Indirect methods of formation evaluation:

(Unit 4) Principles and application of

logging tools –

• Neutron
• The neutron log provides a continuous record of a formation’s reaction to fast
neutron bombardment.
bombardment

• It is quoted in terms of neutron porosity units, which are related to a formation’s

hydrogen index, an indication of its richness in hydrogen. The neutron log shows
hydrogen index which is converted to neutron porosity units.

• Formations modify neutrons rapidly when they contain abundant hydrogen nuclei,
which in the geological context are supplied by water (H2O).

• The log is therefore principally a measure of a formation’s water content, be it

bound water, water of crystallization or free pore-water.

• The hydrogen richness is called the hydrogen index (HI) which is defined as the
weight % hydrogen in the formation /wt % hydrogen in water, where HI water = 1.

• However, the oilfield interest in water is as a pore fluid filler and porosity indicator
indicato
so that the neutron log response is given directly in neutron porosity units.

• Neutron porosity is real porosity in clean limestones, but other lithologies require
conversion factors. Since it is calibrated to limestones, the log is sometimes called
the Limestone curve.
Neutron - Principal uses
• Quantitatively, the neutron log is used to measure porosity.
• Qualitatively, it is an excellent discriminator between gas and oil.
• It can be used geologically to identify gross lithology, evaporites, hydrated
minerals and volcanic rocks.
• When combined with the density log on compatible scales, it is one of the best
subsurface lithology indicators available (Table 1).

Table 1. The principal uses of the neutron log.

Neutron - Principles of measurement
• Neutrons are subatomic particles which have no electrical charge but whose mass is
essentially equivalent to that of a hydrogen nucleus.

• They interact with matter in two principal ways, by collision and absorption:
collisions are mainly at higher energy states; absorption occurs at lower energy.

• The lifetime of a free neutron is one of losing energy and can therefore be usefully
described in terms of energy state, namely fast, epithermic and thermic in order of
decreasing energy (Fig. 2).

• The energy loss from fast neutron energy levels through epithermic to the limit of
thermic energy, is generally thought of as a loss of velocity which occurs especially

through elastic scattering, that is collisions with particles having the same mass as
neutron.

• For logging purposes this is mainly hydrogen nuclei.

• Collision with other, heavier particles, called inelastic scattering, does not result in
significant energy loss.
Neutron - Principles of measurement

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of a neutron life, showing the energy degradation after emission and the
neutron tool detector levels.
Neutron - Principles of measurement

• These two moderating reactions are considered to cause the velocity loss over a
certain trajectory called the slowing-down length.

• The slowing-down length is proportional to the root mean square distance from the
point at which they reach the lower limit of epithermal energy levels.

• This distance can be calculated from a knowledge of the combined capture cross-
sections of the constituent elements of the material traversed.

• In a hydrogen rich medium, slowing-down length will be short compared to that in a

hydrogen free environment (Fig. 3).
Neutron - Principles of measurement

Fig. 3. Schematic trajectories of a neutron in a limestone with no porosity and pure

water.
Neutron - Principles of measurement
• Slowing down length is an important concept in logging as it is used to place
detectors at an optimum distance from a tool’s neutron source.

• Most logging tools use a chemical source producing fast neutrons.

• These have an initial energy of around 4 MeV, which means that they have an initial
velocity of approximately 2800 cm/usec (Fig. 2).

• With this energy and velocity, the neutrons have considerable penetration
capabilities but after a few milliseconds and successive collisions (100 or so), the
original fast neutron have slowed down through epithermic to thermic levels with
about 0.25 eV of energy and a velocity of around 0.22 cm/usec (Fig. 2).

• To reduce a neutron from 2 MeV (2200 cm/usec) to 0.025 eV (0.22 cm/usec)

requires 18 (elastic) collisions with hydrogen nuclei but 257 (non-elastic) collisions
with silicon and 368 with calcium nuclei.

• Expressed in another way, elastic collision with hydrogen can take all a neutron’s
energy but in non-elastic collisions with heavier elements, the energy reduction is
typically around 10% to 25 %: the effect of hydrogen is seen as dominant (Table 2).
Neutron - Principles of measurement

Table 2. Neutron slowing-down parameters. (*number of collisions

involved during change from 4.2 Mev to 1 eV)
Neutron - Principles of measurement

• At the lower energy, thermic levels, the neutron gets diffused.

