Scribd
Upload
36 views6 pages

The Early Years: Four Electrode Surface Resistivity System

Uploaded by

Kaiysse Youké

The document discusses the early history and development of well logging from the 1840s through the 1930s. It describes some of the key early contributors to well logging, including William Thomson who made early temperature measurements in wells in the 1840s, and Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger who began experimenting with surface resistivity measurements in 1912 and introduced the first commercial well logging service in the 1920s using a four-electrode system. It also discusses some of the earliest well logs run in various locations in the late 1920s and 1930s, which helped advance oil and gas exploration.

Copyright:

© All Rights Reserved
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt

The Early Years: Four Electrode Surface Resistivity System

Uploaded by

Kaiysse Youké
36 views6 pages
The document discusses the early history and development of well logging from the 1840s through the 1930s. It describes some of the key early contributors to well logging, including William Thomson who made early temperature measurements in wells in the 1840s, and Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger who began experimenting with surface resistivity measurements in 1912 and introduced the first commercial well logging service in the 1920s using a four-electrode system. It also discusses some of the earliest well logs run in various locations in the late 1920s and 1930s, which helped advance oil and gas exploration.

Original Description:

log

Original Title

The Early Years

Copyright

© © All Rights Reserved

Available Formats

DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

The document discusses the early history and development of well logging from the 1840s through the 1930s. It describes some of the key early contributors to well logging, including William Thomson who made early temperature measurements in wells in the 1840s, and Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger who began experimenting with surface resistivity measurements in 1912 and introduced the first commercial well logging service in the 1920s using a four-electrode system. It also discusses some of the earliest well logs run in various locations in the late 1920s and 1930s, which helped advance oil and gas exploration.

Copyright:

© All Rights Reserved
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
36 views6 pages

The Early Years: Four Electrode Surface Resistivity System

Uploaded by

Kaiysse Youké
The document discusses the early history and development of well logging from the 1840s through the 1930s. It describes some of the key early contributors to well logging, including William Thomson who made early temperature measurements in wells in the 1840s, and Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger who began experimenting with surface resistivity measurements in 1912 and introduced the first commercial well logging service in the 1920s using a four-electrode system. It also discusses some of the earliest well logs run in various locations in the late 1920s and 1930s, which helped advance oil and gas exploration.

Copyright:

© All Rights Reserved
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 6

THE EARLY YEARS

The oil industry has had an impact on every human on earth. The evolution of log analysis
methods over the years is less dramatic, but equally fascinating and illuminating.

Obsolete but traditional definitions, abbreviations, symbols, and methods still pervade our
industry. Newcomers often wonder why these old-fashioned ideas persist. In many cases,
methods were developed which required better logging tools or more powerful computational
methods than were available at the time. Such methods fell into disuse, to be resurrected years
later when the appropriate tools were developed. An appreciation of the history of logging and
the development sequence of analytical methods will help any geologist, geophysicist, or
engineer who works with well logs.

Well logging began around 1846 when William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) made
measurements of temperature in water wells in England. His first technical
paper on the subject was "Age of the Earth and its Limitations as
Determined by the Distribution and Measurement of Heat within It". Kelvin's
calculated age was 20 - 40 million years. Radioactivity had not been
discovered yet, so Kelvin was unaware of the heat generated internally from
this source. So Kelvin can be excused for a 100-fold error in his estimate of
the Earth's age. Controversy, debate, and a slew of additional papers

ensued for another 50 years.

Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger began to


experiment with surface resistivity
measurements in 1912 and by 1919 were
offering a commercial service. Schlumberger
ran such surveys until 1928, when the service
was merged into Compangnie General de
Geophysique, a geophysical company partly
owned by Schlumberger.

Four electrode surface resistivity system

The surface resistivity method was based on a


four electrode system, moved along the surface to make successive measurements. Direct
current was applied to the outer two electrodes (A and B) and the voltage between the inner
electrodes (M and N) was measured. Variations in the voltage indicated changes in subsurface
resistivity, which in turn indicated changes in mineralogy or fluid content in the subsurface.
Surveys were run for mining, ground water, and oil exploration.

Although direct current was widely used, the Schlumberger brothers also experiment with
alternating current systems, the forerunner of modern electromagnetic (EM) surface
exploration methods.

They also had a brain-wave in 1927 - why not run the four electrode system vertically in a
borehole instead of horizontally on the surface? The general idea was not new. A patent for a
single electrode resistivity device was issued in 1883 to Fred Brown, but it appears not to have
seen use until 1913 in a mining drill hole. A single electrode survey is not very useful
quantitatively but the four electrode system can be calibrated to read resistivity of the material
surrounding the electrodes.
The brothers convinced the
Pechlebronn Oil Company,
drilling in Alsace, France, to
try such electrical
measurements as an aid to
understanding the rock
layers. The first such log in
the USA was run on 17
August l929 for Shell Oil
Company in Kern County,
California. Logs were run
that same year in Venezuela,
Russia, and India.

Conrad and Marcel


Schlumberger 1936

The first well logs in Canada were run in 1937 (Schlumberger) for a gold exploration project in
Ontario, and in 1939 (Haliburton) for oil in Alberta. The first Schlumberger log for oil
exploration in Canada was run in 1946.
A portion of the first resistivity log from Pecellebron 1927 (left) and the surface equipment circa
1930 (right). Various re-drafted versions of the first log have been published - this one looks
pretty authentic.
First logs outside France 1929: Maracaibo, Venezuela (left); Los Angeles, California (center);
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (right). Note that some logs were presented on linear scales and
some on logarithmic scales; the latter did not reappear until the early 1960's. There was no SP
curve as it had not yet been invented.
Logs from 1932 in Oil City-Titusville area, Pennsylvania, the location of Edwin Drake's "First Oil
Well". His well was only 69 feet deep, so it penetrated just to the top of these logs, which found
deeper and more prolific reservoirs. His well was the first in the USA, but 5 other countries
produced oil from wells prior to his discovery. The SP, introduced in 1931, helps locate good
quality sands in this relatively low resistivity interval.

You might also like