Study of OBM Invasion on NMR Logging - Mechanisms and Applications

Abstract

Abstract Due to the shallow depth of investigation of logging tools such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), the signal interpretation of the flushed zone must be performed carefully. Understanding invasion effects on the logs is an important prerequisite for any petrophysical evaluation. While it is relatively easier to evaluate and correct for the effect of filtrate invasion in basic logs, such as triple combo, special care must be taken for advanced logging techniques such as NMR. For example, it is generally assumed that the volume of remaining wetting fluid in the flushed zone equals to the volume of micropores that do not contribute to flow when the well is produced. The amount of these immobile fluids is estimated using the NMR bound fluid log, a key input for the prediction of rock quality and well performance, especially in complex clastic and carbonate pore systems. In certain formations, NMR bound fluid logs exhibit some differences between adjacent wells drilled with oil-based (OBM) and water-based muds (WBM). This paper summarizes the lessons learnt from a laboratory NMR study of oil-based mud filtrate (OBMF) invasion as a function of rock mineralogy and microstructure, mud chemistry and displacement/flow pressure. In this work, we studied the effect of a commercial surfactant usually added in OBM formulations. We investigated the effect of different surfactant concentrations on the fluid-fluid interfacial tension (IFT) properties and on the fluid-solid interaction properties, using contact angle measurements on both sandstone and carbonate model surfaces. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of the additive on the capillary pressure properties and remaining water saturations on sandstone and carbonate rocks. To maximize the generality of the results we used two very different driving mechanisms for the fluid displacement: centrifuge and flow-through. The data showed that carbonate and clastic rocks behaved differently over a wide range of flow mechanisms and water saturations, proving that mineralogy plays a crucial role in the fluid displacement. Under the measurement uncertainties, the irreducible water saturation, however, remained constant regardless of the OBMF composition or driving mechanism. We showed how sandstone and carbonate rocks behave in respect to wettability alteration due to a surfactant used in OBM formulations. The systematic difference, whatever the driving mechanism is, strongly suggests that the differences in NMR responses between sandstone and carbonate originate from chemical composition and surface properties rather than microstructural differences between sandstone and carbonate rocks.