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Originally 
appreared in: 

RESERVOIR
CHARACTERIZATION

October 2007 issue, pgs 7785.

Posted with permission.

Porosity partitioning and permeability

quantification in vuggy carbonates
Porosity-permeability relationships were established for three formations
in the Permian basin, West Texas, using wireline logs.
Duffy Russell* and Jonas Gournay, ExxonMobil; Chunming Xu* and Pete Richter, Schlumberger
A pilot study of 13 wells in Means oil field of the Permian
basin, West Texas, established porosity-permeability relationships for the Permian Queen, Grayburg and San Andres formations. The optimized workflow used borehole image and
conventional log processing with calibration to core data. This
approach allowed the quantification of porosity and permeability heterogeneity in vuggy carbonate facies in the field.

Texas

Eastern shelf

basi

Delaware basin

and

Duffy Russell now works for Saudi Aramco; Chunming Xu now works for
Shell in Houston.

New Mexico

Northern shelf

Midl

Northwest shelf

Central basin platform

INTRODUCTION
Means field was discovered in northeast Andrews County,
West Texas, in 1934 with the Humble R. M. Means No. 1
well, Fig. 1. Oil production is from Permian strata, mainly the
Guadalupian San Andres, Grayburg and Queen formations,
with supporting production from Wolfcampian and Leonardian strata. These formations are predominantly dolomitized
marine carbonate platform successions, with the exception of
the lower Grayburg, which is a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic
reservoir facies. Typical completion strategies are to fracturestimulate the tighter Grayburg reservoirs and to perforate and
acidize the better San Andres reservoirs. Following 31 years of
primary recovery with 40-acre well spacing, the field has been
developed on 10- to 20-acre well spacing in the active-flank
waterflood areas and 10-acre well spacing in the updip areas
where tertiary recovery by CO2 injection is conducted. Recovery efficiencies vary from about 14% in the waterflood area to
42% in the CO2-flood area.
The original carbonate platform has been structurally
modified into a north-trending asymmetric anticline with
a steeply dipping eastern limb and a gently dipping western limb. Outer-shelf, shelf-margin and middle-shelf facies
dominate the San Andres formation. The Grayburg is predominantly middle-shelf facies characterized by laminated
dolomite with interparticle and intraparticle porosity and
minimal vuggy porosity. Thin anhydrite horizons may occur,
interbedded with finely laminated fluvial and eolian sandstone. Anhydritic dolomite is also a common facies. Permeability in both the dolomite and sandstone is usually less than
1 mD, but can be as high as 10 mD. The lower Grayburg is
dominated by middle- to inner-shelf facies. The upper Grayburg is dominated by evaporite and dolomite facies. During
deposition of the San Andres formation, shallow-water carbonate sedimentation dominated the central basin platform
region, producing a thick carbonate sequence that later became completely dolomitized. The Queen formation is domi-

nated by supratidal evaporite facies (anhydrite and halite) and

dolomite interbedded with fluvial and eolian sandstone. The
sandstone horizons are the main reservoirs. The Queen and

CO2 project
outline

Major San Andres and

Grayburg fields

Unit
outline
North
Dome

USA
South
Dome

Fig. 1. Location map of Means field. The black dots are MultiStation Access Unit (MSAU) wells that have only conventional
logs (neutron, density, sonic, laterolog, gamma ray, etc.).
Wells denoted by other colors have borehole microresistivity
image data and conventional log data. Among the imaged
wells, Well MSAU-5508 (red dot) was selected as the
calibration well with core data. Well MSAU-5456 (dark blue
dot) has an elemental composition spectroscopy log. Well
MSAU-1972 is located with the light blue dot.1

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RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION

