1st National Iranian Fractured Reservoirs Development Congress

Fracture Study Using Borehole Images (Case Study)

M. R. Ghafoori,
M. Roostaeian
V. A. Sajjadian

ABSTRACT:
Alpha Field is a N-S elongated anticline located in the Persian Gulf. A study of
farctures based on the available borehole images was carried out. In this case study,
FMI images for two horizontal wells were interpreted. The general trends, type,
aperture and density for different groups of fractures were calculated. In eastern
flank of the structure a fault was observed on the images which is highlighted on the
seismic data. In addition to the fracture analysis, a heterogeneity analysis was
carried out. The study revealed that only minor fractures are present in the reservoir
which most of them is related to the eastern falnk tectonic activities. The major trend
of the fractures are NE-SW but the minor trned of NW-SE is also visible.
Keys:
FMI, Fracture, Heterogeneity, Image Logs, Aperture

INTRODUCTION:

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Carbonates play an important role in the future of the fossil fuel of the world. Knowing that
the recovery factor of carbonate reservoirs is lower than sandstone reservoirs, this factor
encourages the researchers to come up with new ideas of interpretation. Complexity and
heterogeneity of theses reservoirs add more ambiguity to the interpretation and in order to be
able to overcome these obstacles in interpretation, multidisciplinary approach has to be
applied. Of these new approaches, the use of image logs is becoming an undeniable part of the
interpretation. The issue of fracture interpretation and texture analysis is becoming an
everyday part of the carbonates interpretation. If used with cooperation of other disciplines
such as core data and geology knowledge, images analysis may lead to a good output. These
results can help the managers to come up with the best optimum plan for production in the life
of the reservoir.

CASE STUDY:
Field Generality - Alpha field is an offshore structure located in the Persian Gulf, in the
Iranian sector, close to the Iran-U.A.E. border, and at 100 km of the Iranian shore.
Bulk volume of the reservoir based on contour map is about 8000 MMSTB and the
hydrocarbon pore volume of the reservoir is 2732.2 MMSTB. The average porosity of the
reservoir is around 3% to 21% and the permeability ranges from 0.1 md to 5 md. The average
reservoir pressure is around 3490 psia and average temperature is about 90 oC. The OWC lies
below the base of Ilam and was kept at 2140 m TVD/MSL.
Structural Pattern - Alpha corresponds to a N-S elongated anticline of 13 km 8 km, with a
maximum vertical closure of around 180 m. The tectonic style can be explained by two main
systems.
First, an extension phase related to deep Hormuz salt halokinesis, occurred during Cretaceous
times. It was followed by a compression phase linked to the Zagros uplift which may explain
the minor reverse faulting interpreted in Alpha field. The bending of the contours on the
middle of the Western flank of the structure probably corresponds to a salt withdrawal feature,
the effects of which can be traced on the Pre-Cretaceous section.
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Ilam Reservoir Description - The Ilam formation is a complex limestone formation dated of
Upper Cretaceous, probably from Upper Cenomanian to Campanian/Santonian.
The upper Ilam reservoir could be subdivided into two parts locally packed with
mudstone/wackestone with vuggy porosity. The lower Ilam, subdivided into three parts with
alternation of mudstone, and wackestone with fair to good porosity. In the upper part, the Ilam
is characterized by lateral heterogeneities, from restricted environment deposits in inner shelf
dominated by mud supported fabrics to high energy environments localized in channel
features or more rarely around them. The channel features, perfectly identifiable in 3D
seismic show a major channel which extends east-west across the Alpha field, and some
lateral tributaries.
Ilam consists of 6 members of A, B, C, DEF, G, and H. The upper Ilam is supposed to be oil
bearing (A member). This part of the reservoir is composed of packstone with vuggy porosity
and as we get to the lower part of the reservoir the texture turns to wackestone and mudstone
with low porosity.
In 1998, 11 wells were drilled from 2 platforms, i.e., P-1 and P-2, which the majority of them
are horizontal. Two of the wells were logged by FMI (Well-1 and Well-2) which in this case
study has been interpreted. The orientation of these wells is shown in Figure 1 (contour map)
on top of Ilam.
Interpretation of FMI Images - Fractures are planar features with no apparent displacement of
blocks along their planes. According to their environments, they are low or high dipping
features. In tensional and wrench regimes they have high dip but in compressional regimes

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they have low dips. They may be open or filled with secondary mineralization materials such
as clay, calcite, anhydrate, pyrite etc.
Open fractures will be identified on the electrical borehole images because of the large
electrical contrast with their surroundings as they are filled with the high conductive mud
(dark appearance).
For a cementing dipping fracture, the current lines compressed when the tool is just below and
in front of the fractures, so the artificial resistivity will be high but as soon as the tool pass
the fracture, the current lines diverge more that it would be otherwise giving the lower
resistivity with respect to the normal condition. The fracture width is not so high to be
measured directly by the tools. All in all, the effect will be changing in the resistivity from
one side of the fracture plane to other side, i.e. form high to low resistivity in quantity or
white to black on the image track visually which leads to the halo-like effect with a
symmetrical shape at both side of the wellbore.[2]
Here, the fracture interpretations which were made for two wells of the Alpha field, i.e., Well1 and Well-2 are given.

