. Therefore, for asphalt-bearing carbonate reservoirs, the
effective porosity and gas saturation calculated as non-asphalt
reservoirs will be overestimated, and consequently causing
wrong logging interpretation.
2. Logging evaluation methods
2.1. Qualitative identification of asphalt
The above laboratory experiments show the resistivity is
sensitive to asphalt, so it can be used as a main parameter to
judge whether the reservoir contains asphalt. But as resistivity
is also influenced by factors such as lithology, reservoir
physical properties and fluid properties under formation con-
ditions, identifying asphalt with resistivity alone would be of
multiple solutions. Therefore, the asphalt identification plot
considering the influence of stratigraphic environmental fac-
tors should be established to identify asphalt in the practical
application.
Since the lithology of the Longwangmiao Formation is
dolomite with minor shale and limestone, so the resistivity
variations caused by lithologic differences should be elimi-
nated first. Then, the influence of reservoir physical properties
and fluid property (gas) on resistivity is considered. Typical
logging response data from asphalt-enriched interval and

Table 3. Comparison of density and resistivity before and after asphalt dissolution of samples fully saturated with water.

Sample Density/(g·cm3) Resistivity/(m)

Decrease amplitude/% Decrease amplitude/%
No. Before After Before After
M-1 2.672 2.643 1.1 73.2 47.5 35.1
M-2 2.499 2.485 0.6 30.9 10.1 67.3
M-3 2.666 2.645 0.8 64.0 24.0 62.5
M-5 2.664 2.646 0.7 33.0 7.7 77.0
M-9 2.671 2.654 0.6 49.0 19.9 59.4
M-10 2.725 2.710 0.6 62.2 29.5 52.6
X-5 2.654 2.645 0.3 123.4 93.7 24.1
X-9 2.715 2.693 0.8 100.9 46.5 53.9
X-10 2.729 2.714 0.5 123.3 92.4 25.1
X-11 2.673 2.661 0.4 57.2 23.6 58.7
X-13 2.587 2.566 0.8 31.2 4.2 86.5
X-15 2.619 2.602 0.6 40.3 10.5 73.9
X-17 2.621 2.595 1.0 102.3 62.1 39.3
X-18 2.599 2.578 0.8 120.8 87.0 28.0
X-19 2.457 2.446 0.4 17.1 7.1 58.5
X-20 2.559 2.546 0.5 40.4 15.5 61.4

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 LAI Qiang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2017, 44(6): 941–947
Fig. 1. NMR T2 spectrum characteristics of asphalt samples
with different maturities.
non-asphalt interval of gas producing well was chosen to es-
tablish the cross-plot of P-wave transit time and resistivity
(Fig. 2). It can be seen from the figure that due to presence of
asphalt, the resistivity in asphalt-enriched interval is much
higher than non-asphalt interval under the same P-wave transit
time, and as P-wave transit time increases, the resistivity in-
creases or remain almost the same, which is quite different
from the hyperbolic relationship between P-wave transit time
and resistivity of non-asphalt interval. Therefore, a separatrix
line was regressed in the P-wave transit time vs. resistivity
cross-plot, thus a resistivity curve was inversed by P-wave
transit time. The logging resistivity higher than the inversion
resistivity by P-wave transit time indicates that the reservoir is
rich in asphalt.
The formula of separatrix is:
a1
Rtac  10a2 t
From regression results, a1= –1.95, a2=55 787.
2.2. Quantitative evaluation of asphalt content and
effective porosity
The purpose of calculating asphalt content is to evaluate the
effective pore space of the reservoir more accurately. It’s im-
practical to calculate the asphalt content precisely only by
conventional logging method. In this study, two quantitative
Fig. 2. P-wave transit time and resistivity cross-plot.
evaluation methods of asphalt content and reservoir effective
porosity are established by combining conventional logging
data and NMR logging and array acoustic logging data.
