ISSUE 6 | VO L 2 | n ov e m B E R 2 0 1 9

THE

SPWLA TODAY
NEWSLETTER

SOCIETY OF
YSTS
P E T RO

PH
AL

YS
ICIS AN
G
T S AND WELL LO
 INSIDE THIS EDITION

Calendar of Events ........................................................................................................................................ 05

From the President ....................................................................................................................................... 06
Board of Directors Reports
Up Next ................................................................................................................................................. 09
Tech Today ............................................................................................................................................. 10
The Invoice ............................................................................................................................................ 12
Informative Technology .......................................................................................................................... 13
Learning Opportunities .......................................................................................................................... 15
Regional Understandings ........................................................................................................................ 16
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes - October 9, 2019 ................................................................................. 19
Articles
Tales from the Oil Patch: 1970s in the Louisiana Gulf Coast—Vuggy Sandstones? (Surely You Jest, Dr. T.) ..20
You’ll Never Lose a Resistivity Interpretation Argument When James Clerk Maxwell is on Your Side..........21
SCA Symposium Abstracts ............................................................................................................................ 25
JFES Symposium Abstracts ............................................................................................................................ 39
The Bridge
Reminiscences of the Logging Profession—I Did It My Way ..................................................................... 47
Happy Hour Announcement ................................................................................................................... 51
PDDA Scholarship Announcement ............................................................................................................... 54
EOI 2020 BOD Election Announcement ......................................................................................................... 55
Chapter News ............................................................................................................................................... 56
Recent Accolades ......................................................................................................................................... 71
In Memoriam ............................................................................................................................................... 72
New Members .............................................................................................................................................. 73

SOCIETY OF
YSTS
P E T RO

PH
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YS
ICIS AN
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T S AND WELL LO

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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 The Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts
Board of Directors 2019–2020
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
President
Jesus Salazar
VP Finance, Secretary,
and Administration
November 1–2, 2019
Marathon Oil Company Doug Patterson Workshop on “Porous Media: Structure, Flow,
Houston, TX, USA Baker Hughes, a GE Company and Dynamics”
(+1) 512-785-8979 Houston, Texas, USA Hosted By: The Boston Chapter of SPWLA
[email protected] (+1) 713 879-4056
[email protected] Cambridge, MA, USA
VP Publications www.spwla.org
President-Elect Tom Neville
James Hemingway
Consultant
Asia-Pacific Fm. Eval. Services
Brisbane, Australia
March 1–5, 2020
Manitou Springs, CO, USA (+61) 416-672-392 SPWLA Bangkok–Asia Pacific Regional Conference
(+1) 281-433-5170
[email protected]
[email protected] Theme: “Petrophysics: From Exploration to Brownfield—
The Impact of Formation Evaluation on Oil and Gas
VP IT
VP Technology Lin Liang Field Development Decisions”
Michael O’Keefe
Schlumberger
Schlumberger-Doll Research Bangkok, Thailand
Cambridge, MA, USA www.spwla.org
Bucharest, Romania (+1) 617-335-4469
(+40) 739-855-658 [email protected]
[email protected]
June 20–24, 2020
VP Education SPWLA 61st Annual Symposium
Katerina Yared Banff, Alberta, Canada
SM Energy
Highlands Ranch, CO, USA www.spwla.org
(+1) 720-431-7482
[email protected]

REGIONAL DIRECTORS
N. America 1 Middle East/Africa
Adam Haecker Shouxiang (Mark) Ma
Continental Saudi Aramco
Oklahoma City, OK, USA Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
(+1) 979-587-1061 (+966) 3-874-5078
[email protected] [email protected]

N. America 2 Asia and Australia

Kelly Skuce Jennifer Market
Core Petrophysical Consulting MPC Kinetic
Calgary, Canada Perth, Australia
(+1) 587-228-0203 (+1) 713-302-8325
[email protected] [email protected]

Latin America Executive Director

Nadege Bize-Forest Sharon Johnson
Schlumberger SPWLA
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Houston, TX 77017
(+55) 21-97454-8772 (+1) 713-947-8727
[email protected] [email protected]

Europe
Craig Lindsay
Core Specialist Services Ltd.
Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom
(+44) 7530-040117
[email protected]

Managing Editor Publication Manager

Stephen Prensky Anna Tarlton
(+1) 301-593-4966 InkSpot Printing
[email protected] 2301 S. Shaver About the Cover
Pasadena, TX 77502, USA
(+1) 713-472-1100 Modeled resistivity tool response to the Gulf Coast Invasion
[email protected] formation model (Anderson, B.I., and Barber, T.D., 1997, Induction
Logging Manual, Schlumberger). As Barbara Anderson explains
in her column in this issue of SPWLA Today, resistivity modeling
such as this is a valuable tool for understanding tool response and
Notice: Articles published in SPWLA Today are not subject to formal peer solving complex interpretation problems.
review but are subject to editorial review and are verified for technical
consistency and relevance.

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From the President
Fellow SPWLA members, this will be the last issue of the SPWLA Today newsletter in 2019.
It will also be my last column of the year, and before I start updating you on what’s going on in
our society I’d like to wish everyone a happy holiday season. Please enjoy in a healthy way, spend
quality time with your family and friends, travel to amazing places, but please don’t eat too much
or you’ll pay the price early next year. We are all super busy working on projects in our day jobs,
but remember there’s only one life that we deserve to live it to the fullest.
The survey to vote on changes to the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporations (BLAI) closed on
September 19. A total of 651 members cast ballots, which is the usual number of voters we have
during the annual elections (600 to 700). The membership has overwhelmingly voted to pass all
the proposed changes with approvals that ranged between 84 and 95%, way above the minimum
Jesús M. Salazar of 75% of the total number of ballots required to pass the proposed changes to BLAI. I hope
2019–2020 SPWLA President everyone had the chance to see the email showing the side-by-side comparison of the previous
[email protected] articles and sections against the changes we proposed, with the voting results for and against
such changes. The new BLAI are far from perfect, but the membership agreed that a few changes
were warranted. Let’s give the new system a try for the next election and awards period and
see what happens. There’s always room for improvement, and I’ll do my best to listen to the membership and make additional
changes before my term is over or I would also set the table for the next President and his BOD.
These changes are effective immediately. However, anyone in the current board who has been serving for more than five
consecutive years will be able to finish their term and if they want to come back to the board, they may run for President-Elect
only. Speaking of which, Past President Zach Liu sent an expression of interest (EOI) request for the upcoming elections of the
new Board. Similar to last year, people are able to self-nominate. With the new BLAI there are a few requirements for critical
positions, which are stated in the EOI. If you are passionate about SPWLA and have been already involved in local chapters,
conference, or with our publications, please contact Zach and add your name as a potential nominee.
I had couple of busy weeks since my last column. I visited two chapters and also a sister organization. At every meeting I
gave a presentation about the SPWLA and on technical topics about petrophysics. In late August, I visited the Houston Chapter
of EAGE, thanks to an invitation extended by Dr. Mariela Araujo, who organizes their monthly seminar. It was a great opportunity
to talk about the SPWLA and unconventional petrophysics to a mixed audience of geoscientists and engineers.
At the beginning of September, I traveled to the American West, Lubbock, Texas, to speak at the Texas Tech University SPWLA
Student Chapter. I had two incredible hosts, current and past chapter presidents Rushil Pandya and Ibe Ezisi, respectively. They
gave me a tour of the Petroleum Engineering Department and introduced me to faculty and students. They wanted me to talk
about the operations within the SPWLA and I gave him a talk called, “The SPWLA From the Inside.” It was an extended and
detailed version of my five slides about SPWLA that I usually present during my visits to chapters. The Texas Tech Student Chapter

Fig. 1—Texas Tech University faculty and students, famous Professor George B. Asquith is to my right and chapter President Rushil Pandya is sitting in
the front.

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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From the President
is a very dynamic group, in their meetings they have attendees from various engineering and geoscience majors, not only
petroleum engineering, but also mechanical and civil engineering. They’ve been raising funds very efficiently via training offered
by volunteers and friends of the University. They’re in a position to invite non-Distinguished Speakers and partially cover their
expenses. The university has also increased their annuity to the chapter year after year. Figure 1 shows some of the attendees to
my presentation at TTU.
I want to thank the Japan Formation Evaluation Society (JFES, a chapter of SPWLA) for inviting me to be their keynote speaker
in their annual symposium in Chiba, Japan (about one hour south of Tokyo). As you may know, it’s a tradition that the SPWLA
President-Elect attends to this conference. Last year, I had a scheduling conflict and was not able to attend, but I was lucky
to attend this year as President. I cannot say enough of the graciousness and kindness of JFES’ folks, especially my hosts Yuki
Maehara, Tetsuya Yamamoto, and chapter president Professor Masanori Kurihara. They were very happy to have someone from
the board visiting and they want to be more involved with us, one of his board members is now part of the technical committee
for the 2020 Symposium. They feel proud to be now officially linked to the SPWLA since they signed the Charter Agreement in
2017. See Fig. 2 for a group picture during the conference.
The theme of the JFES conference was “Low Carbon Emission Energy.” So, I tailored my keynote to the theme with the
title, “New Trends in Energy Resources, 2020 and Beyond: Petrophysicists are Already Playing a Role.” I found the conference
quite interesting, covering technical problems on new technologies in petrophysics, thermal energy, and carbon capture use
and storage (CCUS). During my keynote, I spoke about the fear that many professionals in oil and gas may have on becoming
obsolete in the future. Working in the oil and gas exploration and production industry we wonder, what will be the energy of
the future? Are renewables replacing fossil fuels? What will be the role of petrophysicist in the next 20 to 40 years? All those
are valid questions and we need to guide the younger generations to making the right decision for themselves and for a better
world. Let’s keep in mind that our industry has become cleaner and safer than it was a few decades ago. Since 1990, renewable
energy resources have grown at an average annual rate of 2.0%. However, fossil fluids, specially oil and gas are still the leading
source of world energy and it’ll remain like that in the next 20 to 40 years. Let’s say that oil and gas is the energy of the masses.
There are still plenty of opportunities for subsurface people like us to keep us working on interesting petrophysical problems for
more decades to come. We need to find ways to make it cheaper and environmentally conscious.

