MÉTHODOLOGIE / METHODOLOGY

C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Chimie / Chemistry 4 (2001) 869–872

© 2001 Académie des sciences / Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. Tous droits réservés
S1387160901013433/FLA

Validity of permeability prediction from NMR

measurements
Marc Fleury*, Françoise Deflandre, Sophie Godefroy
Institut français du pétrole, 1 et 4, av. de Bois-Préau, 92852 Rueil-Malmaison, France

Received 14 May 2001; accepted 10 October 2001

Abstract – Low field nuclear relaxation measurements applied to porous media can provide a wide variety of informa-
tion. One important use of NMR measurements in the petroleum industry is the estimation of in-situ permeability as a
function of depth. Such information is not available from any other tool and is critical for oil recovery predictions. A large
number of empirical relationships have been published without clear explanation of their physical origin. We present
some understanding and illustration of the link between NMR relaxation measurements and permeability, which is useful
to select the appropriate law as a function of the geological context. © 2001 Académie des sciences / Éditions scienti-
fiques et médicales Elsevier SAS

permeability / NMR / relaxation / porous media / oil recovery / logging

Résumé – Les mesures de relaxation bas champ procurent une information variée sur la structure des milieux poreux
ainsi que sur la nature des fluides en place. Dans le domaine pétrolier, une utilisation cruciale de ces mesures concerne
l’estimation de la perméabilité in situ dans les puits. Des lois empiriques sont généralement utilisées, mais leur origine
physique est mal comprise. Nous proposons une explication de l’origine des corrélations mesurées ainsi qu’une stratégie
générale pour sélectionner le type de loi en fonction du contexte géologique. © 2001 Académie des sciences / Éditions
scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS

perméabilité / RMN / relaxation / milieux poreux / récupération du pétrole / diagraphies

1. Introduction is no in-situ direct and continuous measurement of

NMR transverse relaxation time (T2) measure-
ments are now routinely performed in situ to char-
acterize oil fields. This is performed at low mag-
netic fields (corresponding to proton Larmor
frequency between 500 kHz and 4 MHz). The
in-situ measurements of T2 allow the continuous
determination of porosity, pore size distribution,
saturation, viscosity and permeability. While the
physical phenomenon underlying the determination
of the first four petrophysical parameters men-
tioned above are well established, the permeability
determination is more controversial and is based on
empirical relationships, more or less successful. Per-
meability is of primary importance for oil recovery
predictions and reservoir characterization, and there
permeability available.
The relaxation time T2, measured by a CPMG [1]
sequence, is function of three terms according to
(for a single pore, equation (1)):
1 = 1 +q S + D cGT 2
共 E兲 (1)
T2 T2B 2V 12
where T2B is the bulk relaxation time of the fluid satu-
rating the porous media, q2 the surface relaxivity, S
and V the surface and volume of the pore respec-
tively, D the molecular diffusion, γ the gyromagnetic
ratio of the proton, G the effective magnetic field gra-
dient accross the pore and TE the inter-echo time of
the CPMG sequence. When the saturating fluid viscos-
ity is low (e.g. water, light oil), the pore size small
enough (typically < 100 µm), and/or the surface relax-
ivity not too high, the relaxation time T2 is dominated

* Correspondence and reprints.

E-mail address: marc.fleury@ifp.fr (M. Fleury).

