KFUPM ENGINEERING

Department of Petroleum Engineering

PETE-303: Well Logging

Lecture [1]

Introduction

Dr. Mohamed Mahmoud

Fall 2015
Course description
• Course number: PETE 303

• Course title: Well Logging

• Catalog description
The course introduces the student to modern well logging
techniques and covers both open-hole and cased-hole log
interpretation methods. The objective is to provide insight into
the basic well logging methods that are employed to derive
petrophysical properties for hydrocarbon exploration and
production. Discussions also touch on production logging.
Concepts of logging program design are presented with
examples of applications. All concepts covered are
demonstrated through laboratory experiments

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Course description
• Pre-requisite
– EE204: Circuits & Electronics
– PETE204: Reservoir Rock Properties

• Textbook
M.Z.Basssioni, Theory, Measurement, Interpretation of Well
Logs, Society of Petroleum Engineers Texbook Series,Vol.4,
Richardson, Texas ,1994.

• Handouts
(will be posted to class webCT)
1. Summary Notes (Slides)
2. Hand notes
3. Reviews
4. Tutorials
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Course description
• Course objective
– Introduce the student to the theory and practices of
well logging techniques
– Develop skills to calculate volumetric reserves (oil /
gas / water) and to diagnose production performance
problems
– Improve communication skills through team solving
problems (via lab work and use of software
packages) and presenting an engineering report

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Evaluation Components
• Course grade:
The final grade will be based on the following distribution
Homework 7%
Project 7%
Quizzes 3%
Attendance 3%
Lab and reports 20%
Two Major Exams 30%
Final Exam 30%
Total 100%

• Homeworks:
Regular weekly HWs. Copied HW will take zero grade, late HW will take
zero.
No late HWs! unless prior arrangement is made

• Exam:
Date and Location TBD
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Course Policies
• Academic Integrity:
– Moderate Collaboration is allowed in doing HWs, but you must present your
own work!
– Make sure you understand Plagiarism:
• “the practice of claiming or implying original authorship of (or incorporating
material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into
one's own without adequate acknowledgement”.

• Copyrights:
– “All the material generated in the course are copyrighted ® KFUPM”
– Prior permission from the instructor is needed for copying or distributing the
course material.

• General
– No late work will be accepted (unless arrangements have been made in
advance)
– You are encouraged to help each other with your homework assignments, but
you must turn in your own work
– Ask questions and participate actively in class!
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Course Outline
Main Topics
• Introduction and overview
• Well logging environments
• Fundamentals of well logging interpretation
• SP log
• GR log
• Resistivity logs
• Porosity logs
• Permeability and well productivity
• Formation lithology and effective porosity
• Clean formation evaluation
• Shaly formation evaluation
• Cased hole logs
• Production logs

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Wireline Electrical Logging

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Wireline Electrical Logging
• Wireline well logs are recorded when the drilling tools
are no longer in the hole

• Open-hole’ logs, (open-hole indicates that the formation

forms the wall of a well, as opposed to ‘cased-hole, in
which a tube of metal casing lines the well) are
recorded immediately after drilling

• MWD (measurement while drilling) or LWD (logging

while drilling) logs, by contrast, are made as a
formation is drilled

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Wireline Electrical Logging
• Quite different techniques are made to record MWD
and LWD to the open hole wireline logs

• To run wireline logs, the hole is cleaned and stabilized

and the drilling equipment extracted

• The first logging tool is then attached to the logging

cable (wireline) and lowered into the hole to its
maximum drilled depth

• The cable attached to the tool acts both as a support for

the tool and as a canal for data transmission

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Wireline Logging
Examples of four logging tools.
 The dip-meter, on the left, has sensors
on four actuated arms, which are
shown in their fully extended position.
Attached to the bottom of one of its four
arms is an additional electrode array
embedded in a rubber “pad.”

 It is followed by a sonic logging tool,

characterized by a slotted housing, and
then a density device with its
hydraulically activated back-up arm fully
extended.

 The tool on the extreme right is another

version of a dip-meter with multiple
electrodes on each pad.

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USES OF LOGS
• A set of logs run on a well will usually mean
different things to different people

• Let us examine the questions asked–and/or

answers sought by a variety of people

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USES OF LOGS
• The Geophysicist:
As a Geophysicist what do you look for?

– Are the tops where you predicted?

– Are the potential zones porous as you have assumed

from seismic data?

– What does a synthetic seismic section show?

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USES OF LOGS
The Geologist:
The Geologist may ask:
– What depths are the formation tops?
– Is the environment suitable for accumulation of
Hydrocarbons?
– Is there evidence of Hydrocarbon in this well?
– What type of Hydrocarbon?
– Are Hydrocarbons present in commercial quantities?
– How good a well is?
– What are the reserves?
– Could the formation be commercial in an offset well?

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USES OF LOGS
• The Drilling Engineer:
– What is the hole volume for cementing?

– Are there any Key-Seats or severe Dog-legs in the

well?

– Where can you get a good packer seat for testing?

– Where is the best place to set a Whipstock?

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USES OF LOGS
The Reservoir Engineer:
The Reservoir Engineer needs to know:
– How thick is the pay zone?

– How Homogeneous is the section?

– What is the volume of Hydrocarbon per cubic metre?

– Will the well pay-out?

– How long will it take?

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USES OF LOGS
The Production Engineer:
The Production Engineer is more concerned with:
– Where should the well be completed (in what
zone(s))?
– What kind of production rate can be expected?
– Will there be any water production?
– How should the well be completed?
– Is the potential pay zone hydraulically isolated?

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USES OF LOGS
• The three most important questions to be
answered by well site interpretation are:
– Does the formation contain hydrocarbons, and if so
at what depth and are they oil or gas?

– If so, what is the quantity present?

– Are the hydrocarbons recoverable?

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Log Presentations
• A standard API (American Petroleum Institute) log format
exists

• The overall log width is 8.25 in (21 cm), with three tracks of
2.5 in (6.4 cm), tracks 1 and 2 being separated by a column
of 0.75 in (1.9 cm) in which the depths are printed

• There are various combinations of grid. Track 1 is always

linear, with ten standard divisions of 0.25 in (0.64 cm)

• Tracks 2 and 3 may have a 4-cycle logarithmic scale (Fig.

1), a linear scale of 20 standard divisions (Fig. 2), or a
hybrid of logarithmic scale in track 2 and linear scale in
track 3 (Fig. 3).
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LOG PRESENTATIONS

Fig. 1

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LOG PRESENTATIONS

Fig. 2

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LOG PRESENTATIONS

Fig. 3

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Log Presentation - Linear Grid
Depth
Track 1 track Track 2 Track 3

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Log Presentation - Log Grid
Track 1 Depth Track 2 Track 3
track

n n+4
2x10 2x10
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Log Presentation - Hybrid Grid
Depth
Track 1 track Track 2 Track 3

n
2x10

n+2
2x10

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Log Presentations

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 Electrical Device for Heart Monitoring
 Each small
square is 1 mm
depolarization
 For normal
hearts the
depolarization
and polarization
is 3 small
squares polarization

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Rock and Fluid Properties
• Porosity (Primary, secondary, effective, absolute)

• Saturation

• Permeability

• Rock types (sandstone, dolomite, limestone, anhydrite)

• Capillary pressure

• Water salinity

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