Importance of the magnetic susceptibility of reservoir rocks and minerals in hydrocarbon industry

Different minerals have distinct magnetic susceptibilities which allow identification of the proportions of various matrix and permeability controlling minerals in hydrocarbon bearing reservoir rocks. This presentation will highlight the importance of magnetic susceptibility measurements on reservoir rocks and fluids in: i) inferring key petrophysical parameters, including clay content and permeability ii) identifying and quantifying the presence of various permeability controlling minerals in reservoir rock samples iii) detecting corrosion products in injection lines and iv) detecting unconformities and faults in reservoir rock sequences. The key part of this presentation will show a number of case studies from UK North Sea reservoirs where magnetic susceptibility measurements have provided a useful means to improve petrophysical parameter predictions in conventional as well as low permeability reservoirs. This will be followed by some insights into the importance of the future generation of borehole magnetic susceptibility tools for in situ predictions of petrophysical and other reservoir rock
properties. Magnetic susceptibility techniques offer several advantages over current conventional techniques in being rapid, cost effective, portable (allowing onsite analysis of samples), high resolution and environmentally friendly, thus allowing companies to make important field development decisions (onsite or in the lab) much earlier than is currently possible.