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 M. Fleury et al. / C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Chimie / Chemistry 4 (2001) 869–872
Table. Some permeability correlation laws found in the literature.
Seevers [3] (60 samples) k = C 共 1 − Swirr 兲 T 1corr
2
U C: constant
Kenyon [4] (67 samples) k=CT 2
2ml U 4
Kozeny–Carman [6]
k = C 12 U 3
Rapoport and Leas [7] S
k = C 共 1 − Swirr 兲2 12 U 3
Timur [8] (155 samples) S 兺i Ai
k = C 21 U 4.4
S wirr
冋 册
Swanson [9] 共 1 − SwA 兲 1.69
k=C U Swirr: irreducible water saturation
PcA
冉 冊
Coates [10] (150 samples) 1 − Swirr 2 4
k=C U SwA: saturation at the capillary pressure PcA
Swirr
by surface interactions (q2 S/V) and the measurement
is sensitive to the radius of the pore body. Natural
porous media usually exhibit a distribution of pore
size and therefore, the measured relaxation times are
distributed over several decades spanning from 1 ms
(water in clay) up to 1 s (vugs). In this context, the
relaxation time distribution reflects the distribution of
pore size (or more rigorously the distribution of V/S) if
there is no exchange between pores of different sizes.
Experimental data indicate surprisingly a relation-
ship between T2 and permeability k in a wide variety
of porous media. However, k is governed by pore
connectivity and pore throats rather than pore body
[2]. The relationship clearly relies on a correlation
between pore bodies and pore throats, which is only
theoretically valid in a limited number of cases.
We briefly review some of the existing correlation
laws used in petroleum sciences. Then, we high-
light some theoretical aspects to explain the physi-
cal origin of the correlation between pore body
and pore throat. Finally, we discuss the relation-
ships found between T2 relaxation times and per-
meability in two different systems.
2. Correlation laws
A large number of correlation laws can be found
in the literature. The relationships mostly used are
listed in the table, using a petrophysical terminol-
ogy. We can distinguish two types of correlations:
– correlations involving directly T1 or T2 relaxation
measurements [3, 4] (Kenyon’s relation has also been
supported later by Straley et al. [5] and should be used
in a porous medium fully saturated with water);
– correlations involving petrophysical quantities
[6–10] such as Swirr (the irreducible water trapped in
a porous medium after a capillary dominated dis-
placement process), or the specific surface area S;
they are used in NMR interpretation when the
porous media are saturated with two fluids (water
and oil).
870
Φ: porosity
T1corr: long. relax. time corrected for bulk contribution (see equation (3))
冤 兺i Ai log 共 T2i 兲
冥
T2ml = exp , average
relaxation time in log. scale
S: specific surface area per unit bulk volume
All relationships indicated in the table are sup-
ported by laboratory data and permeability is often
estimated within a factor of two, sometimes better [3],
over several decades in the range of interest for appli-
cations. It is striking to see the variation of the expo-
nent in the porosity dependence, spanning from 1 up
to 4.4. Note that porosity can be easily measured by
NMR. In general, the use of NMR measurements,
either for determining the dominant pore size (T2ml) or
the irreducible saturation does improve k–U relation-
ships, which are often very weak. We discuss below
the first type of correlation.
3. Physical origin
We focus here on the porosity and pore size
dependence of the permeability, directly linked to
NMR measurements. For grain packs and cemented
sandstones, Chauveteau et al. [11] demonstrated the
following relationship:
冉 冊
U − U1 4
k = C dg
2
(2)
U0 − U1
where dg is the grain size (before cementation), U0
the porosity of the initial packing (∼0.4) and U1 the
residual porosity at maximum cementation (∼0.02
or 0.03). Equation (2) can be demonstrated using
both Navier–Stokes and Darcy’s laws, and are sup-
ported by experimental data on model grain packs
and model sandstones (Fontainebleau). In particu-
lar, the U1 offset in the porosity dependence is
clearly demonstrated experimentally using a large
suite of Fontainebleau samples, with similar initial
grain size. The power 4th in the porosity depen-
dence is directly linked to the pressure drop at the
throats in the porous medium, as predicted by
Navier–Stokes equation in a cylinder. From the ini-
tial grain pack before the consolidation of the sand-
stone, the permeability will be reduced because of
the reduction of the throat size, which also affect
porosity (it is assumed that the deposit on the
 M. Fleury et al. / C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Chimie / Chemistry 4 (2001) 869–872

grains is uniform). Because the grain size is directly

related to the pore size, equation (2) gives a strong
theoretical support to a relationship between NMR
measurements and permeability. Equation (2)
clearly predicts k ∝ T22 and is very close to
Kenyon’s relationship (table). Note also that the U1
offset in equation (2) is only sensitive when a wide
range of porosity is considered. It will be neglected
in the correlations presented below.