A study of 13 wells in Means oil field established porositypermeability relationships for the Permian Queen, Grayburg
and San Andres formations. For example, in different vuggy
zones of the San Andres formation, with similar total porosity values of about 8%, permeability is found to vary by 23
orders of magnitude. This variation is modeled by an exponential relationship between permeability and the vuggy porosity partitioned from borehole image processing. To apply
the methodology to wells without image logs, a vuggy porosity
index is estimated from conventional logs through a modified
sonic porosity analysis. Permeability estimation uses both the
vuggy porosity partitioned from borehole image logs and the
vuggy porosity index from conventional logs.
In the San Andres, vugs in thin zones result in layercake structures of thin, super-permeable zones sandwiched
between thicker, non-vuggy zones containing bypassed oil.
The average conventional-log porosity in these thin zones,
where the layering is below log resolution, results in an erroneous permeability profile when input to the exponential relationship between vuggy porosity and permeability.
Similarly, the thin-bedded Grayburg siliciclastic and dolomite facies rocks, which were generally thought to be poor
reservoirs in this field, exhibit significant vertical variation
in porosity and permeability.
Petrophysical rock types have been differentiated using image and conventional log data and neural network processing.
The integration of log-derived permeability and rock types
with production data has provided the basis for interwell heterogeneity prediction and field-wide completion strategies.
Fig. 2. Borehole porosity spectrum processed from an image
log in the San Andres formation. The tracks from left to right
are: 1) calibrated formation microresistivity image log with
darker colors representing more conductive rock textures; 2)
vug porosity partitioned using the image log (shaded green),
total porosity from the image log (red) and neutron-density
crossplot porosity (PXND, in black); and 3) borehole porosity
spectrum processed from image data. The waveforms
are porosity histograms representing porosity variation
around the borehole from 0 to 0.5 (porosity points > 0.5 not
presented). The higher porosity heterogeneity due to vugs is
shown by the wider porosity spectrum. Where homogeneous
matrix porosity dominates, the porosity spectrum is narrower.

lower Grayburg are mixed siliciclastic-carbonate successions

marked by cycles of shallow-water carbonate deposition, subaerial exposure and terrestrial-derived siliciclastic bypass. The
resulting stratigraphy is characterized by thin, interbedded
carbonates (now dolomitized), anhydrites and fine-grained
sandstones and siltstones.
OVERVIEW
Previous studies on outcrop analog sections were combined
with conventional wireline log data analysis in order to describe the stratigraphy and reservoir heterogeneity.2 However, conventional wireline logs lack the intrinsic vertical and
azimuthal resolution to provide adequate characterization of
reservoir properties. Image logs are the key to resolving smallscale heterogeneity in complex carbonate reservoir pore systems. Thus a different workflow is used to partition vug porosity and quantify permeability and to characterize reservoir
rock types by integrating data from calibrated borehole images
and conventional wireline logs.3

METHODOLOGY
Of the 13 wells studied, 8 had been logged with both borehole imaging and conventional tools. Two of these eight imaged
wells also had whole core with which to calibrate the interpretation and permeability quantification. Five existing wells in
the northern part of the field, in which the imaged wells are
most concentrated, had only conventional logs; these five were
selected to evaluate the methodology once established.
Borehole image logs have a spatial resolution of about 0.2
in. (5 mm) and 80% azimuthal coverage in an 8-in. borehole.
They reveal rock textures that contrast with resistive rock
matrix, such as pores invaded by conductive drilling mud,
and these produce relative changes in microresistivity, Fig. 2.
Thus, image logs are used for various quantitative analyses,
such as determining vug connectivity by means of image texture analysis and partitioning primary and secondary porosity
through borehole-porosity image analysis.4 The terms vug
and vuggy refer to voids that are either visually identifiable as holes on the images (Fig. 2) or recognizable through
specific log signatures identified through log data processing. Here primary porosity refers to the matrix porosity or
microporosity, in contrast to the secondary porosity, which
is heterogeneously distributed around the borehole. Based
on borehole images, cores and sonic log data, the secondary
porosity defined from borehole image processing correlates
most often with vuggy or moldic porosity.
One critical part of the processing chain is to calibrate the
microresistivity image log properly with a shallow laterolog
(LLS or equivalent) before any quantitative petrophysical
analysis. The calibrated microresistivity image is then converted into a calibrated porosity image based on a modification of the technique described by Newberry et al. (1996) to
partition primary and secondary porosity. This method com-

OCTOBER 2007 World Oil

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION

Fig. 3. Core from the residual oil zone in the lower San Andres.
Unfilled vugs (V) are represented as dark, conductive spots on
borehole electrical images. Vugs filled with resistive sulfur (S)
and heavy oil (O) may not be recognized as vugs on electrical
images.