Fig. 2—Japan FES Symposium attendees. I am in the first row surrounded by Professor Masanori Kurihara to my right and my former mentor during an
internship with Oxy and Austin Chapter founder Shinichi Sakurai. It was great to see Shin after so many years. Photo courtesy of JFES.

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From the President
Recently, I have been working with Latin American Director Nadege Bize-Forest to engage more people from the region in
their local SPWLA chapters. This includes conversations with contacts in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. Mexican Chapter
President Hugo Hernandez Espinosa envisages a potential growth in the Mexico Chapter that will require more volunteers. We
have received expression of interest from petrophysicists in Suriname to start a local chapter and from Venezuela to revive their
chapter.
Along with VP Education Katerina Yared, we have officially established the social media committee to keep you informed
of everything happening around the world in the SPWLA. We continue working with the CWLS to organize an outstanding 61st
Annual Logging Symposium in Banff, Alberta, Canada. I hope you had time to submit an abstract to present your research and
innovation projects. You should be hearing from the VP Technology Michael O’Keefe before year end whether your proposal
was accepted, it’s always very competitive. But regardless of the outcome, make plans to come to Banff, and just in case, start
prepping your hiking and fishing gear too, if you fancy to enjoy a couple of extra days in the Canadian Rockies.

Stay connected my friends,

Jesús M. Salazar, Ph.D.
linkedin.com/in/spwla-socialmedia-454464105
Instagram @chichosalazarpetro

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Up Next
Hello fellow Petrophysicists,

This is a rather slow time for me, not so for many others. I’ve been watching the abstracts
trickle in and so far, we seem to be on par with previous years, rather slow at first with a burst of
submissions during the last week.
We are currently soliciting proposals to host the 2021 symposium. So far, two locations
have expressed interested in hosting, and possibly, there will be more. We would like to make a
decision on the 2021 Symposium location by early December. Although the 2020 symposium is
international-ish we should consider a US location for 2021 but something outside the US would
be considered too.
As in my previous letters, I continue to promote and hope for new and innovative techniques
that will provide information needed to make better completion decisions. Our ability to calculate
James Hemingway
2019–2020 SPWLA
water saturation based on conventional techniques is reaching a useful limit, especially in
President-Elect unconventional reservoirs. We need to strive to use new measurements and techniques to make
better completion decisions. The ultimate goal that we should strive for is lower completion
costs along with higher production. I know that sounds like 7th grade economics, “spend less,
make more,” but a focus on new measurements should make this possible. Although we may need to work together to promote
petrophysics as an important integral part of the industry’s workflow.
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in Banff.

Best Regards,
James Hemingway
President-Elect

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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Tech Today
Greetings to All,

The abstract submission period for the 61st Annual Symposium in Banff is now closed.
A big thank you to all who took the opportunity to get involved and vie for a position at
this premier event for log analysts. I am proud to report that we had a total of 384 abstracts
submitted!
These were grouped into nine categories, with the largest four being Unconventional
Reservoirs, Case Studies, Formation Evaluation in Conventional Reservoirs, and (predictably)
Advances in Machine Learning.
It is not a straightforward endeavor to compose a good and worthy abstract! Reviewing your
best projects over the past year to distill into a couple of paragraphs that will define succinctly what
you and your colleagues have been working on, obtaining permission and buy-in from partners,
Michael O’Keefe
2019–2020 VP Technology transposing into a readable English prose that would put Shakespeare to shame, jumping through
legal hoops, and convincing your manager that Banff is seriously all about your career progression
and not just home to some excellent hiking trails. All done to place your stamp on the world, and
own an original document whose subject matter you care passionately about.
The new website for online entry at www.spwlaworld.org proved much more streamlined than in previous years, and
allowed full editing right up until the cutoff date last Sunday. Although a few were caught out trying to enter their SPWLA login
credentials instead of creating a new account, Stephanie Turner was on hand to help out and smooth the process for all. Next
year we shall optimize the submission process further, and improve clarity in the instructions. Below, I include an image showing
geographical spread of the more than 12,000 visitors to our webpage since abstract submission was first opened. It seems a lot
of editing has been taking place 

Now the real work begins for all our committed volunteers on the 2019–2020 Technical Committee (TC)!
We kick the process into motion to review and rank all the submissions. First, every abstract will be completely anonymized
by removing the names of authors and coauthors, and company or university affiliations, etc. Second, each member of the TC
will review 100 anonymous abstracts, based largely upon their area of expertise, and asked to rank them in simple numerical
order from 1 to 100. Using this pure ranking system (rather than scoring each individually) will remove any deviation bias from
those who tend to score higher or lower overall. Third, each abstract will receive a minimum of 12 rankings and I will take the
mean of these rankings to compute the final TC score. I have increased the number of TC members this year, to increase the
number of reviewers per abstract, resulting in a statistically fairer scoring system, which in turn, should deliver a very solid
technical program for Banff.

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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Tech Today
The results will be sent to authors in December, and the accepted abstracts will be published on our website in Q1 2020.
Please bear in mind that with this Symposium being so popular, only a limited number of abstracts will be able to make it through
the peer-ranking process successfully.

Workshops
I am soliciting organizers for the 1- or 2-day Short Courses and Workshops that will be held prior to the start of the Symposium
on Saturday and Sunday (June 20–21). These can have several instructors. If you are willing and able to run such an event, please
contact me separately by email to [email protected] .
Thank you all for supporting our Society, and as this is the last Newsletter for this year, I wish you and your families all the
best over the coming holiday period.

Best Regards,

Michael O’Keefe
Vice-President Technology.

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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The Invoice
As VP Finance, I want to present a general overview of our society’s membership and where
it stands relative to previous years. The SPWLA Society’s finances are stable and its membership
has shown a slight increase over last year, which is nice to see. It is the membership, especially
active members, that make the SPWLA. The SPWLA’s strength and financial health is connected
to the size of our membership.
The chart below shows the professional membership numbers from 2013 to present day.
Additionally, the chart shows the average annual West Texas crude oil price, in US$.
As we are all aware there is a strong correlation between the health of the Oil & Gas Industry
and prices of the commodities that it produces. Of course, the industry’s health ties directly with
our membership numbers. The chart shows that in 2013 and 2014, with oil averaging in the $90/
bbl to $85/bbl range, our membership was 3,253 and 3,290, respectively. In 2015, with the steep
drop in oil prices of over 50%, to roughly $42/bbl, the membership did drop to 2,647. Since
Doug Patterson 2016, our membership has stabilized in the range between 2,327 to 2,119. It is good to see that,
2019–2020
Vice President Finance while the commodity price has been relatively flat over the last two years, our membership has
shown some growth in 2019.
Of course, the greater our active membership, the stronger our society becomes with the
ability to provide additional features to its members. As members, we comprise the society and we should use our own personal
and professional networks to promote the SPWLA with its features, benefits and services. It is through the active engagement of
members that will enable the SPWLA to prosper for many years to come, no matter what the commodity price is.
I encourage members with questions, ideas and suggestions related to membership and finance to contact me at VP-
[email protected].

Best Regards,
Doug Patterson
Vice President Finance

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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Informative Technology
Hello SPWLA community members,

The most exciting thing I would like to update you on is that the homepage for the 61st
SPWLA Annual Logging Symposium that will be held at Banff next year is up and active. You are
encouraged to browse the website (www.spwlaworld.org), register, and submit your abstracts for
attending the event in such a beautiful place.

Lin Liang
2019–2021 Vice President
Information Technology

The second update is that we have formed a committee to plan and work together to enhance all IT related matters, such
as the abstract submission and reviewing system, the official website modernization, moving some of the functionalities to
public Cloud for cost reduction, further improvement of the symposium mobile app, etc. Currently, we have Tegwyn Perkins, and
Adam Haecker on the IT committee, with continuous support from Sharon Johnson, Stephanie Turner, and Mehrnoosh Saneifar.
Anybody familiar with webpage editing and website maintenance, Cloud techniques, please also consider volunteering for the
IT Committee and email me [email protected] if interested.

IT Committee members:

Tegwyn Perkins Adam Haecker

Finally, it was my great honor to be invited, as the representative of SPWLA, to speak at the 11th UPC International Symposium
on New Well Logging Techniques, held by the China University of Petroleum at Qingdao (see Chapter News Section). Together
with Dr. Xie, we also gave two SPWLA Distinguished Speaker talks to the SPWLA East China Chapter. It was a great experience and
thanks for the warm accommodation.

