Application of multipole array sonic logging to acid hydralic fracturing

Multipole array sonic logging tools have widely been employed in Chinese oilfields in recent years. We have developed a software package for rock mechanical analysis with multipole array sonic logs. This advanced data processing method and software have been applied to the Tahe oilfield in Northern West China to provide guidance to acid hydraulic fracturing design and evaluation. In this paper, we present the field examples of such data processing and applications to demonstrate the validity and advantages of our method and software package.

Indirect determination of shear wave velocity in slow formations using full-wave sonic logging technique

This article presents a case study concerning a seismic characterization project.Full-wave sonic logging was used to characterize the shallow compressional wave and shear wave velocity profiles in the site.Anomalous values of the Poisson’s ratio derived from the velocity profiles suggested that the boreholes might have traversed slow formations(i.e.with shear wave velocity smaller than the borehole fluid compressional wave velocity or“mud-wave speed”)and that conventional processing of the sonic logs might have misinterpreted the direct arrivals of fluid acoustic waves as arrivals caused by shear wave propagation in the rock.Consequently,the shear wave velocity profiles provided by the contractor were considered to be unreliable by the project team.To address these problems,a non-conventional determination of the shear wave velocity was implemented,based on the relationship between the Poisson’s ratio of the rock formation and the shape of the first train of sonic waves which arrived to the receivers in the sonic probe.The relationship was determined based on several hundreds of finite element simulations of the acoustic wave propagation in boreholes with the same diameter as used in the perforations.The present article describes how this non-conventional approach was developed and implemented to obtain the shear wave velocity profiles from the raw sonic logs.The approach allows an extension of the range of applicability of full-wave sonic logging to determination of shear wave velocity profiles in formations with low compressional wave velocities.The method could be used to obtain shear wave velocity profiles where compressional wave velocity is as low as slightly larger than the mud-wave speed.A sample sonic log in Log ASCII Standard(LAS)format is provided as supplementary material to this paper via Mendeley Data,together with the FORTRAN source code used to process the log following the approach described in this study.

Anisotropy measurements and characterization of the Qingshankou shale

Qingshankou shale(Gulong area,China)exhibits strong acoustic anisotropy characteristics,posing significant challenges to its exploration and development.In this study,the five full elastic constants and multipole response law of the Qingshankou shale were studied using experimental measurements.Analyses show that the anisotropy parametersϵandγin the study region are greater than 0.4,whereas the anisotropy parameterδis smaller,generally 0.1.Numerical simulations show that the longitudinal and transverse wave velocities of these strong anisotropic rocks vary significantly with inclination angle,and significant differences in group velocity and phase velocity are also present.Acoustic logging measures the group velocity in dipped boreholes;this differs from the phase velocity to some extent.As the dip angle increases,the longitudinal and SH wave velocities increase accordingly,while the qSV-wave velocity initially increases and then decreases,reaching its maximum value at a dip of approximately 40°.These results provide an effective guide for the correction and modeling of acoustic logging time differences in the region.

Gas hydrate saturation from NGHP 02 LWD data in the Mahanadi Basin

During the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program(NGHP)Expedition 02,Logging-while-drilling(LWD)logs were acquired at three sites(NGHP-02-11,NGHP-02-12,and NGHP-02-13)across the Mahanadi Basin in area A.We applied rock physics theory to available sonic velocity logs to know the distribution of gas hydrate at site NGHP-02-11 and NGHP-02-13.Rock physics modeling using sonic velocity at well location shows that gas hydrate is distributed mainly within the depth intervals of 150-265 m and 100 -215 mbsf at site NGHP-02-11 and NGHP-02-13,respectively,with an average saturation of about 4%of the pore space and the maximum concentration of about 40%of the pore space at 250 m depth at site NGHP-02-11,and at site NGHP-02-13 an average saturation of about 2%of the pore space and the maximum concentration of about 20%of the pore space at 246 m depth,as gas hydrate is distributed mainly within 100-246 mbsf at this site.Saturation of gas hydrate estimated from the electrical resistivity method using density derived porosity and electrical resistivity logs from Archie's empirical formula shows high saturation compared to that from the sonic log.However,estimates of hydrate saturation based on sonic P-wave velocity may differ significantly from that based on resistivity,because gas and hydrate have higher resistivity than conductive pore fluid and sonic P-wave velocity shows strong effect on gas hydrate as a small amount of gas reduces the velocity significantly while increasing velocity due to the presence of hydrate.At site NGHP-02-11,gas hydrate saturation is in the range of 15%e30%,in two zones between 150-180 and 245-265 mbsf.Site NGHP-02-012 shows a gas hydrate saturation of 20%e30%in the zone between 100 and 207 mbsf.Site NGHP-02-13 shows a gas hydrate saturation up to 30%in the zone between 215 and 246 mbsf.Combined observations from rock physics modeling and Archie’s approximation show the gas hydrate concentrations are relatively low(<4%of the pore space)at the sites of the Mahanadi Basin in the turbidite channel system.