putes the percentage of primary and secondary porosities and

not the sizes of the pores.
An algorithm is developed for estimating permeability in
wells with borehole image data by analyzing the correlation
among partitioned porosity, rock types and core permeability.
A method is shown for using porosity data from conventional
logs (sonic, neutron and density) to estimate both a vug-porosity index and permeability, after calibration to the borehole
image results, for extrapolation to wells without core and image logs.
POROSITY AND PERMEABILITY ANALYSES
Core data from Well MSAU-5508 and the results from elemental composition log data in Well MSAU-5456 confirm a
critical assumption that conductivity on borehole image logs
primarily results from conductive fluids in the pores rather
than from the presence of clays or other conductive minerals,
Fig. 3. This confirmation provided the theoretical foundation
for the analysis of the pore systems around the borehole using
electrical image logs.
After calibration to shallow laterolog resistivity, the calibrated electrical borehole image was transformed into a borehole
porosity image, which is displayed as a high-resolution porosity variation map around the borehole using the algorithm:5

(Eq. 1)

where fimage is the transformed porosity variation around the

borehole, PXND is neutron-density crossplot porosity, LLS
is shallow laterolog resistivity or equivalent, and Rimage is the
microresistivity from the calibrated image log.
The porosity variation around the borehole is quantitatively analyzed with 28-bin porosity spectra calculated over
a 1-in. interval spacing along a vertical-moving window. The
spectra are displayed as variable-density waveforms in Fig. 2,

Fig. 4. Permeability from core data in the Grayburg and San

Andres formations exponentially correlates with the vug
porosity from image and sonic vug index in Well MSAU5508. The non-vuggy sandstones and dolomites in the upper
section generally have lower porosity but are more conductive
(darker) on the borehole image than the vuggy dolomites in
the middle section. Tracks from left to right are: 1) borehole
image; 2) borehole porosity spectrum, scaled at 0.5 to 0; 3)
image vug porosity vs. sonic vug index, with measured depth
in ft; 4) core porosity (blue dots) vs. PXND (black) and total
porosity from borehole image (shaded red); 5) permeability
(logarithmic scale) from core (red dots), image data (shaded
green) and conventional log data (black); and 6) perforation
zones and relative injection rate.

track 3. A cutoff at the median value plus 4 standard deviations was used to separate primary porosity and secondary
porosity, the latter corresponding mostly to vuggy porosity
in Means field. Figures 2 and 4 illustrate the wider porosity
spectra in the more vuggy zones in the San Andres formation and the narrower spectra in the non-vuggy Queen and
Grayburg formations.
The vug connectivity coefficient, a rock-texture parameter extracted from borehole images using texture processing,
is a good indicator of permeability in carbonate reservoirs.6
However, the image-texture processing data in Means field

OCTOBER 2007 World Oil

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION

did not match the core permeability, especially in the San Andres vuggy zones. In the Grayburg formation, an 8%-porosity
zone had permeability less than 0.1 mD. In contrast, a zone
with 810% porosity in the vuggy San Andres formation had
more than 100 mD permeability, Fig. 4. The production data
demonstrates that nearly 100% of injection took place in the
vuggy zones. Both the core permeability and injection data
suggest that vugs are well connected and that their contribution to the high permeability is much greater than that indicated by the vug connectivity coefficient. Residual oil saturation does render a lower vug connectivity coefficient from
image-texture processing, but it should not be as pessimistic
below the oil/water contact. This dramatic increase of permeability due to the increase of vug porosity, without total porosity change, results in the inverse correlation between total
porosity and permeability.7
Through iterative experimentation, the Klinkenberg-corrected permeability (in mD) from core plugs in Well MSAU5508 exponentially varies with vug porosity as follows:

(Eq. 2)
where f and fvug are the total porosity and vug porosity
from borehole image-porosity processing, respectively, and a
and b are constants that have been rounded to 10 and 100,
respectively. The af2 term is equivalent to permeability in
homogeneous rocks (when vug porosity is zero). The constant a was determined by manually matching af2 to the
core permeability in intervals with negligible vug porosity
(e.g., the interval above 4,500 ft in Fig. 4). In vuggy zones
below 4,500 ft, the permeability was dominantly controlled
by the product of vug porosity fvug and vug connectivity factor b. We then used the same a and b values in all the study
wells in Means field. Constants a and b may be unique for
a particular oil field with its characteristic pore system, vug
connectivity and fluid content. Therefore, calibration to core
permeability data is essential.
To extend the heterogeneity analysis to uncored wells with
no borehole image logs, the neutron-density crossplot porosity
and Wyllie time-average porosity from the sonic log are used as
input for vug porosity prediction. This is based on the assumption that vugs, especially spherical vugs in carbonates, have
little effect on compressional sonic waves and cause the Wyllie
porosity to read too low.8 Therefore, the difference between the
neutron-density and sonic porosities can be regarded as a measure of vuggy porosity. For example, the difference between the
total porosity and the sonic porosity, referred to hereafter as the
sonic vug-porosity index or sonic vug index, correlates well with
the secondary or vuggy porosity derived from image processing
in almost all of the wells, Figs. 4 and 5. A few discriminators are
needed to eliminate vug porosity computation in noncarbonates. In sandstones and within halite washout zones, the Wyllie
porosity is larger than the total porosity, thereby yielding negative porosity differences, which have been excluded. The thick,
tight dolomite zones are used as a zero baseline to calibrate this
vug-porosity index. In Eq. 2, for wells with no image data, the
input value for f is the neutron-density crossplot porosity and
fvug is the sonic vug-porosity index.
Figure 4 demonstrates the good agreement between the
three types of porosity and the permeability data. The disagreement at high-and low-porosity points occurs because the
total porosity curve, PXND, reflects an average porosity for a
borehole interval of about 24 ft, whereas core porosity may
not always represent the total porosity at a given depth because

of its relatively small sampling volume. Moreover, it is often

impossible to obtain representative cores from sections with
large vugs, thereby creating a sampling bias towards homogeneous rocks. Although variable depth mismatches between the
core samples and the 1-in. resolution image-derived data make
it difficult to calculate error statistics or display meaningful
crossplots, the high-resolution porosity from the borehole images apparently provides a unique solution in heterogeneous
dolomites. For example, in the less vuggy interval shallower
than 4,500 ft in Well MSAU-5508 (Fig. 4), the total porosity
curve from the borehole image almost overlies the core porosity curve, outperforming the PXND. In particular, thin
streaks in the Grayburg sandy dolomites with porosity values
greater than 10% (e.g., in the 4,4004,460-ft interval) match
well with cores but they are not resolved by conventional logs.
Figure 2 demonstrates that vugs in the San Andres formation
are developed in thin zones. The total porosity from borehole
images varies from 2% to 20%, which correlates with the image texture data, but the openhole log porosity averages the
variation to almost a constant 8%. With the exponential factor of vug porosity, the two porosity results yield significantly
different reservoir flow characteristics (i.e., permeability).
In the vuggy 4,5004,580-ft interval, the difference between borehole-image porosity and core-plug porosity is
greater. Borehole-image total porosity is equivalent to wholecore porosity. Therefore, greater heterogeneity yields a greater
difference between porosity values from borehole images and
core plugs. The sonic vug-porosity index is computed from
several logs of different resolution and different depths of investigation. For this reason, the sonic vug-porosity index has
lower resolution, less accuracy, and needs more calibration
than vug porosity derived from borehole images.
The microconductivity response of the borehole image log
results primarily from the conductive filtrate in the dolomites.
Therefore, the image vug porosity and permeability correlate
with the effective vug porosity and permeability. Vugs filled
with euhedral sulfur crystals and heavy oil are observed in
cores, Fig. 3. These non-effective vugs are invisible on the
borehole images due to negligible resistivity contrast between
the matrix and infill materials. The partially filled vugs may
appear as moldic voids on borehole images, Fig. 2. Although
in many intervals of the San Andres formation anhydrite and
sulfur content may comprise 25% of the matrix volume based
on elemental spectroscopy log results, permeability from the
borehole images in these anhydrite-rich zones can still exceed
1,000 mD. The exponential relationship between permeability and vug porosity indicates that pore throats and connectivity increase dramatically as the volume of effective vugs
increases. In the well-developed vuggy zones in which core
recovery ranges from poor to impossible, borehole image logs
may constitute the most valuable data source for continuous
permeability measurements along the borehole.
IMPLICATIONS FOR RELATIVE PRODUCTIVITY
The integration of borehole image data and conventional
log porosity data explains anomalous zones. Figure 5 illustrates a typical problem in which thin, high-permeability
streaks are swept (conductive) while thicker oil zones with
as much as 10% porosity contain bypassed hydrocarbons
(resistive). The borehole image shows a series of resistive dolomites, each with a thickness of 34 ft, separated by thin,
high-permeability streaks immediately above the oil/water
contact. Conventional logs show about 1012% total poros-

