Optimization of NMR Permeability Transform and Application to a Source Rock Reservoir

Permeability is a fundamentally important property of reservoir rocks that governs the flow of the reservoir fluids and production rates. Many methods have been developed to estimate permeability, including well established and documented laboratory measurements on whole core and plugs, analysis of formation test data, and analysis of production. Obtaining permeability from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) T1 or T2 has proven to be a cost effective method that can provide continuous permeability along a wellbore. This method uses a transform function on NMR well log data to calculate permeability. An accurate NMR permeability transform requires calibration to fit local data of a specific field based on measured data from representative cores from the field. The general form of the permeability transform developed for conventional sandstone and carbonate reservoirs does not work well for extremely tight reservoirs such as source rocks. Here we show a generic optimization method to find the optimal permeability transform for any tight reservoirs using NMR log data and laboratory measured permeability data from samples at selected depth of the logged well. This optimization method is applied to a source rock well and a permeability transform was obtained. The transform is a function of the movable fluid in the rock and logarithm mean of the NMR relaxation time. The permeability calculated from the transform is comparable to measured permeability from core samples.