Oil-Base Micro-Resistivity Borehole
Image Log Applications in Deep-Water Exploration
Mitch D. Pavlovic
Baker Atlas, 17015 Aldine Westfield, Houston, Texas 77073
As shallow-water areas are becoming fully exploited frontiers of exploration is being pushed further and further into deep water focusing on economically important deep-water turbidite sands. Micro-resistivity borehole
image logs are well-established tool of geologists and reservoir engineers and an increasingly critical component in evaluating the full potential of a field prior the initiation of the development phase. These data are used for detailed reservoir description providing high-resolution structural, stratigraphic, and sedimentological information. For thinly laminated turbidite sequences they are often the only practical method of determining net pay thickness in the absence of whole core data. When combined with advanced open-hole logging instruments, such as the multi-component induction log,
borehole
images significantly improves petrophysical evaluation of thinly bedded sand-shale sequences.
The EARTH Imager brings the well-established performance of existing micro-resistivity imagers to the non-conductive mud arena. The implementation of two unique and innovative technologies, electrical energy coupling and non-planar focusing, matched with an optimized sensor array geometry resulted in this new micro-resistivity borehole
imager that acquires image data sets of high vertical and azimuthal resolution. The combination of the fine resolution of its measurements with the large
borehole
coverage makes the EARTH Imager particularly suitable for the most demanding
imaging
applications, such as deep-water exploration.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90080©2005 GCAGS 55th Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana