SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
USING NMR TO CHARACTERIZE FLUIDS IN TIGHT ROCK
UNCONVENTIONAL AND SHALE FORMATIONS
Boqin Sun, Elton Yang, Haijing Wang, Scott J. Seltzer, Veronica Montoya, John Crowe, and Tom Malizia
Chevron
Copyright 2016, held jointly by the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log
Analysts (SPWLA) and the submitting authors.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPWLA 57th Annual Logging
Symposium held in Reykjavik, Iceland June 25-29, 2016.
ABSTRACT
Petrophysical characterization and quantification
of OOIP/OGIP and producibility in tight rock
unconventional (TRU) and shale reservoirs
remains challenging. The porosity system of these
reservoirs is dominated by nano and micro pores,
while the matrix system is formed by the mixture
of regular shale and kerogen with different
maturities. Therefore the total porosity in an
unconventional reservoir is often less than 10PU
(porosity unit, or percentage of total volume), and
the permeability ranges from nano to micro Darcy.
Storage and transport of hydrocarbon varies with
the percentage and maturity of the organic material
in TRU and shale formations, and impacts up to
20% of OOIP/OGIP. Evaluation of porosity,
saturation, and matrix permeability from
conventional logs becomes very difficult and often
requires a large number of core measurements to
correctly define the rock and pore system.
Routine NMR workflows for characterizing
conventional reservoirs cannot directly be used to
derive petrophysical properties in TRU
formations. Through laboratory NMR core
analysis and NMR logging field trials in various
TRU and shale reservoirs, we have developed a
new NMR shale interpretation workflow that
focuses on (1) obtaining high-quality raw echo
data by optimizing data activation sequences for
TRU and shale formations, (2) improving the data
processing scheme by enhancing T2 resolution to
separate different fluid components in T2
distributions, (3) adapting a new fluid typing
method that only involves clay-bound water and
capillary bound fluids, part of which is also
producible, and (4) using NMR core analysis to
verify the cutoff and T1/T2 ratio trend to improve
fluid identification in TRU and shale reservoirs.
The workflow has been successfully applied to
1
evaluate petrophysical properties in the Marcellus
and Vaca Muerta formations. It reduces the
uncertainty of total porosity and free fluid volume
(FFV), and identifies fluid types and sweet spots.
INTRODUCTION
Interpretation of NMR log data from tight
rock unconventional (TRU) and shale gas/oil
formations remains a challenge due to the
complexity of pore types embedded in a
mixture of mineral grains and kerogen
(Musharfi, et al., 2012) . The mineralogy of
the grain matrix contains a variation of fine-
grained silicate and carbonate minerals such
as illite/smectite, chlorite, kaolinite, quartz,
k-feldspar, calcite, dolomite, and pyrite, etc.
Different minerals impact NMR relaxation
very differently. Paramagnetic-rich minerals
will accelerate the relaxation process
dramatically, while carbonate minerals have
much less impact on the surface relaxation of
fluids (Dunn, et al., 2002; Kausik, et al.
2015). The change in maturity and quantity of
kerogen in shale gas/oil formations also
impacts relaxation. Variation of mineral and
kerogen properties results in complicated pore
and fluid types (Loucks, et al., 2012). First,
pore types are dominated by nano and micro
pores in TRU and shale formations. Some of
the pores are associated with clay minerals;
some of them are embedded in inorganic shale
or inter-particle pores (IP) while others are in
organic matter (OM). Figure 1 represents the
pore system of a TRU or shale formation,
where the gray area represents IP pores and
the black area indicates OM pores. Fluid in
clay minerals is mainly clay-bound water
(CBW). IP pores are mainly water wet, and
the fluid in IP pores can be water, oil, or gas.
On the other hand, OM pores are mainly oil or
gas wet, and the fluid in OM pores can be
heavy oil (or bitumen), light oil, or gas
(Rylander, et al., 2013). The total porosity in
a shale gas/oil reservoir is often less than
SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
10PU (porosity unit, or percentage of total
volume) and the permeability ranges from
nano to micro Darcy. Storage and transport of
hydrocarbon varies with the percentage and
maturity of the organic matter in TRU and
shale formations, and impacts up to 20% of
OOIP/OGIP. Evaluation of porosity,
saturation, and matrix permeability from
conventional logs becomes very difficult and
often requires a large number of core
measurements to correctly define their rock
and pore system.
Figure 1. Sketch of pore types in shale gas/oil
formation. The gray area represents inorganic shale, and
the pores in this area represent inter-particle pores. The
black area represents kerogen, and the pores in this area
are OM pores. Blue dots represent water molecules in
nano pores, while red dots can be either gas or oil
molecules. Both wetting and non-wetting fluids are
partially subject to surface relaxation due to low
saturation and small pore size.
Meanwhile, due to small pore size, all the fluids in a
shale formation are subject to the capillary effect, and
surface relaxation dominates the apparent T 2 relaxation
time. T2 separation between different fluids and pore
types is very small and often cannot be distinguished in
regular T2 distributions. Therefore, a routine NMR
workflow designed for characterizing conventional
reservoirs cannot directly be used to derive accurate
petrophysical properties in TRU and shale formations.
Through laboratory NMR core analysis and NMR
