Well Logging PE-307

Lecture 09 - Thursday, May 18th 2017

-READ PAUL GLOVER PAGES 93-97 BEFORE THIS LECTURE-

UNIT OF GAMMA RAY LOG:
The accepted unit for radioactive logging ( ray logging) is the API (American
Petroleum institute) unit. The API unit is defined in a reference well in the grounds
of the University of Houston, Texas. They use a pit, with a bed of radioactive
concrete situated between two zones of low radioactivity (concrete without
radioactive elements), and to define the API Gamma Ray unit as 1/200 of the
difference in log reading between the high radioactive and low radioactive zone.
The pit serve as a standard for the API unit, it also serves to calibrate a tool. The
simple gamma ray log is usually recorded in track 1 along with the caliper. Scales
are chosen locally, but 0-100 or 0-150 API are common.

The purpose is to identify shales. Conventional shales are not reservoirs. 70%
production comes from carbonates. But in terms of no. of reservoirs, sandstone
reservoirs are more widespread in the crust. Among sediments shale has the
highest radioactivity. High radioactivity indicates possibility of shale. But other
logs are required for confirmation; it can also be salt etc. So, gamma ray logs are
not diagnostic logs.
When gamma rays travel, they lose energy. Travelling through denser formations
impacts more; they lose more energy. So, depth of investigation of gamma ray
tool is very shallow. These gamma rays undergo Compton scattering, where a

Page | 1
Well Logging PE-307
Lecture 09 - Thursday, May 18th 2017

gamma ray interacts with the electrons of the atoms through which they are
passing, ejecting the electron from the atom, and losing energy in the process.
Mud and casing affect measurement. If you are using heavy, thick, denser mud,
then your ray reading is affected. Presence of Barite affects measurement. Your
measurement will be affected; rays will lose energy, or will get absorbed,
resulting in loss of response (detectors per signals kum ayenge). Mud cakes affect
too. So, this log is very sensitive, because slight thick mud cake can affect the
formation response, and ultimate detection of lithology. KCL mud has potassium,
and this mud is radioactive, so it will interfere with formation response, producing
false reading i.e. your detector will be measuring mud radioactivity instead of
formation radioactivity. Bore hole size increase due to washout or caving will also
affect. So, corrections are applied in this log. If you perform log in a cased hole,
then casing will also block the gamma ray radiation; the radiation will pass but it
will lose energy. So, borehole environment including mud, mud cake, caving etc.
and casings can affect the recording of true formation response.
DETECTION (continued): -The Simple Gamma Ray Tool:

Page | 2
Well Logging PE-307
Lecture 09 - Thursday, May 18th 2017

The simple gamma ray tool is a sensitive gamma ray detector consists of
scintillation counter and a photo multiplier. The scintillation counter is typically a
sodium iodide crystal with minor impurity of Thallium. Scintillation is a material
property which refers to a flash of light produced in a transparent material being
struck by high energy photon like ray. When a gamma ray strikes the crystal a
small flash of light is produced. This flash is too small to be measured using
conventional electronics. Instead, it is amplified by a photomultiplier, which
consists of a photocathode and a series of anodes arranged in high vacuum. These
anodes are supplied with higher voltages. The flash of light hits the photocathode
and causes a number of primary electrons to be produced. These few electrons still
represent too small a signal to be measured. The primary electrons are accelerated
towards the first anode. For every electron that hits the anode, a number of
secondary electrons are emitted (between 4 and 8 usually). These electrons are
accelerated towards the next anode, where each of the secondary electrons produce
even more secondary electrons. This process is repeated for each of say 10 anodes.
If 6 electrons are emitted at each anode for each incident electron, we can see that a
single incident gamma ray ultimately produces 610 = 60,466,176 electrons.
The high flow of electrons to be measured and recorded is an indication of the
incident gamma ray radiation. Since the flash of light and the number of primary
electrons is proportional to the energy of the gamma ray, the final current from the
scintillation counter is also proportional to the energy of the incident gamma ray.
The electronic signal results a voltage signal which is directly proportional to the
photon energy (the energy of the incident gamma ray).
The whole process takes an extremely short time, but during this time the
photomultiplier is saturated and is insensitive to further gamma rays. So, reading is
taken for a specific period of time. And response measurement involves average of
all readings.
Spectral Gamma Ray Tool:
The spectral gamma ray tool uses the same sensor (the scintillation detector) as the
simple gamma ray tool. The output from the sensor is fed into a multi-channel
analyzer that calculates the amount of radiation coming from the energies
associated with each of the major peaks. This is done by measuring the gamma ray
count rate for 3 energy windows centered around the energies 1.46 MeV for
potassium-40, 1.76 MeV for the uranium-radium series, and 2.62 MeV for the

Page | 3
Well Logging PE-307
Lecture 09 - Thursday, May 18th 2017

thorium series. These readings represent the gamma ray radioactivity from each of
these sources.

