NMR imaging of fluid dynamics in reservoir core

A medical NMR imaging instrument has been modified to image water and oil in reservoir rocks by the construction of a new receiving coil. Both oil and water inside the core produced readily detectable proton NMR signals, while the rock matrix produced no signal. Because of similar T2 NMR relaxation times, the water was doped with a paramagnetic ion, Mn+2, to reduce its T2 relaxation time. This procedure enhanced the separation between the oil and water phases in the resulting images. Sequential measurements, as water imbibed into one end and oil was expelled from the other end of a core plug, produced a series of images which showed the dynamics of the fluids. For water-wet Berea Sandstone a flood front was readily observed, but some of the oil was apparently left behind in small, isolated pockets which were larger than individual pores. After several additional pore volumes of water flowed through the plug the NMR image indicated a homogeneous distribution of oil. The amount of residual oil, as determined from the ratio of NMR intensities, closely approximated the residual oil saturation of fully flooded Berea samples measured by Dean-Stark extraction. A Berea sandstone core treated to make it partially oil-wet, did not show a definitive flood front, but appeared to channel the water around the perimeter of the core plug. The relative ease with which these images were made indicates that NMR imaging can be a useful technique to follow the dynamics of oil and water through a core plug for a variety of production processes.