4. T2 measurements

We illustrate the possibility of determining per-

meability by NMR in two systems: a model system
of grain packs clearly supporting equation (2), and
a suite of reservoir carbonate samples.
Figure 1. Permeability-pore size relationship in grain packs. Best
4.1. Case 1: grain packs fit: k ∝ dp1.99, R2 = 0.988.

The model porous medium consists of a series of

packing made with non-porous silicon carbide, SiC,
grains of different diameters varying in the range
8–150 µm. The grain size distribution for each pack
is narrow, yielding a series of porous media with a
narrow pore size distribution and a quasi-constant
porosity (45 %). To take into account the small fluc-
tuations of porosity, the pore size dp is deduced
from the grain size dg, according to equation (3):

共 1 −UU 兲
1/3
dp = dg (3)

These model porous media, originally prepared

to study surface relaxation processes [12], were
carefully cleaned to have a quasi-identical surface
relaxivity q2. For each grain pack, water permeabil-
ity was measured using standard procedure [3], and
T2 relaxation time was calculated using a mono
exponential fit. Due to the large value of some
measured relaxation times compared to the bulk
value, the T2 measurements were corrected for the
bulk contribution according to:
T2corr = (1/T2 – 1/T2B)–1 (4)
A linear relationship is observed when plotting
T2corr versus grain size [12]. Permeability is also linked
to pore size (figure 1), in close agreement with the
theoretical prediction (equation (2)). It is also closely
linked to the measured relaxation time T2corr, but the
best-fit exponent (1.69, figure 2) is far from the
expected value of 2. When porosity is not taken into
account, the exponent decreases down to 1.50. We
conclude that the k –T2 relationship is very sensitive to
small fluctuations (or imperfections of the packs) and
that the T2 exponent must be adjusted for each case
with laboratory data.
Figure 2. Permeability correlation in grain packs with quasi-
identical surface relaxivity. Best fit: k estimated ∝ U4 T2corr1.69,
R2 = 0.988. The expected relationship is: k ∝ U4 T22.
4.2. Case 2: carbonates
NMR permeability relationships were tested on a
series of 61 reservoir carbonate samples. Carbon-
ates are more complex than sandstones in terms of
pore structure and often exhibit no k–U relation-
ship. In the present case, large permeability
samples are characterized by bimodal pore size dis-
tribution (figure 3), while less permeable samples
are more unimodal. It appears that permeability is
governed by the largest pore population and, there-
fore, the logarithmic average T2ml as a characteristic
time for each sample is not appropriate and
decreases the contrast between the samples. When
taking instead the position of the peak T2peak in the

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 M. Fleury et al. / C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Chimie / Chemistry 4 (2001) 869–872
Figure 3. T2 relaxation distribution on four samples from the
carbonate suite. The samples were extracted from the same well.
distribution, a relationship can be established (fig-
ure 4) with a reasonable correlation coefficient
(0.82). Furthermore, porosity has practically no
influence on permeability, as seen in figure 3.
A best fit using a power law of the form Ua T2b
yields a = 0.61 and b = 2.44, confirming a weak
dependence with porosity. We conclude that diage-
netic processes lead to a decorrelation of porosity
and permeability, as in many carbonate systems,
but a correlation between pore size and throat size
still exist, as shown by the k–T2 relationship.
5. Conclusion
Nuclear relaxation measurements can be used to
estimate permeability in porous media. It is an indi-
rect estimation relying essentially on a correlation
between pore body (determined by NMR) and pore
Acknowledgements. We thank G. Chauveteau for stimulating discussions about permeability–porosity relationships in sandstones.
References
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872
Figure 4. Permeability correlation for a suite of 61 reservoir
carbonate samples. Best fit, k ∝ U0.60 T2peak2.44, R2 = 0.821.
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