The intensity of glow is directly proportional to the energy of the incoming ray.
This is how spectral gamma ray tool segregates among the 3 sources (K, U & Th),
that which is the source of this radiation.
Potassium Feldspar is a mineral found in sandstones. It is radioactive, and if it is
present, then your sandstone will be radioactive. So, potassium is not a good
indicator of formation. Thorium occurs only in shale, so it is a good indicator. So,
in order to get the idea if the radiation comes from thorium or potassium, we use
spectral gamma ray tool.
A depositional environment is a specific environment in which sediments are
deposited. They are sometimes called sedimentary environment. Sandstones are
composed of large-sized sand grains. These grains, being larger and heavy are
deposited in high-energy carrier zones, like sea-shore. So, sandstones have coastal
environments. Shales are composed of very small clay and silt particles. These
particles are very light and remain suspended in a low-energy carrier. So, they have
deep marine environments.
Limestone, rock made of the calcium carbonate mineral known as calcite, can form
in a variety of depositional environments, from hot spring deposits to coral reefs in
the oceans. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of marine organisms

Page | 4
Well Logging PE-307
Lecture 09 - Thursday, May 18th 2017

such as coral. These limestones, formed of biological origins, are formed in marine
environment. Some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed
completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite. These limestones occur in
travertine environment (hot springs)
Sedimentary rocks are not 100% pure, they are composed of grains that are
deposited by carriers. So along with these grains, other minerals get deposited
along with the parent grain. So, the gamma ray response is not a pure indicator of
formation. Not all shales are radioactive, and not all sandstones are non-
radioactive.
Uranium is found to be associated with organic matter. Uranium is an indicator of
a source rock (but shale is not the only source rock; it is the most common though).
A rock where hydrocarbons collected and converted to kerogen and oil is a source
rock, and by default it is said to contain Uranium. Thorium is only found in Shales.
Potassium occurs in sands and shales. Often shale occurs as the cap rock. Salts can
act as a good trap too, a cap rock. Salt has neither porosity nor permeability. Salt is
also non-radioactive, so it will yield little gamma ray response. Salt compositions
include anhydrites (gypsum), calcium sulfates etc. Gypsum is most common salt
rock. Conventional salts do not include KCl.

Usual Gamma Ray Log Response to Lithology

Lithology API Integrate with other logs

Sandstone < 30 Neutron-density, resistivity, sonic, PEF
Limestone < 20 Neutron-density, resistivity, sonic, PEF
Dolomite < 30 Neutron-density, resistivity, sonic, PEF
Shale 80-300 Neutron-density, resistivity, sonic, PEF
Coal < 20 Neutron-density, resistivity, sonic, PEF
Salt < 10 Neutron-density, resistivity, sonic, PEF
Anhydrite < 10 Neutron-density, resistivity, sonic, PEF

Its main use is the discrimination of shales by their high radioactivity. Note that
shales, organic rich shales and volcanic ash show the highest gamma ray values,
and halite, anhydrite, coal, clean sandstones, dolomite and limestone have low

Page | 5
Well Logging PE-307
Lecture 09 - Thursday, May 18th 2017

gamma ray values. Care must be taken not to generalize these rules too much. For
example, a clean sandstone may contain feldspars (arkose sandstones), micas
(micaceous sandstones), or heavy minerals(Uranium), any of which will give the
sandstone higher gamma ray values than would be expected from a clean
sandstone.

Calibration:
Intuitively, we might expect the units for gamma ray logging to
be in gamma counts per second. However, this results in
extremely unwieldy values. Conventionally, the gamma ray log
is reported in pseudo-units called API units. The API unit is
defined empirically by calibration to a reference well at the
University of Houston. This reference well is an artificial one
that is composed of large blocks of rock of accurately known
radioactivity ranging from very low radioactivity to very large
radioactivity. The API unit is 1/200th of the difference
between the highest activity formation in the reference well,
and the lowest, found in a well drilled in the University of
Texas.

Tools are run in the Houston well (test pit), and are used as
standards to calibrate further tools at local test pits. A further
calibration check is also carried out at the well-site before and
after the log is run, by using a radioactive source of accurately known radioactivity
a fixed distance from the tool.

Note: in mcqs they might givequestions like is shally carbonate with no organic
matter, radioactive?

To analyze this question, think as;

-shale is there, so thorium is present. Uranium is absent (no organic matter).

So, answer is radioactive. Carbonates are non-radioactive alone because of lack of

thorium and potassium present.

Page | 6