History of NMR LOGGING Kleinberg Jackson

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An Introduction to the History of NMRWell Logging

ROBERT L. KLEINBERG,1 JASPER A. JACKSON2

1 Schlumberger-Doll Research, Old Quarry Road,

Ridgefield, Connecticut 06877; email: kleinberg@ridgefield.

sdr.slb.com.2 Los Alamos National Laboratory (retired); e-mail: jajbsj

@home.com.

KEY WORDS: NMR; NMR well logging; NMRhistory; borehole NMR

Although nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)well logging is almost as old as NMR itself, it isunknown to a large segment of the NMR com-

munity. New techniques, developed in the lasttwo decades, have made made this technologyan indispensable tool in the petroleum industry,similar to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) inmedicine. It was recognized at an early date thatnuclear magnetic resonance could contribute tothe in situ investigation of earth formations. Lab-oratory NMR studies of fluids in rocks, on clays,and in other porous media started in the 1950s at anumber of oil company research laboratories, most

notably those of Chevron, Mobil, and Shell. Morethan three dozen patent applications for boreholeNMR devices were filed between 1948 and 1960,representing work sponsored by Chevron, Schlum-berger, Mobil, Texaco, and Varian.

Measuring properties of earth formationsin situ by nuclear magnetic resonance obviouslyrequires apparatus much different than that com-monly used in the laboratory. Instead of plac-ing the sample inside the apparatus, the appa-

ratus is placed inside the sample, which is, infact, the earth. Thus inside-out NMR equip-ment is required: large static magnetic fields andhigh frequency oscillatory magnetic fields must beprojected outside of the apparatus and into thesurrounding rock formations. Figure I-1 shows thescale of the MRIL NMR logging tool.

Due to the relatively weak B0 fields used inwell logging, two points should be clarified for thebenefit of NMR spectroscopists and others accus-tomed to working with magnetic fields in the tesla

Received 21 June 2001; accepted 22 June 2001.

Present address: J. A. Jackson, 6 Woodleaf Avenue, Red-wood City, California 94061.

Concepts in Magnetic Resonance, Vol. 13(6), 340342 (2001) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

range. (1) Only proton NMR has been employedto date and (2) because the fields are weakand relatively inhomogeneous, chemical shifts arenot observable; hence, all information is obtainedfrom relaxation data.

The history of borehole NMR instrumen-

tation has four main institutional participants:Chevron Corporation, Los Alamos National Lab-oratory, NUMAR Corporation, and SchlumbergerLtd. Although each institution has had differentlong-term goals and imperatives, their immedi-ate objective was the sameto develop a com-

Figure I-1 Scale of the MRIL NMR logging tool.

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AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF NMR WELL LOGGING 341

Table I-1 Timeline of NMR Logging

1946 Discovery of NMR by Bloch (Stanford) and Purcell (Harvard)1948 Russell Varian files patent for Earths-field NMR magnetometer1950 Spin echo, Hahn (U. of Illinois)1952 Russell Varian files patent for Earths-field NMR well logging1953 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Bloch and Purcell

1954 Carr and Purcell devise spin-echo pulse trainHarold Schwede (Schlumberger) files patent application for permanent magnet well logging tool

1956 Discovery of reduced fluid relaxation time in porous media by Brown, Fatt, and others1960 First Earths-field NML toolChevron Research Lab and collaborators1960s Laboratory and theoretical studies in various university and petroleum laboratories of the effect of

restricted diffusion on T1, and relationship ofT1 and permeability1960s Several companies offer NML commercial logging service

NML fails to live up to advance billing; NML gains bad reputation in petroleum industry1978 Schlumberger introduces new, improved NML tool1978 Jackson at Los Alamos, invents first inside-out pulsed RF NMR logging technique1980 Laboratory demonstration of Los Alamos technique1983 Proof-of-principle demonstration of Los Alamos logging technique at Houston API test pit1984 NUMAR formed to commercialize advances in medical NMR technology

Schlumberger begins development of permanent magnet/pulsed NMR technique1985 NUMAR obtains license for Los Alamos inside-out NMR patent1985 NUMALOG demonstrates increased S/N for new magnet/RF scheme in laboratory scale model1989 First field test of full scale NUMAR logging tool in Conoco test hole, Ponca City, OK1990 NUMAR announces commercial availability of MRIL logging service based on Series B single frequency

tool1992 Schlumberger starts field test of skid-type pulsed NMR tool1993 Numar and Western Atlas sign cooperative agreement for MRIL services1994 NUMAR introduces dual frequency MRIL Series C tool

Western Atlas logs MRIL in combination with conventional tools

1995 Schlumberger announces commercial introduction of CMR toolPeoples Republic of China purchases two logging systems from Western Atlas, including MRIL

1996 NUMAR and Halliburton sign cooperative agreement for MRIL services1997 Halliburton buys NUMAR1990s Laboratory and theoretical studies of the effect of restricted diffusion on T2 (most NMR logging data

use T2)2000 NMR logging-while-drilling prototype

mercially viable oil well measurement instrument.

