Invasion-consistent interpretation of multi-dimensional magnetic resonance measurements

This thesis introduces a workflow to accomplish invasion-consistent Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) measurement interpretations. Magnetic resonance measurements are affected by mud-filtrate invasion because the radial depth of investigation (DOI) of NMR logging tools is very shallow (approximately 1 to 4 inches). This characteristic indicates that identification of in-situ fluid saturations from NMR measurements is uncertain. Calculation of fluid saturations from apparent electrical resistivities and nuclear logs does not guarantee a precise estimation of the fluid distributions. Free water in the reservoir displaced by oil based mud (OBM) poses more challenges in the estimation of in-situ fluid saturations. To mitigate this ambiguity, I construct layer-by-layer static and dynamic reservoir models. The common stratigraphic framework (CSF) proposed by Voss et al. (2009) was used to construct the earth model. Appraisal of static petrophysical properties is based on the iterative adjustments to minimize the discrepancy between available well logs and their numerical simulations. Evaluation of dynamic petrophysical properties can be achieved with the simulation of mud-filtrate invasion. This simulation can assess accurate fluid saturations at specific radial distances. In addition, numerically simulated apparent resistivity and nuclear logs are in agreement with measured logs. Algorithms are also developed to cross-validate NMR measurements based on the assumption of spherically shaped water-wet pores. The algorithms need all petrophysical parameters and fluid saturations yielded from the dynamic model as inputs. Various NMR parameter changes were tested to validate this algorithm. Examples of NMR responses include wettability change and kerogen contained in nano-scale pores. For the field case examples, two 15 meter-thick depth intervals in oil- and gas-bearing siliciclastic formations were selected. Two-dimensional (2D) NMR simulations were performed with petrophysical parameters provided from the numerical simulation of mud-filtrate invasion. The 2D NMR maps are more favorable in fluid typing than conventional NMR T₂ distributions because they contrast fluid diffusion coefficient. Comparisons of simulation results to inversion results confirm the validity of the workflow introduced in this thesis for the quantification of virgin reservoir fluids and mud-filtrate saturations. Finally, forward modeling and inversion processes are applied to 2D NMR data. The reconstructed echo decay sequences are more advantageous than raw measurements because of their higher signal to noise ratio (SNR). Linear inversion using these echo decay sequences provides proton density distribution functions of D-T₂ and T₁-T₂ maps. Application of inversion to the two field cases measured from two different radial depths verifies the validity of the NMR interpretations.