Abstract:
NMR data are acquired with variable spacing between refocusing pulses, giving data with a variable interecho time TE. Under certain conditions, diffusion effects can be neglected and data acquired with a multiple TE spacing may be used to obtain a T 2  distribution with increased resolution and reduced power requirements. In gas reservoirs, the maximum TE may be determined from diffusion considerations using a dual wait time pulse sequence and this maximum TE is used to acquire data with dual TE.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    This invention is related to methods for acquiring and processing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements for determination of longitudinal and transverse relaxation times T 1  and T 2 . Specifically, the invention deals with methods for acquiring NMR measurements using CPMG sequences with a variable interecho spacing.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    Nuclear magnetic resonance is used in the oil industry, among others, and particularly in certain oil well logging tools. NMR instruments may be used for determining, among other things, the fractional volume of pore space and the fractional volume of mobile fluid filling the pore space of earth formations. Methods of using NMR measurements for determining the fractional volume of pore space and the fractional volume of mobile fluids are described, for example, in “Spin Echo Magnetic Resonance Logging: Porosity and Free Fluid Index Determination,” M. N. Miller et al., Society of Petroleum Engineers paper no. 20561, Richardson, Tex., 1990. Further description is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,720, of Edwards, issued Dec. 17, 1996 and having the same assignee as the present application, entitled “Signal Processing Method For Multiexponentially Decaying Signals And Applications To Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Well Logging Tools.” The disclosure of the Edwards patent is fully incorporated herein by reference.  
           [0005]    Deriving accurate transverse relaxation time T 2  relaxation spectra from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data from logging subterranean formations, or from cores from such formations, is critical to determining total and effective porosities, irreducible water saturations, and permeabilities of the formations. As discussed in Sezginer (U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,389), the total porosity is the fractional volume of a rock that is occupied by fluids. The total porosity (measured by a density tool) includes clay bound water that typically has extremely short relaxation times, moveable water and hydrocarbons that have long relaxation times, and capillary bound water that has intermediate relaxation times. The effective porosity is defined as that portion of the pore volume containing fluids that are moveable, i.e., the total porosity minus the clay bound water. Accurate spectra are also essential to estimate T 2  cutoff values and to obtain coefficients for the film model or Spectral Bulk Volume Irreducible (SBVI) model. Effective porosities are typically summations of partial porosities; however, distortion of partial porosity distributions has been commonly observed for a variety of reasons. These reasons include poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and poor resolution in the time domain of the NMR data.  
           [0006]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,069,477 to Chen et al having the same assignee as the present application discusses the constituents of a fluid saturated rock and various porosities of interest. Referring to FIG. 1, the solid portion of the rock is made up of two components, the rock matrix and dry clay. The total porosity as measured by a density logging tool is the difference between the total volume and the solid portion. The total porosity includes clay-bound water, capillary bound water, movable water and hydrocarbons. The effective porosity, a quantity of interest to production engineers is the sum of the last three components and does not include the clay bound water.  
           [0007]    The most common NMR log acquisition and core measurement method employs T 2  measurements using CPMG (Carr, Purcell, Meiboom and Gill) sequence, as taught by Meiboom and Gill in “Modified Spin-Echo Method for Measuring Nuclear Relaxation Time,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1958, 29, pp. 688-691. In this method, the echo data in any given echo train are collected at a fixed time interval, the interecho time (TE). Usually, a few hundred to a few thousand echoes are acquired to sample relaxation decay. However, for determination of CBW, echo sequences of as few as ten echos have been used.  
           [0008]    Interecho time (TE), is one of the most important, controllable experimental parameters for CPMG measurements and can affect data interpretation. In logging operations using the MRIL® tool (made by Numar Corp.), TEs of 0.6 and 1.2 milliseconds (ms) are typically used to manipulate the relaxation decay data to include or exclude clay bound water (CBW) porosity.  
           [0009]    Interpretation of NMR core or log data is often started by inverting the time-domain CPMG echo decay into a T 2  parameter domain distribution. In general, the T 2  of fluids in porous rocks depends on the pore-size distribution and the type and number of fluids saturating the pore system. Because of the he terogeneous nature of porous media, T 2  decays exhibit a multiexponential behavior. The basic equation describing the transverse relaxation of magnetization in fluid saturated porous media is  
               M        (   t   )       =       ∫     T     2                 min         T     2                 max                P        (     T   2     )                   -   t     /     T   2                              T   2                   (   1   )                               
 
           [0010]    where M is magnetization, and effects of diffusion in the presence of a magnetic field gradient have not been taken into consideration. Eq.(1) is based on the assumption that diffusion effects may be ignored. In a gradient magnetic field, diffusion causes atoms to move from their original positions to new ones which also causes these atoms to acquire different phase shifts compared to atoms that did not move. This contributes to a faster rate of relaxation.  
