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Mineralogical controls on NMR rock surface relaxivity: a case study of the Fontainebleau sandstone
Livo, Kurt
Livo, Kurt
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2016
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Pore size distribution is derived from nuclear magnetic resonance, but is scaled by surface relaxivity. While nuclear magnetic resonance studies generally focus on the difficulty of determining pore size distribution in unconventional shale reservoirs, there is a lack of discussion concerning pure quartz sandstones. Long surface relaxivity causes complications analyzing nuclear magnetic resonance data for pore size distribution determination. Currently, I am unaware of research that addresses the complicated pore size distribution determination in long relaxing, pure sandstone formations, which is essential to accurate downhole petrophysical modeling. The Fontainebleau sandstone is well known for its homogenous mineralogical makeup and wide range of porosity and permeability. The Hibernia sandstone exhibits a similar mineralogy and is characterized by a similar and porosity-permeability range to the Fontainebleau sandstones, but with a significantly higher portion of clay minerals (1-6%). I present systematic petrophysical properties such as porosity, pore size distribution from nuclear magnetic resonance transverse relaxation times, permeability, and volumetric magnetic susceptibility to aide in characterization of the Fontainebleau sandstone. Analysis of collected nuclear magnetic resonance data is then compared to other petrophysical studies from literature such as helium porosity and permeability, magnetic susceptibility, and electrical conductivity. I find that the lack of impurities on the grain surfaces of pure quartz samples imparts a lower surface relaxivity as compared to clay containing sandstones and makes nuclear magnetic resonance analysis more complex. Thus, inverted nuclear magnetic resonance data from cleaner outcrop samples incorrectly models pore size distribution without accounting for wider surface relaxivity variation and is improperly used when characterizing the Fontainebleau sandstone. This is further supported by evidence from less-clean Hibernia cores where these inversion problems are not seen.
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