SPE-160870-PA (Correlations Between NMR-Relaxation Response and Relative Permeability From Tomographic Reservoir-Rock Images)

Correlations Between NMR-Relaxation
Response and Relative Permeability From

Tomographic Reservoir-Rock Images
Tariq M. AlGhamdi, SPE, Saudi Aramco, C.H. Arns, SPE, University of New South Wales, and
R.Y. Eyvazzadeh, SPE, Saudi Aramco
Summary
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is typically used in the petro-
leum industry to characterize pore size and to identify uids in
fully and partially saturated reservoir samples. Although the
NMR-relaxation response can be used to estimate the permeabil-
ity of the rock, it may also provide information about the uid dis-
tribution for multiphase systems that could lead to the estimation
of the effective permeability of uids at partial saturations and the
derivation of relative permeability to assess hydrocarbon recov-
ery. By use of a random-walk method, we simulate the NMR
response as a function of saturation on tomographic images of
Bentheimer and Berea sandstone as well as Ferroan dolomite sam-
ples. Fluid distributions are simulated for fully water-wet condi-
tions by use of a morphological capillary-drainage transform,
allowing the calculations of the saturations directly on the images
corresponding to capillary pressure. The magnetic susceptibility
of minerals and uids is used to calculate the internal magnetic
elds from the material distributions of solids and uids quanti-
ed by X-ray-diffraction (XRD) analysis. We show that the loga-
rithmic mean of the NMR T
2
distribution is a robust measure of
permeability, and it results in strong correlations between NMR
response and the relative permeability of both uids. The ob-
served relative permeability from NMR in our work is in excellent
agreement with image-based relative permeability calculations by
use of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). We compare our
NMR results for the wetting phase to published experimental
results on Bentheimer and Berea sandstone samples, and we
observe excellent agreement. By use of NMR numerical calcula-
tions, we demonstrate that internal gradients aid the establishment
of relative permeability correlations for the nonwetting phase.
Introduction
NMR is increasingly used to estimate pore-size distribution and
to identify uids (Kleinberg 1996; Strange et al. 1996; Akkurt
et al. 1998; Sun and Dunn 2004). One of the main advantages of
NMR is its ability to provide an estimate of permeability (Curwen
and Molaro 1995; Dunn et al. 1999; Hidajat et al. 2002). An
essential tool in reservoir description is the estimation of perme-
ability from NMR responses by empirical formulae. The NMR
T
2
relaxation time response for the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill
(CPMG) sequence is a function of parameters such as saturating-
uid bulk relaxation time T
2b
, surface relaxivity q, surface area to
pore volume (PV), diffusion coefcient D, the gyromagnetic ratio
of the proton c, the local magnetic eld G, and the CPMG echo-
spacing time t
E
(Bloembergen et al. 1948). For a single pore and
fast diffusion, the NMR T
2
relaxation is described as the follow-
ing (Straley et al. 1994; Akkurt 1995):
1
T
2
1
T
2b

q
S
V

D
12
cGt
E
2
1
In the weak-coupling regime (also known as the fast-diffusion
limit), the process of NMR relaxation results in a magnetization
decay as a function of the relaxation times of the individual pores.
The magnetization decay resulting from spin-spin relaxation can
then be expressed as
Mt
X
a
i
M
0
exp
t
T
2

