Well Logging

Methods & Applications

— Overview

Petroleum Engineering Department PETE4XX

KNUST
1
 Outline

 What is Well Logging?

 About Oil Well
 Classes of Loggings
 Brief History

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 What is Well Logging?
• Well log is a continuous
measurement of physical •SP •Resistivity

responses of formation
through drilled hole,
physical properties can then
be derived from logs and
used for formation
evaluations.
• Traditionally Logs are
display on girded papers
shown in figure.
• Nowadays the log may be
taken as films, images, and
in digital format.

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 What is Well Logging
• Instrumentation is housed
in a Sonde.
• Lowered to the bottom of
the hole and then logging
is carried out as the tool
is winched up – Why?

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 What is Well Logging
• Logging Vehicle

• A Typical CSU Wellsite Mobile Laboratory

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 What is Well Logging
• Tools
 Sondes normally contain a suite of non-
interfering geophysical tools – multiple logs
can be carried out at once. A string might be
30 m long.

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 What is Well Logging
• Logging tool conveyance

• Wireline logging
• Pipe conveyed logging
• Coiled tubing logging
• Tractor conveyed logging

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 What is Well Logging
• Depth measurement

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 About Oil Well
• Drilling mud is used to
 Cool bit
 Lubricate bit
 bring heavy cuttings back
to the surface.
 Prevent blowouts as it’s
pressure exceeds pore
fluid pressure

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About Oil Well
 Well and it’s environment
• Deposition of drilling fluid creates a
mudcake, up to several mm thick that
seals porous wall rocks.
• Drilling fluids penetrate the wall rock,
replacing indigenous fluids in a flushed
zone, beyond which is the annulus of
invasion (filtrate reduces to zero).
• Zone of invasion from a few cm (shale)
to meters in more porous rock.

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 About Oil Well
Mud
• dh = Hole diameter
Rm Adjacent Bed
• di = Invasion diameter
Virgin Formation Rs
Mud Cake Invasion • Rm = Resistivity of mud
Zone
Rmc
Flushed Virgin • Rw= Resistivity of formation
Transition ZoneZone Formation
fluids
Sxo Sw • Sw= Saturation of formation
h Flushed ZoneR Transition
Rw fluids
mf
Zone
Rxo Rt • Rmc = Resistivity of mud cake
Mud
• Rmf = Resistivity of mud filtrates
Mud Cake • Rxo = Resistivity of flushed zone
hmc
dh • Sxo= Saturation of mud filtrates
dj
di • Rt = Resistivity of formation
(rock + formation fluids)
• Rs= Resistivity of adjacent bed

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About Oil Well
• What can be measured in a borehole is
limited by the characteristics of the
hole.
• While drilling, holes are CASED with
steel pipe to prevent the hole from
collapsing in around the drill pipe.
• Cased holes are lined with cement.
• As the hole is deepened, more casing –
with smaller diameter is inserted in the
hole. The diameter of the outermost
casing might be 16”, and the smallest
only 5”.

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 Classes of Logging
 Logs Help Define
• physical rock characteristics
• Lithology/mineralogy,
• Porosity,
• pore geometry, and
• Permeability.
 Logging data are used to:
• Identify productive zones,
• Determine depth and thickness of zones,
• Distinguish between oil, gas, or water in a reservoir
• Estimate hydrocarbon reserves

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 Classes of Logging
 Borehole information components
• Mud logging
• Core analysis
• Measuring/Logging while drilling – MWD/LWD
• Wireline logging
• Borehole seismics
• Formation testing

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 Classes of Logging
 Classifications of Logging
• Borehole Logging:
 Measuring While Drilling Open Hole
Logging
(MWD)
 Logging While Drilling

(LWD)
 Midcourse Logging

 Logging after Accomplishment

of Drilling
• Cased Hole Logging:
Cased Hole
 Logging after Well
Logging
Completion
 Production Logging

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 Classes of Logging
 Classifications of Logging
• Wireline Logging:
 Coring
 Midcourse Logging

 Logging after Accomplishment of Drilling

 Logging after Well Completion

 Production Logging

• Drill String Logging:

 MWD
 LWD

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 Classes of Logging
 Logging methods & tools
Method Tool Abbrev Uses Parameters
Natural voltage at sand-shale Porosity
Spontaneous Potential SP
contact Permeability
MicroLog ML
Formation resistivity at various Porosity,
Short Normal SN
depth Water saturation
Electrodes Long Normal LN
Resistivity Dipmeter formation dip and strike
DIP Micro resistivity array
estimation
MicroLateroLog MLL
Shallow LateroLog LLS
Deep LateroLog LLD Formation resistivity at various
Electric Porosity,
Focused MicroSpherically Focused diameter, better vertical
MSFL Water saturation
Log resolution
Spherically Focused Log SFL
Formation MicroImager FMI
Medium Induction Log ILM Formation resistivity at various
Porosity,
Induction Deep Induction Log ILD diameter, specially suitable for
Water saturation
Array Induction Tool AIT dry hole or oil-base mud
Propagation time and Dielectric constant,
Electromagnetic Propagation Log EPT
attenuation Water porosity 17
 Classes of Logging
 Logging methods & tools
Method Tool Abbrev Uses Parameters

