A new side-looking downhole magnetic resonance imaging tool

In general, only the depth information can be acquired using the centralized downhole NMR tools. The radial profile information is equally important to the depth. Improving the pad tools, also called side-looking tools, is the appropriate direction for solving this problem. The side-looking downhole measurement can provide depth and radially resolved information of the reservoir. In this research a new side-looking tool which includes main magnets and pre-polarized magnets has been designed and built. The pre-polarized magnets in both sides are used to adjust the homogeneity of magnetic field along the length direction of the instrument and polarize the samples when the tool is moving up and down along the borehole with a speed up to 500 m/h. A winding coil with several frequencies corresponding to different depths has been designed to match the static magnetic field. The sensitive region of this tool is about one-third of a hollow cylinder at every frequency which gives a side-looking image of the borehole wall. We have demonstrated that this new side-looking tool behaves well with an echo time short to 0.25 ms, which ensures the richness and accuracy of the measurements. Such a new side-looking tool is suitable for the detection of unconventional reservoirs.