Bitumen Identification from NMR and Triple Combo Logs in Tight Gas Formation in the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

AbstractThe presence of bitumen is an obvious risk for reservoir development. Pore-filling bitumen degrades reservoir quality. Sweetspotting, discriminating between producible oil and gas and reservoir bitumen is critical for recoverable hydrocarbon volume calculations and the optimal development planning. However it is in most cases impossible to make such differentiation using conventional logs.It is well known that the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) log provides an opportunity to identify the presence of reservoir bitumen in oil bearing reservoirs. The zones containing bitumen within oil and water reservoirs are characterized by lower NMR porosity estimates when compared to porosity from the density and neutron tools. But in gas reservoirs, bitumen identification from NMR porosity deficit is not a common industry practice. The porosity deficit could be related not only to the presence of bitumen, but also to the presence of gas in the pore space.The case studies include tight gas reservoirs in Miqrat and Middle Gharif formations, both located in the Sultanate of Oman. Well tests showed gas rates lower than expected, accompanied by low mobility and sometimes water production from intervals with relatively good porosity and saturation calculated from logs. Besides, bitumen was identified from core. A new methodology was developed which can differentiate between residual gas and bitumen presence based on Density, Neutron and NMR logs in conjunction with resistivity. One of the pre-requisites is that the reservoir lithology must be known. The remaining gas saturation is quantified from Density-Neutron separation. If we know the Hydrogen index (HI) of gas, the NMR porosity deficit can be compensated for residual gas effect. Bitumen saturation can be quantified from the difference of total porosity and NMR compensated porosity.The methodology was tested on two tight gas reservoirs of the Sultanate of Oman. Core analysis, production data, and total organic carbon (TOC) derived from pulsed neutron logs were used to verify the results of the suggested methodology. The comparison shows that the methodology can be used for semi-qualitative identification of bitumen. It was also observed that the bitumen distribution varies across the field, and overall the majority of reservoir hydrocarbons are moveable. Recommendations on the workflow for static and dynamic modeling were provided.The suggested novel approach of bitumen identification in gas bearing reservoirs is relatively simple. It provides fit for purpose results for gas bearing reservoirs including tight gas which in turn can be used for more accurate estimation of gas volumes and optimizing development planning.