2
Here, M(t) is the magnetization decay as function of elapsed
time, a
i
accounts for the fraction of pore size, and M
0
is the equi-
librium magnetization.
Correlations between NMR responses and permeability were
rst established by Seevers (1966) by use of T
1
relaxation times,
both for laboratory measurements and in the borehole. NMR T
2
correlations with permeability have been introduced by Kenyon
et al. (1988) and superseded spin-lattice relaxation measurements
because transverse relaxation responses gave better results for
sandstones and can be measured much faster. A wide range of
relationships between NMR spin-lattice relaxation responses and
physical properties, including permeability, is given by Banavar
and Schwartz (1987), Sen et al. (1990), Dunn et al. (1999), and
Arns et al. (2005). Kenyons NMR permeability model by use of
transverse relaxation time T
2
became much recognized (Straley
et al. 1994; Westphal et al. 2005), even for carbonates, as a result
of the advantage of faster acquisition to obtain relaxation
measurements.
Banavar and Schwartz (1987) were the rst to measure NMR-
relaxation responses at partial saturations but suggested that
industry should perform NMR measurements in mixtures of oil
and water to match the reality of hydrocarbon reservoirs, which
frequently are partially saturated. Their partial-saturation meas-
urements depicted the behavior of the ratios of spin-lattice relaxa-
tion times at multiple saturations to the NMR response at 100%
saturations. Straley et al. (1991) were among the rst to address
partial saturations directly. By use of a 10-MHz NMR instrument,
they performed drainage-centrifuge experiments on clay-rich low-
permeability sandstone samples by air and kerosene so that only
the water phase contributes to the NMR spin-lattice relaxation.
They noted during water drainage that the long peak of T
1
disap-
pears as saturation decreases, and the short T
1
remains the same.
These observations led to the derivation of free-uid index by
NMR in agreement-centrifuge experiments.
More recently, NMR responses of partially saturated rocks
have been used to give information about uid ow (Chen et al.
1993; Tessier and Packer 1998; Toumelin et al. 2003). Chen et al.
(1993) conducted drainage experiments on Bentheimer sandstone
with nitrogen to displace water from the sample and to measure
NMR spin-lattice relaxation (T
1
) at different saturations. They
introduced a power-law model to describe the decrease in T
1
relaxation time with decreasing water saturations. Although not
directly deriving a relative permeability curve for the wetting
phase, they suggested that this is feasible.
Chen et al. (1994) reported the wetting-phase relative perme-
ability from water/nitrogen experiments at a magnetic-eld
strength of 2 Tesla and room-temperature conditions on Ben-
theimer and Berea sandstone in addition to a limestone carbonate
reservoir sample. From the experiments, proles of spin-lattice
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Copyright VC 2013 Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper (SPE 160870) was accepted for presentation at the 2012 SPE Saudi Arabia
Section Technical Symposium and Exhibition, AlKhobar, Saudi Arabia, 811 April 2012, and
revised for publication. Original manuscript received for review 31 March 2012. Revised
manuscript received for review 25 March 2013. Paper peer approved 24 July 2013.
REE160870 DOI: 10.2118/160870-PA Date: 28-August-13 Stage: Page: 1 Total Pages: 9
ID: jaganm Time: 18:14 I Path: S:/3B2/REE#/Vol00000/130029/APPFile/SA-REE#130029
2013 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 1
relaxation time at multiple saturations were generated. The rela-
tionship by Katz and Thompson relating T
1
to morphological
length scales (Katz and Thompson 1987) was used in combination
with Archies law (Archie 1942) to derive the relative permeabil-
ity for the water phase from NMR T
1
measurements.
Further progress in the assessment of dynamic ow through
reservoir cores was made with NMR-saturation imaging (Rothwell
and Vinegar 1985; Chen et al. 1992; Kulkarni et al. 1998). Kul-
karni et al. used NMR imaging to map the saturation proles of oil
and water for a limestone carbonate sample. This led to an estimate
of two-phase-ow functions such as relative permeability and cap-
illary pressure. The experiment showed the possibility of deriving
relative permeability by means of NMR measurements, but the
experiment was limited to water saturations greater than 40%.
Xue (2004) used a 50-MHz NMR-imaging setup to determine
uid saturation, and he used the model of Chen et al. (1994) to
derive the wetting-phase relative permeability on a sandstone
sample. Spin-lattice NMR T
1
measurements in full and partial sat-
urations were gathered by displacing water by nitrogen from the
sample and resolving T
1
spectra locally. They concluded that their
analysis is not validated and might be subject to ow-stability
conditions governing relative permeability. Ioannidis et al. (2006)
repeated the NMR experiments of Chen et al. (1994) and Xue
(2004) on glass beads for transverse relaxation and predicted rela-
tive permeability successfully with high eld at a 500-MHz fre-
quency. They modied the Chen et al. (1994) model by replacing
spin-lattice time T
1
with transverse relation time T
2
in the perme-
ability correlations.
The interpretation of NMR-relaxation responses is compli-
cated by the nature of the Laplace inversion needed. Simulations
of NMR responses assist these interpretations and can provide
additional insights. The most accurate NMR-response simulations
are carried out on high-resolution computed-tomography (CT)
images, mainly with random-walk techniques (Kim et al. 2000;
Valckenborg et al. 2002; Arns et al. 2011). The work presented by
Arns et al. (2011), Toumelin et al. (2003), and Talabi (2008) high-
lighted advancement in NMR numerical modeling for porous
media on high-resolution tomographic images and 3D pore-net-
work models at multiple saturations. Earlier simulation methods