Dipole Sonic AC

Multi-array acoustic MAA

Velocity Acoustic interval velocity Porosity
Borehole compensated
BHC
sonic

Long Spacing Sonic LSS

Acoustic Cement Bond Logging CBL

Amplitude
Acoustic Variable Density
Amplitude VDL Cement bonding
Logging

Full Wavetrain Acoustic FWA Propagation time and attenuation

acoustic reflection image of the

Imaging Borehole Televiewer BHTV Dips and fractures
borehole 18
 Classes of Logging
 Logging methods & tools
Method Tool Abbre Uses Parameters
v
Natural Gamma-ray Natural Gamma ray radiation at selected estimate of clay content of
NGT
Tool energy bands sedimentary rocks
Natural Gamma-ray Lithology,
NGS Energy distribution of natural gamma ray
Gamma Spectral Log U, TH, K
Formation Density electron density of rock and
FDC Gamma ray photons Compton Scattering
Log fluids.
Litho-density Log LD High and low energy gamma photons Lithology and porosity
Non captured Neutron when neutrons
Neutron-Neutron NN Porosity
collide with Hydrogen atoms
Radioactivity
high energy gamma rays emits when Hydrogen concentration in
Neutron-Gamma Ray NG
neutron absorbed by a Hydrogen atom the formation.

Sidewall Neutron-
Neutron SNP
Thermal Neutron
Neutron slowing-down time
Compensated Hydrogen contents
Isotope source
Neutron- Epithermal CNL
Neutron
Lithology,
Pulse Neutron Log PNL Pulse source 19
saturation of oil
 Classes of Logging
 Logging methods & tools
Method Tool Abbrev Uses Parameters
Caliper Hole diameter Lithology
Temperature Formation temperature
gradients
Vertical Seismic VSP Interval velocity
Seismic Profiling
Borehole Gravity BGM vertical gravity gradient Density
Gravity Meter
Nuclear Magnetic MRIL Type and amount of fluid in Porosity, Water saturation
Resonance Image the pore spaces
Others Log

Through Casing TCRL Formation resistivity S o,

EM Resistivity Logging Reservoir monitoring

Cross-borehole CBCT Formation resistivity Residual mapping

Tomography

Downhole Susceptibility and total

Magnetic Magnetometer induction
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 Classes of Logging
 Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages of Logging
• Direct measurements to the formations and provides objective and

quantitative data for existing wells

• High resolution

• Various methods for different parameters

• Non-destructive.

• Fast and economical.

• Much cheaper than coring.

 Disadvantages of Logging Methods

• Equipment is expensive

• Limited scope of investigation

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 Classes of Logging
 Advantages and Disadvantages

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 Brief History
 Before 1920’s
 1869: First temperature log - Lord Kelvin
 1883: Single electrode resistivity log patented by Fred Brown
 1912: Conrad Schlumberger, a physics professor at the Ecole de Mines
de Paris, France, conceived the idea of prospecting for metal ore
deposits by using electrical conductivity (surface DC)

Conrad Schlumberger
prospecting for ore deposits in
Normandy, France in early
1920’s

•Picture Courtesy of Schlumberger

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 Brief History
 1920’s
 1919: Conrad Schlumberger and his brother Marcel begin work on well
logs.

Conrad Schlumberger Marcel Schlumberger

•Picture Courtesy of Schlumberger

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 Brief History
 1920’s
1926: Schlumberger brothers formed Societe de
Prospection Electrique and developed a theory that
resistivity information from deeper formations
increases effectiveness of surface prospecting.
1927: By lowering an electric sonde down a
1,600-ft (488-m) well in France’s Pechelbronn field
Sept. 5, 1927, the brothers created first resistivity
log.
This log was painstakingly recorded point by
point, meter by meter, using makeshift equipment
and then plotted by stitching together the successive
readings.

•Picture Courtesy of Schlumberger

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 Brief History
 Physics of First Electric Log
Three electrodes – A, M and N – are lowered to
the bottom of the well on three insulated wires.
Current from electrode A passes through the
drilling mud and spreads out into the formation.
The potentials measured at M and N are
transmitted to the surface where they are measured.
By measuring the potential difference between M
and N, and the strength of current from A, the
apparent formation resistivity is calculated.

•Picture Courtesy of Schlumberger

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 Brief History
 1930’s
 1929: the electrical resistivity logs are
introduce on commercial scale in
Venezuela, USA and Russia
 1931 : the accidental discovery of
spontaneous potential (SP) led to an
innovative new logging technique –
simultaneously recording SP and
resistivity curves.
 SP is produced naturally by the borehole
mud at the boundaries of the permeable Courtesy Hagiwara, Strack, Zhou 2004

beds, Picture Courtesy of Schlumberger

 SP enabled producers to differentiate

permeable oil-bearing beds from
impermeable, nonproducing ones.

