Soran University

Faculty of Engineering
Petroleum Department

Calibration of NMR porosity to estimate

permeability in carbonate reservoirs

Prepared by: Supervisor:

Aso Shaxawan Mr. Nazir
OUTLINE

• Reference

• INTRODUCTION

• ESTIMATING PERMEABILITY FROM 1H NMR SIGNAL

• MEASUREMENT METHODS

• CONCLUSION
Reference

• Mason, H.E., Smith, M.M. and Carroll, S.A., 2019.

Calibration of NMR porosity to estimate permeability in
carbonate reservoirs. International Journal of
Greenhouse Gas Control, 87, pp.19-26.
• Impact factor:3.231
 INTRODUCTION

• Techniques like NMR well logging is used for estimating subsurface permeability.

• Permeability and Porosity from NMR logs can be input data for reservoir
simulation.

• The total porosity and pore size can be calculated from response of NMR signal.

• NMR is measuring relaxation time of oriented protons of hydrogen in pore spaces

• Resulting depth profiles of porosity and permeability from downhole logs are
useful for reservoir simulations and can be used to design injection protocols
and estimate storage capacity.

• The NMR response and the relationship between porosity and permeability
are currently not well understood for carbonate geology.

• For estimating permeability kozney equation is used: k = A ∅^3*n

• Changes in permeability in carbonate formations are difficult-to-predict due

to the creating of new pore spaces and flow paths in respond to CO2 injection.
ESTIMATING PERMEABILITY FROM 1H NMR SIGNAL

• the 1H signal measures both formation porosity and the pore size
distribution.

• In this analysis NMR is used to measure both T2 and surface relaxtivity.

• Permeability depends on the rock properties and can be described with a

form of the Kozeny equation:
 Measurement methods

1- Carbonate sample:

The limestone and dolostone samples used in this study in a wide range of porosity
and permeability and are from distinct carbonate Formations

2- permeability measurements:

The permeability of each core was determined from differential pressures measured
at variable flow rates, using 25 °C synthetic saturated brine at near-reservoir
confining pressure.
At least 5 measurements per sample were used to compute permeability by
using this equation:

3- NMR measurements:

• We used NMR to measure total porosity, pore distributions, and surface

relaxivity on samples saturated with brine.

• Porosity is related to the intensity of NMR signal and is calculated against

known volumes of water.

• where higher T2 Corelates to larger pores and vice versa.

4- X-ray computed tomography (XRCT) measurements:

• We derived macro-porosity (defined as pore>9 µm in diameter) and

tortuosity from the analysis of three-dimensional grayscale images from
XRCT measurements of the core.
 CONCLUSION

• We used independent measures of pore volumes, surface relaxivity, and fluid-

accessible surface areas, and permeability to develop carbonate permeability
models.

• goal was to develop a model that could reproduce permeability over different
carbonate formations, but this was not possible even with detailed
characterization.

• Estimates of permeability require calibration and depend on formation porosity.

Best estimates for a given formation were achieved by using a modified form of
the Kozeny equation: k = A'∅3*n
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