EAS 430: Petroleum Geology

Lab 2:
Interpreting Geophysical Well Logs

Historical Aspect
-Schlumberger brothers, Conrad and Marcel, are credited with
inventing electrical well-logs.
- On September 5, 1927, the first well-log was created in a
small village named Pechelbroon in France.
- In 1931, the first SP (spontaneous potential) log was
recorded. Discovered when the galvanometer began wiggling
even though no current was being applied.
-The SP effect was produced naturally by the borehole mud at
the boundaries of permeable beds. By simultaneously
recording SP and resistivity, loggers could distinguish between
permeable oil-bearing beds and impermeable nonproducing
beds.

Types of Logs
a) Gamma Ray
b) SP (spontaneous potential)
c) Resistivity (Induction)
d) Sonic
e) Density/Neutron
f) Caliper

a) Gamma Ray
The gamma ray measures the natural radioactivity
of the rocks, and does not measure any
hydrocarbon or water present within the rocks.
Shales: radioactive potassium is a common
component, and because of their cation exchange
capacity, uranium and thorium are often absorbed
as well.
Therefore, very often shales will display high
gamma ray responses, while sandstones and
limestone will typically show lower responses.

 The scale for GR is in API (American

Petroleum Institute) and runs from 0-125
units. There are often 10 divisions in a GR
log, so each division represents 12.5 units.
Typical distinction between between a
sandstone/limestone and shale occurs
between 50-60 units.
Often, very clean sandstones or carbonates
will display values within the 20 units range.

b) SP (Spontaneous Potential)
The SP log records the electric potential
between an electrode pulled up a hole and a
reference electrode at the surface.
This potenital exists because of the
electrochemical differences between the waters
within the formation and the drilling mud.
The potenital is measured in millivolts on a
relative scale only since the absolute value
depends on the properties of the drilling mud.

 In shaly sections, the maximum SP response to the

right can be used to define a shale line.
Deflections of the SP log from this line indicates
zones of permeable lithologies with interstitial fluids
containing salinities differing from the drilling fluid.
SP logs are good indicators of lithology where
sandstones are permeable and water saturated.
However, if the lithologies are filled with fresh water,
the SP can become suppressed or even reversed.
Also, they are poor in areas where the
permeabilities are very low, sandstones are tighly
cemented or the interval is completely bitumen
saturated (ie- oil sands).

c) Resistivity (Induction)
Resistivity logs record the resistance of interstitial
fluids to the flow of an electric current, either
transmitted directly to the rock through an
electrode, or magnetically induced deeper into the
formation from the hole.
Therefore, the measure the ability of rocks to
conduct electrical currents and are scaled in units
of ohm-meters.
On most modern logs, there will be three curves,
each measuring the resistance of section to the
flow of electricity.

 Porous formations filled with salt water (which is very

common) have very low resistivities (often only
ranging from 1-10 ohms-meter).
Formations that contain oil/gas generally have much
higher resisitivities (often ranging from 10-500 ohmsmeter).
With regards to the three lines, the one we are most
interested in is the one marked deep. This is
because this curve looks into the formation at a depth
of six meters (or greater), thereby representing the
portion of the formation most unlikely undisturbed by
the drilling process.
One must be careful of extremely high values, as
they will often represent zones of either anhydrite or
other non-porous intervals.

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d) Sonic
Sonic logs (or acoustic) measure the porosity of
the rock. Hence, they measure the travel time of an
elastic wave through a formation (measured in Tmicroseconds per meter).
Intervals containing greater pore space will result in
greater travel time and vice versa for non-porous
sections.
Must be used in combination with other logs,
particularly gamma rays and resistivity, thereby
allowing one to better understand the reservoir
petrophysics.

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e) Density/Neutron
Density logs measure the bulk electron density of the
formation, and is measured in kilograms per cubic meter
(gm/cm3 or kg/m3).
Thus, the density tool emits gamma radiation which is
scattered back to a detector in amounts proportional to the
electron density of the formation. The higher the gamma ray
reflected, the greater the porosity of the rock.
Electron density is directly related to the density of the
formation (except in evaporates) and amount of density of
interstitial fluids.
Helpful in distinguishing lithologies, especially between
dolomite (2.85 kg/m 3) and limestone (2.71 kg/m 3).

 Neutron Logs measure the amounts of

hydrogen present in the water atoms of a
rock, and can be used to measure porosity.
This is done by bombarding the the formation
with neutrons, and determing how many
become captured by the hydrogen nuclei.
Because shales have high amounts of water,
the neutron log will read quite high porositiesthus it must be used in conjunction with GR
logs.
However, porosities recorded in shale-free
sections are a reasonable estimate of the
pore spaces that could produce water.

 It is very common to see both neutron

and density logs recorded on the same
section, and are often shown as an
overlay on a common scale (calibrated
for either sandstones or limestones).
This overlay allows for better
opportunity of distinguishing lithologies
and making better estimates of the true
porosity.
* When natural gas is present, there
becomes a big spread (or crossing) of
the two logs, known as the gas effect.

Example of dolomite overlying limestone, as

distinguished by the neutron/density.

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f) Caliper
Caliper Logs record the diameter of the hole. It
is very useful in relaying information about the
quality of the hole and hence reliability of the
other logs.
An example includes a large hole where
dissolution, caving or falling of the rock wall
occurred, leading to errors in other log
responses.
Most caliper logs are run with GR logs and
typically will remain constant throughout.