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Chapter One - Borehole Environment

The document discusses borehole conditions that affect well logging measurements, including borehole size, drilling mud, and mud filtrate invasion. It describes how the borehole environment is altered after drilling, with mud filtrate invading and potentially flushing the formation near the borehole. This creates zones of invaded and uninvaded formation with different fluid saturations and resistivities. There are three main invasion profiles - step, transition, and annulus - that describe how mud filtrate invasion typically occurs in formations. Accurate well logging requires accounting for these borehole environmental factors and invasion effects.

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dana mohammed
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152 views

Chapter One - Borehole Environment

The document discusses borehole conditions that affect well logging measurements, including borehole size, drilling mud, and mud filtrate invasion. It describes how the borehole environment is altered after drilling, with mud filtrate invading and potentially flushing the formation near the borehole. This creates zones of invaded and uninvaded formation with different fluid saturations and resistivities. There are three main invasion profiles - step, transition, and annulus - that describe how mud filtrate invasion typically occurs in formations. Accurate well logging requires accounting for these borehole environmental factors and invasion effects.

Uploaded by

dana mohammed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Well logging – Borehole Environment

Dana mohammad
1. Introduction:
- The reservoir rock is composed of porous and permeable hydrocarbon
bearing rock. The rock matrix is generally made up of grains of
sandstone, limestone and dolomite or mixture of them. Pore space
between the rock grains is filled by water, oil or gas.
- Rock and the fluids undergoes alteration in the vicinity of the
borehole after being drilled.
- All logging measurements are affected by the borehole and the
altered rock and fluid around it.

2. Borehole Conditions:
- The borehole conditions which affecting the log
measurements including:
a) Borehole Size
b) Drilling Mud and Mud cake
c) Mud Filtrate 2
a) Borehole Size:
- Borehole size depends on the size of
the drill bit which is used to drill the
hole (well). The well drilling is
begun with a relatively large diameter
drill bit.
- There are some of the
changes
borehole size (diameter) at the
intervals above the drill bit caused by
drilling fluid and the rock (lithology)
properties being drilled.

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- In-gauge or On-gauge hole:
The borehole diameter is roughly equal to the bit size in
hard
formations such as dense limestone and hard cemented sandstone.

- Overgauge or oversize hole:


The caliper log measures a larger hole diameter than the drill bit in
soft (unconsolidated) formations and sloughing shale which are
prone to crumble or collapse into the borehole (washout).

- Undergauge or undersize hole:


Excessive mud (filter) cake can build up across a high pores and
permeable formation and reduce the borehole size to be less than bit
size. Under gauge hole can occur in sloughing shale before being
collapsed.

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b) Drilling mud and Mud Cake:
- The main functions of drilling mud are used to:
1. Remove cuttings from the wellbore
2. Cool and lubricate the drill bit and drill string
3. Create a borehole pressure as a direct result of the weight of the mud
column.
4. In some cases is also used to transmit signals from logging tools at in
situ downhole to the surface.

- There are basically four types of drilling fluid:


1. Fresh-water mud
2. Salt-water mud
3. Oil based mud
4. Polymer based mud

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- The hydrostatic pressure of the drilling fluid must be greater than the
formation pressure (overbalanced mud system) otherwise blowout
may occur. This allows for entry (invasion) of drilling mud fluids into
the permeable formation that affects the response of logging tools.
- Mud cake forms usually within the first few minutes of the formation
being penetrated as a result of pressure differential between the mud
column and formation. The mud cake build-up is most effective in
high permeable formations.

- The pressure differential forces mud filtrate into the permeable


formation, and the solid particles of the mud are deposited on the
borehole wall where they form a mud cake and effectively seal off the
formation to further invasion.

- The mud cake thickness is usually between (0.25 - 1 in) depending on


the mud properties. The mud cake has a very low permeability (10-2
− 10-4 mD). 6
c) Mud Filtrate:
The borehole pressure condition is represented
with:
- Mud hydrostatic mud pressure at a
certain depth (Pm)
- Formation pore pressure at the same
depth (Pf).
- The pressure difference (Pm−Pf) is known
as
overbalance. Vice versa underbalance
(Pf−Pm)
- Sandface pressure (Psf)
- The pressure drop (∆Pmc) over mud cake
(Pm−Psf). 7
- The mud system is designed to form an impermeable filter cake
which minimizes the leak-off of mud filtrate into the formation. Filter
cake has a finite permeability and there is always some fluid loss
occurring.

