Resistivity Correction For Drilling Fluid Invasion
Resistivity Correction For Drilling Fluid Invasion
Resistivity Correction For Drilling Fluid Invasion
Cite this article as: PETROL. EXPLOR. DEVELOP., 2010, 37(4): 430–437. RESEARCH PAPER
Abstract: The effect of drilling fluid invasion on the resistivity of oil-bearing zones during the period from penetrating the zone to
completion well logging was studied using intergraded logging while drilling (LWD) and wire-line log data. The results indicate that re-
sistivity change during invasion responds to some important factors such as porosity, oil saturation, pressure differential between drilling
mud column and formation, mud filtrate salinity and invasion time. It increases as an exponential function of porosity, a logarithmic func-
tion of pressure differential, and a power function of invasion time and oil saturation. Based on the LWD and MDT data, the corrected re-
sistivity equation subject to the drilling fluid invasion was acquired. With the equation, the oil saturation (So) increases by 6.3%−20.0%,
averaging at 10.2%.
Key words: drilling fluid invasion; resistivity decrease degree; horizontal well; LWD; wire-line logging; high-porosity and low-per-
meability reservoir; carbonate rock
model. Therefore, the uncertainty exists in the resistivity cor- terval transit time (DT). Logs measured by Vision475 consist
rection, which can not be verified with practical data. of GR, ROP5_RM, RPM_ADN, 5 attenuation resistivity
In contrast to the previous studies, this paper focuses on the curves at 2 MHz (A10H, A16H, A22H, A28H, and A34H) and
effect of drilling fluid invasion on the resistivity of oil-bearing 5 phase-shift resistivity curves at 2 MHz (P10H, P16H, P22H,
zones in the period from penetrating the zone to completion P28H, and P34H), 4 orientation density curves (ROBB,
well logging by using array induction resistivity, LWD and ROBL, ROBR and ROBU), 4 photoelectric factors (PEL,
MDT (Modular Formation Dynamics Tester) data, and pro- PER, PEB, and PEU), and 1 thermal neutron porosity (TRNP)
vides a reasonable correction method of log resistivity for curve.
vertical wells. According to the log responses and detective depth of
down-hole tools, it is found that the log value of phase-shift
1 Characteristics of the high-porosity and
resistivity P34H from LWD is close to that of deep investiga-
low-permeability carbonate reservoir, DLL Oilfield
tion resistivity AHT90 from array induction log. Therefore,
DLL Oilfield, with area of 992 km2, is located in the P34H and AHT90 curves are adopted for comparison in the
northwestern part of Oman Basin and 450 km to the south- study.
western part from capital Muscat. It is a fault block-lithology Fig. 1 indicates log response comparison of LWD and
carbonate reservoir under the background of monoclinal wire-line logging for the same reservoir in two adjacent verti-
structure (with strata dip of 2–5º), and mainly consists of nine cal wells which are X1PH and X2PH. LWD real-time logging
fault blocks: A, AB, B, C, D, DE, E, EF, and F. The reservoir is used in Well X1PH, and wire-line logging is used in Well
mainly contains bioclastic packstones and granular car- X2PH. The measured intervals consist mainly of pure shale,
bonatites. The porosity ranges from 8.0% to 36.0%, or 30.0% shaly limestone, and pure limestone. According into log re-
on average, and the permeability ranges from 0.18×10−3– sponses, pure limestone intervals were subdivided to tight and
250×10–3 μm2 or 7.3×10–3 μm2 on average, thus it is a typical high-porosity intervals. Since LWD runs real-timely during
high porosity and low permeability carbonate reservoir char- drilling and the drilled zones are hardly invaded by mud fil-
acterized by thin stratum, high heterogeneity and poor devel- trate, the attenuation and phase-shift resistivity curves from
oped fractures. The reservoir has the same OWC which has different investigation ranges are coincident. However,
been proved from log, DST and production data. The initial wire-line logging runs after completion and the drilled zones
reservoir pressure ranges from 17.3 MPa to 18.3 MPa and the are invaded severely by mud filtrate, therefore, the array in-
reservoir temperature is about 90 °C. The formation water is duction resistivity curves from different investigation ranges
dominated by NaCl, with salinity of 170 000 mg/L– 190 000 are distinct (water zone shows clear resistivity increase and
mg/L. invasion). In addition, P34H curve of Well X1PH is close to
DLL Oilfield was found in 1986 and the blocks were put AHT90 curve of Well X2PH for log value.
into development successively from 1990. Horizontal wells For Well X3, the responses of wire-line logging and LWD
and multi-branch horizontal wells were mainly adopted during logging are compared. Well X3 consists of one vertical well
development considering the key reservoir features of thin and two horizontal branch wells. LWD runs in the vertical
formations and high heterogeneity. In order to effectively well and horizontal branch well of Zone 2 (X3-H2), and
control the borehole track of horizontal well, a vertical well wire-line logging runs in the horizontal branch well of Zone 1
was drilled firstly to unveil the structure, reservoir quality and (X3-H1). Log data from Well X3 are used to compare the log
OWC distribution of horizontal section. Schlumberger’s Vi- responses between LWD and wire-line logging, which are
sion475 LWD was run real-timely during side tracking and shown in Fig. 2 and listed in Tables 1 and 2. It is revealed that:
drilling of horizontal section. For vertical wells, resistivity log (1) Deep phase-shift resistivity P34H of the horizontal branch
was mainly array induction log, except one well by LWD. For well H1 in Zone 1 is obviously higher than deep investigation
horizontal wells, LWD real-time log was used in drilling, in resistivity AHT90 of the same zone of vertical Well X3 (Table
particular, repeated LWD logging were run in 10 horizontal 1), indicating that the deep investigation resistivity declines
wells after completion, only one well by array induction log sharply due to the drilling fluid invasion; (2) AHT90 log val-
after completion. The effect of drilling fluid invasion on the ues of Zone 2 of horizontal branch Well H2 is lower than that
resistivity of oil-bearing zones has been effectively studied of the same zone of vertical Well X3 (Table 2), demonstrating
through resistivity comparison for different wells, or at the that Zone 2 of horizontal branch Well H2 is much more dam-
different periods. aged by drilling fluid invasion. As a result, LWD data of
horizontal wells can be used to study resistivity change caused
2 Response characteristics of LWD and wire-line
by such invasion.