logging field trials in various TRU and shale reservoirs,
we have developed a practical NMR shale interpretation
workflow that focuses on (1) obtaining high-quality raw
echo data by optimizing data activation sequences for
TRU and shale formations, (2) improving data
processing schemes by enhancing T 2 resolution to
separate different fluid components in T2 distributions,
to allow accurate fluid volume typing, (3) adopting a
new fluid typing method that only involves CBW and
capillary bound fluids - part of which is also producible
2
(Singer, et al., 2013), and (4) using NMR core analysis
to verify the cutoff and T 1/T2 ratio trend to improve
fluid identification in TRU and shale reservoirs. We
have successfully applied this workflow to evaluate
petrophysical properties in both Marcellus and Vaca
Muerta shale gas/oil reservoirs. The workflow reduces
uncertainty of total porosity and free fluid volume, and
identifies fluid types and sweet spots.
NMR FLUID MODEL IN TRU AND SHALE
FORMATIONS
The apparent T1 and T2 relaxation times derived
from NMR logging can normally be expressed as
1 1 S
  1
T1a T1B V (1)
1 1 S D ( r )(GTE ) 2
  2 
T2 a T2 B V 12
where
T1a : apparent T1 relaxation time,
T2 a : apparent T2 relaxation time,
T1B : T1 bulk relaxation time of fluid,
T2 B : T2 bulk relaxation time of fluid,
 1 : T1 surface relaxavity,
 2 : T2 surface relaxavity,
D(r) : apparent diffusion coefficient in pores with radius r,
 : gyromagentic ratio,
G : maneticfieldgradient,
TE : echo spacing.
In TRU and shale gas/oil formations, fluid
molecules are mainly confined in nano and micro
pores due to small pore sizes and low matrix
permeability. Therefore, the diffusion effect in
Equation (1) has a very small contribution to the
overall apparent T2 relaxation and can be ignored.
Fluids in nano and micro pores can be water, light
oil, gas, bitumen, heavy oil, or a mixture of any of
these. The bulk T1 and T2 relaxation time of light oil,
gas, and water are all very long, but the bulk T1 and
T2 relaxation time of heavy oil and bitumen is
normally very short (<1 ms). The relaxation
mechanism in TRU and shale formations is then
dominated by the surface and bulk relaxation. Figure
2 illustrates the difference of apparent T2 relaxation
times of fluids at different pore sizes, saturation
levels, and wettability. Blue shading in Figure 2
represents water in pores while green shading is oil
 SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
or gas in pores. The top panel shows the water wet
scenario, while the bottom panel is the oil (or gas)
wet scenario. At 100% saturation, each type of pore
is filled with water or oil and will be represented by
a unimodal peak. Because the surface relaxation is
proportional to the surface-to-volume ratio (or,
roughly, the pore size), the corresponding apparent
T2 relaxation of fluids in small pores is much shorter
than the apparent T2 relaxation in large pores. When
the water (or oil) saturation is less than 100%, oil
and water peaks in the T2 distribution will separate
from each other. The apparent T2 relaxation of the
wetting fluid decreases as the saturation of the
wetting fluid decreases. The apparent T2 relaxation
time of the non-wetting fluid is very close to its bulk
relaxation time when the pore size is large.
However, the T2 separation between the wetting and
non-wetting fluids decreases as the pore size
decreases, due to the confinement effect applied on
the non-wetting fluid. Note the dashed red curves
shown in Figure 2 indicate the peak position of
wetting fluid when its saturation is at 100%.
Figure 2. Apparent T2 relaxation time changes with
saturation, wettability and pore size. The top panel
shows the T2 behavior with saturation when pores are
water wet and the bottom panel illustrates T2 changes
with saturation for oil wet conditions.
3
CBW as the first fluid component mainly resides in
the pores of clay minerals and also between clay
sheets and it can also reside in pores of organic
matter. In TRU and shale formations, kerogen
underwent a thermal maturation process due to
compaction and temperature increase during the
evolution of the formations over a geologic time
period. Similarly, the amount of CBW also went
through a slow reduction process. It can reasonably
be expected that the T2 of CBW in TRU and shale
gas/oil formations will be shorter than regular shale
formations due to the reduction of CBW, as
illustrated by the middle row of Figure 3. However,
water also exists in OM pores as capillary bound
water. When the water saturation in OM pores is
very low, the T2 of this portion of capillary bound
water will overlap with the true CBW and form
apparent CBW peak in the T2 distribution. In oil wet
OM pores, the apparent CBW will shift to the right
in the T2 distribution, as shown at the bottom row of
Figure 3. The T2 value of the apparent CBW is also
affected by the limitation of minimum echo spacing;
in general, it is very difficult to measure a T2 value
that is shorter than 1ms with an echo spacing of
0.2ms or longer. The bin porosity below 1ms is
often distorted or missing due to the limitation of
echo spacing. This also leads the peak position of
the apparent CBW to shift toward the right as
indicated by the bottom row of Figure 3. In
summary, the overall apparent T2 relaxation time of
the apparent CBW may actually move toward either
the right or left in the T2 distribution, depending on
OM content and its maturity.
Figure 3. Apparent T2 relaxation time of CBW is
slightly different between regular and OM-rich shales
due to wettability changes and CBW reduction.
Fluids in OM pores are mainly oil wet and can contain
water, light oil, gas, heavy oil, and bitumen. As kerogen
SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016