OCTOBER 2007 World Oil

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION

ity and values of about 5% for sonic vug-porosity index in

the resistive zones. The vug porosity from the image is too
low in these resistive zones above the oil/water contact due
to the anomalous resistivity response. In contrast, the interval
below the oil/water contact is much more conductive despite
its lower porosity. The vug porosity computed from the image also matches well with the sonic vug index in the lower
interval. Core observations suggest heavy oil and sulfur plugging the vugs as a plausible interpretation for these resistive,
porous zones above the oil/water contact.
In this case, the highly porous, oil-saturated zone does not
produce when it is adjacent to a thief zone that short circuits the fluid flow. This observation supports the concept
that high-permeability thief zones are the primary cause of
early water breakthrough and low sweep efficiency. Relative
productivity with continuous permeability profiles should be
modeled before production and, especially, before water injection. Quantification of the permeability heterogeneity along
the borehole is only the first step; it is equally important to
know how these zones are networked in 3D reservoir space.
CONCLUSIONS
Primary and secondary porosities that primarily correspond to matrix and vug porosity in Means field can be
partitioned using either borehole porosity-spectrum analysis of electrical images or the sonic vug-porosity index from
calibrated sonic porosity and neutron-density crossplot porosity. Synthetic porosity computed from borehole images
resolves porosity heterogeneity more effectively than porosity
derived from conventional wireline logs. The subject methodology provides quick thief-zone identification to optimize
well completion design. Although the discrepancy in depth
and resolution between log data and core data causes a crossplot of synthetic permeability to show scatter, the exponential
correlation between permeability and vug porosity is clear.
Permeability measurements in a heterogeneous rock vary not
only azimuthally but also with measured volume.
Three distinct dolomites in the San Andres formation
with similar porosity values have permeability values that
vary by 23 orders of magnitude. Permeability values derived from borehole images resolve small-scale vertical layer
heterogeneity that cannot be resolved using conventional
logs. Core-derived permeability and borehole-image permeability data have similar trends; however, image-log data
provides a continuous record over vuggy intervals that cannot be sampled with core plugs. The permeability relationship is effectively extrapolated from wells with image logs
to wells with conventional logs and sonic data. Permeability
derived from the sonic vug-porosity index correlates well
with core- and image-log permeability.
WO
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This article was prepared from Porosity partitioning and permeability quantification in vuggy carbonates using wireline logs, Permian Basin, West Texas,
published in the SPWLA journal Petrophysics, 47, No. 1, February 2006, pp.
1322. The authors thank ExxonMobil Production Company for permission to
publish the data. Special thanks go to Bill Newberry with Schlumberger for his
help during the project and to Dr. Shin-Ju Ye with ExxonMobil for her recommendations.
LITERATURE CITED
1 Map modified from Pranter, M. J., Hurley, N. F. and T. L. Davis, Sequence-stratigraphic, petrophysical, and multicomponent seismic analysis of a shelf-margin reservoir: San Andres formation (Permian),
Vacuum field, New Mexico, United States, in Eberli, G. P., Masaferro, J. L. and J. F. Rick Sarg, eds.,
AAPG Memoir 81: Seismic Imaging of Carbonate Reservoirs and Systems, 2004, pp. 5989.
2
Eisenburg, R. A. et al., Modeling reservoir heterogeneity within outer ramp carbonate facies using an
outcrop analog, San Andres Formation in the Permian Basin, AAPG Bulletin, 78, No. 9, 1994, pp. 1337

Fig. 5. Possible bypassed oil zones are sandwiched between

thin thief zones above the oil/water contact in the lower San
Andres formation in Well MSAU-1972, located outside the
CO2 project area. The thin permeable zones are the 1-ft-thick
conductive streaks. Tracks from left to right are: 1) LLS and
borehole image; 2) image vug porosity (shaded) and sonic
vug index (black); 3) total porosity from image (shaded) and
PXND (black); and 4) permeability from image log. The image
vug porosity in track 2 matches well with the sonic vug index
below the O/W contact at about 4,700 ft, but it is too low
above the contact.