WELL-2 :
Fracture Analysis - In this case study, based on the fracture appearances, two types of
fractures were identified on the images: open (conductive) fractures and closed (resistive)
fractures. The total number of 91 fractures was identified on the images. From this number,
71 fractures were interpreted as generally open and the rest is defined as mineralized
fractures.
Conductive fractures can be divided into three sub-groups: open fractures, partially open
fractures, and hairline fractures.
To differentiate between the mud-filled fractures and clay-filled fractures, the knowledge of
the overall lithology using the core data and open hole logs interpretation is useful especially
gamma ray log.
Open fractures have continuous dark characters on the images. The have quite high apertures
and high permeability. So if the reservoir has a lot of these fractures, the production potential
will be high but the quick breakthrough of water through the fractures should be considered in
the aquifer supported reservoirs. With respect to drilling, huge mud loss may occur during
drilling, and they cause sever problems and borehole instability. Only one open fracture was
detected on the images at the depth of 3513.2 m which dips toward SW at 80o. This fracture is
visible on the static data as the wide dark band which has been discriminated from
surrounding matrix. (Figure 2)
Partially open fractures have a discontinuous appearance on the images. This class of
fractures includes those fractures which have less than 50% conductive character on the
images. Fractures which terminate to the porous patches or have a conductive mark on one
side of the borehole wall and have a resistive character on other side of the borehole wall are
considered as partially open fractures. These fractures may enhance the permeability in dense
intervals. They have N-S to N30E-S30W strike but the majority of them have N20E-S20W
trend, so they might enhance the permeability of dual porosity system by multitudes in this
direction. The effect of these fractures on permeability enhancement may be evaluated by
core study but an increase in aperture of fractures due to unloading effect should be
considered during core study. These fractures are shown in Figure 3. These fractures seem to
be more associated with the fault 2 interpreted at the depth of 3455.4 m (Figure 4). The
majority of these fractures may be found around these depths: 2540 m 2544 m and 3272 m
3278 m.
Hairline fractures dominate those fractures with a little opening or aperture. They usually
confine to small area on the images and have a small extent as long as a few centimeters.
Some of them are planar but some of them dont follow the sinusoid trend but still there has
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been trying to fit a sinusoid on these fractures for dip determination. Due to their small
apertures which hardly exceed one millimeter, they dont enhance the dual-porosity system
permeability. So, this kind of the fractures may be ignored in reservoir performance. This
class of fractures is sown in Figure 4. Their dips vary from 40o to 90o toward WNW to ESE
with an overall NNE-SSW strike. The majority of these fractures has a high dip of 85o to 90o
and mostly can be seen at these intervals: 3270 m -3276 m, 3434 m 3437 m, 3452 m 3456
m, and 3510 m 3512 m.
Mineralized fractures are identified on the images by their apparent character of halo-effect
due to their filling materials.
These fractures have a good continuity over the intervals. The filling minerals are calcite
based on core analysis. Most of these fractures clustered over the interval of 3500 m 3530
m. They dip toward NW, SE, WSW, and SSE. The majority of them have the same trend as
hairline and partially open fractures on the strike rose diagram. They dip toward N10 diagram.
Their dips vary between 60o to 90o but most of them have a high dip of 80o. This class of
fractures is shown in Figure 5. In some intervals, these fractures terminate to shaly layers.
However these fractures have high dip around 85o and dips toward SE, the argillaceous layer
has the low dip as 4o toward SE which is main structural bedding dip.
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WELL-1:
Fracture Analysis - The total number of 14 fractures were picked on the images. These
fractures are not such important fractures. All of them can be classified as hairline fractures
which almost have negligible apertures less than one millimeter. The general trend of these
fractures is WNW-ESE. They have a high dip of 85o in average toward NNE and SSW
(Figure 6).
The absence of fractures in NE-SW direction does not verify that there are no fractures in this
direction but this phenomenon can be explained on the basis of orientation of the well Well-1,
general trend of the fractures, and curvature data in next part. No open fracture was observed
during analysis and the same condition satisfies for mineralized fractures. The aperture of the
picked fractures has been calculated by calibrating these iamges with LLS log. Because the
number of fractures is not that much and the dominant fabric of the formation is vuggy, so the
aperture data doesnt have much confidence. For some of the fractures, the calculated aperture
is negligible but for few its around 0.9 mm. In the last track of the Figure 7, the conductivity
curve is a qualitative indicator of permeability and as can be seen this value is variable along
the borehole suggesting the heterogeneous nature of the matrix.
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Heterogeneity Analysis - In conjunction with openhole logs, the FMI/FMS images can be
used to examine internal organization or rock fabric of beds or reservoir units. A carbonate
reservoir could be layered or massive and its porous fraction could be comprised of vugs,
moulds, karsts, channels, patches of interparticle or intra-particle porosity or layers due to
digenesis, bioturbation or preferential cementation. Being resistive, the dense limestone areas
or porous areas with residual hydrocarbon have light shades on the images whereas shale,
porous, mud invaded rocks, vugs, and moulds have dark shades.
The main factor contributing to the heterogeneous nature of a reservoir is patchiness due to
areas of different porosity and permeability caused by digenetic processes or/and change in
lithofacies.
The heterogeneity analysis of reservoir from borehole images was carried out. It may involve
more than one iteration to optimize the parameters used for extraction of formation
heterogeneities. The results of each iteration are validated by visual examination of the
images to see whether all heterogeneities are identified and contoured. The resistive
heterogeneities are contoured in dark blue while the large resistive events are contoured in
cyan. The conductive events are further classified into three types: large patches, connected