logging
Logs measured in wire-line logging include natural gamma
3 Influence of drilling fluid invasion on reservoir
ray (GR), caliper (CALI), spontaneous potential (SP), array
resistivity
induction resistivities (AHT10, AHT20, AHT30, AHT60 and Analysis results show that resistivity change caused by
AHT90), density (RHOB), neutron porosity (NPHI), and in- drilling fluid invasion corresponds to some factors such as
Tian Zhongyuan et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2010, 37(4): 430–437
Fig. 1 Log response comparison between LWD and wire-line logging of vertical wells
porosity, oil saturation, pressure difference between mud resistivity changes of tracks 3 and 4, and track 6 shows the
column and formation, invasion time and salinity of drilling density and neutron porosity curves. According to pressure
fluid. data from MDT, the mean pressures of drilling mud column
Assuming that resistivity change caused by drilling fluid and formation are 18.7 MPa and 17.7 MPa respectively.
invasion is expressed by resistivity decrease degree, namely, Therefore, the pressure difference is 1.0 MPa. It indicates that
the ratio of the resistivity difference between the un-invaded the resistivity decrease degree reduces with the porosity de-
and the invaded reservoir to the resistivity of the un-invaded crease as shown in Fig. 4 if the pressure difference between
reservoir, the phase-shit resistivity decrease degree can be drilling mud column and formation is constant, demonstrating
expressed as: that resistivity change of oil-bearing zones with higher poros-
RPH 0 − RPH 1 ity caused by drilling fluid invasion is larger than that with
rPH = (1)
RPH 0 lower porosity, and the mud cake does not form at once dur-
ing the early drilling.
Where, rPH is the phase-shift resistivity decrease degree after
the drilling fluid invades into the reservoir, f; RPH0 is the 3.2 Relationship between resistivity decrease degree and
phase-shift resistivity of initial reservoir, Ω·m; RPH1 is the oil saturation
phase-shift resistivity after the drilling fluid invades into the
Fig. 5 indicates the influence of drilling fluid invasion on
reservoir, Ω·m.
resistivity of oil-bearing zones with different oil saturation in
3.1 Relationship between resistivity decrease degree and Well X5. According to pressure data from MDT, the mean
reservoir porosity pressures of drilling fluid columns and formations are 17.2
Relationship between the resistivity decrease degree and MPa and 7.4 MPa respectively. Therefore, the pressure dif-
the petro-physical properties in Well X4 is shown in Fig. 3. ference is 9.8 MPa. This curve shows that the porosity is iden-
Track 3 shows three phase-shift resistivity curves (P34H0, tical basically for different intervals, but the resistivity at up-
P22H0 and P10H0) from LWD real-time measurement during per intervals is higher than that at lower intervals, reflecting
drilling; track 4 shows three phase-shift resistivity curves the higher oil saturation at upper intervals than that at lower
(P34H1, P22H0 and P10H1) from repeated LWD measurement intervals. Considering the phase-shift resistivity changes be-
after completion; track 5 shows three phase-shift resistivity fore (in track 3) and after (in track 4) drilling fluid invasion
decrease degree curves (rP34H, rP22H, and rP10H) calculated from and the phase-shift resistivity decrease degree obtained there-
Tian Zhongyuan et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2010, 37(4): 430–437
Fig. 2 Log response comparison between wire-line logging from vertical and horizontal branch well (Well X3-H2) and LWD (Well
X3-H1)
Table 1 Parameter comparison between wire-line logging of vertical intervals and LWD of horizontal intervals, Zone 1, Well X3
Table 2 Parameter comparison of wire-line logging between vertical and horizontal intervals, Zone 2, Well X3
Fig. 3 Relationship between resistivity decrease degree and petro-physical properties, Well X4
Fig. 5 Influence of drilling fluid invasion on resistivity of oil-bearing zones with different oil saturation, Well X5
Fig. 7 Relationship between resistivity decrease degree and mud invasion time
K1 15 000 0.040
K2 22 275 0.080
K3 64 350 0.224
K4 90 800 0.492 Fig. 8 Phase-shift resistivity relationship before and after mud
invasion
Table 4 Water saturation comparison from resistivity before and after correction for vertical wells
Sw0—water saturation before drilling fluid invasion; Sw1—water saturation from resistivity after drilling fluid invasion
Fig. 9 Water saturation comparison calculated with resistivity before and after drilling fluid invasion for Well X5
Oil saturations of oil-bearing zones are re-calculated with [8] Li Changxi, Ouyang Jian, Zhou Cancan, et al. Forming
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[9] Guan Yingchun. Impact of dynamic mud invasion on Sw esti-
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