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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Informative Technology
Photos from the 11th UPC International Symposium on New Well Logging Techniques

Lin Liang
Vice President Information Technology

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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Learning Opportunities
Dear Petrophysics friends,

I am very pleased to see the excitement we have at our monthly webinars; great
attendance and great questions. Plus, our Formation Testing group is also having a very successful 
webinar series. Webinars are for sure a great means to fulfill our promise of knowledge sharing. 
Along those lines I want to remind everyone that if you have a profound passion for a certain
petrophysical topic you want to share for generations to come you can submit a request to be 
added to the “Nuggets of Wisdom” series. Or, if you have a product or service you want to share 
with the world we have “The More You Know” series that enables you to showcase that product 
or service with the world. Please contact me at [email protected] for more information. 
I look forward to hearing from you!
   As VP of Education I am also privileged to head our social media efforts with posts, likes and 
Katerina Yared shares on anything and everything petrophysics. Please tag our SPWLA social media pages on 
2019-2020
Vice President Education LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to make sure your posts get the right attention. 
  Just recently, we had two people join our social media committee. I want to give a shout out 
to Mathilde Luycx and Rushil Pandya for volunteering their time to our social media committee. 
Thank you!
   Last but not least our Education SIG has been hard at work as well and sent out a survey to the membership to help us to 
better understand how we can cater to the education needs of our members. Please make sure to complete the survey and 
provide us valuable feedback. Thank you!
  I would like to thank the Education SIG committee members for volunteering their time and efforts for the greater good of 
our petrophysical community: Ahmed Badruzzaman, Abbie Morgan, Lesley Evans, Hani Elshahawi and Dan Krygowski.
   The success of our society is dependent on volunteers like those mentioned above and the many others helping out here 
and there and everywhere. We wouldn’t be as successful without them! Thank you!
  I would like to remind you also that we are always looking for global distinguished speakers to visit our chapters and we 
would love to get nominations from chapters and regional directors about speakers they really like and want to hear again. Email 
me at [email protected] for more information on the GDS.
  Hope to see everyone at our monthly webinars!”

Katerina Yared 
Vice President Education
(720) 431-7482

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Regional Understandings – North America 1
Dear SPWLA Members,

As I write this column, the new season of chapter meetings has started here in the USA. My
goal is to try and attend most of the chapters that are in my area this year. I have already been
to Tulsa, Oklahoma City, OU and will be giving a presentation at TTU and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is
in Kelly’s area but I venture it counts as a visit. Hopefully, people submitted papers to the Banff
symposium. The due date has likely passed by the time this has been printed. I submitted a paper
in as a secondary author and am looking forward to another great year.
Please consider voting in the elections if you usually don’t. We are sure to have another
competitive board election in the spring and our voting rate is abysmal. I think we usually average
around 600 votes in any SPWLA election and the society has over 2,100 members.
Adam Haecker
NA 1 Director
Things that I am working on for NA1 area are as follows
• Restarting the Texas A&M Student Chapter.
• Supporting the Tulsa Chapter in their first year having meetings since 2015.
• Sharing SPWLA media posts, Katerina does a great job.
• SPWLA Staff Bonus System
• Working with Jim Hemingway on candidate locations for the 2021 symposium.
• Helping members in transition to connect.

We had some serious discussion about some of the recent bylaw changes at the last board meeting. Specifically, it was felt
by some members that some of the changes unfairly limit participation by a certain large service company. After a few hours of
discussion, the board decided to try the current system for at least the next year. The next board can revise it if they feel that it
is not fair to everyone. If you feel strongly one way or another feel free to contact me and I will relay your opinions as best I can.
Hope everyone is having a productive year and cheers.

Excelsior,
Adam Haecker

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Regional Understandings – North America 2
Dear SPWLA members,

Well the weather up here has finally turned from the warm days of summer to the crisp
mornings and short, sunny days of fall. Actually, up here in Calgary and most of the Prairies there
is a brief moment (let’s call it a week) where fall looks to stay and be an actual season, then it
quickly turns to winter around Halloween. Snow or no snow, it still gets pretty cool in the mornings
(currently 2°C out there at noon). Enough about weather in Calgary, on to SPWLA regional director
stuff.
Chapters have started up their monthly luncheons again after the summer. So here is the news
from them….
• Denver Well Logging Society (DWLS) partnered with the RMAG, will have had their Fall
Kelly Skuce Symposium on Multiscale Imaging for Reservoir Optimization by the time this column goes
North America 2 Director to print.
• Boston Chapter, partnered with the SPE, has a great event scheduled Nov 1–2 on “Porous
Media: Structure, Flow and Dynamics Workshop.” See the website for details. https://www.
spwla.org/SPWLA/Chapters_SIGs/Chapters/North_America/Boston/Events.aspx
• Appalachia Chapter in Pittsburgh will be hosting my codirector for North America, Adam
Haecker, in November. Check out his column for news on this event.
• New Orleans chapter will have had two great luncheons this fall with a third and final for the
year planned for November 21. The talk will be given by Bo Gong, a research petrophysicist
with Chevron ETC. Bo will present “Using a Neural Network to Estimate Net Sand from
Borehole Images in Laminated Deepwater Reservoirs.”
• San Joaquin Well Logging Society (SJWLS) in Bakersfield hosted a luncheon presentation
from Todd Guidry, Technical Advisor of Core Labs, on “Introduction to Reservoir Fluid
Behavior, Production Trends and Analysis.” The SJWLS would also like to acknowledge some
of their new board members for stepping up for lost board members. Eva Lopez, Secretary,
and Dr. Dayanand Saini, Publicity. Dr. Saini is also looking to create a student chapter at the
California State University Bakersfield. Way to go SJWLS!
• And speaking of Student Chapters, the Texas A&M Kingsville (TAMUK) students just received
their University authority to form their own SPWLA student chapter!

Todd Guidry accepting his award from the SJWLS.

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Regional Understandings – North America 2
All of these events look very informative! If you have some reports or pictures from any of these events and you would like
to see them here, send them to me at [email protected].
Not a lot of SPWLA stuff up here besides helping with the planning of next year’s symposium in Banff (looks to be a great
one), attend local monthly Canadian Well Logging Society meetings, emails to my chapter responsibilities, and calling in to the
bimonthly Board of Directors meetings. I am contemplating a visit down south, as Bakersfield always invites me down for one of
their meetings. We will have to see how cold it does get up here!
On a last note, there was a lot of discussion at the last Board of Directors meeting about the new changes voted on recently
to the SPWLA. I am torn on some changes, but relieved on others. If you have comments please forward them to me and I can
help voice your concerns to the current Board and help make changes if needed (I am here for next year’s Board too!). It’s also
election time up here in Canada and by the time this column comes out there may be some change to the federal government.
Hopefully to the positive on oil and gas exploration here in Canada. So remember, if you don’t like what is happening, get out
and vote! This is good for both government and the SPWLA.

‘Nuff said!

Kelly Skuce

Regional Understandings – Middle East and Africa

Dear Colleagues,

Summer is over and the beautiful winter weather is returning to the Middle East; mild sunshine
and blue sky during the day, and bright starts in the night! This is the time not only for enjoyable
leisure, but also productive business and that is what the SPWLA Saudi Arabia Chapter (SAC) is
currently actively pursuing.
The 7th SPWLA SAC Topical Workshop will be held at Dhahran Techno Velley on 5 November
2019. The topic to be discussed will be “Advancement in Geochemistry and Its Applications in E&P,”
covering the geochemistry of rock, oil, and water” You are welcome to join us, especially for those
who are located in the region.
Then, 13–15 January 2020, the International Petroleum Technology Conference, a much larger
international technical event, will be held here in the Dhahran area, and the organizing teams have
Shouxaing “Mark” Ma been working hard to ensure a successful event.
2019–2020 MEA
Regional Director
And again, you are all welcome to actively participate in this conference, and also visit the
region, the Capital of Oil!
Always looking forward to seeing you in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

S. Mark Ma
SPWLA Director – Middle East and Africa Region

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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 SPWLA THIRD BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
SPWLA BUSINESS OFFICE
HOUSTON, TEXAS
OCTOBER 9, 2019

President, Jesús M. Salazar called the meeting to order at 8:01 Action Item: Call to all Board members – suggestions for
a.m. In attendance Vice President Finance Doug Patterson, the numbering system (paper identifiers) for the Heritage
Executive Director, Sharon Johnson. Remote attendance Program.
President-Elect, James “Jim” Hemingway, Vice President
Technology, Michael O’Keefe, Vice President Education, Action Item: Jim Hemingway to solicit additional Chapters for
Katerina Yared, Vice President Publications, Tom Neville, a bid to host the SPWLA Annual Symposium in 2021.
Vice President Information Technology, Lin Liang, Regional
Director N. America 1, Adam Haecker, Regional Director N. Action Item: Sharon Johnson to research the SAID bylaws to
America 2, Kelly Skuce, Regional Director Latin America, reinstate the Chapter.
Nadege Bize Forest, Regional Director Europe, Craig Lindsay,
Regional Director Asia/Australia, Jennifer Market, Regional Action Item: Jesús Salazar follow up on a contact from
Director Middle East, Mark Ma Venezuela and share with Nadege Bize Forest.