2.2.1. Crossover of conventional well logging porosity and
NMR porosity
Based on the physical characteristics of asphalt-bearing
rock samples, conventional and NMR logging interpretation
models were established in this study as shown in Fig. 3. In
conventional logging model, the asphalt is taken as part of
effective pore space, leading to overestimation of porosity in
reservoirs with rich asphalt. While in NMR logging model,
the asphalt is taken as insufficient pore space, so the NMR
porosity reflects the real effective porosity of reservoir. There-
fore, it can be considered that the difference between conven-
tional and NMR logging porosities is equivalent to the content
of asphalt in the reservoir.
According to the well site data, the conventional effective
porosity is calculated by the acoustic formation factor formula,
the parameter x was 2 after core calibration.
  tma  
d
c  1      100% (2)
  t  
2.2.2. Crossover of conventional logging porosity and
S-wave transit time porosity
Research shows that it’s feasible to calculate reservoir po-
rosity by using S-wave transit time[1112]. S-wave transit time
is mainly affected by the lithology of formation and little af-
fected by pore fluid. Longwangmiao Formation is monoto-
(1)
nous in lithology, almost simply dolomite and extremely low
(less than 5%) in shale content, therefore, it’s possible to es-
tablish a formula for calculating porosity by S-wave transit
time. Fig. 4 shows a cross-plot of core porosity after correc-
tion by the overburden and measured S-wave transit time. And
the formula for calculating S-wave transit time porosity is:
ts  b1t  b2 (3)
Regression results show that b1 is 2.57 and b2 is 279.39.
The actual calculation results show that for the non-asphalt
interval, the porosities calculated by S-wave transit time and
conventional log are almost equal; while for the interval rich
Fig. 3. Conventional logging model vs. NMR logging model for
asphalt-bearing carbonate reservoirs.
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 LAI Qiang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2017, 44(6): 941–947
Fig. 4. Relationship between core porosity and S-wave transit
time.
in asphalt, the value of S-wave transit time decreases, conse-
quently, the porosity calculated by S-wave transit time is sig-
nificantly smaller than that calculated by conventional logs.
Since the S-wave transit time porosity reflects the real effec-
tive porosity, the difference of these two porosities can be
taken as the asphalt content of the reservoir.
2.3. Calculation of water saturation
The porosity after asphalt correction should be used for as-
phalt-bearing carbonate reservoirs when using Archie formula
to calculate the water saturation. Furthermore, the influence of
asphalt on resistivity and other rock-electro parameters also
should be considered.
2.3.1. Correction of resistivity with asphalt content
The experiment shows that the asphalt will lead to higher
reservoir resistivity, thus higher calculated gas saturation from
logging data, and wrong judgement of the reservoir fluid
property, so it’s necessary to conduct resistivity correction
with asphalt content. According to the relationship between
asphalt content and resistivity from lab experiment, the resis-
tivity increases with the increase of content and volume of
asphalt in reservoirs. When the asphalt content is less than 2%,
the resistivity increases slowly, when the asphalt content is
greater than 2%, the resistivity increases at apparently higher
rate.
The formula for resistivity correction is:
Rtj  c1Vl3  c2Vl 2  c3Vl (4)
Fig. 6. Results of rock-electro parameters before asphalt dissolution.
 945 
From the regression results, c1=30.6, c2= –107.7, c3=159.3.
Using this model, the resistivity of asphalt-bearing carbonate
reservoir can be corrected by the logging-calculated asphalt
content, which lays the foundation for calculating gas satura-
tion of the reservoir accurately.
2.3.2. Estimation of rock-electro parameters
The rock-electro experimental results before asphalt disso-
lution shows that porosity and formation factor, and water
saturation and resistivity index have good linear correlation in
the log-log coordinates (Fig. 6).
Based on this, we can optimize the logging of asphalt-
bearing carbonate reservoir. First, the asphalt intervals are
qualitatively identified quickly by using conventional logging
data. Second, whether NMR logging or array acoustic logging
is needed is judged according to the development of asphalt
and field production requirements, in order to evaluate effec-
tive porosity and water saturation of asphalt-bearing reser-
voirs accurately. For the new exploration area, lithologic
scanning logging in at least 2-3 wells is recommended, which
provides important basis for the establishment and verification
of the method.