did not account for internal gradients, which would lead to errone-
ous results if iron minerals are present (LaTorraca and Dunn
1995; Keating and Knight 2010). Newer simulation techniques
include internal-gradient effects by explicitly calculating the in-
ternal-eld distributions (e.g., Valckenborg et al. 2002, Arns et al.
2011, and Chen et al. 2011).
In this work, we use digital images of a set of samples (Ben-
theimer and Berea sandstone and Ferroan dolomite) and calculate
the petrophysical properties of porosity, permeability, and relative
permeability directly on the tomographic images. NMR-relaxation
responses are simulated at low eld (2 MHz) as a function of satu-
ration and internal gradients are accounted for. First, NMR-relax-
ation responses for both uid phases at fully saturated states of
each phase (100% water and 100% oil) are simulated to calculate
the absolute permeability of both phases. Then, the NMR re-
sponse of each phase at different saturations is simulated. After
the extraction of spin-spin relaxation-time behavior with satura-
tion, we adopt and modify the Schlumberger-Doll research (SDR)
NMR-permeability equation to accommodate the relation of
NMR T
2
relaxation response as a function of saturation. Excellent
results are observed matching NMR relative permeability to
image-based (LBM) relative permeability, particularly for the
nonwetting phase. Finally, we compare our wetting-phase relative
permeability results for Bentheimer and Berea sandstone with
published results.
Methodology
Sample Characterization. In this work, we consider three sam-
ples: Berea and Bentheimer sandstone and a Ferroan dolomite
from the Middle East. XRD results on these samples revealed that
Berea is composed of 86% quartz and a mixture of different clay
minerals (6% kaolinite, 3.5% ankerite, 2.9% illite, and 1% feld-
spar). The Bentheimer sandstone exhibits 2 to 3% of kaolinite
clay mineral. The Ferroan dolomite contains 90% dolomite and
approximately 10% ankerite; this type of dolomite is called
Ferroan because of the existence of iron-bearing minerals. All
three samples display a relatively homogeneous microstructure
with high porosity and permeability. In Fig. 1, the samples were
imaged at high resolution with X-ray-CT at a eld of view of
2048
3
voxels with an accessible resolution of approximately 3 lm
(Sakellariou et al. 2007).
Image Processing and Analysis. The sample processing of high-
resolution tomographic images is a critical step (Sheppard et al.
2004) for the accurate denition of PV and solid volumes, respec-
tively. Raw tomograms exhibit a wide range of different noise
types and image artifacts, and a set of sophisticated lters is used
to accurately quantify the solid, pore, and intermediate phases.
The nal process is the segmentation of the sample into two or
three phases by dening the volumes of pore, solid, and clay or
microporosity from the intermediate phase. Sample dimensions
and characteristics are given in Table 1. The reported porosity
corresponds to the porosity derived from the tomographic images
after segmentation. For voxels containing a mixture of materials
(e.g., in clay regions or for microporous voxels), a straight vol-
ume-weighted arithmetic-average susceptibility is calculated. It is
assumed that the clay regions in the samples presented here con-
tain 50% clay minerals and 50% water. Experimental cation-
exchange capacity (Ma and Eggleton 1999) of the different clay
types would assist in the determination of the actual volume of
water that can be absorbed in the clay porosity.
Numerical Simulation
Image-Based Fluid Saturations. The uid distributions in the
samples are numerically simulated directly on the voxelated
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 1Segmented tomographic images of (a) Bentheimer sandstone, (b) Berea sandstone, and (c) Ferroan dolomite.
2 2013 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
tomographic images by means of a capillary-drainage transform
(Hilpert and Miller 2001) with open-boundary conditions from
all sides, mimicking the standard mercury-intrusion experiment.
A particular saturation corresponds to a certain capillary radius.
Fig. 2 shows different saturation proles simulated on the tomo-
graphic images for the three reservoir samples used in this work.
The saturation maps are calculated on the full image. For the fol-
lowing simulations, a central region of interest of order 1000
3
voxel of the saturation map is chosen as simulation domain (see
Table 1) to avoid capillary end effects and at the same time pro-
vide a sufcient representative elementary volume for transport
calculations. The simulated-uid distributions are approximating
water-wet steady-state uid-ow conditions (Hussain 2011).
Permeability and Relative Permeability
Absolute and relative permeability are calculated with the LBM
(Gunstensen and Rothman 1991; Shan and Chen 1993), which is
well-suited to deal with multiphase ow in complex geometries.
By use of the static-uid distributions with no-slip boundary con-
ditions, permeability for each phase is calculated at different satu-
rations by means of a single-phase lattice Boltzmann calculation.
TABLE 1SUMMARY OF PETROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF
THE SAMPLES
Sample
Size
(voxels)
Resolution
(lm) Porosity
Permeability
(md)
Bentheimer 800 2.9 0.23 2,777
Berea 1080 2.83 0.19 523
Ferroan dolomite 1020 2.18 0.18 642
(d) (e) (f)
(g) (h) (i)
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 2Simulated drainage and imbibition by use of capillary-drainage mechanism. (a through c) Bentheimer sandstone(a)
100%, (b) 50%, and (c) 25% S
w
; (d through f) Berea sandstone(d) 100%, (e) 80%, and (f) 44% S
w
; (g through i) Ferroan dolomite
carbonate(g) 100%, (h) 75%, and (i) 25%S
w
; (white is the invading nonwetting phase; black is the defending wetting phase; gray
is the solid phase; and red is the clay region).
This allows relative permeability for each phase to be calculated
according to
K
rw