A motion made by Doug Patterson to waive the reading of Action Item: Craig Lindsay to follow up with the newly formed
the minutes from the August 8th board meeting was seconded chapter, “Central European Formation Evaluation Society
by Katerina Yared. All approved, and the motion passed. (CEFES),” in Bucharest, Romania, to offer assistance through
the bylaws and charter process.
Action Item: Doug Patterson will update his proposed SPWLA
employee bonus plan and send it to the Board for review and A motion made by Doug Patterson to be added to the SPWLA
vote. bank account signature cards was seconded by Adam Haecker.
All approved, and the motion passed.
Action Item: Katerina Yared to finalize a committee for the
Petrophysics Professional Certification for SPWLA. Action Item: Michael O’Keefe to open discussion on the
SPWLA policy for the BOD nominating committee member
Action Item: Jennifer Market to reach out to Former selection by the Past President.
Presidents of the International SPWLA and Perth Chapter
(FESAus) for historical background of the chapter in the effort A motion made by Doug Patterson to adjourn the meeting at
to resolve internal arguments within the current board. 1:17 p.m. was seconded by Michael O’Keefe. All approved,
and the motion passed.
A motion made by Jim Hemingway to approve the newly
formed Hydrocarbon Reserves SIG was tabled until Board Respectively Submitted by
member questions concerning member dues fees is clarified. Sharon Johnson
Executive Director
Action Item: Tom Neville to send a reminder to the Board
members for Newsletter content on the 20th of the preceding Next BOD meeting: December 4, 2019, SPWLA Business Office
month of publication. Houston and Remotely

A motion made by Michael O’Keefe for an additional $1,500

to the VP Technology budget for customization enhancements
to the abstract submission platform for reviewers and ranking
process was seconded by Jim Hemingway. All approved, and
the motion passed.

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Tales from the Oil Patch: 1970s in the Louisiana Gulf Coast—Vuggy Sandstones?
(Surely You Jest, Dr. T.)
Formation evaluation requires understanding the relationship between various rock types, their
responses when probed by electric, nuclear and acoustic energy and the fluids in the pore system of
each rock type. For each rock type there are truisms that help us to assign various constants in the
equations that transform tool response and needed rock property. This methodology works only when
our assumed truisms are really true and are confirmed by “looking at the rocks” as Archie suggested.
The Gulf Coast is predominantly a sandstone province and carbonate rock types and their
properties are put into many folks’ last file drawer. One of the resulting truisms for sandstones then
becomes no vugs. We recognize the problem that arises when one uses the Wyllie equation in vuggy
carbonates; we must adjust constants in the equation to determine the correct porosity. But since
sandstones have no vugs, adjustment for this effect is seldom if ever used.
E. C. Thomas But how are vugs formed in sandstones? Let’s agree that a vug is a pore larger than the median
grain size of a given rock sample. The mechanism to create vugs in any rock type is through diagenesis
by dissolution of the more soluble grains. In the case of sandstones, the more soluble grains are
feldspars. This occurrence of vugs can be clearly seen in thin section. A second confirmation occurred with the advent of density
logging producing values of porosity that agreed with core analysis and those values calculated from acoustic travel times did not.
In every comparison I made, the Willey equation did not see some pore volume. From then, on density logs replaced acoustic
logs for porosity determination in sandstone reservoirs in the Gulf Coast. As wells are drilled deeper into older formation these
rocks have had more time to undergo digenesis via grain solution and the likelihood of seeing vugs in sandstones. And one needs
to remember that as porosity falls, it is more likely that a larger percentage of the pores are likely be due to vugs. Vuggy porosity
has a very different porosity-permeability relationship than sandstone without vugs. Thus, you deep-drillers need to revisit your
inflow prediction to make sure you are using a valid porosity-permeability transform for diagenetically altered rocks.
But the facts above are only the prelude to the ‘tale’ yet to come. In the 1970s we were systematically making determinations
of ROS in assets across the entire Gulf Coast. One such asset was a shallow reservoir associated with a shallow salt dome.
Openhole logs pegged the porosity at 35%. Sidewall samples determined the rock type as a well-sorted medium-grain-sized
unconsolidated sand. Many different methods were used to make these determinations. To improve our knowledge of the
petrophysical properties of this reservoir rock type, we obtained whole core for geologic and petrophysical measurements. I was
in the core lab when we opened the core barrel and exposed the end of the core. None of the staff present was prepared for
what we observed. The first look was hard to describe; the best I can do is compare the end of the core to the surface of a freshly
opened pomegranate. On a closer examination, bubbles of crude squeezed against the sand grains like small soap bubbles
except that the bubbles were much larger than the sand grains and the bubbles were all approximately the same size. The gas in
the bubbles had actually made vug-like vesicles very similar to the bubbles in lava. Obviously, the core was so disturbed it was of
no value to measure petrophysical properties and until I could determine what happened and how to fix it, only then would I be
able to sell another core. A bit of detective work led to the discovery that the field crude had 10% CO2 and the mud engineer had
not treated the drilling mud to scrub out the CO2. Thus, the bubbles were CO2 from the crude that acted like a soda pop resulting
in a man-made vuggy sand. As the bubbles formed they expanded the unconsolidated core until the fluffed-up core filled the
void space in the inner core barrel. One more lesson learned!

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You’ll Never Lose a Resistivity Interpretation Argument When
James Clerk Maxwell is on Your Side
All of the theory needed for modeling the response of resistivity logging tools is derived from
Maxwell’s equations, which are shown in Fig. 1. The problem seems simple—everything we need to
know is shown in this 3- × 3-in. space. We can all go home now. However, the elegance of the solution
is due to Maxwell’s genius in capturing the hidden complexity of the problem. There are still details left
for us to explore.

Barbara Anderson
SPWLA President
1994–1995
SPWLA Gold Medal for
Technical Achievement
2007

Fig. 1—Maxwell’s equations as published in 1873, shown in modern vector notation (typesetting courtesy of Wikipedia).

I ‘ve been working with Maxwell’s equations since 1966, and I still am surprised by the amount of information that they can
reveal. In 2006, I was further impressed by Maxwell’s contributions to other areas of physics during a trip to Aberdeen to give an
invited talk at their chapter meeting. The talk was scheduled during the same week that the University of Aberdeen was hosting
a conference on “The Impact of Maxwell’s Science” to celebrate the 150-year anniversary since Maxwell began teaching there
as a professor of natural science.
The focus of the conference was on the diversity of Maxwell’s contributions to physics. In order to represent the petrophysics
community, Jim White of the Aberdeen Chapter arranged for me to give a talk on the topic of “How Maxwell’s Equations are
Used on a Daily Basis in Downhole Logging for Oil and Gas Exploration.” Figure 2 is a group photo of the conference attendees
posed under a commemorative bust of Maxwell (the author of this column is standing directly under the bust of Maxwell).
Several talks described how Maxwell’s most notable achievement of formulating the relationship between electricity,
magnetism and light had led to the future development of radio communication and radar. Other work laid the foundations of
color science and color photography by a method that is used today in TVs, computer displays and cell phones. His contemporaries
described him as the leading molecular scientist of the 19th century. He also made significant contributions in astronomy, optics,
mechanics and control theory, and founded the modern field of electrical engineering.
At the end of the day, I felt quite inadequate. Others in the past have also recognized the importance of Maxwell’s work,
although it is rarely publicized. It is reported that when Albert Einstein was told during a visit to Cambridge University that he
had done great things only because he stood on Newton’s shoulders, Einstein replied that it was Maxwell’s shoulders he stood
on, and not Newton’s.
The conference talks made me curious about how Maxwell became so creative in comparison to his contemporaries, and
I began to search for a biography that might describe his thought processes. The most insightful one available is “The Man
Who Changed Everything—The Life and Times of James Clerk Maxwell” by a British author, Basil Mahon. Mahon explains how
Maxwell developed “thought experiments” to solve complex problems. As a child he was curious, always asking “what’s the go
of it,” and his family provided explanations. Later in school, he attacked problems by first reading everything he could about

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You’ll Never Lose a Resistivity Interpretation Argument When
James Clerk Maxwell is on Your Side

Fig. 2—Attendees at the 2006 conference “The Impact of Maxwell’s Science,” held at the University of Aberdeen, and posed under a commemorative bust
of Maxwell.

them and then writing down only what he believed was helpful (called amplification and reduction). The next step was to make
physical observations, such as constructing a color top to understand the difference between mixing light and mixing pigments,
or observing turbulent flow in rocky streams to visualize electrical eddy currents. The final theory was developed when the
observations could be thoroughly explained. The book is both technically interesting and light reading (no equations).
Getting back to the promised help from Maxwell, all resistivity modeling codes are a programmed solution to Maxwell’s
equations with boundary conditions that describe a particular geometry. Because resistivity tools survey large volumes of
formation, interpretation can become complicated. Some major causes of complication are (1) not having enough measurements
to guarantee a unique solution, (2) the sensitivity of measurements decreasing drastically with distance, and (3) 1D or 2D
solutions being assumed when solutions are really 3D (or 4D).
Computer modeling makes its greatest contribution in complicated situations that are beyond the scope of interpretation
software. By modeling trial sets of interpreted resistivity values and bed dimensions, one can discard solutions where a computed
log and field log disagree and concentrate on refining the most reasonable solution until both logs are in agreement. The solution
is guaranteed to be mathematically correct by Maxwell’s equations, although it should also be validated to make sure that it
makes petrophysical sense by similar modeling of nonresistivity logs.
The following are two examples where modeling was used to resolve interpretation arguments. The first is a strange log
where there was a disagreement about whether it was caused by a broken tool or was an actual feature of the formation. The
field log is shown on the left in Fig. 3. Note the cyclic behavior of both Dual Induction logs. The client argued that the oscillations
were so regular that they couldn’t be caused by geological features, but must be a tool problem.