3. Field application
3.1. Tracking evaluation of new wells
Well X53 is a step-out wildcat well of Longwangmiao
Formation. Fig. 7 shows the composite logging evaluation
Fig. 5. Relationship between asphalt content and resistivity
variation.
 LAI Qiang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2017, 44(6): 941–947
Fig. 7. Logging interpretation plot of Longwangmiao Formation in Well X53.
results of Well X53. Obviously, for the interval from X189 to
X207, the resistivity computed inversely from P-wave transit
time is lower than that from logging, furthermore, and the
conventional logging porosity is different from NMR porosity,
which indicate this is an asphalt enriched interval. Through
calculation, the asphalt content is 0.1 to 3.1%, on average
1.4%. After asphalt content correction, the effective porosity
and water saturation of X191.0 to X199.5 interval are 2.97%
and 32.7%, while those of X200.5 to X207.0 interval are
2.78% and 51.3% respectively. Hence they are interpreted as
poor gas layer and water layer respectively. The X189-X207
m interval in the well was tested a small amount of gas and
5.4 m3 water per day after acid fracturing, so it is concluded as
a gas-bearing water layer, and the water producing layer is the
log interpreted water layer.
According to the statistics of the test result of the Long-
wangmiao Formation in wells drilled in 2015-2016, a total of
79 layers in 23 wells were tested, the coincidence rate of
composite logging interpretation is 97.5%.
3.2. Horizontal distribution of asphalt
Calculated asphalt contents of more than 80 wells in the
study area show the asphalt contents of Longwangmiao For-
mation range from 0.1% to 3.0% (Fig. 8). Compared with
Block Gaoshiti, reservoirs in Block Moxi have higher asphalt
content on the whole. The enrichment region of asphalt
stretches from Well Moxi22 to Moxi103, Moxi202, Moxi16,
 946 
Moxi207 and Moxi29, where the gas reservoir is more seri-
ously damaged by asphalt. This should be kept in mind in the
development of the Longwangmiao reservoir in the future.
4. Conclusions
Asphalt occupies part of reservoir pore space, causing re-
duction of reservoir porosity, damage of pore structure, and
great decline of reservoir permeability, and impairing physical
properties of reservoir and production capacity. Experiments
show that: (1) asphalt damages pore structure of the reservoir,
leading to the drop of effective pore space and permeability of
the reservoir; (2) with the increase of asphalt content, the P
wave and S wave transit times generally decrease, while the
density and resistivity generally increase; (3) with the increase
of asphalt content, P wave transit time and density have
smaller variations, while S wave transit time and resistivity
change in larger amplitude; (4) the T2 of asphalt is generally
less than 3 ms, the higher the maturity of the asphalt, the
smaller the T2 value will be. According to the above labora-
tory results, a method based on combined conventional and
special logs is advanced to evaluate asphalt content, effective
porosity and water saturation of asphalt-bearing carbonate
reservoir. The method has been used in over 80 wells to find
out the asphalt rich zone of Cambrian Longwangmiao Forma-
tion in Anyue gas field, Sichuan Basin. The results provide a
reliable basis for selecting tested layers and development plan
design.
 LAI Qiang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2017, 44(6): 941–947
Fig. 8. Planar distribution map of asphalt content of Longwangmiao Formation in Gaoshiti-Moxi region.
Nomenclature
a1, a2, b1, b2, c1, c2, c3 and d—constants, dimensionless;
Rtac—inversed resistivity from AC, dimensionless;
Rtj—resistivity after corrected with asphalt content, dimensionless;
Rw—resistivity of formation water, Ωm;
Sw—water saturation, %;
T2—transverse relaxation time, ms;
Vl—asphalt content calculated from logging data, %;
—porosity, %;
t—P wave transit time, μs/m;
tma—P wave transit time of rock skeleton, μs/m;
ts—S wave transit time, μs/m;
t—porosity calculated from S wave transit time, %.
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