• The period of diffusion come to an end as the neutrons undergo absorption
interactions. That is, they are captured by other nuclei which then change energy
state and, mostly, become unstable.

• The rapidity of neutron absorption depends on the capture cross-section of the

absorbing nuclei of the formation, which is a measure of how effective it is at
capturing neutrons.

• As far as logging is concerned, the dominant effect on neutrons during the collision
and scattering phase, is the mass of the (formation) nuclei, hydrogen dominating.

• The dominant effect during the absorption phase is the capture cross-section of the
thermal neutron absorbers, the effect of hydrogen being much less marked
(Table 3).
Neutron - Principles of measurement

Table 3. Thermal neutron

capture cross-sections of
some elements.

B = Boron; Gd = Gadolinium
Neutron - Tools
• The neutron tool today generally consists of a fast neutron source and two detectors
(Fig. 4).

• The source (Fig. 5) bombards the formation with neutrons and the detectors
measure their loss of energy as they pass through it.

• Tool sources are mostly chemical, such as plutonium-berrylium (PuBe) or americum-

berryllium (AmBe), which produce fast neutrons with a peak energy level around 4
MeV.

• Historically, the first neutron tools consisted of a source and just a single detector
but these were quite affected by borehole environment and most tools now have
two detectors, a near and far (Fig. 4).

• In the tool, both source and detectors are placed on a skid pressed against the
borehole wall.

• The two detectors are placed along the skid, away from the source, at a distance
calculated from the slowing down length so that they are mainly in the area of
thermal neutron energy in typical formations.
Neutron - Tools

Fig. 4. A compensated neutron tool – schematic. The source and detectors are held
pressed against the borehole wall.
Neutron - Tools
• The tool results are given by a ratio of the near detector/far detector counts, thereby
eliminating borehole effects as much as possible.

• This is because the far detector readings, which contain both hole and formation
effects, are ‘corrected’ by the near detector readings which have mainly hole effects,
leaving only the effects of the formation.

• The ratio results are presented on the log as neutron porosity units after empirical
calibration.

• Today the neutron sonde is usually combined in one tool with the density, gamma ray
and caliper.

• In these combination tools, the neutron sonde is positioned above thus logging the
formation first, since the gamma bombardment used by the density tool could affect
the neutron readings.
Neutron - Tools

Fig. 5. Spatial distribution of neutrons and disintegration products around a fast neutron
source as used in logging tools.
Neutron - Log Format

• The neutron log is generally plotted across tracks 2 and 3 (Fig. 6).

• The units are neutron porosity units from empirical calibration. That is , neutron
porosity units represent real porosity in clean limestones but only in clean
limestones.

• Since the neutron is generally run combined with the density in one tool, a combined
neutron-density log heading has become standard.

• This generally shows the scales for both the neutron and the density standardized for
clean limestone matrix. On this format the density log is a solid line, the neutron log a
dashed line (Fig. 6).
Neutron - Log Format

Fig. 6. Typical log heading for a neutron-density tool combination. This heading is of the type produced by the
Schlumberger CSU unit. The neutron and density log scales are compatible for a clean limestone N, 0% =
2.70g/cm3.
Neutron - Depth of investigation
• The depth of investigation of the neutron tool is generally small.

• It is of the order of 15 – 25 cm (Fig. 7).

• It varies with each tool but also varies as a function of the hydrogen index
and therefore porosity.

• Maximum investigation is in low-porosity materials (Table 2).

Table 2. Depth of investigation of

the neutron tools as a function
of porosity
Neutron - Depth of investigation

Fig. 7. The moderate depth of investigation of the neutron tool illustrated by experimentally-derived
J-factor curves. These are for a thermal type, two-detector neutron tool and a 35% porosity
water-filled sand.
Neutron - Bed resolution

• The relatively shallow depth of investigation of the neutron tool is accompanied by

good bed resolution.

• True formation values may be obtained on the log in beds down to about 60 cm.
However, with average logging speeds it is best to consider the minimum
resolution
to be 1 m.

• The neutron log has a slightly lower resolution than the density log but it is still a
good boundary indicator.
Neutron - Unwanted logging effects
• The common unwanted environmental effects which influence the neutron log are
shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Unwanted environmental effects – neutron log.