K
w;eff
K
abs
3
K
ro

K
o;eff
K
abs
: 4
This direct image-based calculation of relative permeability by
use of numerically derived uid distributions was validated experi-
mentally on Bentheimer sandstone (Hussain 2011). In his steady-
state experiment, capillary end effects were minimized by controlled
high injection rates so no further effects on the residual saturation
would occur. The absolute-permeability values for the samples are
given in Table 1, and they agree well with experimental data for
Bentheimer and Berea available in the literature.
NMR Simulation
Surface Relaxation. The spin-relaxation time of a saturated po-
rous system is numerically calculated with a lattice random-walk
method (Mendelson 1990; Bergman et al. 1995). Initially, the
walkers are placed randomly in the 3D pore space. At each time-
step i, the walkers are moved from their initial position to a neigh-
boring site and the clock of the walker is advanced by s
i
e
2
/
(6D
0
), where D
0
is the bulk-diffusion constant of the relevant
uid, reecting Brownian dynamics, and e is a small fraction of
the voxel size. We treat each random walk as the movement of a
spin packet with initial strength M
w
(t 0). At each timestep (i) of
length (s
i
), the strength of the walker is reduced by the survival
probability S
i
, with the strength of the walker at time t R
i
s
i
given by
M
w
t M
w
0
Y
i
S
i
5
Here S
i
S
b
S
s
, where S
b
exp (t
i
/T
b
) for bulk relaxation and
S
s
1 for surface relaxation. For steps within the same uid,
S
s
1. The killing probability is related to the surface relaxivity
q (q here is xed) by means of
A
qe
D
0

O
qe
D

2
6
Here, A is a correction factor of order 1 (we take A3/2),
accounting for the details of the random-walk implementation
(Mendelson 1990; Bergman et al. 1995). This leads to
S
S
1
6qs
i
eA
7
Dephasing Because of Internal Gradients. To capture the
dephasing of random walkers caused by internal elds, we model
the phase accumulation of the random walkers for the CPMG
sequence explicitly. For this, one needs to derive the local mag-
netic-eld strength. For the cases considered here, the internal
eld, which results from susceptibility contrast between minerals
and uids, is accurately described by a dipole approximation
because the magnetic susceptibilities of all components are small
compared with unity. The internal magnetic eld is numerically
calculated on the tomographic image by assigning an effective
magnetic susceptibility to each voxel and convoluting the dipole
eld around the susceptibility eld (Arns et al. 2011). We calcu-
late that the dipole eld [when the distance from the dipole center
(r) is larger than the radius of the dipole (a)] is given as
~
B
dipole

l
0
4p
3~ m~r ~r ~ mr
2
r
5

8
For the dipole eld inside the sphere, when r is less than a
d
,
~
B
dipole

2
3
l
0
~ m 9
Here, l
0
is the magnetic permeability of the vacuum and m is
the dipole magnetic eld for a unit volume of the lattice spacing
(resolution of tomographic image). When we apply an external
magnetic eld (H) to the sample, the susceptibility eld will result
in an induced internal magnetic-eld response (B
internal)
. We use
this to model the internal gradient distribution on high-resolution
tomographic images at different uid saturations for a given
applied static magnetic eld that is oriented in the z-direction.
The phase evolution of a spin with reference to the Lamor fre-
quency at the starting position x
0
c B
z
(0) is given by
/
D
/ /
0

