Determining bitumen, water and solids in oil sands ore by using low-field NMR

Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been used as a quick and non-destructive technique to characterize oil and water. This study used low-field NMR technique to determine the amount of bitumen, water and solids for unconsolidated oil sand ores from two different depositional environments. The paper described how the low-field NMR measurement and density algorithm work on oil sands ore, followed by the description of the experiment workflow, and the analysis for samples from two different depositional environments. The study also provided a comparison with Dean-Stark results, an industry standard to measure the bitumen, water and solids. Particle size distribution was also analyzed. A densitometry technique, with simultaneous pore volume measurement, was developed to provide the volume of the ore sample and complement the NMR results. A density algorithm was introduced to determine fluid and solid content. It was concluded that the results from the pore volume measurement were comparable with those from Dean-Stark extraction and low-field NMR. A combined NMR pore volume technique seems to minimize errors compared to the Dean-Stark extraction. (author)