SPE 84481

G·TE Correction for Processing Multigradient, Multiple-TE NMR Log Data

S. Chen, SPE, G. Hursan, SPE, D. Beard, and D. Georgi, SPE, Baker Atlas, Houston, Texas, USA

Copyright 2003, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.

domain to obtain formation rock properties because echo
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and trains having different G·TE cannot be simply stacked.
Exhibition held in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., 5 – 8 October 2003.
Common practice is to log either multiple passes, each for a
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
separate objective or a single, slow, comprehensive acquisition
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to pass. Either way the data are not used economically.
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at Baker Atlas’ global NMR logging service records reveal
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
that a high percentage of NMR logging job requests are for
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is formation rock property characterization. These properties
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300
words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous include total and effective porosities, clay and capillary bound
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
water volumes, movable fluid volume, and permeability. Light
hydrocarbon typing and flushed-zone gas or oil saturations
comprise the next largest group of logging job requests. There
Abstract
are also less commonly exploited techniques of NMR logging,
We have developed a data processing method that allows a
such as those used in heavy oil formations, which have
valid integration, in the time domain, of echo trains acquired
experienced some success in various geological areas
in different field gradients, G, and different interecho times,
worldwide. This global picture roughly reflects the relative
TE. The combined echo train can be used to obtain clay bound
robustness of the NMR logging techniques available to-date.
water (CBW), bulk volume irreducible (BVI), and total
Based on this assessment, we have developed a small-number
porosity information with improved vertical resolution. The
of objective-oriented acquisition sequences that coincides with
same data, in the uncombined form, are used for fluid property
this global picture.1 These single-pass, comprehensive
estimation. Thus, the data are used more economically.
sequences all include an objective of formation rock property
As an added benefit, the combined echo train allows the
estimation.
use of a single T2cutoff, consistent with the laboratory core-
Ideally, the multifrequency, multiple echo trains generated
NMR derived T2cutoff. Although using a zero-gradient,
from a single acquisition pass are processed using a
laboratory core-NMR derived T2cutoff to “calibrate” NMR logs
comprehensive inversion method with a forward model based
acquired in a gradient field is a common practice, the
on the knowledge of fluid and rock properties, thereby
discrepancy cannot be ignored for NMR logs acquired with a
providing all petrophysical information in a single processing
large G·TE product. With the new method, this discrepancy is
step.1,2 Such an approach, however, is more suitable for
minimized. Field examples are provided to show the benefit
postprocessing because it may require interpretation input, for
with the new method.
example, known fluid properties. For well-site deliverables,
often the rock property information is sufficient for well
Introduction
completion decisions. An automated, rapid processing method
The new generation, multi-frequency NMR logging
for obtaining rock properties, requiring no interpretation input
instruments, such as the Magnetic Resonance ExplorerTM
from the log engineer, is essential. One frequently used
(MREX™) from Baker Atlas, are capable of acquiring data
approach is to invert individual echo trains separately. The
useful for characterizing both the formation rock properties
porosity is derived from just one of the inversion results. Thus,
(e.g., bound and movable fluids, porosity, and permeability)
a great amount of data is not used. Another approach is to
and reservoir fluid properties. However, these different
stack all echo trains together that are acquired with the same
properties often require an assortment of NMR acquisition
TE and are fully polarized, even though they are not acquired
parameters and sequences. High-resolution formation rock
at the same frequency and field gradient. The second approach
characteristics require acquisition schemes that generate
is valid only if the frequency and the corresponding field
repetitive echo trains to reduce the vertical stacking
gradient differences do not affect the overall decay rate
requirement. In contrast, fluid properties usually vary more
substantially. Otherwise, a smeared T2 spectrum is obtained,
slowly with depth than rock properties and require acquisition
which, in some cases, can affect the BVI interpretation. We
methods that can maximize the fluid contrasts, achievable with
propose a method to correct for the G ⋅ TE effect using a time-
variable magnetic field gradients (G), interecho times (TE),
and wait times (TW) in the acquisition scheme. Currently, dependent weighting function to stack all pertinent echo trains
multiple G, TE, and TW data are not combined in the time
2 SPE 84481
together, thereby improving the data quality and reducing the
requirement for vertical stacking.
Features of the MREX Tool
Baker Atlas’ MREX tool possesses several important features.
Figure 1 illustrates the MREX tool’s static and RF field
distributions for one representative cross section. The tool has
a vertical aperture of 24 in. Extended magnets on both ends of
the antenna are used to provide prepolarization of the nuclei
under investigation. The details of the tool will be published in
a subsequent paper. In this paper, a brief summary of the tool
features is provided.
The MREX is a side-looking tool with a sensitive volume
that penetrates into the formation from 2.5 in. to 4.5 in.
depending on the operating frequency. This penetration depth
is selected to be tolerant of borehole irregularities and less
affected by invasion. The side-looking configuration does not
sense the borehole signal from behind the tool (Figure 1 and 2)
and, thus, it can be used for almost all borehole sizes.
Furthermore, centralization is not an issue for the MREX in
deviated and horizontal wells.
The side-looking MREX is a gradient tool. The gradient
strength decreases with frequency. The gradient feature makes
it possible to excite multiple sensitive volumes in one single
polarization time using a frequency interleaving method. The
operating frequency band ranges from mid-400kHz to upper-
800kHz with sufficient frequency separation between
frequencies to avoid interference from the excitations in
neighboring sensitive volumes. Because the magnitude of the
MREX tool’s field gradient varies with frequency, the echo
trains acquired with different frequencies may exhibit different
apparent decay, even if they are acquired with identical
acquisition parameters, such as interecho time, TE, and wait
time, TW. The longer the echo-train length is, the greater the
difference in apparent T2 decay.
B0 B1
Fiberglass
Sleeve
Antenna
Figure 1. Illustration of one cross section of the B0 and B1 field
distribution from the MREX tool. The arrows in the squares
indicate the B0 and B1 directions in the center of the sensitive
volume range.
Multiple Echo Train Acquisition by MREX
The multi-frequency capability of the MREX tool allows us to
acquire a large number of echo trains in a single pass, yielding
both formation rock and fluid properties. For example, a six-
frequency version of the PoroPerm package and a three-
frequency PoroPerm + Oil package each acquire more than ten
echo trains. These echo trains all satisfy the following
expression, but the parameters are different:
E ( f j , k , TE ) =
N _ comp
 k ⋅ TEm   γ 2G 2j TEm 2 D fluid  (1)
∑ pi M i ⋅ exp −
 T2i
 ⋅ exp − kTE ⋅