X
N
j1
p
j
cs
i
B
z
t
j
B
z
0 ; t
j

X
j
i1
s
i
10
The total-magnetization decay, including dephasing for an
individual spin, is then given by M
w
(t) M
w
(t) cos(/
d
) and
recorded for the echo positions (maximal coherence) of the
CPMG sequence. An elementwise sum over the magnetization
decays of the individual walkers nally results in the total-mag-
netization decay.
Modeling Parameters. The important material parameters for
NMR modeling are surface relaxivity and the susceptibilities of
the individual components. For surface relaxivities, we use the
values published by Talabi (2008). We use, as susceptibilities of
the minerals and uids, the results of a recent literature survey
(Potter et al. 2008). The values for the different parameters are
reported in Tables 2 through 4. To derive the volume susceptibil-
ity of the minerals, and particularly the intermediate clay phase,
we carried out XRD analysis for all three samples. Because most
reservoir uids are diamagnetic (Potter et al. 2008), we used, as
analogs for the simulation, water and dodecane. We obtained fur-
ther uid properties (see Table 3): hydrogen index (HI), diffusion
coefcients, and bulk-uid properties from the Halliburton NMR
catalog (Coates et al. 1999).
For our simulations, we dene the lattice spacing as being a
fraction of the resolution of our sample. The resolution is approxi-
mately 3 lm, and we typically ne-grained the system by a factor
of 10 to achieve a good time resolution of the CPMG pulse
sequence. We use between 60,000 and 100,000 walkers per each
simulation. The NMR T
2
pore-size distribution can be obtained by
inverting the magnetization-decay prole (Arns et al. 2005).
NMR-Permeability Correlations
NMR is a practical petrophysical tool especially in determining
permeability and has been widely used (Timur 1969; Sen et al.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TABLE 2NMR FLUID-PROPERTIES INPUT PARAMETERS
Parameter Water Clay Oil
HI 0.94 0.47 1.04
D
0
(cm
2
/s) 2.3010
5
4.1010
6
8.0010
6
T
2b
(seconds) 1 0.1 1
TABLE 3SURFACE-RELAXIVITY MATRIX FOR MODELING
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PHASES
q (lm/s) Water Clay Solid Oil
Water 0 10 3 0
Clay 10 10 3 0
Solid 3 3 0 0
Oil 0 0 0 0
1990; Prammer 1994). Expanding the approach to partial satura-
tions enables the calculation of effective permeability for the rele-
vant uids. The SDR/NMR-permeability correlation found by
Kenyon et al. (1988) is described as
K
NMR
a T
2
2lm
/
4
1 11
We modify the NMR-permeability equation of SDR to account
for partially saturated samples by calculating the logarithmic
mean T
2lm
from NMR T
2
responses at different saturations. The
modied version of the SDR equation becomes
K
NMR
S
w
a T
2
2lm
S
w
/ S
w
4
12
Here the porosity in Eq. 11 denotes the fractional porosity of the
effective phases (water/oil), and T
2lm
is calculated as a function of
saturation. The nal version of the modied SDR equation for rel-
ative permeability is then described as
K
r;NMR