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spots, and isolated (across each image) spots. They are shown in different colors on the
images: the patches are shown in dark magenta, connected spots in red, and the isolated spots
in orange. At intervals where the percentage of conductive/resistive spot/patch are near zero,
the formation is more homogeneous but where the large difference of these events exist, the
formation is heterogeneous. The connected spots curve, i.e. the red one, is an indicator of the
permeability. Where the percentage of this value is high, the formation is more permeable.
Overall, there is a good match between the conductivity curve and connected spots curve
which both of them are indicator of permeability. The result of such analysis is showm by
Figure 8.

CONCLUSION:
The major trend of the hairline fractures is NE-SW but there is a minor trend of NW-SE
but more hairline fractures were observed on core plugs due to its accuracy and resolution.
Most of the fractures are hairline and their average aperture is about 0.2 mm.
The maximum horizontal stress derived from permeability tensors of core samples, open
fractures trend derived form images and cores, is N10-N20 which is the same for the
overall trend of the hairline fractures.
There are some evidences of tectonic evidence on the eastern flank of the reservoir as
interpreted on the Well-2 images.
The dominant mode of the porosity seems to be vuggy and patchy.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
The authors thank NIOC for providing the data and Schlumberger, Iran Well Services (SIS),
for giving the opportunity to work on GeoFrame Software.

REFERENCES:

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1st National Iranian Fractured Reservoirs Development Congress

[1] Kubik, W., and Lowry, P.; "Fracture Identification and Characterization Using Cores,
FMS, Cast, and Borehole Camera; Devonian shale, Pike County, Kentucky", SPE 25897, SPE
Rocky Mountain/Low Peer held in Denver, 12-14 April 1993.
[2] Luthi, S. M.; "Geological Well Logs, Their Use in Reservoir Modeling", Springer
Publication, Germany, 2004.
[3] Ma, T.A., Lincecum, V., Reinmiller, R., and Mattner, J.; "Natural and Induced Fracture
Classification Using Image Analysis", SPWLA 34th Annual Logging Symposium, 13-16
June1993.
[4] Rider, M.; "The Geological Interpretation of Well Logs", Second Edition, Whittles
Publication, Malta, 1996.
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Figure 1. Top of Ilam contour map and trajectory of wells on the structure.

Figure 2. Open fracture character on the static/dynamic images as the wide-dark band with strike, azimuth rose diagram,
and dip histogram shown at the bottom. The fracture seems to be solution enlarged fracture.

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Figure 3. The partially open (yellow tadpoles) and hairline fractures (purple tadpoles) characters are shown on the
dynamic/static images. The overall trend of these two classes of fractures is almost the same. The partially open fractures
are discriminated from hairline by higher apertures. At the bottom, the azimuth rose diagram, strike rose diagram, and
dip histogram for partially open and hairline fractures are given.

Figure 4. An interval showing the fault 2 and the fractured zones around it. Notice the high density of partially open
fractures associated with faulting.

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Figure 5. The halo-effect character of mineralized fractures on the dynamic/static images. Generally, they follow the
hairline/partially open fractures trends but there are still some fractures in different trends. At the bottom, the azimuth
rose diagram, strike rose diagram, and dip histogram for all mineralized fractures are given.

Figure 6. Hairline fractures tracks on images.

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Figure 7. Hairline fractures

for the whole interval.
Notice the fractures
apertures in the fifth track
and the conductivity values
in the last track as the
indicator of the qualitative
permeability.

Figure 8. The heterogeneity

analysis of an interval
suggesting the
heterogeneous nature of the
matrix. The results of the
heterogeneity are given in
the last track.

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