Textural and pore size analysis of carbonates from integrated core and nuclear magnetic resonance logging: An Arbuckle study

The T2 relaxation times recorded by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging are measures of the ratio of the internal surface area to volume of the formation pore system. Although standard porosity logs are restricted to estimating the volume, the NMR log partitions the pore space as a spectrum of pore sizes. These logs have great potential to elucidate carbonate sequences, which can have single, double, or triple porosity systems and whose pores have a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Continuous coring and NMR logging was made of the Cambro-Ordovician Arbuckle saline aquifer in a proposed CO2 injection well in southern Kansas. The large data set gave a rare opportunity to compare the core textural descriptions to NMR T2 relaxation time signatures over an extensive interval. Geochemical logs provided useful elemental information to assess the potential role of paramagnetic components that affect surface relaxivity. Principal component analysis of the T2 relaxation time subdivided the spectrum into five distinctive pore-size classes. When the T2 distribution was allocated between grainstones, packstones, and mudstones, the interparticle porosity component of the spectrum takes a bimodal form that marks a distinction between grain-supported and mud-supported texture. This discrimination was also reflected by the computed gamma-ray log, which recorded contributions from potassium and thorium and therefore assessed clay content reflected by fast relaxation times. A megaporosity class was equated with T2 relaxation times summed from 1024 to 2048 ms bins, and the volumetric curve compared favorably with variation over a range of vug sizes observed in the core. The complementary link between grain textures and pore textures was fruitful in the development of geomodels that integrates geologic core observations with petrophysical log measurements.