 m
12


i  
where i, j, k, m are indices for ith T2 component, jth frequency,
kth echo, and mth TE, respectively, and
(
pi = 1 − exp − TWl T1i ) (2)
is the polarization factor for the ith T1 component and lth wait
time, TWl . The spread of frequencies, TE, TW, and the number
of echoes, NE, among these echo trains make their apparent
decay times significantly different. In this section, we describe
these two acquisition packages and their purposes. In the next
section, we describe a method for the time-domain integration
of these echo trains.
borehole
MREX
formation
Figure 2. Illustration of the side-looking MREX tool’s sensitive
volume (the red-colored area). Signals are contributed only from
the front of the tool over an aperture extending approximately
120°.
The PoroPerm package is designed to obtain basic
formation rock properties, such as effective and total porosity,
permeability, clay-bound and capillary-bound water volumes,
movable fluid volume, and the T2 distribution.
The left side of Figure 3 is a three-frequency version of the
PoroPerm acquisition package (PoroPerm3). The basic
acquisition scheme includes 7 echo trains (ET), which are
acquired with the same TE, typically 0.6 ms, but vary in
frequency, f, echo train length, NE, and TW. ET #1 is a fully
polarized, long echo train, typically with 500 ms of data. ET’s
#2 and #7 are each a series of echo trainlets (ETL). Each has a
10-ms length ( L = N E ⋅ TE ) and a 30 ms wait time. During a 1s
acquisition window, 12 phase-alternating pairs of ETLs are
acquired and these ETL data are stacked in the acquisition
software. ET’s #3 and #4 are fully polarized echo trains but
SPE 84481 3

with a data acquisition length of only 30 ms. These two ETs
can be combined with ET #1 to reduce the random noise in the
initial decay of the ET, which is critical to BVI estimation.
ET’s #5 and #6 are partially polarized echo trains having the
same NE as #3 and #4. Combining ETs #1, 3, 4, 5, and 6
provides an alternative approach for BVI estimation.
Normally, ET #1 is acquired with the highest frequency and,
thus, its sensitive volume will be the closest to the borehole. In
the case of severe borehole rugosity, causing contamination in
the sensitive volume corresponding to the highest frequency,
ET’s #3 and #4 will still provide the uncontaminated total
porosity, and the combined ET #3, 4, 5, and 6 will provide the
variable frequency implementation, we take advantage of the
higher frequencies and use the minimum number of
frequencies that can satisfy the need for continuous data
acquisition, while achieving full polarization. Second, when
fewer frequencies are used, the time between the two
consecutive phase-alternating pairs (PAPs) is reduced. This
results in a more flexible acquisition and delivers the data with
better vertical resolution.

3F
BVI estimate.

