BOREHOLE

ENVIRONMENT
INTRODUCTION

• Wireline logging has a single clearly defined purpose: to give accurate

and representative data on the physical properties of the rock
formations and fluids encountered in a borehole.

• The tools used to take these readings have to cope with extremely tough
conditions downhole, particularly, high temperatures and pressures,
inhospitable chemical conditions and the physical constraints imposed
by the physics of the measurements and the borehole geometry.

• It should also be remembered that we are interested in the properties of

the rocks in undisturbed conditions, and the act of drilling the borehole
is the single most disturbing thing that we can do to a formation..
OVERBURDEN PRESSURES
• The formations in the sub-surface are at raised pressure, and are
occupied by fluids which are also at high pressure.
• The pressure that a rock is subjected to at a given depth is determined
by the weight of the rock above it, and hence the density of that rock.
• This is called the overburden pressure or sometimes the lithostatic
pressure.
• We can write an equation to describe the overburden pressure

𝑷𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 = 𝝆𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌 × 𝒈 × 𝒉 (𝟏)

where, Pfluid = the overburden pressure at depth h; 𝝆𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒊𝒅 = the mean rock
density above the depth in question; g = the acceleration due to gravity;
h = the depth to the measurement point.
OVERBURDEN PRESSURES

• Clearly the rock above a given depth will have a varied lithology and
porosity and hence a varying density.

• A more accurate determination of the overburden pressure can be

obtained by summing the pressure contributions for each density by
writing Eq. (1) for i different rock densities, each with thickness hi.

𝑷𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 = ෍ 𝝆𝒊 𝒈 𝒉𝒊 (𝟐)
𝒊
FLUID PRESSURES
• The pressure in a fluid occupying a formation depends upon many
forces.
• If there is a continuously connected pathway of fluid from the surface
to the depth in question, the fluid pressure depends primarily upon the
weight of the fluid above it.
• As the density of fluids is approximately one third of that for rocks, the
fluid pressure will be approximately one third of the overburden
pressure at any given depth.
𝑷𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒊𝒅 = 𝝆𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒊𝒅 × 𝒈 × 𝒉 (𝟑)

• The fluid in the rock above a given depth may have a varying density,
hence a summed equation may be better at describing the fluid pressure
at depth. The connected fluid pressure is called the hydrostatic pressure
EFFECTIVE PRESSURE
• The overburden pressure acts upon a rock to crush it. The fluids in the
pore spaces would then be compressed. Hence, the fluid pressure acts
on the rock to stop the rock crushing.

• A total effective pressure may be defined, therefore, as the pressure

that the rock effectively experiences. The effective pressure is the
overburden pressure minus the fluid pressure.

• The extraction of hydrocarbons in a reservoir ultimately lowers the fluid

pressure, and hence raises the effective pressure experienced by the
rock. Thus there may be occasions where, what was once stable
reservoir rock, begins to crush and compact and causes huge problems
for wellbore and platform stability.
DRILLING MUDS
• Drilling muds are used for at least three reasons:
· To lubricate the drill bit.
· To remove drilled material away from the drill bit and transport them to
the surface.
· To counteract the fluid pressure in the rock.
· Stabilize the wellbore.

• If a well could be drilled without a drilling fluid, formation fluids, which

are under their fluid pressure, would spurt out of the borehole (blow-
out). The density of the drilling fluid used in a particular borehole is
designed to generate a drilling mud pressure (due to the weight of the
drilling mud in the borehole above a given depth) that counteracts the
fluid pressure in the formation and prevent blowouts.
DRILLING MUDS

• This is usually successful, but because sudden increases in overpressure

can be encountered the drilling mud pressure is kept higher than
necessary as a safety feature. When the mud pressure is greater than
the formation fluid pressure, the well is said to be over-balanced.

• Varying the drilling mud weight also helps to protect the wellbore from
crushing by the high lithostatic forces, especially in deviated and
horizontal wells.

• The drilling mud is a suspension of mud particles (a slurry) in an

aqueous or oil-based medium.
INVASION

• The drilling mud is at a pressure greater than the fluid pressure in the
formation. When the drilling mud encounters a porous and permeable
formation, the drilling mud will flow into the formation under the
influence of this difference in fluid pressures. This is called invasion.

• However, the particulates in the mud will be left at the surface, with the
rock acting as an efficient filter. Thus, there is a build-up of mud
particles on the inner wall of the borehole, and this is called the mud
cake.

• The remaining liquid part of the drilling mud enters the formation,
pushing back the reservoir fluids. This part of the drilling mud is called
the mud filtrate.
INVASION

• The zone where the mud filtrate has replaced the reservoir fluids is
called the flushed zone and there is a zone further into the rock where
the replacement of reservoir fluids with mud filtrate is incomplete,
which is called the transition zone. The Virgin reservoir fluids occupy
the uninvaded zone further into the formation.