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You’ll Never Lose a Resistivity Interpretation Argument When
James Clerk Maxwell is on Your Side

Fig. 3—Field log (left) and computed log (right) showing cyclic behavior of a Dual Induction log caused by water-filled grooves in the borehole wall.

However, the caliper indicates that the borehole contains periodic grooves. Also, an auxiliary measurement sub indicated
that the oil-based mud had broken down and water was in the continuous phase, making the mud in the region conductive.
Using a 2D finite-element code, it was found that mud resistivities around 0.5 Ω-m produced oscillations that closely resembled
those on the field log. After adding shallow conductive invasion to the model, the final computed log, shown on the right in Fig.
3, is in good agreement with the field log.
An added Fourier analysis showed that conductive features must be within 15 in. of the borehole axis to cause significant
perturbations on the Dual Induction logs. A more detailed discussion of this example is given in Anderson and Barber (1988).
A second example illustrates how an unexpected horn on 2-MHz LWD logs turned out to be a useful indicator of bed-
boundary crossings in highly deviated wells. In this case, the computed log in Fig. 4 (right) was modeled first, before the well
was drilled, so it could be used to confirm that we could identify exactly when the tool crossed the interface between a 1 Ω-m
shale and an 800 Ω-m gas sand in a 70° deviated well. The subsequent field log (left) is in good agreement, showing exactly
when the boundary was crossed.

Fig. 4—Field log (left) and computed log (right) showing that the horn that appears on 2-MHz LWD logs at high-contrast bed boundaries in deviated wells
is a real feature and not an isolated tool artifact.

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You’ll Never Lose a Resistivity Interpretation Argument When
James Clerk Maxwell is on Your Side

The horn is caused by a discontinuity of the electric field that occurs when the tool crosses the boundary at a steep angle.
It can be explained by a close examination of Maxwell’s equations. Remarkably the information was hidden in the equations
and first revealed to us by the modeled log and confirmed by the field log. Maxwell comes to our aid again! A more detailed
discussion of this example is given in the Anderson et al. (1990).

REFERENCES

Anderson, B., and Barber, T.D., 1988, Using Computer Modeling to Provide Missing Information for Interpreting Resistivity Logs, Paper H,
Transactions, SPWLA 29th Annual Logging Symposium, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 5–8 June.
Anderson, B., Barber, T.D., and Luling, M.G., 1990, The Role of Computer Modeling in Log Interpretation, Paper L, Transactions, 13th European
Formation Evaluation Symposium, Budapest, Hungary, 22–26 October.

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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 Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium
Pau, France, August 26–30, 2019
Abstracts

Oral Presentations with vugs of millimeter or centimeter range. In such multiscale

systems one cannot use the standard DFH approach for pore-
SCA2019-001. Pore-Scale Imaging and Determination of Relative scale modeling, primarily because the needed increase in scanning
Permeability and Capillary Pressure in a Mixed-Wet Carbonate resolution that is required to resolve small pores adequately, leads
Reservoir Rock at Subsurface Conditions to a field-of-view reduction that compromises the representation of
large pores. In order to address this challenge, we suggest a novel
Amer M. Alhammadi1,*, Ying Gao1, Takashi Akai1, Martin J. Blunt1, approach, in which transport in small-size pores is described by an
and Branko Bijeljic1 upscaled effective model, while the transport in large pores is still
1
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College described by the DFH. The upscaled effective model is derived from
London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom the exact DFH equations using asymptotic expansion in respect to
small-size characterization parameter. This effective model retains
We use X-ray microtomography combined with a high-pressure the properties of DFH-like chemical and multiphase transport, thus
high-temperature steady-state flow apparatus to simultaneously making it applicable to the same range of phenomena as DFH itself.
measure relative permeability and capillary pressure in a carbonate The model is based on the concept that the transport is driven by
core from a producing oil field from the Middle East. The native gradients of chemical potentials of the components present in the
reservoir wettability conditions were restored by aging the sample at mixture. This is a significant generalization of the Darcy transport
10 MPa and 80°C. Imaging and measurement of steady-state relative model since the proposed new model incorporates diffusion
permeability were performed at eight water fractional flows (fw = transport in addition to the usual pressure-driven transport. In the
0, 0.15, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.85, 0.95, 1), while measuring the pressure present work we provide several multiphase transport numerical
differential across the sample. The formation brine was doped with examples including (a) upscaling to chemical potential drive (CPD)
30 wt% KI to resolve the fluid saturation in the macro- and the model, and (b) combined modeling of large pores by DFH and small
subresolution pores. The measured relative permeabilities indicated pores by CPD.
favorable oil recovery with a crossover saturation above 60%. Below
this saturation the water relative permeability is low, while above
it, oil still flows through thin layers resulting in additional recovery. SCA2019-003. Uncertainty Span for Relative Permeability and
We quantify oil recovery from both macropores and micropores. Capillary Pressure by Varying Wettability and Spatiality Flow
The measurements of the interfacial curvature indicated negative Directions Using Pore-Scale Modeling
capillary pressure that decreased with an increase in fractional
flow, which is a signature of predominantly oil-wet media. Overall, Thomas Ramstad1, Anders Kristoffersen1, and Einar Ebeltoft1
this work has important implications for improved oil recovery in 1
Equinor ASA, Norway
mixed-wet reservoirs. The measured relative permeability, capillary
pressure and fluid distribution can also be used to benchmark and Relative permeability and capillary pressure are key properties
validate pore-scale models. within special core analysis and provide crucial information for full
field simulation models. These properties are traditionally obtained
by multiphase flow experiments, however pore-scale modeling has
SCA2019-002. Density Functional Hydrodynamics in Multiscale during the last decade shown to add significant information as well
Pore Systems: Chemical Potential Drive as being less time-consuming to obtain.
Pore-scale modeling has been performed by using the lattice
Oleg Dinariev1, Nikolay Evseev1,*, and Denis Klemin2 Boltzmann method directly on the digital rock models obtained by
1
Schlumberger, Schlumberger Moscow Research, 113, Pudovkina high resolution micro-CT images on end-trims available when plugs
Street, Moscow 119284, Russia are prepared for traditional SCAL experiments. These digital rock
2
Schlumberger, Schlumberger Reservoir Labs, 6350 West Sam models map the pore structure and are used for direct simulations
Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77041, Houston, USA of two-phase flow to relative permeability curves.
Various types of wettability conditions are introduced by a
We use the method of density functional hydrodynamics (DFH) wettability map that opens for local variations of wettability on the
to model compositional multiphase flows in natural cores at the pore space at the pore level. Focus has been to distribute realistic
pore-scale. In previous publications, the authors demonstrated that wettabilities representative for the Norwegian Continental Shelf,
DFH covers many diverse pore-scale phenomena, starting from those which is experiencing weakly wetting conditions and no strong
inherent in RCA and SCAL measurements, and extending to much preference either to water or oil. Spanning a realistic wettability
more complex EOR processes. We perform the pore-scale modelling map and enabling flow in three directions, a large amount of relative
of multiphase flow scenarios by means of the direct hydrodynamic permeability curves is obtained. The resulting relative permeabilities
(DHD) simulator, which is a numerical implementation of the DFH. In hence estimate the uncertainty of the obtained flow properties
the present work, we consider the problem of numerical modelling on a spatial but specific pore structure with varying, but realistic
of fluid transport in pore systems with voids and channels when wettabilities.
the range of pore sizes exceed several orders of magnitude. Such The obtained relative permeability curves are compared with
situations are well known for carbonate reservoirs, where narrow results obtained by traditional SCAL analysis on similar core material
pore channels of micrometer range can coexist and interconnect from the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The results are also compared