           [0011]    The effect of field gradients is given by an equation of the form  
               1     T   2       =       1     T     2      bulk         +     1     T     2      surface         +     1     T     2      diffusion                   (   2   )                               
 
           [0012]    where the first two terms on the right hand side are related to bulk relaxation and surface relaxation while the third term is related to the field gradient G by an equation of the form  
               T     2      diffusion       =     C       TE   2     ·     G   2     ·   D               (   3   )                               
 
           [0013]    where TE is the interecho spacing, C is a constant and D is the diffusivity of the fluid.  
           [0014]    In CPMG measurements, the magnetization decay is recorded (sampled) at a fixed period, TE; thus, a finite number of echoes are obtained at equally spaced time intervals, t=n TE, where n is the index for the n-th echo. This may be denoted by  
               M        (   nTE   )       =         ∫     T     2                 min         T     2                 max                P        (     T   2     )                   -   n     ·     TE   /     T   2                                T   2           +   noise             (   4   )                               
 
           [0015]    A problem associated with conventional CPMG sequences is that the resolvability of the T 2  spectrum is not uniform. Short T 2  s are poorly resolved as only a few data points are affected by these components. Long T 2  s, on the other hand, are oversampled. In addition, due to limitations on availability of power, the number of pulses is limited: this has the undesirable effect of leading to poor resolution of short T 2  components because measurements have to be made over long time to resolve the slowly relaxing components. The actual selection of TE and number of pulses involves a tradeoff governed by the power availability and the desire for rapid acquisition to keep down rig costs.  
           [0016]    As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,069,477 to Chen et al, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference, the effects of noise, sampling rate, and the ill-conditioning of inversion and regularization are to smear (broaden) the estimated T 2  distribution. In addition, because of the non-orthogonality of multi-exponential signals, CBW signals could be shifted to higher T 2  regions if the T 2  fitting region is limited or if the regularization is excessive. This distortion is not easily rectified; even adding more bins with short T 2  does not reduce the distortion of the T 2  spectra.  
           [0017]    Chen et al teaches the use of CPMG sequences with two different values of TE (0.6 ms and 1.2 ms). A time domain correction is used to filter out the contribution of the fast relaxing T 2  components in the TE=1.2 ms echo train. High S/N echo data with sampling time TE=0.6 ms are used to obtain the CBW T 2  distribution. These data are then used to reconstruct CBW contributions to the time domain early echoes of the conventional effective porosity echo data (TE=1.2 ms). The CBW signal is then subtracted from the original echoes, and the effective porosity distribution is estimated from the reconstructed echo train.  
           [0018]    The use of two different CPMG sequences with different values of TE may still lead to erroneous results in measurement-while-drilling applications. The reason is that due to tool motion, the sensitive volume may be different for the first and second CPMG sequence. The region of investigation for an NMR logging tool is defined by the region in the formation wherein the Larmor frequency of nuclear spins matches the RF frequency of the tipping pulse. Subsequent refocusing pulses in a CPMG sequence will produce spin-echo signals from this region. When the tool is in motion, as in a MWD logging tool, the region of investigation may be different for successive CPMG sequences, so that the spin echos for a second CPMG sequence may not come from the same region as the spin echos for a first CPMG sequence. It would be desirable to have a method of obtaining an NMR spectrum of a medium with a resolution that is more uniform over the range of spectral values and that is not sensitive to tool motion, particularly in MWD applications. Such a method should preferably also have reduced power consumption. The present invention satisfies this need.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0019]    The present invention is a method of acquiring NMR spin echo signals using pulse sequences having more than one interecho spacing. This makes it possible to acquire relaxation spectra with high resolution of rapidly relaxing components and reduced power requirements over the slowly relaxing portions of relaxation spectra. Multiple TE data may be acquired when different types of fluids are present in the formation to resolve the fast decaying components as well as the slow decaying components. Dual TE data may be acquired when gas is present in the formation, the larger TE being selected based on diffusion considerations. In a gradient field the diffusion effect may be included for selection of proper TE values.  
           [0020]    In a preferred embodiment, the method is used with a zero gradient magnetic field configuration. This reduces the effects of diffusion on the echo signals. Power requirements may be further reduced by using refocusing pulses with an angle of less than 180°.  
           [0021]    Signal to noise ratio may be further improved by using a plurality of pulse sequences and stacking the resulting signals. By proper selection of the variable TE sequences a desired resolution may be obtained for all expected components (short-medium-long) while reducing the required time and the required power. This is particularly important in the resolution of short T 2  components.  