becomes increasingly mature, OM pores are created and with OM content and CBW based on the above
increase as OM content increases. The gas, light oil, description.
and heavy oil are all subject to surface relaxation, and
their apparent T2 relaxation time can be as short as a
few milliseconds. As OM content increases, the T2 of
liquid hydrocarbons in OM pores moves toward the left
due to wettability. Although pores in OM are generally
oil wet, kerogen can also swell by mixing with water
molecules. These water molecules behave like CBW,
which can be partially subjected to the T 2 surface
relaxation mechanism. The T2 of this type of CBW is
normally longer than the T2 of CBW in regular shale.
This is the reason that we often see a merging trend
between CBW and fluid in OM as OM content
increases.

OM pores also contain heavy oil and bitumen. The T 2

relaxation of bitumen is very short. Due to current
technology limitations, NMR logging will be unable to
detect bitumen contents. The bulk T 2 of heavy oil is
also short and only part of heavy oil appears in the T 2
distribution in general. However, the existence of heavy
oil and bitumen in OM pores provides a media to allow
light oil and gas to strongly interact with kerogen
(Kausil, et al., 2015). Based on the fundamental
relaxation theory, this interaction affects T 1 and T2
relaxation times very differently and leads to an
Figure 4. Different T2 peaks in TRU formations change
increase of the T1/ T2 ratio with OM content. If we plot
with OM content and CBW. The gray-shaded peak
the bin porosity in a T1T2 2D map, the trend of the
indicates CBW, the blue-shaded peak is capillary bound
T1/T2 ratio can then be used to differentiate liquid
water, and the orange-shaded peak is liquid
hydrocarbon from water.
hydrocarbon.
Liquid hydrocarbon released from kerogen can also
In summary, the simple NMR fluid model described
have migrated into the inter-particle pores in the solid
above includes CBW, light oil, gas, heavy oil (or
mineral matrix over a geological period of time.
bitumen), and water. These fluids can reside in nano,
Naturally IP pores are mainly water wet. If the size of
micro OM, and micro IP pores proportionally as
IP pores is large, then water in IP pores is subject to
illustrated in Figure 5, respectively.
surface relaxation and appears short in a T 2 distribution,
while the relaxation time of light oil or gas will be very
close to the bulk relaxation time. Given that the size of
IP pores in TRU and shale formations is in nano- or
micrometers, each pore can only contain a small
number of molecules. Meanwhile, due to thermal
maturation, water saturation in IP pores is also low. The
non-wetting fluid that entered the IP pores is therefore
also partially subjected to surface relaxation. Of course,
the effect of surface relaxation on the non-wetting fluid
will be less than on the wetting fluid but it is large
enough to significantly move the apparent T 2 relaxation
time of the non-wetting fluid toward the left and
substantially diminish the separation between the bound Figure 5. NMR fluid model used in our NMR
water and light hydrocarbon peaks. Figure 4 illustrates workflow for TRU and shale formation evaluation.
how different T2 peaks from TRU formations change
4
 SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
VALIDATION OF NMR FLUID MODEL WITH
NMR CORE DATA
To validate the NMR T2 fluid model described in the
above section, a core analysis program was executed as
described in this section.
Figure 6. Comparison of T2 distributions for brine and
decane saturated Berea sandstones. The two plugs come
from the same Berea sandstone block and have similar
porosity and permeability. The blue curves represent
decane saturation, and the red curves represent brine
saturation.
The core program was initiated using core plugs from
the Berea sandstone. Figure 6 shows a comparison of
the T2 distributions of brine and decane saturated plugs
taken from the same block with similar porosity and
permeability values. This figure simply shows that (1)
both the brine and decane cases were subjected to
surface relaxation when the saturation is at 100% water
or oil; (2) both fluids can be used to determine pore
types in Berea sandstone plugs; and (3) surface
relaxivity of decane is smaller than that of water, but
the effect of this relaxivity difference on the T2
distribution is more significant in large pores than in
small pores. This indicates that the confinement of
decane in small pores accelerates the surface relaxation
even though the surface relaxivity is smaller.
To further verify the confinement effect on fluid
relaxation in small pores, Figure 7 shows a comparison
of T2 distributions of decane and brine saturated core
plugs from the Vaca Mueta formation in the El Trapial
field in Argentina. These plugs were preserved before
the NMR experiments. The first T 2 measurements were
at their as-received condition, and the T 2 distributions
5
derived from this state are shown in green in Figure 7.
The absence of long T2 components is evident in the as-
received T2 distribution, where the main peak is from
CBW. The position of this CBW peak is below 1ms,
which is much shorter than CBW peak in regular shale
due to a CBW reduction in the Vaca Mueta formation
since both T2 value and intensity of the core CBW peak
is compatible with log CBW peak . Other peaks above
1ms are the capillary bound fluids from both OM and
IP pores (Kausik, et al., 2015). Even though all plugs
were preserved, much of the free fluids were still lost
during the sample handling process.
Figure 7. T2 distributions of as-received plugs (in
green) compared with T2 distributions of decane
saturated plugs (in red) at left panel, or with T 2
distributions of brine-saturated plugs (in red) at right
panel. The blue curve shows the signal added by the
fluid saturation.
To determine the amount of free fluid and T 2 cutoff for
calculating FFV from logs, we saturated the plugs with
decane without cleaning the as-received plugs. Before
the decane saturation, the as-received plugs were
vacuumed at room temperature. During the saturation, a
2000 psi pressure was applied to make sure decane
enters into the nano and micro pores. After saturation,
the second T2 measurements were performed on the
same set of plugs. The T2 distributions of decane-
saturated plugs are shown in red in the left panel of
Figure 7. Note that comparing the T 2 distributions to the
as-received condition, the peak position of CBW does
not change very much, but the peak above 1ms
increases significantly, indicating decane entered the
OM and IP pores. To further prove this, we performed a
time-domain analysis by subtracting the decane-
SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016

saturated raw echo train with the as-received raw echo pores. Neither the decane-saturated nor brine saturated
train and then performed the T 2 inversion on the T2 distributions show any long T2 peak that is similar to
difference echo train to result in decane-only T2 their bulk value. This clearly verified that any fluids in
distributions of plugs. These decane-only T2 nano or micro pores are subject to surface relaxation
distributions are shown in blue in the left panel of and result in very short apparent T 2 relaxations of both
Figure 7. The decane peak position is around 10ms and fluids due to the confinement effect.
no additional peak can be seen in CBW positon. To
compute FFV correctly from T2 distributions of decane-
saturated plugs (red curves), the T 2 cutoff has to be
between 5~6ms, which is very low comparing default
value of 33ms for sandstone formation.

Figure 9. Model T2 distribution (red) of fluid in

sandstone formation compares with model T 2
distribution (blue) in shale formation.

