Pore Structure Petrophysical Characterization of the Upper Cretaceous Oil Shale from the Songliao Basin (NE China) Using Low-Field NMR

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Low-field NMR theory was employed to study the pore structure of the upper cretaceous oil shale, on the basis of fourteen core samples collected from Qingshankou (UCQ) and Nenjiang (UCN) formations in the Songliao basin. Results indicated that the T2 spectra from NMR measurements for collected samples contain a dominant peak at T2 = 1∼10 ms and are able to be categorized as three types—unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal distributions. The various morphologies of T2 spectra indicate the different pore type and variable connection relationship among pores in shale. By contrast, UCN shale has more single pore type and adsorption pores than UCQ shale. Besides, NMR-based measurements provide reliable characterization on shale porosity, which is verified by the gravimetric approach. Porosities in both UCN and UCQ shales have a wide range (2.3%∼12.5%) and suggest the strong heterogeneity, which partly makes the challenge in selection of the favorable area for shale oil exploration in the Songliao basin. In addition, the pore size of the collected sample has two distribution types, namely, peaked at ∼10 nm and peaked at ∼100 nm. Similarly, two distribution patterns emerge to the specific surface area of the study shale—peaked at ∼2 nm−1 and peaked at ∼20 nm−1. Here, more investigations are needed to clarify this polarization phenomenon. Basically, this study not only exhibits a preliminary understanding on the pore structure of the upper cretaceous oil shale, but also shows the reliability and pertinency of the low-field NMR technique in the petrophysical characterization of the shale oil reservoir. It is expected that this work is helpful to guide the investigation on the pore structure of oil shale from the Songliao basin in theory.