3E
∆ Adjustable Time gap

3D
7 14

3C
6 φ1 13 φ2

3A
φ1 5 φ2 12

4 φ2 11 φ1

TWL
2C
φ2 3 φ1 10

2 9

2B
1C
1 8

TWS
1B
7 7

2C
TWS
6 φ2 6 φ2
φ2 φ2 5

2A
5
time
time

4 φ1
4 φ1

TWL
1C

φ1 φ1 3
3
2 2
1A
TWL

1 1

F1 F2 F3 F4
F1 F2 F3
Figure 3. Illustration of PoroPerm acquisition package.
The three-frequency version of the PoroPerm acquisition is
used only when the resulting wait times for ET’s #1, #3, and
#4 are sufficient to reach the complete polarization of all
signals. If the formation requires longer wait times for full
polarization, the six-frequency version (PoroPerm6), which is
shown on the right-hand side of Fig. 4, is used. We see that
PoroPerm6 simply repeats PoroPerm3; thus, the data
processing does not become more complicated. This approach
can be theoretically extended to 3n frequencies where n is an
integer; however, six frequencies usually suffice. Clearly, with
this implementation the number of echo trains acquired in a
unit time is independent of the number of frequencies.
There are advantages of implementing the variable
frequency number version instead of using a fixed, maximum
number of frequencies. First, the SNR is frequency dependent:
the higher the frequency, the higher the SNR. By using a
F5 F6 F1 F2 F3
Figure 4. Three-frequency version of PoroPerm + Oil package.
The PoroPerm + OIL package (Figure 4) is designed for
logging oil-bearing formations. Again, a single-pass concept is
used with sufficient variations of TE, TW, and field gradient to
evaluate the formation and to perform hydrocarbon typing.
The acquisition is designed for wells having light and medium
grade oils with low to moderately high GOR.
The acquisition package yields 13 echo trains. Table 1
summarizes the default values of the key acquisition
parameters for each ET with the echo train IDs defined in
Figure 4. There are two pairs of dual-TW ETs (1A and 1B
from frequency #1 and 2A and 2B from frequency #2). The
implementation uses the highest frequency for frequency 1 (f1)
which couples with the longest TE (2.1 ms) for acquiring ET
1A and 1B. At this frequency, the tool gradient is
approximately 34 gauss/cm.
Discriminating oil and water usually requires adequate
polarization contrast and/or diffusion contrast. In the
4 SPE 84481

PoroPerm+OIL package, polarization contrast can be obtained
with two long echo trains having different TW’s and can also
be obtained from a multi-component T1 analysis. Diffusion
contrast is obtained using multiple G ⋅ TE data. The maximum
G ⋅ TE is chosen to make the diffusion-induced decay,
Effect of Multiple G·TE on T2cutoff and BVI
One of the important petrophysical parameters that can be
derived from NMR logs is the irreducible bound water
volume, BVI. A commonly used method for estimating BVI is
to use a T2cutoff such that