To validate the trend of T1/T2 ratio described in the last

section, we also performed T1T2 2D NMR
measurements (Cao Minh, et al., 2012; Jian, et al.,
2013) of core plugs from the Vaca Muerta formation of
Loma Campana field in Argentina. Figure 8 shows a
comparison of T1T2 2D maps of decane and brine
saturated core plugs, respectively. The preserved plugs
were first vacuumed and then decane saturated before
the first NMR measurements. A set of raw echo trains
Figure 8. T1T2 2D maps of decane-saturated plugs at
were then acquired using T E=0.2ms and wait time
left compare with T1T2 2D maps of brine-saturated
changes from 0.1ms to 10s, equally spaced in logarithm
plugs at right. The trend of T 1/T2 ratio of fluid in brine-
scale. After T1T2 2D inversion, the results of decane-
saturated plugs remain constant while the T1/T2 ratio
saturated plugs are shown in the left column of Figure
changes from 1 in large pores to 10 in small pores for
8. Gray shaded peak is from CBW and its T 1/T2 ratio is
decane-saturated plugs.
close to 1.65, indicated by the thin green-dashed line
that is close to the solid green line (or T 1=T2 line). The
After the decane saturation, these plugs were dried at
broad peak shaded in dark and light green started at
200°C to remove all mobile fluids of all pore types
T1/T2 ratio that is close to one in large pores and
while preserving dry TOC (total organic carbons). The
extended to ten in small pores. This change of T 1/T2
cleaned plugs were then brine saturated followed by the
ratio is related to OM pores in plugs due to interaction
third T2 measurements. The results are shown in the
between decane molecule and solid hydrocarbons that
right panel of Figure 7 where the green curves are the
promotes T2 relaxation more strongly than T 1 relaxation
T2 distributions of as-received core plugs, the red
(Kausik, et al., 2014). To further verify this, we dried
curves are the T2 distribution of brine saturated plugs,
the samples at 200 °C and then saturated with brine.
and the blue curves are the T2 distribution of extra brine
The brine-saturated T1T2 2D maps of same set of plugs
added to plugs during the brine saturation. Note that
are shown in the right column of Figure 8. As we
CBW peak moves to the right due to an increase of
expected, water in OM pores are the non-wetting fluid
CBW which supports the statement made in the last
and its T1 and T2 relaxation become longer while water
section and the added brine is distributed in all types of
in IP pores has a similar effect on the T 1 and T2
6

relaxation times. Therefore its T 1/T2 ratio should not
change much. All water peaks appear at T 1/T2 ratio
close to 1.65. Meanwhile the T 2 of CBW peak becomes
longer in brine-saturated plugs due to increase of CBW.
In summary, from the NMR core data, we clearly see
that (1) T2 of CBW decreases as CBW decreases in
TRU and shale formations; (2) T2 of liquid hydrocarbon
peak decreases as OM increases; (3) T 1/T2 ratio of
liquid hydrocarbon increases when OM content
increases and its trend changes from one in the large IP
pores to 10 in the small OM pores; and (4) T 1/T2 ratio
of water remains close to 1.65. Separation between
CBW and capillary bound fluid can be used to estimate
water and oil saturation. T2 cutoff for FFV is below
10ms and much shorter than 33 ms traditionally used in
sandstone formations. T2 cutoff for CBW is about 2-
3ms.
NMR SHALE ACTIVATIONS
Up to recently, most of the commercialized activation
sequences used for NMR logging is based on fluid
properties in sandstone formations. For example, T 2 of
CBW peak is between 1 and 3ms, capillary bound water
peak is between 3 and 30ms while free fluid peak is
normally above 33ms. Traditionally we use 3ms T 2
cutoff to compute CBW and 33 ms to compute FFV and
BFV (bound fluid volume) from a NMR T2 distribution
log. Raw echo data acquisition was optimized by
focusing on T2 sensitivities of peaks at 200ms and 20ms
in order to achieve high accuracy of CBW, BFV, and
FFV based on a model T2 distribution shown in red in
Figure 9. Each vendor company has derived various
activation sequences based on a long echo train plus a
short burst, where short burst is normally repeated
many times. To properly characterize the efficiency of
activation, we have proposed (1) using echo rate and (2)
T2 SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) distribution of activation
sequences. Echo rate counts the number of echoes
acquired per unit time. A typical number is between a
few hundreds to thousands of echoes per second. The
higher the echo rate is the more accurate the T 2
distribution will be.
T2 SNR distribution was initially introduced as
cumulative SNR (Toumelin, et al., 2009) in T 2 domain
and is redefined as
 N rp, k a k , j
1  e
NS
SNRT 2 (T2, j )   
T w , k / T 2 j / R12
N E,k  k
k 1
 e
where j=1,2,..., NR and
SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
T2, j : jth T2 component in T2 distribution,
NS : number of CPMG sequencesin the actication,
N rp, k : number of repeat in k th CPMG sequence,
N E , k : number of echoes in k th CPMG sequence,
TE , k : echo spacing of k th CPMG sequence,
Tw, k : wait time of k th CPMG sequence,
R12 : T1 /T2 ratio, which is set to be 1 normally,
a k , j : jth bin porosity in k th T2 distribution with a default value of 1,
 k : single - shot standard deviation of k th CPMG echo train with default value of 1,
N R : number of relaxation componets in T2 distribution.
For a sandstone activation that is composed of a long
echo train and a short burst, typical acquisition
parameters for the long echo trains are T E=0.2ms,
Tw=2s, NE=3000, and Nrp=1 while the short burst
parameters are TE=0.2ms, Tw=20ms, NE=30, and
Nrp=10. Its T2 SNR distribution calculated by Equation
(2) is displayed in Figure 10 and its echo rate is 1154
echoes/sec. The highest T2 sensitivity are peaks at
620ms and 6.5ms, respectively, which is very good for
the sandstone model T2 distribution shown in Figure 9.
Figure 10. T2 SNR distribution of a typical sandstone
activation shows that it is good to perform NMR
logging in a formation with a model T2 distribution that
is similar to the sandstone model shown in Figure 8.
In shale gas most of T2 components appear at the left
side of 100ms in a T2 distribution as shown by the blue
T2 distribution in Figure 9. High T 2 SNR at 620ms does
not help to improve the quality of the T 2 distribution in
a logging job. The time spent on acquiring the long
echo train can be dramatically reduced and the number
of repeats for the short burst should be increased. As an
example, we can change long echo train parameters to
TE=0.2ms, Tw=1.1s, NE=1000, and Nrp=1 in TRU and
shale formations and increase the number of repeats for