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

with the SCAL model provided for full-field simulations for the same dependency on the flow rates. These studies suggest that relative
field. The results from the pore-scale simulations are within the permeability models should include the functional dependence on
uncertainty span of the SCAL models, mimic the traditional SCAL flow intensities. Just recently a general form of dependence has been
experiments and shows that pore-scale modeling can provide a time- inferred, based on extensive simulations with the DeProF model
and cost-effective tool to provide SCAL models with uncertainties. for steady-state two-phase flow in pore networks. The simulations
revealed a systematic dependence of the relative permeabilities on
the local flow-rate intensities that can be described analytically by a
SCA2019-004. Permeability Alteration by Salt Precipitation: universal scaling functional form of the actual independent variables
Numerical and Experimental Investigation Using X-Ray Radiography of the process, namely, the capillary number, Ca, and the flow-rate
ratio, r.
Olivier Lopez2, Souhail Youssef1, Audrey Estublier1, Jostein Alvestad2, In this work, we present the preliminary results of a systematic
Christin Weierholt Strandli2 laboratory study using a high throughput coreflood experimentation
1
IFP Energies Nouvelles, Rueil-Malmaison France setup, whereby SCAL measurements have been taken on a
2
Equinor, Trondheim, Norway sandstone core across different flow conditions spanning six orders
of magnitude on Ca and r. The scope is to provide a preliminary
The injection of a gas phase through a water-saturated porous proof of concept, to assess the applicability of the model and
medium can reduce the water saturation not only by displacement validate its specificity. The proposed scaling opens new possibilities
mechanisms but also by evaporation mechanisms. In the presence in improving SCAL protocols and other important applications, e.g.,
of brine, this process can induce salt crystallization and precipitation field-scale simulators.
within the porous medium with a risk of permeability alteration.
In the field of gas production and storage, the occurrence of such
a phenomenon can have detrimental consequence on the well SCA2019-006. Improved Method for Complete Gas-Brine Imbibition
productivity or injectivity. Relative Permeability Curves
In this work, we investigated experimentally and numerically
the effect of dry-gas injection on salt precipitation and permeability M. Ben Clennell1,*, Cameron White1, Ausama Giwelli1, Matt Myers1,
impairment. State-of-the-art equipment designed for high throughput Lionel Esteban1, Michael Cullingford2, William Richardson3, Gavin
coreflood experimentation was used to capture the dynamic of salt Ward2, Matt Waugh2, Scott Cole2, Ashley Hunt2, and Peter Bright2§
migration using X-ray radiography. A set of experiments have been 1
CSIRO Energy, Australian Resources Research Centre, Kensington,
conducted on a sample of Bentheimer sandstone (10 mm in diameter Western Australia 6076
and 20 mm in length) as well as a two-layer composite sample with a 2
Chevron Australia, QV1, 250 St George’s Terrace Perth, Western
significant permeability contrast. Experiments were conducted using Australia, 6000
nitrogen and KBr brine with different boundary conditions (i.e., with 3
Chevron Energy Technology Centre, 3901 Briarpark Drive, Houston,
and without capillary contact). Texas 77042 USA
Results showed that salt precipitation results from the
interplay of different parameters, namely pressure gradient, brine Standard test methods for measuring imbibition gas-brine
salinity, capillary forces and vapor partial pressure. Experimental relative permeability on reservoir core samples often lead to
observations indicate that in the case of dry-gas injection, salt nonuniform brine saturation. During cocurrent flow, the brine tends
systematically precipitates but permeability alteration is observed to bank up at the sample inlet and redistributes slowly, even with
only if a capillary contact is maintained with the brine. We built a fractional flow of gas to brine of 400:1 or more. The first reliable
2D flow model integrating two-phase Darcy flow, capillary forces, Rel Perm point is often only attained after a brine saturation of
salt effect on vapor partial pressure, dissolved salt transport, as around Sw = 40% is achieved, leaving a data gap between Swirr and this
well as the different PVT equilibria needed to describe properly the point. The consequent poor definition of the shape of the Rel Perm
systems. Once calibrated, the model showed good predictability of function can lead to uncertainty in the performance of gas reservoirs
laboratory-scale experiment and thus can be used for parametrical undergoing depletion drive with an encroaching aquifer or subjected
study and upscaled to the wellbore scale. to a waterflood.
We have developed new procedures to precondition brine
saturation outside of the test rig and progress it in small increments
SCA2019-005. Steady-State Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media: to fill in the data gap at low Sw, before continuing with a cocurrent
Laboratory Validation of Flow-Dependent Relative Permeability flood to the gas permeability endpoint. The method was applied to
Scaling series of sandstone samples from gas reservoirs from the NW Shelf
of Australia, and a Berea standard. We found that the complete
Marios S. Valavanides1,*, Matthieu Mascle2, Souhail Youssef2, and imbibition relative permeability curve is typically ‘S’ shaped or has
Olga Vizika2 a rolling over, convex-up shape that is markedly different from the
1
Civil Engineering Department, University of West Attica, 12243 concave-up, Corey Rel Perm curve usually fitted to SCAL test data.
Attica, Greece This finding may have an economic upside if the reservoir produces
2
IFP Energies Nouvelles, Rueil-Malmaison, France gas at a high rate for longer than was originally predicted based on
the old Rel Perm curves.
The phenomenology of steady-state two-phase flow in
porous media is recorded in SCAL relative permeability diagrams.
Conventionally, relative permeabilities are considered to be functions SCA2019-007. Workflow for Upscaling Wettability From the Nano-
of saturation, yet this has been put into challenge by theoretical, to Core-Scales
numerical and laboratory studies that have revealed a significant

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

Maja Rücker1,3, Willem-Bart Bartels2,3, Tom Bultreys1,4,6, Marijn are not primary parameters—their values depend on many other
Boone7, Kamaljit Singh5,6, Gaetano Garfi6, Alessio Scanziani 6, parameters. Using these arguments, it is demonstrated that contact
Catherine Spurin6, Sherifat Yesufu1, Samuel. Krevor6, Martin. J. Blunt6, angles are not the cause of wettability behavior but the effect of
Ove Wilson3, Hassan Mahani3, Veerle Cnudde2,4, Paul F. Luckham1, wettability behavior and other parameters. The result of this is that
Apostolos Georgiadis1,3, and Steffen Berg1,3,6 the contact angle cannot be used as a primary indicator of wettability
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK except in very restricted situations. Furthermore, it is demonstrated
2
Earth Sciences Department, Utrecht University, NL that even for the simple case of a capillary interface in a vertical tube,
3
Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Grasweg 31, 1031 HW attempting to use simply a two-dimensional image to determine the
Amsterdam, NL contact angle can result in a wide range of measured values. This
4
UGCT- PProGRess, Ghent University, BE observation is consistent with some published experimental results.
5
Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, It follows that contact angles measured in two-dimensions cannot
Edinburgh, UK be trusted to provide accurate values and these values should not
6
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College be used to characterize the wettability of the system.
London, UK
7
Tescan XRE, Bollenbergen 2B bus 1, 9052 Ghent, BE
SCA2019-009. The Link Between Microscale Contact-Angle
Wettability is a key factor influencing multiphase flow in Measurements and Core-scale Wettability
porous media. In addition to the average contact angle, the spatial
distribution of contact angles along the porous medium is important, Chenhao Sun1, James McClure2, Mehdi, Shabaninejad3, Peyman
as it directly controls the connectivity of wetting and nonwetting Mostaghimi1, Steffen Berg4 , and Ryan T. Armstrong1,*
phases. The controlling factors may not only relate to the surface 1
University of New South Wales, Minerals and Energy Resources
chemistry of minerals but also to their texture, which implies that Engineering, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2Virginia Polytechnic Institute
a length-scale range from nanometers to centimeters has to be and State University, Advanced Computing, Blacksburg, Virginia,
considered. So far, an integrated workflow addressing wettability USA 3Australian National University, Applied Maths, Canberra, ACT,
consistently through the different scales does not exist. Australia
In this study, we demonstrate that such a workflow is possible by 4
Shell Global Solutions International BV, Rock and Fluid Sciences,
combining microcomputed tomography imaging with atomic force Amsterdam, The Netherlands
microscopy (AFM). We find that in a carbonate rock, consisting of
99.9% calcite with a dual-porosity structure, wettability is ultimately Wettability is an important parameter for assessing the
controlled by the surface texture of the mineral. Roughness and performance and optimum recovery scenario for hydrocarbon
texture variation within the rock control the capillary pressure reservoirs. Relative permeability- and capillary pressure-saturation
required for initializing proper crude-oil-rock contacts that allow functions show a high sensitivity to wettability. At the core scale,
aging and subsequent wettability alteration. AFM enables us to wettability is defined via the capillary pressure drainage and
characterize such surface-fluid interactions and to investigate the imbibition cycle, e.g., as Amott-Harvey or USBM indices. At the
surface texture. In this study, we use AFM to image nanoscale fluid- microscale, the concept of contact angle is used, which until recently
configurations in situ in 3D at connate water saturation and compare was not experimentally possible to determine in a porous rock at
the fluid configuration with simulations on the rock surface assuming reservoir conditions.
different capillary pressures. In this work, the Gauss-Bonnet theorem is used to provide
a link between Pc(Sw) and measured distributions of microscale
contact angles. We propose that the wettability of a porous system
SCA2019-008. Is Contact Angle a Cause or an Effect?—A Cautionary can be described by geometrical constraints that define the state
Tale of immiscible fluids. The constraint describes the range of possible
contact angles and interfacial curvatures that can exist for a given
Douglas Ruth1 system. We present measurements on a sandstone rock for which
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
1
the USBM index, Pc(Sw), and pore-scale contact angles are measured.
The results show that pore-scale contact-angle measurements can
The most influential parameter on the behavior of two- be predicted from capillary pressure data within 4 to 8% error. This
component flow in porous media is “wettability”. When wettability provides a general framework on how petrophysical data can be
is being characterized, the most frequently used parameter is the used to describe the geometrical state of fluids in a porous media.
“contact angle”. When a fluid-drop is placed on a solid surface, in
the presence of a second, surrounding fluid, the fluid-fluid surface
contacts the solid-surface at an angle that is typically measured SCA2019-010. Effect of Fractures on Hot-Solvent Injection in
through the fluid-drop. If this angle is less than 90°, the fluid in the Viscous Oil: A Study Using HP-HT Micromodel
drop is said to “wet” the surface. If this angle is greater than 90°,
the surrounding fluid is said to “wet” the surface. This definition is Igor Bondino1,*, Gerardo Emanuel Romero1, Jean-Philippe Chaulet1,
universally accepted and appears to be scientifically justifiable, at Anne Brisset1, and Marelys Mujica2
least for a static situation where the solid surface is horizontal. 1
TOTAL, Avenue Larribau, 64018 Pau Cedex, France
Recently, this concept has been extended to characterize 2
CHLOE, Avenue de l’Université, UFR Sciences et Techniques, 64013
wettability in nonstatic situations using high-resolution, two- Pau Cedex, France
dimensional digital images of multicomponent systems. Using
simple thought experiments and published experimental results, In this study, a transparent glass micromodel is used to study
many of them decades old, it is demonstrated that contact angles the physicochemical behavior of a solvent / viscous oil system with