γ 2 (G ⋅ TE )2 ⋅ D
−1
T2diff (D ) = , (3) T2 cutoff
12
dominate the overall relaxation decay of the water phase.
BVI = ∫ P(T2 )dT2 (4)
T2 min
Because the MREX tool’s magnetic field gradient varies
substantially over the operating frequency range, we can
where P(T2) is the apparent T2 distribution with individual T2
choose to use the highest frequency (thus, the highest
components given by:
gradient) to match the longest TE, thereby maximizing the
diffusion contrast.
S
Alternatively, maximizing the G ⋅ TE contrast results in a T2−1 = T2−B1 + ρ + T2−diff
1
. (5)
V
great difference in the observed decay among individual echo
trains. From Table 1 we see that three different TEs are used to
acquire the full-length (default value: L1 = TE i ⋅ N E i = 500 ms ), The extra decay due to diffusion, T2−diff1
, expressed in Eq.
(3), depends on (a) the field gradient, G, which is associated
fully-polarized echo trains, 1A, 2A, and 3A. Their
with the acquisition frequency, (b) the inter echo time, TE, an
corresponding G·TE values are approximately
acquisition parameter, and (c) the diffusivity, D, a fluid
[G ⋅TE ]1 : [G ⋅TE ]2 : [G ⋅TE ]3 ≈ 4 :1 : 2.
property. Obviously, data that is acquired with a different G·TE
combination results in a different apparent T2 distribution,
These differences must be corrected for before the echo trains P(T2). If the same T2cutoff value is used to compute the BVI of
can be integrated in the time-domain. the same formation, the results are gradient and TE dependent.
If the T2diff is significantly larger than both T2B and V (Sρ ) , the
Table 1. Default parameters for the 3-frequency PoroPerm + OIL
package dependency may be negligible. However, if the G·TE product
ET Freq TE TW NE·TE NS/ is large, T2−diff
1
becomes dominant and the diffusion effect may
ID (kHz) (ms) (s) (ms) group not be negligible.
1A 880 2.1 4+∆* 500 1 Without considering the tool and acquisition dependencies,
1B 880 2.1 1 500 1 the value of the T2cutoff depends on the rock’s surface
1C 880 0.6 0.03 10 12 mineralogy. Therefore, a common practice is to “calibrate” the
2A 790 0.6 4+∆ 500 1 T2cutoff with laboratory NMR measurements. These lab
2B 790 0.6 1 500 1 measurements are often performed in a uniform magnetic field
2C 790 0.6 0.03 10 12 without an external gradient and, thus, a negligible
3A 695 1.5 4+∆ 500 1 contribution from T2−diff 1
. To “calibrate” NMR logs using a
3C 695 0.6 0.03 10 12 laboratory core-NMR derived T2cutoff, one sometimes has to
3D 695 0.6 0.05 10 8 consider the disparity of the field gradient between NMR
3E 695 0.6 0.1 30 4 laboratory and logging data.
3F 695 0.6 0.2 50 4 Figure 5 shows the gradient effect on the T2cutoff shift with
* ∆: Acquisition overhead time plus adjustable delay. and without an external field gradient. All plots assume that
the BVI contains water only, at 200-ºF temperature
environment. The gradient strength is approximately 18
The three fully polarized ET’s are used for effective
Gauss/cm for MRIL operating at 750 kHz and 26 Gauss/cm
porosity, together with the ETL’s for CBW, the total porosity
for MREX at the same frequency. The intercepts of the
can be obtained. There are five sets of short echo trainlets with
horizontal lines with the T2cutoff curves represent the apparent
a length of 10 ms acquired with three frequencies (2 of 1C, 2
T2cutoff values that should be used on the log data. Clearly,
of 2C, and 1 of 3C), totaling 60 trainlets per sample. These
there will be a dependence for carbonates if the G·TE is large.
short, partially polarized trainlets are stacked together for
On the other hand, for a small G·TE, a slight shift in the T2cutoff
CBW estimation without the G ⋅ TE correction because
may not result in a significant BVI discrepancy.
their N E ⋅ TE only equals 10ms, resulting in negligible Although it is possible to adjust the T2cutoff according to the
additional field-gradient induced decay differences. gradient and TE, in practice it is confusing to use multiple
T2cutoff values for the same formation. Even if a T2cutoff
More details of PoroPerm and Properm+Oil acquisition adjustment is applied, individual echo trains still must be
packages and log examples are described in Ref. 3. inverted independently, missing the opportunity of combining
the multiple frequency data to obtain one single, high-quality
echo train.
SPE 84481
Figure 5. The discrepancy between T2cutoff values derived in the lab
with no applied gradient, and the apparent T2cutoff in the gradient
tool environment. All data are computed based on a 200º-F
temperature environment.
Justification for G·TE Correction
In this section we describe a method to reasonably integrate
echo trains acquired with different G·TE combinations to
improve the BVI and total porosity estimation. The movable
fluid volume can be estimated once the porosity, BVI, and
CBW are known:
BVM = φT − CBW − BVI . (6)
Thus, as long as CBW and BVI can be estimated accurately, it
is not essential to have an accurate T2 distribution to obtain an
accurate BVM.
Generally, BVI contains only a water phase and water
diffusivity, Dw, is known if the formation temperature and
pressure are known. Borehole temperature is a routine logging
measurement, but pressure is usually not measured directly
during logging. However, formation pressure computed from
sparsely measured and interpolated pressures, or from the
pressure gradient, is usually sufficient for Dw estimation
because water diffusivity depends only weakly on the
pressure. The BVM fluid diffusion is unknown as it depends
on the fluid constituents. However, approximating the BVM
fluid diffusivity, D BVM , with Dw will not significantly affect
the BVI estimate if any of the following apply:
a. BVM contains water only. Obviously the assumption
above is exact. WBMF invasion also belong to this
case.
b. BVM contains light oils with or without water. As
oil is the non-wetting phase, the light oil T2 depends
little on the surface relaxation and the bulk T2 is in
the range of several hundred ms to several seconds.
The diffusivity of light oil, Do, is usually in the range
of 0.1-1 times Dw. The corresponding T2diff,o is on the
order of several hundred milliseconds. Thus,
replacing an unknown DBVM by Dw does not
substantially shift the oil T2 spectrum and, thus, BVM
will not be misinterpreted as BVI. OBMF invasion
5
also belongs to this case.
c. BVM contains medium viscosity oil, in which case
the bulk oil, T2B, is in the vicinity of 40−100 ms at
reservoir conditions. For a typical T2diff,w = 100−500
ms, and T2diff,O >> T2diff,w. As long as
T2cutoff < T2 B << min(T2diff , o , T2diff , w ) , the discrepancy
between the water and oil diffusivity will have little
effect on the bulk oil, T2. Further, if one applies a
correction to the echo trains having a large G·TE to
become one equivalent to that having a smaller or
zero G·TE, the BVI will not be affected at all in
sandstones and only slightly in carbonates.
d. The region below the T2cutoff consists, in part, of
heavy oils, in addition to the BVI. Because the heavy
oil T2 B << T2cutoff and T2 B << min(T2diff,o , T2diff, w ) , the
diffusion effect is always negligible. Thus, the BVI is
not affected.
e. Gas reservoir. Gas diffusivity is much larger than that
of liquids. With a large G·TE, the gas signal can be
easily pushed into the BVI range. Correcting the G·TE
effect with Dw instead of Dg results in an insufficient
correction, but it is in the right direction to move the
gas signal out of the BVI, making the BVI more
accurate.
Therefore, we see that in the majority of situations it is
acceptable to use the known Dw to approximate the unknown
D for the purpose of making the time-domain G·TE correction
on echo trains. Consequently, we can combine them together
for the objective of improving the estimation of total porosity,
BVI and BVM. It is noted that the technique described in this
paper does not aim to improve the entire T2 spectrum
estimation.
G·TE Correction Procedure
We use the echo trains described in Figures 3 and 4 to discuss
the G·TE correction procedure. Let’s illustrate the method with
two general echo trains denoted as E1 and E2. The first case
involves two echo trains having different echo train lengths. L:
( ) (
L1 = N E1 ⋅ TE > L2 = N E2 ⋅ TE . ) (7)
This represents ET #3 or 4 stacking with ET #1 in Figure 3.
For such a case, the correction is applied to E2. Because the
highest frequency has the best SNR, in PoroPerm acquisition,
the longer echo train, E1, is always acquired with the highest
frequency and, thus, f1 > f 2 .
Step 1. Compare the summation of echoes, S E2 ( f 2 ) and
S E1 ( f1 ) , using the number of echoes = min{N E1 , N E2 } ; in this
case it is N E2 . , using substantial vertical averaging to remove
the random noise effect. If S E1 ( f1 ) − S E2 ( f 2 ) ≤ 0 consistently,
no correction is required. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.
Step 2. Apply the multiplication factor,
6 SPE 84481