• NB: Invasion only occurs for porous and permeable formations, and is a
self limiting process because the mud cake is an efficient block to
further filtration and flow. High permeability formations admit the mud
filtrate easily, so the invasion is deep and the mudcake builds up quickly
to thick layers. High porosity formations allow the storage of more mud
filtrate per invasion distance, therefore the depth of invasion is smaller
than for low porosity formations of the same permeability.
INVASION

• The different fluid types in each of the zones will have different
physical properties. Only the deepest zone contains the circumstances
of the undisturbed rock, while the wireline tools occupy the borehole.
• To get good readings of the true sub-surface properties of the rock, the
tool has to either:

(i) measure accurately through the borehole mud, mud cake flushed
zone and transition zone, or

(ii) make readings closer to the tool (i.e., in the flushed zone) that can be
reliably corrected to represent the values in the uninvaded zone.
INVASION

• All wireline companies provide correction graphs for their various tools.
However, the accuracy of the correction diminishes as the diameter of
the borehole, the thickness of mud cake, and the depth of invasion
increase.
• Effort is therefore made to ensure that these are minimized by
(i) ensuring the mud is sufficiently saline to avoid wash-outs increasing
the borehole diameter,
(ii) ensuring that the mud is not so low salinity that it causes the swelling
of formation clays,
(iii) minimize mud filtrate, and
(iv) set the mud weight such that the mud pressure is only slightly greater
than the formation pressures (only slightly over-balanced).
Fig. 1: The borehole environment
Invasion with Water-Based Drilling Muds

• The depth of invasion is related to the permeability of the rock.

• The rate of water-based mud filtrate diffusion into the formation water
in the rock is at a rate that depends upon the pore size distribution and
hence the permeability of the rock.
• This diffusion can be faster than the rate of filtration at the borehole
wall in highly permeable formations. Thus the invasion is limited by the
rate of filtration, and the build-up of mudcake stops the process
limiting the depth of invasion.
• For lower permeability formations, the diffusion is slower but reaches a
greater depth (Fig. 2). The replacement of oil by the water-based mud
filtrate is by pressure driven displacement.
Fig. 2: Effect of time and permeability on invasion depth for water-based
muds.
Invasion with Water-Based Drilling Muds

• In water-bearing formations the mud filtrate replaces all of the

formation water close to the borehole (Fig. 3) and this decreases with
depth of invasion.

• In oil-bearing formations the mud filtrate replaces all the formation

water and most of the oil close to the borehole wall, again decreasing
with distance into the formation (Fig 3).
Fig. 3: Invasion profiles for water-based muds in water and oil bearing formations.
Invasion with Oil-Based Drilling Muds

• Oil-based mud filtrates replace the fluids in the invaded zone by

pressure driven displacement alone.

• In water-bearing formations the oilbased mud filtrate does not replace

all the formation water even close to the borehole wall, and that in oil-
bearing formations the oil-based mud filtrate only replaces the oil in the
formation, leaving the formation water in place.
Fig. 4: Invasion profiles for oil-based muds in water and oil bearing formations
Fluid Segregation

• Fluids in the invaded zone are formation water, water or oil-based mud
filtrate and oil in various saturations. These have different densities,
and so may undergo gravity driven fluid segregation resulting from
their relative buoyancies, if the vertical permeability of the formation is
sufficiently high.
• Drilling oil-bearing formations with salt saturated water-based
muds. The high density salty mud filtrate accumulates at the bottom of
the formation resulting in a resistivity profile that has lower resistivities
at the base of the formation than at the top.
• Drilling water-bearing formations with oil-based drilling muds. The
low density oil-based mud filtrate accumulates at the top of the
formation, again resulting in a resistivity profile that has lower
resistivities at the base of the formation than at the top.
Fig. 4: Invasion profiles for oil-based muds in water and oil bearing formations
LOGGING TOOL CHARACTERISTICS

• Logging tools characteristics depend mainly on the physics of the

particular parameter measured, and the borehole environment.
• Depth of Investigation. Most tools have a shallow depth of
investigation, restricting measurement of the formation to the flushed
or transition zones. The depth of investigation often depends upon the
density/porosity of the formation.
• Vertical (Bed) Resolution. Generally tools with large depth of
investigation, have low vertical resolution. The true parameters of the
rock formation can only be measured if the bed is larger than at least
the source-detector distance of the tool. The reasonable rule of thumb
is to triple the source-detector distance on the tool to get the minimum
bed resolution in ideal conditions. If the beds are thinner than the bed
resolution for the tool, then the measured parameter is underestimated.
This is the thin-bed effect.
LOGGING TOOL CHARACTERISTICS

• Investigation Geometry. This depends upon the tool. Some tools have
a pseudo-hemispherical zone of sensitivity (the radiation logs), some
toroidal (the induction logs), some tubular (acoustic logs), and some
focussed planar (the laterologs). The raw data that is measured depends
very much upon the geometry of the measurement, but these effects
are corrected for by the wireline logging company as standard.

• Logging Speed. The speed at which the logs are run has an effect upon
the quality of the data as a result of statistical fluctuations in the
measured radiation in the case of radiation tools, and as a function of
the measurement (sampling) interval in other tools. It can therefore be
seen that logging speed, data quality and vertical resolution are linked.