Improving Well Placement and Reservoir Characterization with Deep Directional Resistivity Measurements

The last decade has shown a significant development in resistivity measurement technology providing directional resistivity at a larger scale than conventional logging tools. The latest development can identify resistivity contrasts ten's of meters around the wellbore.

Statoil has tested deep look-around resistivity on a range of fields during the last 2 years and recorded data in more than 10 wells on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The look-around images provides information at a scale that bridges the gap between conventional logging and seismic and adds important new pieces to the reservoir characterization puzzle. In good reservoir conditions, resistivity contrast up to 30 m away from the well-bore has been observed.

This study will focus on results from the Visund and Åsgard fields, and will demonstrate how the device was used in a range of different applications in the geosteering operation:

Detection of the reservoir boundary up to 20m TVD away.

• Detection of oil bearing reservoir from within underlying shale, through a water zone.
• Detection of Gas-Oil Contact (GOC).
• Detection of Oil-Water Contact (OWC) up to 20m TVD away.
• Detect faulting of the reservoir.

These examples will highlight why deep look-around resistivity is a step change related to the possibility for doing pro-active well placement of highly deviated wellbores as well as for gaining a larger reservoir understanding. The imaged variation in resistivity contrasts can be related to geologic zonation and fluid content on the reservoir scale, which opens up a much better cross-disciplinary communication between geophysicists, geologists, petrophysicists and reservoir engineers. Finally, the deep resistivity images contribute in optimization of completion solutions when incorporating information on the reservoir scale.