Neutron - Quantitative uses
- Porosity
• The neutron log is used to derive porosity.
• The tool measures hydrogen abundance or hydrogen index.
• In clean water bearing formations, the only hydrogen present is in the formation
water (H2O).
• The neutron tool therefore responds to the volume of water-filled pore space, and
gives a measure of the porosity.
• Expressed mathematically,

where is the true porosity, a, B are constants, and N is the neutron-tool reading.
o is necessary for the above calculation as matrix materials have differing
• Calibration
effects on the neutron log which change with porosity.
• A water-filled sandstone with 20% porosity gives a different neutron log reading to
water-filled limestone with 20% porosity (Fig. 8).
• Alternatively, if very accurate results are required, for example in a field study, the
neutron log porosities can be compared to measured core porosities (fig. 9).
• The empirical calibration allows zones not cored to be accurately and confidently
interpreted .
Neutron - Quantitative uses
- Porosity

Fig. 8. Graph for deriving the true porosity from a Schlumberger CNL tool values for defined sandstone,
limestone
and dolomite matrices. Note that only the limestone matrix gives a 1/1 relationship. Example: tool
neutron
Neutron - Quantitative uses
- Porosity

Fig. 9. Compensated neutron log values plotted against core porosity values (points with grain
densities between 2.84 – 2.88g/cm3). Data from 18 wells. Number of values = 475.
Neutron - Quantitative uses
- Hydrocarbon effects on neutron porosity
• The rules governing the relationship between neutron log porosity and the true
porosity in clean formations are valid when either water or oil fill the pores (the two

fluids have essentially the same hydrogen index).

• However, gas having a very low density, has a very low hydrogen index compared to
water.

• The presence of gas makes the neutron log give too low a porosity (Fig. 10).
Corrections for gas content can be made but the best use of this phenomenon is
qualitative.

• On neutron-density combination logs gas stands out very distinctly, giving a large
negative separation (Fig. 10).
Neutron - Quantitative uses
- Hydrocarbon effects on neutron porosity

Fig. 10A. Logs (A) showing the effect of gas on the neutron (and density) logs. The neutron values
from A are used in the cross-plot B (Fig. 10B). The neutron shows too low a porosity
in gas zones.
Neutron - Quantitative uses
- Shale effects on neutron porosity
• Since the neutron log is sensitive to all hydrogen nuclei, it is sensitive to both free
and bound water.

• The former is formation water, the latter occurs in clays either within the molecule
or adsorbed between clay mineral layers.

• Slight admixture of shale with reservoir matrix material therefore disrupt neutron
porosity values, and the true porosity cannot be calculated without corrections.

• A study of shaly sandstones showed that in quartz-clay mixtures the hydrogen

indexes of wet clay and formation water are very similar i.e. the neutron is
incapable
of separating wet clay from water.
Neutron - Quantitative uses
•The neutron-derived porosity is therefore erroneous and the neutron cannot be used
to derive a clay volume.

• In shaly sandstones, therefore, the neutron porosity value should not be used.

- Lithology identification

• The use of the neutron log to identify lithologies depends on an understanding of

the distribution of the hydrogen index in natural materials.

• The hydrogen detected by the neutron tool occurs in two principal chemical
combinations, one between hydrogen and carbon (the hydrocarbons), and one
between hydrogen and oxygen (water).

• Hydrocarbons occur as gases (methane), liquids (oil) or as solids (coal).

• Water occurs as free water (in pores), as adsorbed ions (as in clay inter-layer zones),
as water of crystallization (as in evaporites).
Neutron - Quantitative uses
• The lithologies in which these various forms of combined hydrogen are found have
hydrogen indexes which cover almost the entire scale between 1 and 0.

• Probably only water can be recognized categorically by its hydrogen index, which is
1.

• However, the neutron log gives an extremely sensitive reflection of lithological

characteristics and changes, and combined with other log responses the hydrogen
index becomes diagnostic.
- Neutron log in shales: porosity and compaction
• The neutron log shows abnormally high ‘porosities’ in shale or clay intervals.

• Values vary between 75% o N and 25% o N, but a typical shale has values around
40-50% o N (Fig.13).
Neutron - Quantitative uses

Fig. 13. Typical neutron log response in a sand-shale sequence. Shale gives high values
o N 40-45%: sands give lower values o N 28-30%. o N in shales is due to free, adsorbed
and interlayer water, and does not give real porosity.
Neutron - Quantitative uses
• Frequently, when compaction is indicated on other logs (for example the sonic) the
neutron log value remains constant (Fig. 14).

Fig. 14. Compaction in a shale sequence shown by a decrease in interval transit time (increase in
velocity) while the neutron log shows constant values.
Neutron