Abstract: Cost Effectiveness of New Downhole Technology for Geology

NURMI, ROY

The petroleum industry has found that new technology can extend the life of reservoirs and even entire oil producing regions and is asking for more. Although this demand is helping to accelerate technology development, major technology advances are generally evolutionary changes over long periods of time. Yet another challenge today is for a new technology to be cost effective and not just in terms of the oil or gas discovered. Thus, cooperation and alliances are ever-increasing avenues chosen to optimally achieve commercial technology objectives.

The quest for new downhole geology technologies includes areas of physics that will allow more complete characterization of the rock cored, drilled and logged. Electromagnetic and magnetic measurements seem to be such an area. However, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is actually the culmination of nearly 40 years of research in electromagnetic technologies and their effects on fluids and rock properties that is now revealing basic properties, including microporosity and producibility data needed to optimally develop many discoveries. The integration of new measurements with existing data and other new technology are also beginning to reveal geological and reservoir features which often were not suspected earlier.

Using older measurements in new ways is an important part of technology evolution for horizontal wells. For example, standard electrical, nuclear and acoustical well logging measurements have been incorporated in logging-while drilling (LWD) technologies. In some cases it is cost effective to use a horizontal well to assess a new discovery, especially when the seismic interpretation did not accurately define the structure.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90946©1997 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Denver, Colorado