--> Abstract: Soft Rock Physical and Mechanical Properties: Laboratory Testing of Core Material and Correlation with the Dipole Sonic Tool in the Long Beach Unit, Wilmington Oil Field, by K. D. Jung and H. L. Darling; #90992 (1993).

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JUNG, KEITH DOUGLAS, THUMS Long Beach Company, Long Beach, CA, and HAROLD L. DARLING, Schlumberger Inc., Houston, TX

ABSTRACT: Soft Rock Physical and Mechanical Properties: Laboratory Testing of Core Material and Correlation with the Dipole Sonic Tool in the Long Beach Unit, Wilmington Oil Field

Well D-703 was drilled and completed as a Union Pacific Ford zone well on June 22, 1992, in the AU sand interval of the Ford zone of the Upper Miocene Puente series. The sand series are typically thin-bedded turbidites deposited in water depths of about 6000 ft and are generally considered to be "soft rock." The well was drilled and completed with the intention of hydraulically fracturing the AU sand and other intervals to improve oil rate and recovery.

Since fracture design is heavily dependent upon knowledge of rock mechanical properties, it was decided to core the well in selected intervals (including several oriented cores for stress field analysis) and run laboratory tests for rock mechanical properties. The dipole sonic logging device was run to determine the dynamic rock properties with the goal to decide if a correlation exists with the laboratory dynamic measurements.

Several calculations were made by Schlumberger in Houston: dynamic elastic constants, rock strength, horizontal stresses, wellbore stability, and fracture pressure. There is good agreement between the dynamic properties measured in the laboratory and those calculated from wireline measurements. Wireline-derived rock property data can be used for hydraulic fracture design in a "soft rock" environment.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90992©1993 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, Long Beach, California, May 5-7, 1993.