T
2lm
S
w
T
2lm

2
S
w
4
13
T
2lm
is calculated as the logarithmic mean of the transverse relaxa-
tion time T
2
, and a
i
presents the volume fraction of pores at differ-
ent sizes:
T
2lm
S
w
exp
X
fa
i
S
w
logT
2i
S
w
g
X
a
i
S
w
14
Results and Analysis
NMR Response of Samples Saturated With Single Fluid. We
rst simulate the response on Bentheimer, Berea, and Ferroan-
dolomite samples fully saturated with water or oil, respectively.
The response of the water phase includes the NMR response of the
clay regions, which are considered 50% water-saturated. Conse-
quently, the NMR response of water includes a fast-relaxing com-
ponent in the clay region and the region around it, which can
exchange. The NMR water response is dominated by surface relax-
ation, whereas the oil-phase response is mainly a result of bulk
relaxation (Akkurt 2005). Fig. 3 illustrates the NMR responses of
the saturated rocks. Bentheimer sandstone exhibits only a small
amount of clay and at the same time shows a weaker susceptibility
contrast. Consequently, the short relaxation-time peak attributed to
water-saturated clays is weak. For Berea sandstone, both suscepti-
bility contrast and clay fraction are higher, leading to a much more
noticeable clay peak. For Ferroan dolomite, the short relaxation-
time peak is caused by a combination of internal gradients and
increased surface relaxivity, making the peak position depend on
echo spacing.
NMR-Simulation Response at Partial Saturations. NMR
responses for partially saturated samples are derived with the satu-
ration methods (capillary drainage) presented before. For water
and oil phases, the simulation parameters are presented in Tables
2, 3, and 4. The wetting phase (water) exhibits a nonzero surface
relaxivity with the solid. However, for the nonwetting uid, there
are interactions with neither the solid surface nor the wetting uid.
Thus, the nonwetting uid can relax only by internal-gradient
effects or bulk relaxation. We report the NMR response of both
phases at different saturations in Fig. 4. For the water phase start-
ing at a fully water-saturated state, the relaxation time decreases
because drainage takes place until the samples are fully drained.
This is because of largest pores being drained rst, followed by
the next largest. The decrease in relaxation time is governed by
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
0.001
0
0.05
0.1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.15
0.2
0.01 0.1
Fully Oil
Fully Water
T2 (Sec) (a)
1 10
0.001
0
0.03
0.06
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.09
0.12
0.01 0.1
Fully Oil
Fully Water
T2 (Sec) (b)
1 10
0.001
0
0.05
0.1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.01 0.1
Fully Oil
Fully Water
T2 (Sec) (c)
1 10
Fig. 3NMR response of full saturations of oil and water: (a)
Bentheimer, (b) Berea, and (c) Ferroan Dolomite.
TABLE 4VOLUME SUSCEPTIBILITY OF MINERALS AND
FLUIDS USED TO CALCULATE EFFECTIVE SUSCEPTIBILITY
OF THE SAMPLES
Material
Volume Susceptibility
(SI 10
5
)
Quartz 1.641
Calcite 1.311
Dolomite 1.37
Kaolinite 1.68
Feldspar 0.1695
Ankerite 36.1
Illite 4.16
Water, H
2
O 0.9035
Dodecane, C
12
H
26
1.26
50,000 ppm NaCl brine 0.935
Bentheimer clay region, 50% brine 1.31
Berea clay region, 50% brine 4.71
Ferroan dolomite clay region, 50% clay 2.38
the surface-area/PV ratio on which that water-phase signal
depends.
Diffusional-coupling effects between clay regions and
resolved pore space were examined in all three samples. As sam-
ples desaturate, the clay regions stay coupled with the free water
because diffusion-coupling effects increase. The shift to smaller
relaxation times is explained by the increased surface/volume ra-
tio. As a result of this diffusional coupling, larger amplitudes of
short/transverse relaxation times were visible at lower water satu-
rations. The diffusional-coupling effects varied here because both
Berea and Ferroan dolomite exhibited larger peaks than Ben-
theimer, and this could be caused by more paramagnetic clays
being present compared with Bentheimer, which contains diamag-
netic kaolinite. These remarks are very crucial in the considera-
tion of cutoff analysis dening the bound-uid index (BFI) and
thus the accuracy of calculating the irreducible water saturation.
Considering a cutoff value leads to more-accurate permeability
estimation in the free-uid region.
Consider now the NMR-relaxation response of the oil phase.
The Bentheimer sandstone illustrated a marginal increase in relax-
ation time as oil saturation decreases. In the Berea and the Ferroan
dolomite samples, an incremental increase and a wider separation
in the relaxation time of oil phase are seen as oil saturation
decreases. In addition to bulk-uid relaxation in the oil phase, in-
ternal-eld gradients play a signicant role in the relaxation of the
oil signal. The magnitude of the internal elds on the basis of
relaxation was observed to be weaker in Bentheimer and stronger
in Berea and in Ferroan dolomite. The increase in relaxation time
for Berea and for the Ferroan dolomite with decreasing saturation
can be explained by losing access to smaller pores and crevices,
0.001
0
0.02
0.04
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.06
0.08
0.01 0.1
100% Sw
25% Sw
50% Sw
T2 (Sec) (a)
1 10 0.1
0
0.05
0.1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.15
0.02
1
Fully Oil Saturated
Oil Response - Sw 25%
T2 (Sec) (b)
10
0.001
0
0.02
0.04
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.06
0.08
0.01
0.03
0.05
0.07
0.01 0.1
100% Sw
80% Sw
44% Sw
20% Sw
T2 (Sec) (c)
1 10 0.1
0
0.05
0.1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.15
0.02
1
Fully Oil
Oil Response 50% Sw
T2 (Sec) (d)
10
0.001
0
0.01
0.02
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.03
0.04
0.01 0.1
Sw = 100%
Sw = 44%
Sw = 30%
Sw = 10%
T2 (Sec) (e)
1 10 0.1
0
0.05
0.1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0.15
0.02
1
Fully Oil
Oil Response 75% Sw
T2 (Sec) (f)
10
Fig. 4NMR relaxation response at partial saturations of both phaseswater (a, c, e) oil (b, d, f)incorporating internal gradients
from susceptibility contrast: (a, b) Bentheimer, (c, d) Berea, and (e, f) Ferroan dolomite.
in which internal gradients are stronger. For both phases, we cal-
culated the logarithmic mean of relaxation-time values (Eq. 14) as
a function of saturation in all the samples, and we generated the
proles for each phase (Fig. 5).
Absolute and Relative Permeability From NMR-Relaxation
Measurements. Both phases absolute permeabilities are calcu-
lated with Eq. 11. To account for the inuence of clay on the
absolute permeability of the water phase, we apply cutoff analysis
on the logarithmic-average mean of relaxation time T
2lm
in the
same way as one would typically perform for experimental data.
The cutoff value used in Bentheimer and Berea sandstone samples
is 33 milliseconds, which is shorter than the cutoff value used for
the Ferroan dolomite sample of 67 milliseconds. Relative perme-
ability correlations from numerical NMR-relaxation responses are
calculated from the effective NMR permeability of each uid at
the different saturations from the NMR response at partial satura-
tions from the proles of the logarithmic mean of relaxation times
of each phase (Fig. 5) with Eq. 12. Relative permeability is calcu-
lated by means of Eq. 13 for both water and oil phases. Strong
correlations are observed in all three samples (Fig. 6) between the
relaxation responses of both phases against the relative permeabil-
ity calculated directly on the tomographic images of samples by
lattice Boltzmann calculation. This suggests that internal gra-
dients played a major role in establishing the correlations for both
phases, but powerfully for the nonwetting phase that was modeled
with zero surface relaxation. We validate the simulation results on
Berea and Bentheimer sandstone samples with those measured
experimentally by Chen et al. (1994). Our results are in excellent
0.2 0
0
0.5
1 T
2
l
m