           [0022]    When used for measurement-while-drilling, optional embodiments of the invention use motion sensors on the drilling assembly and the timing of the pulses in the pulse sequences is based in part on the output of the motion sensors. Optionally, predictive filtering of the motion signals may be used to further improve the signal to noise ratio. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0023]    [0023]FIG. 1 shows the different constituents of a fluid filled rock.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART) is a schematic cross-section of a NMR measurement-while-drilling tool in a borehole  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 3 shows an example of a pulse sequence with non-uniform interecho times.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 4 shows the sampling of a decay curve using non-uniform interecho time.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 5 shows echoes created by the transition from short interecho time to a long one. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0028]    A suitable device for use of the present invention, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,215,304 to Slade, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference. It should be noted that the device taught by Slade is for exemplary purposes only, and the method of the present invention may be used with many other NMR logging devices, and may be used for wireline as well as MWD applications. Examples of such devices are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,557,201 to Kleinberg, 5,280,243 to Miller, 5,055,787 to Kleinberg, and 5,698979 to Taicher.  
         [0029]    Referring now to FIG. 2, the tool has a drill head  7  at one end, a sensor section  2  behind the drill head, and electronics  1 . The sensor section  2  comprises a magnetic field generating assembly for generating a B 0  magnetic field (which is substantially time invariant over the duration of a measurement), and an RF system for transmitting and receiving RF magnetic pulses and echoes. The magnetic field generating assembly comprises a pair of axially spaced main magnets  3 ,  4  having opposed pole orientations (i.e. with like magnetic poles facing each other), and three ferrite members  9  ,  10  axially arranged between the magnets  3 ,  4 . The ferrite members are made of “soft” ferrite which can be distinguished over “hard” ferrite by the shape of the BH curve which affects both intrinsic coercivity (H cj , the intersection with the H axis) and initial permeability (μ 1 , the gradient in the unmagnetized case). Soft ferrite μ 1  values typically range from 10 to 10000 whereas hard ferrite has μ i  of about 1. Therefore the soft ferrite has large initial permeability (typically greater than 10, preferably greater than 1000). The RF system comprises a set of RF transmit antenna and RF receive antenna coil windings  5  arranged as a central “field forming” solenoid group  13  and a pair of outer “coupling control” solenoid groups  14 .  
         [0030]    The tool has a mud pipe  60  with a clear central bore  6  and a number of exit apertures  61 - 64  to carry drilling mud to the bit  7 , and the main body of the tool is provided by a drill collar  8 . Drilling mud is pumped down the mud pipe  6  by a pump  21  returning around the tool and the entire tool is rotated by a drive  20 . Coiled tubing or a drillstring may be used for coupling the drive to the downhole assembly.  
         [0031]    The drill collar  8  provides a recess  70  for RF transmit antenna and RF receive antenna coil windings  5 . Gaps in the pockets between the soft ferrite members are filled with non-conducting material  31 ,  35  (e.g: ceramic or high temperature plastic) and the RF coils  13 ,  14  are then wound over the soft ferrite members  9 ,  10 . The soft ferrites  9 ,  10  and RF coil assembly  13 ,  14  are pressure impregnated with suitable high temperature, low viscosity epoxy resin (not shown) to harden the system against the effects of vibration, seal against drilling fluid at well pressure, and reduce the possibility of magnetoacoustic oscillations. The RF coils  13  , 14  are then covered with wear plates  11  typically ceramic or other durable non-conducting material to protect them from the rock chippings flowing upwards past the tool in the borehole mud.  
         [0032]    Because of the opposed magnet configuration, the device of Slade has an axisymmetric magnetic field and region of investigation  12  that is unaffected by tool rotation. Use of the ferrite results in a region of investigation that is close to the borehole. This is not a major problem on a MWD tool because there is little invasion of the formation by borehole drilling fluids prior to the logging. The region of investigation is a shell with a radial thickness of about 20 mm and an axial length of about 50 mm. The gradient within the region of investigation is less than 2.7 G/cm. It is to be noted that these values are for the Slade device and, as noted above, the method of the present invention may also be used with other suitable NMR devices.  