β = exp − kTE ⋅
( )
γ 2 G 22 − G12 TE 2 D w 
, (8)
 12  To average, the corrected echo trains, a time-dependent
 
to E2 echo-by-echo, using the Dw and G values derived from
the corresponding reservoir temperature, pressure, and
activation frequencies. The result approximates the predicted
E2 at f1.
E 2 ( f1 , k , TE ) ≈ E 2 ( f 2 , k , TE ) ⋅ β (TE , D w , f1 , f 2 ) .
Step 3. Compare the summation of echoes, S E 2 ( f1 ) and
S E1 ( f1 ) , as before. If the difference is larger than tolerance,
proceed to step 4.
Step 4. If S E1 ( f1 ) − S E2 ( f1 ) > tolerance, this indicates an
overcorrection. When this occurs, reduce the gradient factor,
G12 − G 22 , by a multiplication factor between 0.5 and 1 and
reiterate the process. If S E2 ( f1 ) − S E1 ( f1 ) > tolerance, then an
undercorrection is indicated. When this occurs, increase the
factor G12 − G 22 by a multiplication factor between 1 and 2 and
reiterate the process. Although rarely needed, this step
provides a means to handle the over- or undercorrections that
may arise from the uncancelled portion of the internal gradient
effect described in Appendix A or from an incorrect D.
The above steps are applicable strictly to those echo trains
that are acquired with the same TE but different frequencies
(and, thus, gradient). This is the case of MREX PoroPerm
acquisition. The second case is more general: it involves two
echo trains that can differ in G, TE, and the echo train length,
L. In this case, a minor generalization of replacing SE with
SE/TE and replacing the multiplication factor, β , by
( )
 γ 2 G12TE1 2 − G22TE 2 2 Dw 
( )
ζ t = kTE1 = exp − kTE ⋅
 1 12
 