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

pressures and temperatures in the range 8 to 100 bar and 60 to 110°C Extraction of oil trapped after conventional waterflooding still
respectively, allowing the visual observation of the phenomena at poses huge challenges in the oil industry. Therefore, innovative
the actual pressure and temperature reservoir conditions of interest. enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies are required to run the
The experiments, covering immiscible, miscible and supercritical production more economically. Recent advances suggest renewed
conditions, reveal the influence of pressure, temperature, connate application of surface-modified nanoparticles (NPs) for oil recovery.
water and fractures, on the oil recovery and flow behavior. A The advantages of these NPs include improved properties (e.g.,
physicochemical interpretation is performed, by both analytical and stability, stabilization of emulsions, etc.), which make them
numerical methods, resulting in deep understanding of the miscible appropriate to improve microscopic sweep efficiency of a waterflood.
process at microscopic scale. It is found that the most interesting However, the EOR mechanisms of NPs are not well understood.
behavior in terms of oil recovery (for the type of solvent used in this This work evaluates the effect of four types of polymer-coated
work) is given by the ratio of fracture permeability to intact matrix silica NPs as additives to the injection water for EOR. The NPs
permeability, which is commonly referred to as excess permeability were examined as tertiary recovery agents using water-wet Berea
index. Being the micromodel vertically oriented with the lighter sandstone rocks at 60°C. Crude oil was obtained from a North
solvent injected from the top, the stability of the experiments is Sea field. The NPs were diluted to 0.1 wt% in seawater before
also classified: although solvent fingers are expected as buoyancy is injection. The transport behavior of the NPs and their interactions
not strong enough to prevent their initiation and growth, in reality with the rock system were also investigated to reveal possible EOR
they are only seen in a minority of experiments. This behavior is mechanisms. The flooding experiments showed that the NPs could
explained due to the contributions of the transverse dispersion, effectively increment oil recovery in waterflooded reservoirs. The
which smooths out the fingers as they grow, and to the fractures on incremental oil recovery was up to 14% of original oil in place (OOIP).
the stabilization of the flow inside the matrix. Displacement studies revealed that oil production was affected by
interfacial tension reduction and wettability effect; however, the
migration behavior of the NPs through the rock suggested that
SCA2019-011. Screening of EOR Potential on the Pore Scale by log-jamming effect and formation of NP-stabilized emulsions were
Statistical and Topological Means relevant explanations for the mobilization of residual oil.

Holger Ott1*, Ahmad Kharrat1, Mostafa Borji1, Thorsten Clemens2,

and Pit Arnold1 SCA2019-013. Permeability Prediction Using Multivariant
1
Department Petroleum Engineering, Montanuniversität Leoben, Structural Regression
8700 Leoben, Austria
2
OMV E&P, Vienna, Austria Matthew Andrew1,*
Carl Zeiss Microscopy, 4385 Hopyard Rd., Pleasanton, CA, 94588,
1

Chemical EOR processes modify properties of fluid-fluid and USA

rock-fluid interfaces in the pore space with the aim of mobilizing
additional oil. The initial mobilization takes place on the scale of the A novel method for permeability prediction is presented
individual pore. Therefore, observations on the pore scale provide using multivariant structural regression. A machine-learning-based
valuable insights into water-oil displacement mechanisms; the model is trained using a large number of synthetic datasets (2,190,
understanding of these mechanisms enables an efficient design of extrapolated to 219,000) constructed using a variety of object-based
the injection water chemistry. techniques. Permeability, calculated on each of these networks using
In this article, we present a first step towards a statistical traditional digital rock approaches, was used as a target function for
and topological fingerprint of EOR processes used to characterize a multivariant description of the pore-network structure, created
and optimize EOR processes. We use microfluidics to observe from the statistics of a discrete description of grains, pores and
changes in the oil distribution in the pore space and the formation throats, generated through image analysis. A regression model was
of emulsion phases. The oleic phase was analyzed by statistical created using an extra-trees method with an error of <4% on the
and topological means showing a systematic change as a function target set. This model was then validated using a composite series
of alkali concentration. In particular, Lorenz diagrams and the of data created both from proprietary datasets of carbonate and
normalized Euler characteristic appeared as sensitive to changes in sandstone samples and open-source data available from the Digital
the water chemistry. It turned out that the displacement processes Rocks Portal (www.digitalrocksporta.org) with a root mean square
are influenced by emulsion formation, especially at low and high fractional error of <25%. Such an approach has wide applicability to
alkali concentrations. This is implicitly reflected in the statistical and problems of heterogeneity and scale in pore-scale analysis of porous
topological analysis, but has not yet been explicitly accounted for. media, particularly as it has the potential of being applicable on 2D
as well as 3D data.

SCA2019-012. An Experimental Investigation of Surface-Modified

Silica Nanoparticles in the Injection Water for Enhanced Oil SCA2019-014. A Fast FFT Method for 3D Pore-Scale Rock Typing
Recovery of Heterogeneous Rock Samples via Minkowski Functionals and
Hydraulic Attributes
Alberto Bila1,*, Jan Åge Stensen1,2, and Ole Torsæter1
1
PoreLab Research Center, Department of Geoscience and Han Jiang1 and Christoph H. Arns1,*
Petroleum-Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 1
UNSW, School of Minerals & Energy Resources Engineering, Sydney
S.P. Andersens veg 15a, 7031, Norway 2052 NSW, Australia
2
Sintef Industry, S. P. Andersens veg 15a, 7031, Norway
The integration of numerical simulation and physical

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

measurements, e.g., digital and conventional core analysis, requires Sandra Profice1,*, and Roland Lenormand2
the consideration of significant sample sizes when heterogeneous 1
TOTAL CSTJF, avenue Larribau, 64018 Pau Cedex, France
core samples are considered. In such cases, a hierarchical upscaling 2
CYDAREX, 31 avenue Gabriel Péri, 92500 Rueil-Malmaison, France
of properties may be achieved through a workflow of partitioning the
sample into homogeneous regions followed by characterization of The Gas Research Institute (GRI) method enabling permeability
these homogeneous regions and upscaling of properties. Examples measurement on crushed samples or drill cuttings was proposed
of such heterogeneities include fine laminations in core samples by Luffel et al. in the early 1990s. This paper presents a study led
or different microporosity types as a consequence of source-rock by Cydarex and Total to (1) analyze the validity of permeabilities
components and diagenesis. determined with GRI methods applied in the industry, (2) collect
In this work, we use regional measures based on the Minkowski information about these methods, and (3) explain the discrepancies
functionals as well as local saturation information derived through between the results collected for similar rocks. Three materials
a morphological capillary drainage transform as a basis for such a were selected: one homogeneous outcrop rock and two reservoir
classification/partitioning. An important consideration is the size rocks having absolute permeabilities ranging from 1 to 50 nD
of the measurement elements used, which could be considerable and anisotropy ratios varying from 1 to 3. For each rock, the
in the case of larger heterogeneities; in such case the calculation permeabilities delivered by three commercial laboratories having
of the regional measures can be computationally very expensive. their own GRI techniques were compared to the permeabilities
Here, we introduce an FFT approach to calculate these measures we derived with the DarcyPress and Step Decay techniques. In
locally, using their additivity. The algorithms are compared against addition to using different methods, the companies worked on
direct summation techniques and shift-overlap approaches for a diverse samples going from a plug of a few centimeters to a pack of
selection of different averaging supports to illustrate their speed millimeter-size particles. It was highlighted that the dispersion in the
and practical applicability. We consider a range of artificial Boolean permeability data increases when the sample characteristic length
models to illustrate the effect of including hydraulic information on decreases. To better understand the observations, the results were
the resulting classifications scheme. This allows the determination of analyzed considering many things: literature, laboratories’ crushed
bias, since for these model systems local classes are known ab-initio. samples, laboratories’ data and information, permeability values
The classification framework is tested by comparing to the known from GRI tests we undertook, numerical simulations…
initial microstructure distribution and relative bias quantified in
terms of choice of averaging elements (size and shape). Importantly,
depending on the actual morphological transition between SCA2019-017. Towards Relative Permeability Measurements in
microtype partitions, partitions including hydraulic attributes differ Tight Gas Formations
from pure morphological partitions with applications to electrofacies
and hydraulic unit definitions. Denis Dzhafarov1, and Benjamin Nicot1*
Total SA, 64018 Avenue Larribau PAU cedex, France
1

