Low field NMR is routinely used in the oil exploration industry to examine the T2 relaxation time distribution of fluids in core plugs. These distributions can be used to calibrate down-hole NMR well logs, and can be interpreted to give information on pore size distributions, permeability, total and effective porosity, free fluid index and bound water volumes. More recent developments now also allow Capillary Pressure to be measured by NMR, at least four times faster than by conventional centrifuge measurements. This method has been patented by Green Imaging Technologies and is available exclusively on Oxford Instruments’ GeoSpec2 range of NMR core analysers.
The recent partnership between Oxford Instruments and Green Imaging Technologies brings fully integrated hardware and software to enable any core analysis laboratory to generate the petrophysics values that the industry needs without the need for in-depth knowledge of NMR.