(
s
e
c
)
1.5
2.5
2
0.4 0.6
T2lm (Oil)
T2lm (Wat)
Sw (a)
0.8 1
0.2 0
0
0.5
1
T
2
l
m

(
S
e
c
)
1.5
2
0.4 0.6
T2lm_Oil
T2lm_Wat
Sw (b)
0.8 1
0.2 0
0
0.5
1
T
2
l
m

(
S
e
c
)
1.5
2
0.4 0.6
T2lm_Oil
T2lm_Wat
Sw (c)
0.8 1
Fig. 5Logarithmic mean of relaxation-time proles of each
phase at partial saturations: (a) Bentheimer, (b) Berea, and (c)
Ferroan dolomite.
0.2 0
0
0.2
0.4
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

P
e
r
m
e
a
b
i
l
i
t
y

-

K
r
0.6
1
0.8
0.4 0.6
Krw_LBM
Kro_LBM
Krw_NMR
Kro_NMR
Sw (a)
0.8 1
0.2 0
0
0.2
0.4
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

P
e
r
m
e
a
b
i
l
i
t
y

-

K
r
0.6
1
0.8
0.4 0.6
Krw_LBM
Kro_LBM
Krw_NMR
Kro_NMR
Sw (b)
0.8 1
0.2 0
0
0.2
0.4
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