         [0033]    Turning now to FIG. 3, an exemplary pulse sequence according to the method of the present invention is disclosed. Following an wait time of T w , the nuclear spins in the region of investigation will be aligned substantially parallel to the direction of the static magnetic field. At the end of the wait time, a 90° tipping pulse is applied. The effect of this is to tip the nuclear spins into a plane orthogonal to the direction of the static field. At the end of the tipping pulse, the nuclear spins start precessing in this orthogonal plane and also dephasing with a time constant T 2 * due mainly to B 0  field inhomogeneities in the static magnetic field B 0 . Using the CPMG pulse sequence this T 2 * dephasing effect is cancelled and the resulting spin echo train amplitudes decay with time constant T 2 . Application of a refocusing pulse  103   a  reverses the direction of precession so that at a time  105   a  a spin echo signal is produced that may be detected by the antenna. Subsequent refocusing pulses  103   b ,  103   c  . . .  103   f ,  103   g ,  103   h  will produce additional spin echo signals  105   b ,  105   g ,  105   h.    
         [0034]    A novel feature of the present invention is that the spacing between the refocusing pulses need not be uniform. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the time interval between the refocusing pulses  103   a ,  103   b  and  103   c  is less than the time interval between later pulses  103   f ,  103   g ,  103   h . If additional intervals are used, the spacing may be even larger.  
         [0035]    Turning now to FIG. 4, the spin-echo signals obtained by the pulse sequence such as that shown in FIG. 3 are shown. The abscissa  200  is time and the ordinate  202  is the echo amplitude. A first plurality n 1  of echos are obtained with a spacing T E1 , these are followed by a second plurality n 2  of echos obtained with a spacing T E2  and may be followed by additional pluralities n 3  of echos obtained with a spacing T E3  etc. As can be seen, using the sequence of FIG. 2 results in the early part of the sequence (where the amplitudes decay rapidly, corresponding to small relaxation times) being more closely sampled than the latter part of the sequence (where the amplitude decay is slow, corresponding to long relaxation times). In order to generate an NMR-echo decay with the timing in FIG. 4, which has three distinct interecho times T E1 , T E2  and T E3  it is necessary to increase the time between refocusing pulses T P  at each transition between two T E S in two steps. This is shown in FIG. 3; between the times T P1  and T P2 , a transition time T PT =(T P1 +T P2 )/2 is inserted. Otherwise the spin echo after a transition would not form midway between two refocusing pulses.  
         [0036]    The sparse sampling of the later portions of the echo train also means that the overall duty cycle on the power source is reduced. This makes it possible to sample large relaxation components without unduly burdening the power supply.  
         [0037]    Those versed in the art would recognize that one effect of the variation in the interecho spacing may be a variation in T 2  due to diffusion effects. The diffusion effects are proportional to the square of the field gradient and the interecho spacing and directly proportional to the diffusivity of the fluid. This effect is minimized by the magnet design in the Slade device; with a field gradient of less than 3.0 G/cm, the effect of diffusion of water at room temperature is negligible for TE up to 10 ms, while at 150° C., the effect is small for TE up to 4 ms. Diffusion effects are small for water, heavy oil, medium oil and light oil but may not be negligible for gas or very light liquids and condensate.  
         [0038]    Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/396,286 of Thern et al, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, teaches the use of a dual wait time echo data for determination of gas saturation in the formation. The wait times are selected to substantially polarize the liquid phase but to produce substantially different polarization of the gas phase. In one embodiment of the invention, dual wait time data are acquired and, on the basis of evaluation of the results in a downhole processor, an estimate of the gas saturation is made. Based on this estimate, a maximum allowable TE is determined and subsequent data are acquired with a dual TE pulse sequence wherein the first few echos (up to 10) are acquired with a short TE (of 0.5ms), enhancing the resolution of short T 2 s and the remaining echos are acquired with a longer but fixed TE (2-4 ms).  
         [0039]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,389 to Prammer teaches the use of a plurality of pulse sequences with short TE s (approximately 0.5 ms) and summing the echo trains to improve the signal to noise ratio of the earliest pulse echos. Using this summed data, Prammer teaches the determination of rapidly relaxing components of the T 2  distribution. In one embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of pulse trains with variable TE are acquired and by stacking the signals, the entire T 2  distribution may be obtained. This makes it possible to determine the total porosity, clay bound water and effective porosity. In an optional embodiment of the present invention, the variable TE method of the present invention may also be used in conjunction with a plurality of wait times T W .  
         [0040]    In one embodiment of the invention, the choice of TE is made during the drilling process. Dual or multiple TW data are acquired during the process of drilling using a fixed TE using prior art methods. Evaluation of these data makes it possible to estimate the T 1  and the T 2  distribution in real time using a downhole processor. The estimation of the T 2  distribution may be done directly or indirectly using a fixed relation between T 1  and T 2 . Knowing the maximum value of T 2  for the formation, the maximum TE is estimated using eqs.( 2) and (3). The field gradient is a known quantity and the diffusivity is estimated from knowledge of the rock type and the porosity. The rock type and porosity are determined downhole from other logs such as density, gamma ray and resistivity logs.  