- The greatest fluid loss occurs immediately behind the bit before
a filter-cake has formed. This is known as spurt loss.

- The rate of fluid loss attains an approximately constant value during


the mud circulation period. Since the filter cake thickness reaches
equilibrium due to a balance between cake erosion and cake
deposition. This is known as dynamic filtration or fluid loss.

- When mud circulation is stopped; Filter cake gradually increases in


thickness and mud fluid loss rate slowly decreases. This period is
known as static filtration.
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Mechanism of Mud Filtrate Invasion

9
3. Borehole Environment and Formation Parameters:

Front view

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Top view

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dh : Hole
diameter
: Diameter of invaded zone(inner boundary; flushed zone)
di : Diameter of invaded zone(outer boundary; invaded
dj zone)
: Thickness of mudcake
hmc
: Water saturation of uninvaded zone
Sw
: Water saturation flushed zone
Rxomc :: Resistivity
S Resistivity of
of the
the drilling mud
R
mudcake
m Rmf : Resistivity of
mud filtrate Rs : Resistivity
of shale
Rw : Resistivity of formation
water
Rxo : Resistivity of flushed
zone
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Ri , Ran : Resistivity of
- As a result of drilling fluid filtration, most of the original formation
fluids may be flushed away by the mud filtrate in the area close to the
borehole. This zone is referred to as the flushed zone. It contains, if
the flushing is complete, only mud filtrate. If the formation was
originally hydrocarbon bearing, only residual hydrocarbons.

- Further out from the borehole, the displacement of the formation


fluids by the mud filtrate is less and less complete. This is resulting in
a transition from mud filtrate saturation to original formation fluid
saturation. This zone is referred to as the transition or annulus.

- Invaded zone include both flushed and transition zones.

- The undisturbed formation beyond the transition zone is referred to


as the un-invaded, virgin, or uncontaminated zone.

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- The extent or depth of the flushed and transition zones depends on
many parameters such as:
1. Type and characteristics of the drilling mud.
2. The formation porosity (higher formation porosity, the deeper the
invasion).
3. The formation permeability (higher permeability, the deeper the
invasion).
4. The pressure differential (higher pressure differential, the
deeper the invasion).
5. The time since the formation was first drilled.

- In fractured formations the mud filtrate invades easily into the


fractures, but it may penetrate very little into the un-fractured blocks
of low-permeability matrix. Therefore, only a small portion of the
total original formation fluids is displaced by the mud filtrate - even
very close to the borehole. In this case, no true flushed zone exists.
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4. Invasion and Resistivity Profiles:
Invasion andresistivity profiles are diagrammatic, theoretical,
and cross sectional views moving away from the borehole
into a formation. This is used to illustrate the
horizontal distributions of the invaded and un-
invaded zones and their corresponding relative resistivity.
- There are three commonly recognized invasion profiles:
a) Step Profile
b) Transition Profile
c) Annulus Profile

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a) Step Profile:
- It is the simplest invasion profile consisting of:
• Cylindrical invaded zone with diameter equal to (dj) and
resistivity (Rxo).
• Un-invaded zone with resistivity either (Ro) if the formation is
water bearing, or (Rt) if it is hydrocarbon bearing.
• There is no transition (annulus) zone.

- Shallow reading resistivity logging tools read the resistivity of the


invaded zone( Rxo), while deeper reading resistivity logging tools
read true resistivity of the un-invaded zone (Rt).

- In the case of fresh water-based mud the salinity of the mud filtrate
is usually less than formation water
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b) Transition Profile:
- This is the most realistic model of true borehole conditions.

- The invasion of mud filtrate (Rmf) diminishes gradually, rather than


abruptly, through the transition zone to the outer boundary of the
invaded zone (dj).

- The invasion diameter includes: (di) for flushed zone and (dj) for
transition zone.

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c) Annulus Profile:
- This reflects a temporary fluid distribution which should disappear
with time.
- It only occurs in hydrocarbon bearing formations where the mobility
of oil or gas is greater than water, causing the hydrocarbons to move
away faster than the interstitial water.
- This can result in an annular (transition) zone with high formation
water saturation being formed between the flushed and un-invaded
zone.

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