Coexistence of natural gas hydrate,free gas and water in the gas hydrate system in the Shenhu Area,South China Sea

Shenhu Area is located in the Baiyun Sag of Pearl River Mouth Basin,which is on the northern continental slope of the South China Sea.Gas hydrates in this area have been intensively investigated,achieving a wide coverage of the three-dimensional seismic survey,a large number of boreholes,and detailed data of the seismic survey,logging,and core analysis.In the beginning of 2020,China has successfully conducted the second offshore production test of gas hydrates in this area.In this paper,studies were made on the structure of the hydrate system for the production test,based on detailed logging data and core analysis of this area.As to the results of nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)logging and sonic logging of Well GMGS6-SH02 drilled during the GMGS6 Expedition,the hydrate system on which the production well located can be divided into three layers:(1)207.8–253.4 mbsf,45.6 m thick,gas hydrate layer,with gas hydrate saturation of 0–54.5%(31%av.);(2)253.4–278 mbsf,24.6 m thick,mixing layer consisting of gas hydrates,free gas,and water,with gas hydrate saturation of 0–22%(10%av.)and free gas saturation of 0–32%(13%av.);(3)278–297 mbsf,19 m thick,with free gas saturation of less than 7%.Moreover,the pore water freshening identified in the sediment cores,taken from the depth below the theoretically calculated base of methane hydrate stability zone,indicates the occurrence of gas hydrate.All these data reveal that gas hydrates,free gas,and water coexist in the mixing layer from different aspects.

Investigation of quality factor frequency content in vertical seismic profile for gas reservoirs

Since long ago, indirect study of the underground layers properties has been interesting to geologists.One method for this study was seismography which gained great interest besides other tools due to thedifferent identity of waves and energy attraction phenomena in different layers. Vertical seismic profiling(VSP) is considered as a valuable method in oil and gas exploration. This method is used to estimate therock properties in a well. In seismic operations elastic waves are sent down to the underground. Part ofthe waves’ energy is reflected after passing through the earth layers and are received by receivers on theground level. The received data determine the situation of the underneath layers after being processed,and one of the most important applications of seismic data is in the oil and gas exploration field. Qualityfactor is one of the most important seismic detectors that shows itself apparently in VSP data results. Themost substantial purpose of this study is to investigate the frequency content of the quality factor.

Reply to “Comment on ‘A numerical investigation of the acoustic mode waves in a deviated borehole penetrating a transversely isotropic formation' ”

We appreciate the comment from Horne,Miller and Wang on the paper‘A numerical investigation of the acoustic mode waves in a deviated borehole penetrating a transversely isotropic formation’by Liu et al.（2015）[1],for the opportunity to consider and clarify the group and phase velocity issue in sonic logging with a deviated borehole penetrating a VTI formation.We re-read the paper by Liu et al.[1]and did some numerical tests and analyses.

Comment on “A numerical investigation of the acoustic mode waves in a deviated borehole penetrating a transversely isotropic formation”

In the paper"A numerical investigation of the acoustic mode waves in a deviated borehole penetrating a transversely isotropic formation"by Liu et al.[1]numerical experiments are reported for a dipole sonic logging scenario with a deviated borehole penetrating a VTI anisotropic medium.In such a situation it is important to clearly define the meaning of group and phase velocities as this has led to much confusion in the literature as discussed by Miller,Horne and Walsh[2].