         [0041]    A particular advantage of the present pulse sequence is that the same 90° tipping pulse is used for obtaining data at a single frequency with a variable interecho spacing. This avoids problems of different regions of excitation that may be caused by transversal tool motion when the multiple frequency method of Chen et al is used. However, the use of a varying T E  results in a more complicated sequence of echoes. This is illustrated in FIG. 5 wherein after an initial tipping 90° pulse  301  there is 180° refocusing pulse  303  delayed by time τ 1  and a second refocusing pulse  305  at a time τ 2  after the first refocusing pulse. The pulse echo  311  results from the tipping pulse  301  and the first refocusing pulse  303 . Following the second refocusing pulse  305 , four echoes are produced at times 2τ 1 +τ 2 , 2τ 2 , τ 1 +2τ 2 , and 2τ 1 +2τ 2 . In FIG. 5 these echoes are labeled  313 ,  315 ,  317  and  319  respectively. The earliest of these echoes  313  is produced by all three RF pulses  301 ,  303  and  305  and is known in the NMR literature as the stimulated echo. The second echo  315  after the refocusing pulse  305  is the so-called secondary echo and also produced by all three pulses. The further echoes  317  and  319  are two-pulse echoes caused by the first or second pulse together with the third pulse. Of all these NMR signals, echo  315  would be typically the most useful, but the other echoes may be acquired as well. Details of the three-pulse echo generation can be found in chapter 2.2, FIG. 2.2 of R. Kimmich “NMR—Tomography, Diffusometry, Relaxometry”, ISBN 3-540-61822-8, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York.  
         [0042]    The echoes  313 ,  317  and  319  would only be present where the refocusing pulse is not 180°. For a NMR sample of limited size, for which the frequency band width of the refocusing pulse is much greater than the bandwidth of NMR frequencies of the sample and the refocusing pulses are 180°, the echoes would be as shown in FIG. 4. In the practice of oil well logging such an ideal situation is virtually impossible so that there would be echoes in addition to those shown in FIG. 4. As a result of this, straightforward application of prior art inversion techniques may give erroneous results. This problem is addressed in the present invention in various ways. The first method leaves out of inversion the first few spin echoes immediately following a change in the pulse spacing, following which the additional echoes would die out. The second method is to select a pulse sequence in which the interval between the later refocusing pulses is twice the interval between the earlier refocusing pulses. This results in a uniform spacing of the echoes that is amenable to analysis. Another way is to use amplitude correction factors for the echoes, similar to the well known “stimulated echo correction”.  
         [0043]    Those versed in the art would recognize that in a conventional CPMG sequence, each of the refocusing pulses has a duration and amplitude designed to change the angle by 180°. One embodiment of the invention uses refocusing pulses with a smaller tipping angle. Such a pulse sequence has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,163,153 to Reiderman et al, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference.  
         [0044]    One embodiment of the present invention uses the teachings of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/778,205 of Hawkes et al, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Hawkes et al teaches the use of motion triggered pulsing for NMR measurements. The motion of the tool is measured by suitable motion sensors, such as accelerometers, magnetometers or gyroscopes or combinations thereof. These sensors may be placed at any suitable location on the drilling tool in the proximity of the magnet and coil arrangement. The wait period in a pulse sequence may be extended slightly without affecting the data quality and this feature may be used to delay the application of the tipping pulse until a suitable state of tool motion is achieved. The trigger may be obtained by monitoring the motion sensor signals. Suitable states for triggering are instantaneous moments when the tool is stationary, or if the motion has a strong periodic component, then subsequent pulse sequences may be triggered to synchronize with this motion. Such motion triggered pulsing will improve the NMR spin-echo formation.  
         [0045]    It is common practice in NMR measurements to make multiple measurements of pulse echos and to average the measurements. The Hawkes application also teaches the use of a predictive filter using the output of the motion sensors to predict the motion of the drillstring. In the case of motion containing one or more periodic components, using the output of the predictive filter, data acquisitions can be triggered when the NMR tool is in approximately the same position, stationary or in the same state of motion, and the data averaged to improve the signal to noise ratio.  
         [0046]    An optional embodiment of the invention that may be used with any of the pulse sequences described above is used to reduce the effect of ringing. In the so-called phase alternated pulse (PAP) sequence, the successive CPMG or modified CPMG sequences are acquired with alternating phases of the tipping pulse. Summing the echoes from such a PAP sequence reduces the effects of ringing.  
         [0047]    While the foregoing disclosure is directed to the preferred embodiments of the invention, various modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is intended that all variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims be embraced by the foregoing disclosure.