2
(2)
1  e
 N E , k T E , k / T2 j
the short burst to 50 (Hook, et al., 2011). Its echo rate is
 ,
 1 
T E , k / T2 j
slightly reduced to 962 echoes/sec and the calculated T 2
SNR based on the new parameters is shown in Figure
11. The T2 SNR at the 6.5ms peak increases to 21.1
7
SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
from 9.4 compared with Figure 10 and the T 2 SNR of
the long T2 peak changes from 30.4 to 20.7 while its
position shifts from 620 ms to 300ms. Note that all bin
porosities, as well as the single-shot standard deviation
of all echo trains in the time domain, is set to 1 in both
Figures 10 and 11. Each T2 distribution has 100
components. So the signal to noise ratio in the time
domain will be 100.
Figure 11. T2 SNR distribution of a typical shale
activation shows that it is good to perform NMR
logging in a formation with a model T 2 distribution that
is similar the shale model shown by the blue T 2
distribution in Figure 8.
Comparing sandstone activation shown in Figure 10,
the shale activation improves the T 2 SNR by more than
a factor of 2 at 6ms. To further move the short T 2 SNR
peak toward the left side of the T 2 distribution, we need
to reduce the wait time for the short burst and increase
its repeat number. Figure 12 shows the comparison of
the T2 SNR distributions of two alternative shale
activations for future logging tools with sandstone
(purple) and shale (green) activation shown in Figures
10 and 11, respectively :
1. Shale activation 1 (blue curve): T E=0.2ms,
Tw=1.1s, NE=1000, and Nrp=1 for the long echo
train and TE=0.2ms, Tw=5ms, NE=10, and
Nrp=200 for the short burst.
2. Shale activation 2 (red curve): T E=0.2ms,
Tw=1.1s, NE=1000, and Nrp=1 for the long echo
train and TE=0.2ms, Tw=10ms, NE=15, and
Nrp=100 for the short burst.
The total cycling time for all three activations are about
the same. Therefore the logging speed should be very
similar.
8
Figure 12. T2 SNR distributions (blue and red curves)
of two alternative shale activations for future logging
tools compare with sandstone (purple) and shale (green)
activation shown in Figures 10 and 11, respectively. By
reducing Tw and increasing Nrp of the short burst, the T 2
SNR maximum can be shifted to 2ms or less.
NMR SHALE DATA PROCESSING
Raw echo data acquired from optimized shale activation
sequences is still very noisy in general due to the low
porosity in TRU and shale formations. Regular T 2
inversion was optimized for processing raw echo data
acquired from sandstone formations where porosity is
relatively high and pore size is large. As shown in
Figure 9, the T2 distribution from a typical sandstone
formation often shows two or three peaks. The long T 2
peak is associated with free fluid and appears at around
200ms; the short T2 peak is mainly from capillary
bound water and appears at around 20ms. Very often a
CBW peak is around 2ms. It is relative easy to resolve
FFV and BFV peaks in T2 distribution from sandstone
formations. Most of inversion algorithms used in oil/gas
industry intends to obtain smooth T2 distributions by
over regularization in the inversion such that the T 2
distribution can correlate with rock/pore types better. If
we use the same processing parameter to process raw
echo data from TRU formations, the resulting T 2
distribution is often featureless and cannot resolve
different pore or fluid types. Figure 13 shows a
simulated example with different noise levels at
different depths for illustration purposes. In the figure,
the “hot” color indicates high peak intensity while the
“dark” color shows low amplitude, but the background
color has been set to white to see small peaks. The right
column of Figure 13 shows model pore size
distributions from two distinct tight formations: tight
formation 1 is separated by tight formation 2. Both
 SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
formations show a bimodal pore size distribution with
total porosity of 8.5PU. The left column shows the
model T2 distributions after the formations are saturated
with water and light oil. The peak on the left side of the
model T2 distribution is associated with CBW. The
peak at the right in tight formation 1 is light oil. Due to
high water saturation in tight formation 2, there are two
peaks from the micro pores: the middle peak is mainly
water while the long T2 peak is from light oil. The
middle column is the T2 distribution inverted from
simulated CPMG echo train with T E=0.2ms, TW=1s,
NE=3000, and Nrp=1. 0.1PU noise was added into the
simulated echo train for tight formation 1 and the top
section of tight formation 2 while 1PU noise was added
to the low section of tight formation 2. The
regularization factor used in the regular T 2 inversion is
1. It is clear that the regular T 2 inversion can resolve all
peaks very well when the noise level is low. After the
noise level increases to 1PU, the T2 distribution
becomes very broad and is no longer able to resolve a
different peak. If we use the same T 2 cutoff to calculate
CBW, BFV and FFV, the uncertainty will be very high.
Figure 13. Simulated T2 distribution shows that regular
T2 inversion cannot resolve T 2 peaks from different
pore and fluid types when the noise level is above 1 PU.
Left column is model T2 distribution from water and oil
saturated tight formation 1 and 2; middle column is T 2
distribution inverted from simulated raw echo train with
different noise levels; and right is the pore size
distributions of tight formation 1 and 2.
If we simply reduce the regularization in the T 2
inversion, the resolution of the T 2 distributions will
change quite significantly. Figure 14 shows the same
model pore size and model T2 distributions as those in
Figure 13, but the T2 distribution shown in the lower
9
section of tight formation 2 in the middle column is
inverted from the same set of raw echo trains with a
regularization factor of 0.1, which means 10 times less
regularization in the T2 inversion. The single peak that
we see in Figure 13 is now split into three different
peaks. The positons of each peak changes slightly from
depth to depth. But statistically we see that they appear
at the correct position for each fluid component shown
in the model T2 distributions. These well-resolved T2
distributions allow us to determine what kind of T 2
cutoff should be used to calculate each fluid fraction.
By employing 50 pair short bursts in simulated echo
train, the resolution and accuracy of the CBW peak can
be further improved as indicated by the T 2 distribution
at the top section of tight formation 2 in the middle
column of Figure 14. In our data processing we
typically use 5 times less in regularization for raw echo
data for most TRU and shale formations.
Figure 14. The model pore size and model T 2
distributions are same as those in Figure 13. The T 2
distributions from tight formation 2 in middle column
are inverted from simulated echo train with 10 times
less regularization that improves T 2 resolution and
resolves three different peaks whose positions are
statistically similar to model T2 distributions. The top
section of tight formation 2 is with 50 pair short burst
while the low section is with only a single long echo
train.
FIELD EXAMPLES
In the previous section a petrophysical workflow was
described to evaluate the formation properties of TRU
and shale formations. This workflow is composed of (1)
obtaining high quality raw echo data by optimizing
shale NMR data activation sequences using echo rate
SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016