1359; Kerans, C., Lucia, F. J. and R. K. Senger, Integrated characterization of carbonate ramp reservoirs
using Permian San Andres Formation outcrop analogs, AAPG Bulletin, 78, No. 2, 1994, pp. 181216;
Lucia, F. J. and C. Kerans, Stratigraphic and operational controls on remaining oil in carbonate-ramp reservoirs, AAPG Abstracts for the International Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, 1997, pp. 13951396;
Lucia, F. J., Carbonate Reservoir Characterization, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999, p. 222; Kazatchenko, E.
and A. Mousatov, Primary and secondary porosity estimation of carbonate formation using total porosity
and the formation factor, SPE 77787 presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
San Antonio, Texas, Sept. 29Oct. 2, 2002.
3 Xu, C. and B. M. Newberry, Method for quantifying permeability of vuggy carbonates using wireline logs,
U.S. Patent No. 6714871 B1, 2004.
4 Russell, S. D., Akbar, M., Vissapragada, B. and G. Walkden, Rock types and permeability prediction
from dipmeter and image logs, AAPG Bulletin, 86, No. 10, 2002, pp. 17091732; Newberry, B. M.,
Grace, L. M., and D. D. Stief, Analysis of carbonate dual porosity systems from borehole electrical images, SPE 35158 presented at the Permian Basin Oil and Gas Recovery Conference, March 2729, 1996.
5
Newberry et al., 1996.
6
Russell et al., 2002.
7 Ibid. Similarly, two different trends in the porosity-permeability crossplot, with the larger slope attributed
to vuggy porosity, were shown by Wang, B. and I. Al-Aasm, Karst-controlled diagenesis and reservoir
development: Example from the Ordovician main-reservoir carbonate rocks on the eastern margin of the
Ordos basin, China, AAPG Bulletin, 86, No. 9, 2002, pp. 16391658.
8 Brie, A., Johnson, D. L. and R. Nurmi, Effect of spherical pores on sonic and resistivity measurements,
paper W in 26th Annual Logging Symposium Transactions, Society of Professional Well Log Analysts,
1985.

OCTOBER 2007 World Oil

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION
The authors
Duffy Russell is a geologist for Saudi Aramco specializing in image log and core characterization of
the Arab-D reservoir of Ghawar field. He has 28
years experience in exploration and production
geology. He previously worked for Mobil in Dallas, evaluating ventures in the Middle East, Russia and Australia; for ADCO in Abu Dhabi, working
on carbonate production challenges in Cretaceous
reservoirs; and at ExxonMobil in Houston, pursuing
the characterization of porosity and permeability in
West Texas carbonate reservoirs. He earned a BS degree in geology at
North Carolina State University, an MS degree in geology at Duke University and a PhD degree in geology from the University of Aberdeen.
Jonas Gournay earned a PhD degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1999 for his research on carbonate diagenesis and reservoir characterization. Since joining Mobil in 1999, and then ExxonMobil, he has
focused his efforts on stratigraphy and reservoir characterization working mostly in carbonate terrains including the Paradox basin, West Texas,
and most recently the Middle East.
Chunming Xu earned a BS degree in geoscience at Jianhan Petroleum
College in China in 1982. He spent 10 years interpreting seismic stratigraphy and thrust tectonics in China and Canada. After joining Schlumberger
in 1992, he worked on methodologies for integrated stratigraphic interpretation and reservoir characterization using wireline logs and seismic
data. He recently joined Shell in Houston as a geologist.
Pete Richter is vice president for Schlumberger Data and Consulting
Services overseeing European, Caspian and African operations and
based in La Defense, France. Mr. Richter has over 20 years experience
in oilfield services and technical management. He joined Schlumberger
in 1981 as a wireline field engineer in the US. In 2002, he was assigned
to the Data and Consulting Services group for the Arabian market as
operations manager. Mr. Richter earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

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