All four groups not only developed instrumenta-tion, but also made major contributions to under-standing the basic science of the NMR of fluidsin rocks and to developing novel methods suitedto the peculiar demands of the oilfield environ-ment. Although the authors herein have writtenfour independent histories, they have tried to showhow the four stories overlap and interact with eachother.

The background of this saga involves sev-

eral laboratories and players, many with nameswell known in NMR, e.g., Varian, Bloember-gen, Bloch, and Torrey. In addition, personnelat major oil company labs were active in funda-mental studies of the NMR properties of fluidsin porous media as applied to the interpretation

of NMR logging data. These include, in addition

to R. J. S. Brown and his colleagues at Chevronas described in the first article in Part 1, HaroldVinegar, J. D. Loren, and Joseph D. Robinsonat Shell, John Zimmerman and Don Woessner atMobil, and Gerhard Herzog and C. W. Wilson atTexaco.

The story starts soon after the 1946 discov-ery of NMR by Bloch and Purcell. In 1948,Russell Varian proposed using the Earths mag-netic field to detect proton NMR, and in 1952, he

filed a patent application to use this phenomenonin well logging. Nuclear magnetic logging using theEarths field, (NML), was developed most inten-sively first by Chevron in the 1950s and 1960s,and later by Schlumberger. NML was never com-mercially successful, but the supporting research


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342 THE HISTORY OF NMR WELL LOGGING

into the NMR properties of fluids in porousmedia laid a firm fundamental basis for inter-pretation of NMR relaxation in later NMR log-ging data. These developments are described inPart 1.

The next technological development was

the invention, at Los Alamos, of permanentmagnet/pulsed radio frequency (RF) NMR welllogging in 1978. This technique used permanentmagnets to produce a B0 field in the geologicformations surrounding the borehole and usedpulsed RF to manipulate the nuclear spin sys-tem of formation fluids. Laboratory tests of thistechnique were followed by a proof-of-principledemonstration in 1983. This is described inPart 2.

The Los Alamos discovery was followed, in the1980s by two new techniques, one at NUMAR(now Halliburton) and the other at Schlumberger.Each used the permanent magnet/pulsed RF con-cept, but implemented it in different magnet/coilconfigurations. Both give valuable geophysicalinformation and are in regular commercial usein the petroleum industry. The NUMAR andSchlumberger stories are told in Parts 3 and 4,respectively.

These new logging tools have led to new pro-cedures to extract information on properties ofreservoir fluids. These are described in Part 5.

Part 6 describes a new development, NMRlogging-while-drilling (LWD), in which the NMRinstrument is an integral part of the drill stringand is located just above the drill bit.

Table I-1 gives a timeline of these develop-ments.

The story of NMR applied to problems of geo-

physical interest is much larger than that pre-sented here. For example, an excellent review ofthe laboratory work on the NMR of minerals androcks may be found in Early Days of NMR in theSouthwest by D. E. Woessner (1). Review articlesand bibliographies on the principles and methodsof NMR well logging are included in references atthe ends of the various articles. A brief glossaryis provided for the readers convenience followingthe reference.

REFERENCE

1. Woessner DE. Early days of NMR in the Southwest.Concepts Magn Reson 2001; 13:77102.

Well Logging Overview

ROBERT L. KLEINBERG

Schlumberger-Doll Research, Old Quarry Road,

Ridgefield, Connecticut 06877;

e-mail: [email protected]

KEY WORDS: NMR; well logging; geophysicalNMR; petrophysical NMR; petroleum industry;oil and gas

Well logging is the means by which physi-cal properties of subsurface earth formations aremeasured in situ. The most important, and themost technically challenging, application of welllogging is to the characterization of hydrocar-

bon reservoirs. Oil and gas are found up to 10km underground in beds of sedimentary or otherporous rock. Only part of a typical sedimentaryrock is solid mineral matter. The pore space,which accounts for up to 30% of the volume, canbe filled by combinations of oil, water, or nat-ural gas. Well logging is directed toward under-standing these fluids and their relationship tothe solid mineral matrix. A large variety of elec-tromagnetic, acoustic, and nuclear borehole

instruments are used for various purposes. Eachtechnique has drawbacks and limitations, and noone logging device (tool) is adequate to give acomplete description of an earth formation (2, 3).

The borehole environment is unusually harsh.Boreholes drilled to extract oil or gas are typi-cally 20 cm in diameter and 110 km deep. Thegeothermal gradient of the earth can give rise totemperatures of 175C or more and pressures thatrange to 140 MPa. Borehole logging tools mustnot only survive but must make quantitative mea-surements under these conditions. The require-ments on electronic components exceed militaryspecifications by a wide margin.

Well logging tools must be rugged enough tosurvive transport in arctic, tropical, desert, andmarine environments, and shocks up to 100 g.They must survive the vibration and abrasionthat result from being dragged over kilometersof rough rock face in the well bore. They mustcomply with laws that regulate transport by air-

craft and helicopter, which is of particular signif-icance for NMR equipment that contains strongpermanent magnets. The conditions and spaceconstraints are in many respects more severe than

Received 21 June 2001; accepted 22 June 2001.

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History of NMR LOGGING Kleinberg Jackson