and T2 SNR distribution, (2) reducing regularization in permeability (red) and SDR permeability (blue); track 5
T2 inversion to improve T2 resolution, separate different shows vendor-delivered T2 distribution based on regular
fluid components, and obtain accurate FFV, BFV, and T2 inversion with default T2 cutoffs of 33ms; track 6 is
CBW values from T2 distributions, (3) understanding the reprocessed T2 distribution with 5 times less
the trend of T2 variation of CBW and capillary bound regularization in T2 inversion and with 10ms and 3ms
fluids in OM and IP pores with depth and TOC, and (4) T2 cutoffs.
establishing right T2 cutoff via NMR core analysis to
calculate CBW and capillary bound fluids – part of
which can account for FFV. We have applied this
workflow to the Marcellus shale gas formation in North
America and the Vaca Muerta shale oil formation in
Argentina.

CMR LOG FROM MARCELLUS FORMATION

The Marcellus shale is an organic-rich black shale

founded in the Appalachian Basin of North America. It
was formed during the Devonian period and was
deposited in a deep water and anoxic environment with
rich organic matter, which is also the source of the gas
and oil (Myers, 2008) in this formation. The mineral
composition includes illite/smectite, chlorite, kaolinite,
quartz, k-feldspar, calcite, dolomite, pyrite, and
kerogen. The porosity of the Marcellus shale ranges
from 5 to 9 PU. Water saturation also varies between
10-40%. The typical TOC content is between 0-3wt%.
The matrix permeability varies from nano Darcy to
micro Darcy. Therefore the primary production of
Marcellus shale relies heavily on fracturing. The large
variation of permeability, porosity, and saturation
relates to a partition of nano pores in clay, micro OM
pores in the organic-rich zone, and micro inter-particle
pores in calcite-rich zones. A key challenge for
petrophysics is how to correctly account for portions of
each pore type from a given suite of logs.
CMR logging was performed to target a more accurate
estimation of pore and fluid types in the Marcellus
shale formation. To improve the SNR of the short T 2
components, the 50 pair shale activation was used in the
data acquisition. Raw echo data was then reprocessed
by using less regularization and more stacking levels in
the T2 inversion. The results are shown in Figure 15,
where track 1 includes spectral gamma ray logs (SGR
in black, uranium in red, potassium in blue, and thorium
in cyan color); track 2 shows TCMR (magenta), BFV
(dark blue shaded), and CBW (gray shaded) logs based
on default 33ms and 3ms T 2 cutoffs for irreducible
bound water and CBW; track 3 has reprocessed NMR
porosity (CPHI in magenta), free fluid (cyan shaded),
bound fluid (dark blue shaded), and CBW in gray based
on 10ms and 3ms for bound fluid and CBW T2 cutoffs,
respectively; track 4 shows un-calibrated Coates
10
Figure 15. CMR log with 50 pair shale activation plus
less regularization in T2 inversion can resolve peaks
from micro OM and IP pores. Well-resolved T2
distribution indicates T2 cutoff for BFV should be less
or equal to 10ms and FFV is mainly from the right peak
shown in track 6. Coates permeability based on 10ms
BFV cutoff gives much large dynamic variation
between different formations, which improves our
ability to identify sweet spots for Marcellus shale gas
formation.
It is clear that the regular T 2 inversion results in very
broad T2 distributions, which cannot resolve peaks from
nano, micro OM, and micro IP pores. The default T 2
cutoff overly estimates irreducible bound fluid and
results in very little FFV. Both SDR and Coates
permeability based on 33ms T2 cutoff shows little
variation in different formations. However, the TCMR
porosity is only slightly lower than WIP (water
immersion porosimetry) core porosity (Kuila, et al.,
2014), and therefore is very useful answer product from
vendor for obtaining true porosity in shale formations.
The reprocessed T2 distributions shown in Figure 15
give much richer information about Marcellus shale gas
formation. First the well-resolved T2 distributions show
two consistent T2 peaks: the right one is a gas peak
 SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016