th
for the k echo in an E2 echo train at time t. For such cases, we
typically choose to correct the echo train with the largest
G ⋅ TE to be consistent to the one with the smallest G ⋅ TE ,
because the latter is closest to the common laboratory NMR-
measured results taken from a zero external gradient.
Time-Dependent Echo Weights
After the G ⋅ TE correction is completed, a weighted averaging
is applied to the corrected echo trains with the weights
depending on the noise and TE of the individual echo trains.
The TE dependency is straightforward. The standard deviation
of noise for any echo in an echo train is a constant before
the G ⋅ TE correction is applied. Because the correction is a
time-dependent factor, the noise becomes time dependent,
t = k ⋅ T E , after the multiplication factor, β or ζ , is applied:
M (t ) = E (t )ζ (t ) = e(t )ζ (t ) + N (t )ζ (t ) ,
where e is the NMR signal without noise and N is the noise.
The second term shows that the noise is also amplified (or
reduced) by the same time-dependent G ⋅ TE correction factor.
weight, w(t ) = ζ (t )−2 , is introduced:
∑ M l (t ) ζ l (t )2
M (t ) = l
, (12)
∑ ζ l (t )−2
(9) l
where l is the echo train index. If ζ l (t ) increases with t, the
noise of the later echoes increases, while the amplitudes of
these later echoes are small. Because the same ζ l (t ) factor is
used to construct the weighting factor, the larger the ζ l (t ) , the
smaller the weight. Hence, the time dependent weight reduces
the importance of the noisy later echoes in the data integration
process.
The frequency-dependence of the noise in the original
echo trains are also taken into account with the time-
dependent weight by multiplying and then replacing ζ with
ξ l (t ) = ζ l (t ) * σ l (13)
where σ l is the standard deviation of noise for the lth echo
train.
Further, the difference in the data sampling rate due to the
different TE is also built in by replacing Eq. (13) with
ξ l (t ) = ζ l (t ) ⋅ σ l ⋅ TEl . (14)
Equation (14) indicates that in the absence of the G·TE
correction, high-frequency and short-TE data are weighted
more than the low-frequency and long-TE data. The integrated
echo train has the S/N better than either of the constituent echo
 (10)
trains.
Examples
A. Comparison of BVI and BVM from Individual and
G·TE-corrected Echo Train Processing
Figure 6 shows a comparison of BVI and BVM estimated
from the three fully-polarized echo trains, labeled 1A, 2A, and
3A in Figure 4, from the three-frequency version PoroPerm +
Oil package. The three ETs have the same acquisition
window, L, but the TE values are different so the NE’s are
adjusted accordingly. Because the data were acquired with
different frequencies (See Table 1), the corresponding G’s
differ. Thus, the additional decay ( T2,diff ) due to diffusion in
the gradient field is strongest in 1A and weakest in 2A,
causing the corresponding T2 spectra to shift differently. When
a fixed T2cutoff (33 ms in this example) is used to compute BVI
and BVM using individual ETs, the resulting three sets of BVI
exhibits BVI 2 A < BVI 3 A < BVI 1A . Consequently, the BVM
estimates are also affected. The trend is opposite:
BVM 2 A > BVM 3 A > BVM 1 A . Thus, to obtain consistent BVI
(11) estimates from these three ETs, one either has to discard the
ETs with the larger G ⋅ TE , such as 1A and 3A in this case, or
integrate these ETs in the time-domain before inversion.
SPE 84481
In the simplest approach, we can integrate the ETs simply
by computing a weighted average; this ignores the
G ⋅ TE difference. In this case, the weights are not time
(
dependent and are simply proportional to wl 2 = σ l ⋅ TEl )
−2
.
Because 2A has the shortest TE, it carries the largest weight.
Therefore, the resulting integrated ET is most similar to 2A
ET. In the next example, we demonstrate that the difference in
BVI estimates between the G·TE-corrected and uncorrected
integrated echo trains is negligible only with a very small
T2cutoff, but is non-negligible for a long T2cutoff.
B. Comparison of BVI from G·TE corrected and non-
corrected, Integrated Echo Trains
Figure 7 shows a comparison of the BVI estimates obtained
with and without the G·TE correction to the same ETs used in
Figure 6. The same T2 distributions were used to calculate the
BVI shown in the four tracks but the nominal T2cutoff value is,
from left to right, 33 ms, 40 ms, and 50 ms, respectively. As
the nominal T2cutoff increases, so does the discrepancy of the
results because the longer T2 components are more affected by
the decay due to the T2diff.
Figure 6. Comparison of BVI and BVM estimated from the three
echo trains, 1A, 2A, and 3A in Figure 4, in the three-frequency
version of PoroPerm+Oil package. The difference is attributed to
the G·TE difference among these ETs.
Note that in the processing protocol described above, the G·TE
correction is applied to the ETs with respect to
( )
Gi ⋅ TE i 2 − (G·TE )2min , where (G·TE )min is the minimal G·TE
combination among all acquired ETs. Ideally, the correction
should be applied with (G·TE )min = 0 if one wants to compare
log and core data in the same condition. Usually, the
discrepancy is insignificantly small. Furthermore, if one
desires to consider the remaining small difference, one can
choose to shift the T2cutoff accordingly after inverting the
integrated ET. In a later example, we demonstrate that such an
additional correction is often unnecessary. The desired T2cutoff
shift can be computed easily with the known Dw. The T2cutoff
shift is more desirable if the G·TE correction is applied with
7
respect to an ET that has its corresponding G·TE value greater
than (G·TE )min .
Figure 7. Comparison of BVI estimates obtained with and without
the G·TE correction. The same T2 distributions are used in the four
tracks but the T2cutoff value is, from left to right, 33 ms, 40 ms, and
50 ms, respectively. As the T2cutoff increases, so does the
discrepancy of the results because the longer T2 components are
more affected by the decay due to the T2diff.
C. G·TE Correction for PoroPerm Data
The next example includes the analysis of a data set acquired
with the six-frequency version of the PoroPerm acquisition
sequence. The integrated ET includes the contribution from all
fully polarized ETs, either with a long acquisition window (L
= 500 ms) or a short one (L = 30 ms). The long ETs are
acquired with the highest frequencies which correspond to the
highest gradients; the short ETs, designed to improve the
quality of the early echoes, are acquired with lower
frequencies and, thus, the corresponding gradients are smaller.
With a typical Dw = 8×10-9 m2/s, the gradient difference
between the highest and lowest frequencies in the PoroPerm6
results in no more than 4.7% of the decay amplitude at t = 30
ms. Therefore, it is not necessary to consider this difference
before integrating the short and long L echo trains together.
This is particularly true if most of the fluid constituents in the
formation correspond to short T2 components such as CBW or
BVI.
Figure 8 illustrates the six fully polarized echo trains
acquired with the PoroPerm6 sequence from Baker Atlas’
Austin Test well. The leftmost plot shows all six echo trains.
The short and long echo trains have 30 ms and 500 ms
acquisition windows, respectively, but for clarity, only the first
60 ms of data are plotted from the long echo trains and all 30
ms of data for the short echo trains are plotted. The middle
panel includes the weighted average ET based on (a) only the
two long echo trains and (b) all six, long and short, echo
trains. We see that for only 30 ms of data and a TE of 0.6 ms,
there is no difference in the decay rate, so no G·TE correction
is needed. The rightmost plot shows the inversion results from
the corresponding two integrated echo trains displayed in the
8 SPE 84481

