The History of Well Logging

Carlos Torres-
Torres-Verdín,
Verd n, Ph.D.

PGE368
Fall 2002

August 30, 2002

Modern
Wireline (Open Hole) Logging Tools

1
 MODERN WELL-
WELL-LOG DISPLAY
North Sea Sandstone

Source: Baker Atlas

Modern Electrical
Log:

Italy 1992

2
 Directional Drilling System

MWD – telemetry, borehole direction & inclination

LWD – formation properties
Steerable system – sets hole direction

LWD Resistivity Tool

Toroid
Buttons Ring Toroid

Location of drill bit

3
LWD Borehole Resistivity
Imaging

• Each button scans 360°

as collar rotates
• Stacked scans provide
continuous image
• Geological features:
– Beds
– Dipping formations
– Fractures
– Faults
• Geosteering

Geosteering (1990)

Well turned down

once images confirm
position in sequence

4
 Extended Reach Drilling at Wytch Farm, UK

• 11 km lateral reach at 1.5 km depth

• 1.5 km horizontal in 10 m thick oil layer
• $180M savings compared to offshore island

MODERN
OFFSHORE
OIL RIG

Source: Oilfield Review

5
 Los Angeles Oil Field, 1925

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

How much does a well cost?

10 000 ft (3 km)

Exploratory drilling cost: $1000/ft

Cost of exploration well: $10M
Wells drilled per year: US 25 000; World 50 000
Average footage (1996): US 5 815 ft

6
 Cores
And Rock Cuttings

Schlumberger Brothers

Conrad Marcel
Schlumberger Schlumberger
1878—1936 1884—1953
Graduated Graduated
École École Centrale
Polytechnique Joined in 1919

7
 I agree to disburse to my sons Conrad and
Marcel the funds necessary for research
study in view of determining the nature of
the subsurface, in amount not exceeding
five hundred thousand francs. On their
part, my sons will agree not to disperse
their efforts. . . . The field of activity is vast
enough to satisfy their inventive genius by
its investigations. They must devote
themselves to it entirely. The scientific
interest in research must take precedence
over financial interest.
The sums disbursed by me are a
contribution on my part to primarily
scientific and secondary practical work
which I consider to be of the highest
value…
Marcel will bring to Conrad his remarkable
competence as an engineer and his
common sense. Conrad for his part will be
the wise physicist. I will support them.

Paul Schlumberger, 1920

CONRAD
SCHLUMBERGER
(Ecole de Mines, Paris)
1912

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

MARCEL
SCHLUMBERGER
(Vitré,
Vitr , France)

8
 Magnetic permeability is the only property of rocks and minerals
that has been used so far to investigate the subsurface of the
earth by observations made at the surface…[Among] other
properties also lending themselves to remote sensing, such as
density, elasticity, electrical permittivity, permeability to X-
rays…the electrical conductivity is particularly attractive.
Conrad Schlumberger
Etude sur la prospection electrique du sous sol (1920 edition)

I am determined to be a technician who goes beyond the study of pebbles.

SURFACE DC RESISTIVITY EXPLORATION

Source: Schlumberger, the history of a technique

9
 SURFACE
POTENTIOMETER

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

1920
Conrad Schlumberger
standing before his
potentiometer while his wife
Louise (center) and daughter
Annette talk at Val-Richer,
Normandy

10
 Conrad Schlumberger and potentiometer,
Saint-
Saint-Éloy
loy--les-
les-Mines, France

Source: Schlumberger Publication “The Way We Are”

SURFACE DC ANOMALY OF AN IRON DEPOSIT

(Conrad Schlumberger, 1920, Val-
Val-Richer, France)

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

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 BOREHOLE
DC RESISTIVITY

Carottage Électrique
lectrique

Source: Schlumberger, the history of a technique

OLD OIL RIG

(1925)
Pechelbronn,
Pechelbronn, France

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

12
 HENRI DOLL, 1940

Source: Fifty Years of Schlumberger Research in Ridgefield

Pechelbronn
Paris
The first electrical log Strasbourg

Pechelbronn, 1927 Dijon

Bordeaux Lyon
Societe de prospection electrique

Resistivity (ohm-m)

15
10
5

Depth
200 m 250 m

13
 FIRST LOG
(PECHELBRONN, FRANCE)
1927

Source: Schlumberger, the history of a technique

SUMMARY
1912: Conrad conceives the idea for electrical measurements
1919: Marcel joins his brother – first work in Normandy
1921: They open the office in Paris, rue Saint-Dominique
1923: During the next 3 years, they conduct geophysical surveys
in Romania, Serbia, Canada, South Africa, Congo, USA
1926: Create the “Société de Prospection Électrique”
1927: First electrical log in Pechelbronn, France

1929: Well surveys expand in Venezuela, India, Russia

The company now employs 56 engineers

1934: Founding of Schlumberger Well Services, Houston.

Further work in Germany, Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico,
Austria, Borneo

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LOGGING
ACTIVITY

BOREHOLE
SP
(SPONTANEOUS
POTENTIAL)

Source: Schlumberger, the history of a technique

15
 FIRST LOG
(1927)
SP,
SP Gradient,
And
Lithology
Interpretation

Source: Schlumberger, the history of a technique

FIRST LOG
OVERSEAS
(Venezuela,1929)
Resistivity
at
La Rosa

Source: Schlumberger, the history of a technique

16
ONE OF THE FIRST ELECTRICAL LOGGING TRUCKS

Source: Schlumberger Publication “The Way We Are”

Early Logging Truck

Adventures

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

17
 Winch and Recorder
1929

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

COMMERCIAL LOGGING TRUCK (1932)

Source: The Schlumberger Adventure

18
 HENRI DOLL and TECLINOMETER DIPMETER
Baku,
Baku, USSR, 1933

Source: Schlumberger Publication “The Way We Are”

Modern Well Logging

Trucks

Source: Baker Atlas

Source: Schlumberger Publication “The Way We Are”

19
Source: Oilfield Review

Carottage Électrique
lectrique
AT LAST!
1990

Source: Baker Atlas

BOREHOLE IMAGES and INTERPRETATION

Source: Oilfield Review

20
 DIPOLE SONIC
MULTI-
MULTI-RECEIVER
ARRAY
(Data Display)

Source: Schlumberger

NEUTRON POROSITY LOGGING

Source: Oilfield Review

21
 Modern Wellbore
Fluid-
Fluid-Flow Tester
And
In-
In-Situ
Fluid Sampler

Source: Oilfield Review

In-
In-Situ
Optical
Formation Fluid Analysis

Source: Oilfield Review

22
 NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE LOGGING

Source: Oilfield Review

Logging-
Logging-While-
While-Drilling and Real-
Real-Time Drill-
Drill-Bit Steering

Source: Oilfield Review

23
 PERMANENT MONITORING

Source: Oilfield Review

3-D SEISMIC DATA (SURFACE and BOREHOLE)

Source: Oilfield Review

24
 TIME-
TIME-LAPSE
CROSS-
CROSS-WELL TOMOGRAPHY

Source: Oilfield Review

ADVANCED BOREHOLE COMPLETIONS

Source: Oilfield Review

25
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

! Allaud, L., and Martin, M., 1977, Schlumberger, the History of

a Technique, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
! Bowler, G. C., 1994, Science on the Run, MIT Press.
! Schlumberger, A. G., 1982, The Schlumberger Adventure,
Arco Publishing, Inc.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
! Schlumberger
! Baker Atlas Well Logging Services
! Halliburton
! Michael Oristaglio

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