from the micro IP pores and the left one is mainly from
CBW. Second the T2 value at the CBW is about 1ms
and shifts toward right as TOC increases (indicated by
high uranium concentration shown in track 1) due to
increase of micro OM pores. It was later found that the
T2 cutoff for CBW should be further reduced to 1ms in
order to correctly account for the partition between
micro OM and nano pores in the TOC-rich Marcellus
formation. The trend of the gas peak follows uranium
concentration very well, indicating that the micro IP
pore volume is gradually replaced by the micro OM
pores as TOC content changes. When TOC content is
low (see T2 distribution at depth above 500ft in track 6),
the gas peak is far away from the right side of the 10ms
BFV T2 cutoff (red line in track 6) and gradually
crosses over the red line at depth 550ft when TOC
content is high. The section between 670 and 850ft
repeats the above T2 trend. Third, Coates permeability
based on 10ms T2 cutoff shows a much larger dynamic
variation, which gives a better permeability index. For
example, low permeability shown between 570 and Figure 16. MREX log with PPGAS activation plus less
600ft is mainly due to low porosity and low CBW. This regularization in T2 inversion can resolve peaks from
indicates that calcite content may be high in this zone. micro OM and micro IP pores. Well-resolved T2
Such a speculation was further verified by multimineral distribution allows using 10ms T 2 cutoff to compute
analysis of wireline logs at a later date. On the other BFV from OM pores (dark blue shaded in track 3) and
hand, the low permeability seen around 800ft is mainly FFV from IP pores (cyan shaded in track 3). Coates
due to the increase of micro OM porosity in the permeability based on 10ms BFV cutoff gives large
kerogen-rich shale formation. Resolving pore volume variation between different formations, which improves
of each pore type based on the new T 2 cutoff greatly our ability to identify sweet spot for Vaca Muerta
improves our ability to identify sweet spots in the formation.
Marcellus formation.
The MREX logging was acquired with the PoroPerm
VACA MUERTA EXAMPLE (porosity and permeability) Gas (PPGAS) activation
whose minimum echo spacing is 0.3ms. The selection
The Vaca Muerta formation, located in the Neuquén of PPGAS activation is based on the model T2
Basin, Argentina consists of bituminous marls and distribution of shale oil formations shown in Figure 9
mudstones with high organic content. The thickness of and also based on that PPGAS has very high echo rate
the Vaca Muerta formation in the Loma Campana field and high T2 SNR for short T2 components. Raw echo
ranges from 300-1000ft with TOC varying between 2 to data was then reprocessed by using less regularization
6 wt%. The thermal maturity of the formation varies and more stacking levels in the T 2 inversion. The results
both laterally and vertically. Producible hydrocarbons are shown in Figure 16, where track 1 includes the
are gas, gas condensate, and light oil. The average total gamma ray (GR) log in black and uranium log in red;
porosity of the formation ranges from 10-13PU (Licitra, track 2 shows reference depth; track 3 is the true
et al, 2015). The key challenge to determine resistivity log; track 4 includes the reprocessed NMR
petrophysical properties of Vaca Muerta is defining the porosity (CPHI in magenta), free fluid from IP pores
porosity system and relating the variation to reservoir (cyan shaded), capillary bound fluid from OM pores
quality (Crossse, et al., 2015). NMR logs have been (dark blue shaded), and CBW in gray based on 10ms
used to characterize pore and fluid types. All three and 2ms for bound fluid and CBW T2 cutoffs,
types of NMR logging tools have been used in various respectively, NMR core porosity (red dot), and NMR
wells of the Vaca Muerta formation. In this example the core CBW (gray dot); track 5 shows un-calibrated
well was logged with the MREX tool in the Loma Coates permeability (red) and SDR permeability (blue);
Campana field recently to illustrate how the NMR track 6 shows the reprocessed T 2 distribution with 5
workflow is used to differentiate pore and fluid types. times less regularization in the T2 inversion and with
11
SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
10ms and 2ms T2 cutoffs, overlaid with NMR core T 2
distributions (shaded in red) of decane saturated plugs;
track 7 shows T1T2 2D maps from the PPGAS
activation overlaid with 2D saturation cutoffs; and track
8 is the T1T2 2D maps of decane saturated plugs.
Note that the decane saturation was performed on as-
received plugs, which were preserved prior to NMR
core measurement and contain CBW and residual oil.
Also note that the 2D saturation cutoff map is same as
the one used in Figure 8 and includes gas polygon on
the right-top corner adjoined by IP polygon
representing the amount of fluid in IP pores. The CBW
polygon is at the lower-left corner and the OM polygon
is between the IP polygon and CBW polygon.
Figure 16 illustrates the following features. First, CBW
based on 2ms T2 cutoff roughly matches with NMR
core CBW based on CBW polygon although core CBW
is slightly lower than log CBW when the depth is above
x165m and slightly higher than the log CBW when the
depth is below x165m. The T 2 value of the CBW peak
in both the log and core T2 distributions increases with
TOC (or depth), indicating wettability changes in OM
pores. Fluids in OM pores are capillary bound and can
be either water or oil. Their T2 values are between 2ms
and 10ms. The amount of capillary bound fluid
increases with TOC (or depth). Free fluid volume is
associated with IP pores and can be computed with a
10ms T2 cutoff from T2 distributions.
Second, the zone above x165m clearly shows two or
three well separated peaks. The one below 2ms is the
CBW and peaks above 10ms are from fluids in IP
pores. Very little OM pores appear in this zone. From
core data shown in Figure 7, we know that the T 1T2 2D
map shows different trends between oil and water
saturated formations: water peak appears close to the
T1=T2 line while oil peak moves away from T 1=T2 line
as OM pore value increases. Track 6 shows that the
fluid peak in the IP pores appears at the border between
IP and gas polygons. Therefore the fluid in the IP pores
is mainly oil and thus explains why the resistivity log
reads high as well.
Third, all peaks gradually merge together in the zone
below x165ft as TOC increases except a very small
peak at the left end of T 2 distributions whose intensity
decreases with depth. This small peak may come from
CBW in regular clay minerals. Due to water saturation
reduction during thermal maturation, the T 2 of this type
of CBW is shorter than regular CBW. The water in OM
12
pore moves toward the right in the T 2 distribution while
oil in OM pores move toward the left due to wettability
changes as illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. This is the
reason that all peaks gradually merge together in this
zone. Furthermore, track 6 shows that there is a small
peak in OM polygon of the T 1T2 2D maps that appears
at near T1=T2 line at the bottom zone where TOC is
highest, indicating a small amount of water in this zone.
And the forth, the NMR log porosity shown in track 4
matches with the NMR core porosity well, indicating
PPGAS activation delivered good quality raw echo
data.
CONCLUSION
