US 2017/0285215 A1 · PORE FLUID PHASE BEHAVIOR MEASUREMENTS

Abstract

To measure the phase behavior of a fluid in a porous medium such as a tight gas shale, one illustrative method involves: (a) loading the fluid into a sample cell containing the porous medium; (b) setting a pressure and a temperature for the fluid in the sample cell; (c) applying an RF pulse sequence to the fluid in the sample cell to acquire an NMR signal; (d) deriving from the NMR signal an NMR parameter distribution that depends on the pressure and the temperature; (e) determining whether a fluid phase is present based on the NMR parameter distribution; (f) repeating operations (c) through (f) to determine the presence or absence of the fluid phase at multiple points along a pressure-temperature path that crosses a phase boundary; and (g) providing an estimated location of the phase boundary based on the presence or absence of the fluid phase at said points.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A pore-fluid phase characterization system that comprises:

a sample cell that receives a porous medium for exposure to a fluid;
a pressure control system that supplies the fluid to the sample cell with a controllable fluid pressure;
a temperature control system that controls a fluid temperature of the fluid in the sample cell;
a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probe that collects NMR signal measurements from nuclei of the fluid in the sample cell;
and
a computer that derives, from the NMR signal measurements, an NMR parameter distribution as a function of fluid pressure and fluid temperature along a pressure-temperature path that crosses a phase boundary, said crossing being detected as a change in the NMR parameter distribution.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Pore fluid phase behavior measurements

Life of this patent

Pore fluid phase behavior measurements

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20