Objectives of production logging

The objective of production logging is to provide information to the client to enable them to
maximise oil recovery from their reservoirs, extend the life of existing fields and to reduce
operating costs. Initially PLT work is to profile production but later on in the life of the field
PLT work is usually to facilitate optimal reservoir management and to diagnose problems such
as:

a) Not as much oil is being produced as expected.

b) There is too much water being produced.
c) There is too much gas being produced.
d) The well has leaks or may be becoming mechanically unsound.

By diagnosing problems and quantifying multi phase production the client can make a
commercial decision of what to do next. Industry is driven by economics, PL info can make
the difference between going ahead with remedial work or even the development of an entire
field.

Looking at a selection of 100 wells production logged in the Far East and Middle East this is a
breakdown of the ‘reasons’ for the jobs.

Production Profiling
7% 24%
14% Injection Profiling

Water Problems
10%
45% Excessive Gas Problems

Mechanical Problems

Different toolstrings are required to achieve different objectives. Fundamentally there are 2
type of production logging strings: Production and Injection. In water injection wells fluid
identification tools are not required.

When considering which tools to run. Remember it is better to have too much information
than to have too little!. If you have too much information then ignore the data you do not
need. If you have too little then you have a problem!
Why is water such a problem?

First of all what makes a well flow.?

Assuming that permeability exists a well will flow if the bottom hole pressure in the wellbore
is less than the pressure in the formation.

Below is an example IPR plot of bottom hole pressure against flowrate. Pressure at zero flow
is the formation or reservoir pressure. The greater the pressure difference between the
wellbore and reservoir, known as the ‘drawdown’, the more the well will flow.

The pressure at the bottom of the well is the well head pressure + the hydrostatic pressure of
the well fluid column + frictional pressure drop due to flow.

If the well starts to produce water the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid column will build up
and the bottom hole pressure will increase. As a result the flowrate will decrease. This means
less oil and eventually the well will die.

In gas wells this is called ‘loading up’ as the gas is too ‘thin’ to adequately lift water out of the
well.

We also have problems with disposal of the water which can limit flow by overloading the
surface facilities. Also the water has to be stored and treated before it can be disposed of.
Here are some illustrations of situations where PL information will be useful to the
client’s engineers.

Are all the zones in this gas well producing?

Water production due to ‘coning’:

Formations have horizontal and vertical permeability. The ratio in sand/shale reservoirs is that horizontal
permeability is about 3-10 times higher than vertical. However if the drawdown is high water which is lower
viscosity will gradually move up. In carbonate reservoirs there can be high permeability fractures to allow water
to move upwards.

Once water breaks through it will be preferentially produced and the oil will remain in the formation.

In some fields as the pressure declines and the dissolved gas saturation decreases, the oil viscosity increases thus
increasing the tendency towards coning. This is one of the many reasons why older fields tend to produce water.

In oil wells with GAS caps the reverse can happen. The ‘cone’ is upside down and gas is drawn down through the
formation. Once gas enters the wellbore it is produced preferentially to oil and the oil is left in the formation.
Some scenario’s for unwanted water production:

In this example:
a) PL has been used to identify the watered out zone at the bottom before plugging it off.
b) The plug is leaking. This can happen if there is crossflow from the normally pressured zone into the
depleted zone during the plugging off.
c) Higher pressured water from the non-depleted zone is channeling down through a bad cement job into
the producing zone below.
d) There is a leak in the casing opposite the higher pressured water zone.

Fingering or Breakthrough of Water:

Most sandstone reservoirs are stratified with layers of different permeability. Due to having different viscosities
different fluids will flow through the layers with different permeability with degrees of ease. For example in
water drive reservoirs as oil is removed at a higher rate in the high permeability layers it can be replaced by water
while oil stays in the lower permeability layers. This is known as ‘fingering’. The water has a lower viscosity
than oil hence once it breaks through to the producing well it will be produced preferentially. This will reduces
the oil recovery from the reservoir. Additionally the well will become loaded up, which will increases bottom
hole pressure and reduce the overall flowrate.
In a water injection scenario water pumped down an injection well will travel through high permeability rock to
the producing well faster than through low permeability rock. This may cause premature breakthrough of
injection water which will reduce the flushing efficiency or sweep of the reservoir.

Gaining Water Injection information:

Water injection is the most common secondary recovery method it is also used to maintain reservoir pressure to
prevent premature gas breakout within the reservoir. Oil companies will log the injection well and the production
well. For example:

Injection Well Production Well

Water is injected Water and Oil are

Produced

Log an INJECTION Log a PRODUCTION

profile in this well profile in this well

OIL IS FLUSHED or SWEPT ACROSS TO

THE PRODUCTION WELL

Injection Well: Is the water going to all the zones?

What is the flow split – is it correct?
Does the well have skin damage?
Is the well mechanically sound?.
Production Well: Is the water injection water breaking through?
Is the well responding to the water injection as planned?.
Are any of the zones fully watered out?
Is the well mechanically sound?
Finding Leaks:
If the leak is sufficiently large it can be detected using production logging techniques.

In this example sand production associated with water production has eroded a hole in the blast joint opposite the
perforations. It can be quite clearly seen on the spinner log.

Use of Pressure Gauge Data:

Virtually every PL string will have a pressure gauge. Data recorded from the pressure gauge can be used measure
wellbore and reservoir pressure and also to record pressure data for transient analysis. Pressure build up data is
recorded in Production wells, pressure fall off data is recoeded in Injection wells. This gives valuable
information about the reservoir and flow efficiency of the well by the calculation of skin damage.

In wells with different layer pressures it is not possible to calculate individual layer pressures. When the well is
shut in crossflow develops and flow is from the higher pressured formations into the lower pressured ones.
Currently techniques are being established to use flowmeter data together with pressure data to be able to
evaluate individual layer pressures.

If the client is considering running a pressure gauge to record reservoir information it can be argued that the same
information plus a lot more can be gained by performing a PL job and thus minimize the interventions into the
well.
 PL DATA CAN BE USED TO CALCULATE THE AMOUNT OF
SKIN DAMAGE. THE SKIN FACTOR, S IS A DIMENSIONLESS INDICATOR

Undamaged well S = Zero

Damaged well S = Positive
Stimulated well S = Negative

Flowing Shut In Flowing Shut In

Flowrate
2000 bpd
1000 bpd

Skin damage results in a higher drawdown for the same flowrate.

Reservoir Pressure
Draw
Down
Wellbore
Pressure

Flow Rate

In this situation if (for example) our lift system can only

draw the well down by 1000 psi we will get 1800 BPD
from the damaged well and 2800 BPD from the undamaged well.