We have described a simple pore system for TRU or
shale gas/oil formations. It includes three major pore
types: nano pores mainly associated with CBW or gas,
micro pores presented in organic matter, and micro IP
pores in solid mineral matrix that stores gas, oil, or
water. Based on this simple pore system and through
laboratory NMR core analysis, we have developed a
practical NMR shale interpretation workflow for TRU
and shale formations.
The first component of the workflow emphasizes
obtaining high quality raw echo data by optimizing data
activation sequences for tight rock formations. All shale
NMR data activation sequences should focus on early
echo data quality by reducing its echo spacing,
increasing the number of short bursts, reducing the wait
time of the short bursts, and reducing the wait time and
number of echoes of the long echo train. We have
demonstrated that the echo rate and T 2 SNR distribution
of the activation sequence are two effective methods for
optimizing shale activation for all commercially
available NMR logging tools. Two additional shale
activation sequences were proposed for future logging
tools.
The second component improves data processing
schemes by enhancing T2 resolution to separate
different fluid components in T 2 distributions. This can
be achieved simply by reducing the regularization
factor (up to 5 times) and increasing the stacking level
in the T2 inversion. The well-resolved T2 distribution
allows easy determination of T2 cutoffs which improves
the accuracy of typing FFV and CBW fluids in tight
rock unconventional reservoirs.
The third component in the workflow involves adapting
 SPWLA 57th Annual Logging Symposium, June 25-29, 2016
a new fluid typing method that focuses on clay-bound
and capillary bound fluids only. Part of the capillary
bound fluid is producible and should be counted as FFV
in NMR log evaluation. The T2 cutoff for CBW is 2ms
and the T2 cutoff for FFV is 10ms. As CBW decreases
in shale gas/oil formations due to thermal maturation,
the T2 value of CBW also reduces. Pore volume shown
between 2 and 10ms in the T 2 distribution are from
organic matter while pore volume above 10ms is from
IP pores. Wettability in OM pores is mainly oil or mix
wet while IP pores are water wet. The T 2 of oil in OM
pores is reduced while the T 2 of water increases.
However due to very small pore size, all fluids in micro
pores are subject to the confinement effect and their T2
relaxation time is normally much shorter than their bulk
values. Often all fluid peaks will merge together with
an increase of OM pore volumes in the system. T 1T2 2D
NMR further shows that T1/T2 ratio of oil in OM pores
increases due to the interaction between kerogen and
light oil while T1/T2 ratio of water remains unchanged
in OM pores.
The final component in the workflow uses NMR core
analysis to verify T2 cutoffs and determine the trend of
T1/T2 ratio with TOC. Prior to NMR measurements,
core plugs should be preserved. The first NMR
measurement should be performed on as-received core
plugs to obtain CBW and residual fluid saturation,
immediately followed by the second measurement with
decane-saturated plugs to see how decane is affected by
OM and IP pores. Between the first and second NMR
core measurements, the correct T 2 cutoffs for CBW and
FFV can be determined. The third NMR measurement
can be optionally performed on brine-saturated plugs.
The difference between second and third measurement
allows us to identify fluid types in OM and IP pores.
The T1T2 2D NMR measurement is strongly
recommended since it clearly shows a different trend of
the T1/T2 ratio between brine and decane saturated
plugs.
We have successfully applied the above workflow to
petrophysical evaluations of Marcellus and Vaca
Muerta formations. The workflow reduces uncertainty
of total porosity and free fluid volume, and identifies
fluid types and sweet spots in the Marcellus and Vaca
Muerta formations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Luisa Crousse for her support
and inside knowledge on Vaca Muerta formation. We
also thank Chevron Argentina, YPF and Chevron
13
Overseas Services Company for allowing us to use the
NMR logging data and SWC analysis from Vaca
Muerta formation. Finally we also thank Chevron ETC,
AMBU, Chevron Argentina and Chevron Overseas
Services Company management for their support and
permission to publish the paper.
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Licitra, D., Lovrincevich, E., Vittore, F., Quiroga, J.
Oviedo, P., Montoya, V., Shannon, C. & Monti, L.,
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“ABOUT THE AUTHOR” SECTION
Boqin Sun has been a senior research scientist of
Chevron Energy and Technology Co. since 2001. He
has been working on various NMR applications in
solution, solid, and petrophysics. He received a BS
from Hanzhou Univ. in 1982 and a MS from Wuhan
Inst. of Physics in 1985, both in Physics, and a PhD
from UC Berkeley in 1991 in Chemistry. Previously he
was with Schlumberger at Sugar-Land product center
for four years. Before that, he was a Postdoctoral
Associate at MIT.
14
Elton Z. Yang is a Research Scientist with Chevron
Energy and Technology Company. He has been
working on various developments and applications of
NMR technology for the characterization of rocks and
fluids. He received a BS and MS in Chemical
Engineering from Tianjin University in 2002 and 2005,
respectively. After receiving his PhD degree in
Chemical Engineering at Rice University in 2011, he
joined Chevron Energy and Technology Company until
now.
Haijing Wang has been a Petrophysicist at Chevron
Energy Technology Company since 2014. He is
interested in developing NMR methods for
characterizing porous media, fluids, and their
interactions, interpreting dielectric dispersion from core
measurement and well logs, and practicing formation
evaluation. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence
Berkeley National Lab from 2011 to 2014. He obtained
PhD in Physics from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill in 2011, and BS in Physics from Nanjing
University in 2006.
Scott J. Seltzer has been a senior research scientist at
Chevron Energy Technology Company since 2013,
where he works on laboratory petrophysical
applications of NMR. He received a BS from Brandeis
University in 2002 in physics and mathematics, and a
PhD from Princeton University in 2008 in physics.
Before joining Chevron, he was a Postdoctoral
Researcher in NMR technologies at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of
California at Berkeley.
Veronica J. Montoya is a Senior Petrophysicist with
Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration &
Production. During her 16 year career with Chevron she
has also held various geoscience positions including
Development Geology and Exploration Geoscientist for
various Chevron business units across the world. She
received a MS and BS in Geological Sciences from the
University of Texas at El Paso in 2000 and 1997
respectively.
Tom Malizia has been a Petrophysicist at Chevron
AMBU since 2014 working in both Asset Development
and Exploration. Prior to working in Petrophysics, he
worked in Operations Geology planning wells,
geosteering, and collecting wireline and core data in the
field. He received his BS from Edinboro University in
2008 in Environmental Science-Geology, and a MS
from University at Buffalo in 2011 in Geochemistry-
Geology.