center plot. A slight improvement of the spectrum
resolvability is observed by including all echo trains.
right track plots the BVI estimated using all long echo trains
(L=500ms) acquired at various frequencies and TEs. The G·TE
correction and weighting is applied to these data before
integration.
(a)

Figure 8. Illustration of PoroPerm echo train integration with and

without the G·TE correction.

D. T2cutoff : Laboratory vs. PoroPerm Log

In our processing protocol, when two echo trains with
different L are integrated, the G·TE correction is always
applied to the short L echo trains. For the PoroPerm sequence,
the short L echo trains are acquired with lower frequencies and
thus correspond to lower G·TE values. Correcting these short L
echo trains increases the G·TE effect. In contrast, all echo
trains in the PoroPerm sequence are acquired with a TE of 0.6
ms so that the maximum (G·TE)max for any echo train in the
PoroPerm acquisition is smaller than the (G·TE)max in
PoroPerm + Oil acquisition. To assess the significance of the (b) (c)
(G·TE)max on the effective T2log
cutoff ,

1 1 1
= + , (15)
T2log
cutoff
lab
T2cutoff T2,diff (G , TE , D (T , P ))
G =0

and, consequently, the BVI estimates, we show a limestone

well example in Figure 9; the PoroPerm6 data were acquired
from Baker Atlas’s Austin test well.
In Figure 9a, from left to right, the first track shows the
total porosity, the second track shows the comparison of BVI
using the 90-ms nominal T2cutoff and the effective T2log cutoff ,
using the actual well temperature of 100 °F. The BVI
difference estimated from the two T2cutoffs is negligible. Even
if the well temperature were 300 °F, the difference would still
be very small (Fig. 9b). The modification of the T2cutoff
becomes desirable only if both the laboratory-derived T2cutoff
and the well temperature are high. To illustrate this point, we Figure 9. Comparison of BVI and Permeability estimated with the
plot in Fig. 9c BVI and Perm with a modified lab-derived nominal T2cutoff and those computed from the G·TE-corrected data.
The nominal T2cutoff is used here as the “laboratory-derived” value.
T2cutoff of 120 ms and a well temperature of 300 °F. Under (a) T2cutoff(lab) = 90 ms, T = 100 °F, (b) (a) T2cutoff(lab) = 90 ms, T =
these conditions, the effect due to the T2cutoff shift on BVI and 300 °F, and (c) (a) T2cutoff(lab) = 120 ms, T = 300 °F.
permeability estimates is more noticeable. Even when it is
needed, it is a simple step to modify the T2log cutoff using Eq. The data shown in both tracks of Figure 10 have been averaged
(15). over 2 levels. The repeatability is better with the integrated
echo trains, especially for depths where the BVI is small,
E. Improvement of Repeatability demonstrating the benefit of integrating echoes trains with
Figure 10 illustrates the improvement of BVI repeatability for different G·TEs.
the Austin Test well using data acquired with the three-
frequency PoroPerm+Oil sequence. Three passes were
acquired in the same interval to evaluate the BVI repeatability.
The left track shows the BVI estimated from the lowest G·TE
and the fully-polarized echo train, acquired at 795 kHz. The
SPE 84481 9

T1 longitudinal relaxation time

T2 transverse relaxation time
T2 B bulk fluid transverse relaxation time
T2cutoff dividing time between BVI and BVM
T2diff extra decay time factor due to diffusion
TE interecho time
TW wait time
V pore volume