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 Brief History
 1930’s
 1931 : the first sidewall core gun
 1932: First deviation survey, first bullet perforator
 1933: First commercial temperature log
 1936: First SP dipmeter. The industry could augment resistivity logs with
formation sample takers, automatic film recorders and multi-spacing
resistivity curves.
 1937: First electrical log in Canada (for gold in Ontario)
 1938: First gamma ray log, first neutron log

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 Brief History
 1940’s
 The 1940s were a period of rapid
development in technology despite the
intervention of World War II.
 1941: logging took another major step
forward with the introduction of the
spontaneous-potential dipmeter.
Dipmeter greatly improved the
vertical resolution of openhole logs. It
allowed the calculation of a layer’s
dip and the direction of the dip.
 1947: improved further with the
resistivity dipmeter.

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•Picture Courtesy of Schlumberger
 Brief History
 1940’s
•Archie’s Equation
 Gustave E. Archie (1907-1978), a pioneer
in formation evaluation, developed the
fundamental quantitative relationships
among porosity, electrical resistivity, and
hydrocarbon saturation of rocks that laid
the foundation for modern log
interpretation.
 His fundamental formula is known
throughout the industry as the "Archie
Equation“.
 Archie is also credited with coining the
term "petrophysics”.

•Picture Courtesy of Schlumberger

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 Brief History
 1940’s
•Invention of Induction Log
 Oil-based mud (OBM) was
introduced in the Rangely, Colo.,
oil fields in 1948.
 OBMs are nonconductive.
Normally configured electrical
surveys require a conductive mud
(water-based) system.
 Solution to logging in OBMs was
induction log, developed in the
late 1940s.

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Doll, 1949
 Brief History
 1950’s
•Henri Doll
 Henri Doll, experimental physicist and Conrad, his son-in-law
came together to conduct research
 In the 1950s, Henri Doll, completely transformed the basic
resistivity logging measurement through the research center he
founded in 1948 in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
 In 1965, the laboratory was renamed Schlumberger-
Doll Research Center (SDR) after Henri Doll, then-
retiring chairman.
 In 2006, SDR moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Henri Doll checks a logging sonde in Baku in 1932.

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 Brief History
 1960-1970’s
•Age of Computer
 Throughout the 1950s & 1960s, electric
logging continued to develop, but it was the
computerized processing of logs that
catapulted the sector ahead in 1962.
 Computerization allowed faster log
processing, thereby the dramatic expansion
of log data-gathering capability.
 In 1970s, advances still were being made in
electric logging, especially in the area of
mass and speed of data collection.

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 Brief History
 1980’s
•Array Induction Tools
 Hardware focusing → Software focusing
 Fixed focusing → Flexible focusing
 2 DI → Multiple DI (5 or 6)
 Expanded resistivity range
•ILD (6FF40) •Baker Atlas HDIL
•Transmitter
•T3 •A1
•A2 •(BPB was the 1st
•A3 to introduce the
• Main
•Receiver •R1 •A4 array induction
•R2 • •A5 concept)
40”
•T2 •A6
• Main
•Transmitter
•T1

•A7 •Shortest spacing = 6”

•R3 34
•Longest spacing = 94”
 Brief History
 1990’s
•Array Latterolog Tools
 Hardware focusing → Software focusing
 Fixed focusing → Flexible focusing
 2 DL → Multiple DL (5 or 6)
 Expanded resistivity range

~30ft.

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 Brief History
 1990’s
•MWD Resistivity Antenna Recess
Collar & Loop Antenna
 The myth of conductive mandrel
 1979 NL field tested the concept.Transmitter
Introduced in 84.
 Matured in 1990’s E-field
 Ever increasing role in offshore
wells
Receiver Phase Shift

Receiver

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 Brief History
 1990’s
•Casedhole Resistivity •CCL •Deep Induction

•DEPTH
•0 •
•CALI 2500 •TCR_L
•6 •IN •16
•CXY
•6 •IN •16 •CHFR
Casing Leakage OF current •GR •FEET
•0 •GAPI •100 •2 •OHMM •200
into Formation
Borehole

I2 •x050

V
I1
Current along
casing Formation
•x100
Injected
current Leakage

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 Brief History
 2000’s
Multi-component Induction
• Gamma Ray (gAPI)
0 75 150
Resistivity (Ohm-m)
xx20
 Main Application: Identification and •R• •-3DEX
h
R•v-3DEX
quantification of Low Resistivity Pay HDIL, 90"
xx25
(laminated sand/shale)

xx30

Depth (kft)
Shale: low Rt xx35

xx40
Laminated Pay
Rh xx45
Sand: high Rt
Rv •0 •1
6 8.5 11 13.516 10 10
Caliper (in) Resistivity (Ohm-m)
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 Brief History
 Phases Summary
•1921 - 1927 Conceptual Phase
•1927 – 1949 Acceptance Phase
•1949 – 1985 Maturity Phase
•Since 1985 Reinvention Phase

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Thanks for your
attention!

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