Threading the Needle: Optimizing Horizontal Wellbores Within Tight Vertical and Lateral Tolerances: A Case Study

Spotkaeff, Matthew Sergei; Dolan, James; Dupuis, Christophe; Saicic, Milan; Viandante, Mauro; Perna, Ferdinando; Handels, Martijn; Stueland, Eirik

doi:10.2118/145166-ms

Cited by 1 publication

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“…It was used to place over 2000 wells to date, in increasingly complex scenarios (Spotkaeff et al, 2011). In this paper, we refer to this tool technology as "azimuthal resistivity".…”

Section: General Concepts Of Real Time Well Placement Inversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workflow to Image Unconformities with Deep Electromagnetic LWD Measurements Enables Well Placement in Complex Scenarios

Dupuis

Omeragić

Chen

et al. 2013

Day 1 Mon, September 30, 2013

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The advent of deep-reading directional electromagnetic logging-while-drilling measurements brings opportunities in imaging complex formations around the wellbore. In this context, basing the inversions on an assumption of a layered medium is not always sufficient to decouple geometrical effects in complex formation scenarios.Rather than attempting to invert all variables of a generic 2D formation model simultaneously, we describe in this paper how the use of 2D inversions can be enabled through a robust workflow specifically designed for a class of formation models, in this case the angular unconformity. We demonstrate how the successive application of 1D inversion to subsets of tool data gradually builds a formation model for use as input to a 2D inversion, which accounts for complex couplings present in the data in such environments.The validity and the performance of the method are established through synthetic and field datasets. IntroductionSince the introduction in 2005 of deep and directional logging-while-drilling (LWD) electromagnetic (EM) measurements, thousands of wells have been geosteered based on remote boundary imaging, in a variety of reservoirs and geological environments. The standard processing applied to the measurements is a multilayer 1D inversion. Although this type of processing is valid in a large number of cases and has supported many successful operations, this paper introduces a different way of processing measurements to produce a more structured image of the formation around the wellbore and successfully address nonlayered scenarios in which the risks associated with the errors in running the standard processing might increase beyond desirable levels.We present a processing workflow running automatically through multiple inversion steps and minimizing the bias introduced by users. The steps gradually build a richer model of the subsurface, while introducing measurements with sensitivities matching the model features added at each step. The concept was implemented and tested on a specific family of nonlayered scenarios, the angular unconformity.The first sections summarize the LWD tools and the traditional 1D and 2.5D forward modeling and inversion concepts used in the workflow and throughout the industry. Then, the characteristics of the angular unconformity scenarios are defined, before some arguments are given to justify the need for an imaging workflow rather than a single inversion in the first place as is standard. The workflow steps are detailed next, and in the final sections the results and stability on synthetic and field examples are discussed.

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“…It was used to place over 2000 wells to date, in increasingly complex scenarios (Spotkaeff et al, 2011). In this paper, we refer to this tool technology as "azimuthal resistivity".…”

Section: General Concepts Of Real Time Well Placement Inversionmentioning

confidence: 99%