Principal Investigator: Greg Newman, now at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Team Members: Chester J. Weiss, (505-284-6347); David Alumbaugh, now at EMI/Schlumberger; Xinyou Lu, now at ExxonMobil

Sponsor: Natural Gas and Oil Technology Partnership (NGOTP)

Duration: (FY)1999-2001

Description: In response to an increased need by the oil and gas community for technologies which enable precision wellbore placement in horizontal drilling scenarios, we examined the utility of single-well electromagnetic logging-while-drilling measurements for electrically anisotropic formations. While the electromagnetic response of a traditional co-axial induction instrument is insensitive to the transverse anisotropy associated with thin horizontal interbeds or laminiations penetrated by a vertical wellbore, such is not the case when the wellbore is sub-vertical or horizontal. This anisotropy effect can lead to confusion if traditional interpretation methods are used, resulting in bypassed reserves, misplaced wellbores or even increased drilling hazard. Thus, our goal was to develop and implement numerical methods for quantifying the magnitude of the effect and exploring the physics behind electromagnetic induction in a fully generalized 3D anisotropic media described by a dense 3x3 conductivity tensor. As part of developing an intuition for interpretation of logging-while-drilling data, we relied heavily upon 3D visualization techniques to illuminate the spatial distribution of eddy currents and their associated fields within the formation.

Papers, reports and the latest hot results: Stay tuned!