P
e
r
m
e
a
b
i
l
i
t
y

-

K
r
0.6
1
0.8
0.4 0.6
Krw_LBM
Kro_LBM
Krw_NMR
Kro_NMR
Sw (c)
0.8 1
Fig. 6Relative permeability from NMR response of partially
saturated samples compared with direct image-based relative
permeability: (a) Bentheimer, (b) Berea, and (c) Ferroan
dolomite.
agreement with their results and observed relative permeability of
the wetting phase (Fig. 7). This shows that numerical simulations
can be accurate in modeling uid-ow dynamics by incorporating
all important elements, including the presence of internal mag-
netic elds.
Conclusions
A random-walk method is used to simulate an NMR response as a
function of saturation on Berea, Bentheimer, and Ferroan dolomite
reservoir samples. We perform XRD analysis on all the samples to
calculate magnetic susceptibility by use of the reported literature
values of magnetic response to minerals and uids. The careful
modeling of the susceptibility of minerals forming the sample,
including the clay, is essential because internal gradients from sus-
ceptibility contrast between uid and surrounding solid interfaces
enhance the NMR spin-spin relaxation measurements for both
wetting and nonwetting phases. Strong correlations between rela-
tive permeability and NMR spin-spin relaxation response are
observed on all three samples. The analysis of the diffusional-cou-
pling effects of clay micropores should be considered because it
would distinguish bound-uid from free-uid regions. As a result,
the use of cutoff analysis to calibrate the logarithmic-mean value
leads to more-accurate permeability estimates that result in
enhancements in relative permeability correlations for the wetting
phase. Because oil phase does not relax by means of surface relax-
ation, internal gradients from susceptibility contrast assisted in
establishing a surface-related/weighted relaxation mechanism.
Our results for Bentheimer and Berea sandstone are also in excel-
lent agreement with previously published work by Songhua Chen
from the relation of NMR spin-lattice and saturation for the water
phase.
The work presented here uses a systematic approach that
adopts an NMR experimental procedure. Mineralogy here plays a
major role in the simulation of surface relaxation and mainly the
volume susceptibility of the samples at which the magnitude of
internal gradients is assessed. The results from this work might
provide hints for estimating dynamic-ow relative permeability
much faster and with noninvasive methods such as NMR.
This work demonstrates that NMR is capable of accurately
estimating relative permeability in partially saturated samples.
Relative permeability experiments are expensive and time-con-
suming. It would be highly desirable to extend this study to more-
complex rock, accompanied by experimental measurements.
Future Work and Studies
Further work can be performed to validate the outcomes from this
study experimentally by means of both NMR and laboratory ex-
perimental relative permeability. Some modeling parameters here,
such as clay porosity, can be investigated experimentally to ensure
accuracy. Also, other wettability conditions could be examined to
assess the robustness of these relative permeability correlations
from NMR compared with experimental analysis.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the University of New South Wales and
Australian National University for their support through providing
the samples for this work and facilitating the computations
through access to the National Computing Infrastructure. TA
acknowledges Saudi Aramco for their nancial support through a
PhD scholarship at the University of New South Wales. CHA
acknowledges the Australian Research Council for an Australian
Research Fellowship (DP0881112) and a Future Fellowship
(FT120100216).
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0.2 0
0
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R
e
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May.
Tariq AlGhamdi is a reservoir engineer working for Saudi Ara-
mco in the Reservoir Description and Simulation Department.
His responsibilities include the management and petrophysical
evaluation of exploration and gas fields. AlGhamdi is currently
leading the Unconventional Shale gas team in Saudi Aramco.
He holds a BS degree from the University of Tulsa, an MS
degree from Herriot-Watt University, and a PhD degree from
University of New South Walesall in petroleum engineering.
AlGhamdis main interests are optimizing petrophysical evalu-
ation, and he recently was involved in digital core analysis
and numerical simulations of special core analysis and NMR.
He has authored or coauthored many papers and journals.
Christoph H. Arns is an associate professor at the School of Pe-
troleum Engineering, University of New South Wales and is a
member of SPE. His work has focused on the morphological
analysis of porous complex media and the numerical calcula-
tion of transport and elastic properties as well as NMR
responses. Arns primary interest lies in the combination of 3D
tomographic-imaging technology and NMR spectral techni-
ques for petrophysical applications. He holds a Diploma
degree in physics from the University of Technology, Aachen,
Germany, and a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from
the University of New South Wales.
Ramsin Eyvazzadeh has been a petrophysicist with Saudi Ara-
mco since 2001, working in the Reservoir Description and Simu-
lation Department, and is a member of SPE. He holds a BS
degree in petroleum engineering from the University of South-
ern California and an MS degree in mechanical engineering
from the University of California. Before joining Saudi Aramco,
Eyvazzadeh worked with Schlumberger in many countries
across the world. He has published papers in several different
areas of petrophysics and is currently involved with optimizing
simulation and prediction models through petrophysical
applications.

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