Greek letters
β time-dependent G ⋅ TE correction factor
γ gyromagnetic ratio
∆ the difference of
χ magnetic susceptibility
ρ surface relaxivity
σ standard deviation of noise
ξ time-dependent weighting factor
ζ time-dependent G ⋅ TE correction factor
φT total porosity

subscripts
ext external
int internal
i,j,k,l dummy indices
o oil
Figure 10. Comparison of repeatability using the best quality echo w water
trains (left track) and the integrated, G·TE corrected echo train.
Acknowledgments
Conclusions Numerous individuals at Baker Atlas have contributed to the
We have presented a method that considers the gradient and development of the MREX tool and data acquisition and
interecho time differences between the MREX echo trains processing software. We thank Baker Atlas for permission to
acquired in a single-pass acquisition and thereby allows us to publish the results.
integrate these echo trains in the time-domain before
inversion. The integrated echo train is used to obtain porosity, References
BVI, and BVM for real-time processing without requiring real 1. Fang, S., Chen, S., and Georgi, D., “SIMET for Fluid
time interpretation input from the log engineer. Furthermore, Characterization: Processing Algorithms and Implementation,”
we have discussed the T2cutoff discrepancy between laboratory- BA Internal Report, 2002.
based, zero-gradient NMR data and NMR log data acquired in 2. Slijkerman, W. F. J., Looyestijn, W. J., Hofstra, P., and Hofman,
a gradient field. Finally, we have demonstrated that for the J. P.,: “Processing of Multi-Acquisition NMR Data,” paper
MREX PoroPerm acquisition with TE = 0.6 ms, the SPE56768 presented at the 65th (Month 1999) ATCE of SPE,
discrepancy poses negligible effect for the majority of real, New Orleans, Louisianna.
non-extreme situations. 3. Chen, S., Beard, D. C., Gillen, M., Fang, S., and Zhang, G.:
“MR Explorer Log Acquisition Methods: Petrophysical-
Nomenclatures Objective-Oriented Approaches,” Paper ? presented at
B0 static field strength 44th (June 2002) SPWLA Logging Symposium and
B1 RF field strength Exhibitions, Galveston, Texas.
D diffusivity
e,E Echo amplitude with and without noise included Appendix: Internal Gradient Effect
f frequency In general, fluids filling the pore space of formation rocks are
G RF field gradient strength subjected to the total magnetic field gradient:
L echo length, N E ⋅ TE r r r (a1)
Gtotal = Gext + Gint ,
M Echo magnetization amplitude
NE number of echoes in an echo train which is the vector sum of the external and internal gradients.
r pore pore radius The internal gradient arises from the differences in magnetic
susceptibility between the matrix and the saturating fluid.
S pore surface Generally, it depends on both pore geometry and the type of
SE Sum of echoes rock chemical constituents (mineralogy). The internal gradient
t time can, in principle, be significant. It is proportional to the
T temperature external field strength:
10 SPE 84481

∆χ ⋅ B0 The effect of the internal gradient in Eq. (a4) can be embedded

Gint ~ , (a2)
rpore into the rest of terms:
 S 
thus, it is frequency dependent and ∆χ represents the T2−1 = T2−B1 + ρ + T2diff,
−1 −1
int  + T2diff,ext . (a5)
difference in the magnetic susceptibility between the fluid and  V 
the solid matrix, and rpore represents the effective radius of the The term in the brackets in Eq. (5a) is independent of the
pores). Variation in the operating frequency of the current external gradient. The internal gradient strength variation is
NMR logging tools, the variation of B0 is less than a factor of linearly proportional to the frequency variation as
2 and so does the internal field gradient. The variation of the Gint ∝ B 0 ∝ f ,
external gradient is greater. More importantly, the time and while the external gradient variation is greater than the linear
ensemble averaging of the randomly orientated Gint eliminates proportionality of f. For most cases where on the average
the term Gint ⋅ Gext . The phase displacement is proportional
G ext >> G int
to the sum of the squares of the internal and external gradients −1
and T2diff, int does not dominate the term in the square bracket,
we approximate that the quantity in the square bracket of Eq.
(Grtotal )2 = Gint2 + Gext2 + 2 GintGext 2
≈ Gint 2
+ Gext . (a3) (a5) is frequency independent. Thus, if all the data to be
combined have the same TE, the term in brackets is regarded to
be approximately the same for all echo trains. If TE values of
Thus, the diffusion decay rate, Eq. (a3), which is a function of these echo trains are different, the term in the bracket is
the gradient, can be separated into the internal and external approximately valid only if the decay term due to internal
gradient, respectively: gradient is much smaller than that of the bulk and surface
relaxation terms combined or is much smaller than the
external gradient term. These conditions are practically and
γ 2Gint
2 2
TE D fluid γ 2Gext
2
TE2 D fluid approximately valid in many cases.
T2,−1diff = T2diff,
−1 −1
int + T2diff,ext = + .
12 12
(a4)