SCA2019-015. Estimation of Gas Condensate Relative Permeability Relative permeability is a concept used to convey the reduction
Using a Lattice Boltzmann Modeling Approach in flow capability due to the presence of multiple fluids. Relative
permeability governs multiphase flow, therefore it has a significant
Josephina Schembre-McCabe1,*, Jairam Kamath1, Andrew Fager2, importance in understanding the reservoir behavior. These
and Bernd Crouse2 parameters are routinely measured on conventional rocks, however,
1
Chevron Energy Technology Company, Reservoir and Production their measurement becomes quite challenging for low-permeability
Engineering, USA rocks, such as tight gas formations.
2
Dassault Systèmes, USA This study demonstrates a methodology for relative permeability
measurements on tight gas samples. The gas permeability has been
Predicting well deliverability loss due to condensate banking measured by the step-decay method and two different techniques
requires imbibition gas/oil relative permeability as a function of have been used to vary the saturations: steady-state flooding and
capillary number. These measurements can be difficult to conduct vapor desorption.
and are often unavailable. It would be of benefit if reasonable A series of steady-state gas/water simultaneous injections has
estimates of the imbibition relative permeability can be obtained been performed on a tight gas sample. After stabilization at each
from commonly available drainage data. We use a multiphase lattice injection ratio, NMR T2, NMR Saturation profile and low-pressure
Boltzmann method to compute drainage and imbibition gas/oil step-decay gas permeability have been measured. In parallel,
relative permeability for a Berea sandstone core. The computations progressive desaturation by vapor desorption technique has been
are done on a 3D digital pore space of the core constructed for performed on twin plugs. After stabilization at each relative humidity
micro-CT-scan images. The imbibition calculations are for both level the NMR T2 and step-decay gas permeability have been
displacement and dropout processes, and for a range of capillary measured in order to compare and validate the two approaches.
numbers. These results are then compared to experimental The techniques were used to gain insight into the tight gas
measurements reported in the literature as a function of krg/kro and two-phase relative permeability of extremely low petrophysical
capillary number Nc, and they showed agreement with experimental properties (K<100 nD, ϕ < 5 p.u.) of tight gas samples of pyrophillite
results for different sandstones. outcrop.
The two methods show quite good agreement. Both methods
demonstrate significant permeability degradation at water saturation
SCA2019-016. Low-Permeability Measurement on Crushed Rock: higher than irreducible. NMR T2 measurements for both methods
Insights indicates bimodal T2 distributions, and desaturation first occurs on

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

low T2 signal (small pores). at the outlet corresponding to very little variation of the outlet-
Comparison of humidity drying and the steady-state desaturation end saturation. In a standard configuration (inlet end piece–rock–
technique has shown a 12 to 18 s.u. difference between critical outlet end piece) the observed filling states of the rock’s interfaces
water saturation (Swc) measured in gas/water steady-state injection contradict usual mathematical boundary conditions imposed on
and irreducible saturation (Swirr) measured by vapor desorption. flow equations and the outlet end-piece may act (depending on
geometry) as an obstacle to the flow direction thus generating
perturbations and disturbing saturation profiles.
SCA2019-018. Storing CO2 as Solid Hydrate in Shallow Aquifers: These experimental observations confirm the general
Electrical Resistivity Measurements in Hydrate-Bearing Sandstone conclusions that the physics of multiphase flow towards the
boundaries in DRP and traditional SCAL experiments may be
Jarand Gauteplass1,*, Stian Almenningen1, and Geir Ersland1 insufficiently known.
1
Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, 5007
Bergen, Norway
SCA2019-020. Local Capillary Pressure Estimation Based on
A recent proposed carbon dioxide (CO2) storage scheme Curvature of the Fluid Interface—Validation With Two-Phase Direct
suggests solid CO2 hydrate formation at the base of the hydrate Numerical Simulations
stability zone to facilitate safe, long-term storage of anthropogenic
CO2. These high- density hydrate structures consist of individual CO2 Takashi Akai1,*, Branko Bijeljic1, and Martin Blunt1
molecules confined in cages of hydrogen-bonded water molecules. 1
Imperial College London, Department of Earth Science and
Solid-state storage of CO2 in shallow aquifers can improve the storage Engineering, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
capacity greatly compared to supercritical CO2 stored at greater
depths. Moreover, impermeable hydrate layers directly above a With the advancement of high-resolution three-dimensional
liquid CO2 plume will significantly retain unwanted migration of CO2 X-ray imaging, it is now possible to directly calculate the curvature
towards the seabed. Thus, a structural trap accompanied by hydrate of the interface of two phases extracted from segmented CT images
layers in a zone of favorable kinetics is likely to mitigate the overall during two-phase flow experiments to derive capillary pressure.
risk of CO2 leakage from the storage site. Geophysical monitoring However, there is an inherent difficulty of this image-based curvature
of the CO2 storage site includes electrical resistivity measurements measurement: the use of voxelized image data for the calculation
that rely on empirical data to obtain saturation values. We have of curvature can cause significant errors. To address this, we first
estimated the saturation exponent, n in Archie’s equation for CO2 perform two-phase direct numerical simulations to obtain the oil-
and brine-saturated pore network (n ≈ 2.1), and for hydrate-bearing and water-phase distribution, the exact location of the interface,
seal (n ≈ 2.3 for SH < 0.4), during the process of storing liquid CO2 in and local fluid pressure. We then investigate a method to compute
Bentheimer sandstone core samples. Our findings support efficient curvature on the oil/water interface. The interface is defined in two
trapping of CO2 by sedimentary hydrate formation and show a robust ways. In one case the simulated interface which has a suresolution
agreement between saturation values derived from PVT data and smoothness is used, while the other is a smoothed interface which
from modifying Archie’s equation. is extracted from synthetic segmented data based on the simulated
phase distribution. Computed mean curvature on these surfaces
is compared with that obtained from the fluid pressure computed
SCA2019-019. Multiphase Flow Imaging Through X-Ray directly in the simulation. We discuss the accuracy of image-based
Microtomography: Reconsideration of Capillary End-Effects and curvature measurements for the calculation of capillary pressure and
Boundary Conditions propose the best way to extract an accurate curvature measurement,
quantifying the likely uncertainties.
Franck Nono1,*, Peter Moonen1,2, Hélène Berthet3 and Richard
Rivenq3
1
CNRS/UNIV Pau & Pays Adour/E2S UPPA, Développement des SCA2019-021. Determination of Critical Gas Saturation by Micro-CT
Méthodologies Expérimentales-IPRA UMS3360, Pau, France
2
CNRS/Total/UNIV Pau & Pays Adour/E2S UPPA, Laboratoire des Steffen Berg1,3, Ying Gao1,3, Apostolos Georgiadis1,3, Niels Brussee1, Ab
fluides complexes et leurs réservoirs-IPRA UMR5150, Pau, France Coorn1, Hilbert van der Linde1, Jesse Dietderich2, Faruk Omer Alpak2,
3
TOTAL S.A., Pau, France Daniel Eriksen1, Miranda Mooijer-van den Heuvel1, Jeff Southwick1,
*now with Modis, Pau, France Matthias Appel1, and Ove Bjørn Wilson1
1
Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Grasweg 31, 1031 KC
We focus on capillary end-effects and boundary conditions Amsterdam, The Netherlands
during multiphase flow experiments. To that extent, we performed 2
Shell International Exploration and Production Inc., 3333 Highway 6
drainage and imbibition experiments on Bentheimer plugs with South, Houston, TX 77210, USA
various wettabilities and for various flow rates. For each case, we 3
Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College
studied the fluid distribution inside the pore space by means of X-ray London, Kensington SW7 2AZ, UK
microtomography. Experimental observations focus on three main
aspects: (1) fluid distribution in the diffusers, (2) saturation profiles The critical gas saturation was directly determined using micro-
and, (3) cluster dynamics near the outlet-end interface. CT flow experiments and associated image analysis. The critical gas
It is shown that there is always an end-effect near the last cm/ saturation is the minimum saturation above which gas becomes
mm which cannot be investigated by many routine SCAL devices. mobile and can be produced. Knowing this parameter is particularly
Furthermore, the outlet saturation varies significantly with flow rate, important for the production of an oil field that during its lifetime
which disagrees the widely used zero capillary pressure (Pc) condition falls below the bubblepoint, which will reduce the oil production

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

dramatically. Experiments to determine the critical gas saturation SCA2019-023, A New Apparatus for Coupled Low-Field NMR and
are notoriously difficult to conduct with conventional coreflooding Ultrasonic Measurements in Rocks at Reservoir Conditions
experiments at the Darcy scale. The difficulties are primarily related
to two effects: (1) The development of gas bubbles is a nucleation Paul R. J. Connolly1, Joël Sarout2, Jérémie Dautriat2, Eric F. May1, and
process that is governed by growth kinetics that, in turn, is related Michael L. Johns1
to (2) the extent of pressure drawdown below the bubblepoint. 1
Department of Chemical Engineering, M050, The University of
At the Darcy scale, the critical gas saturation at which the formed Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, CRAWLEY WA 6009, Australia
gas bubbles connect to a percolating path, is typically probed via a 2
CSIRO Energy, ARRC Laboratories Kensington, Perth 6151, WA,
flow experiment, during which a pressure gradient is applied. This Australia
leads not only to different nucleation conditions along the core
but also gives no direct access to the size and growth rate of gas Models that describe the effect of pore fluids on elastic-
bubbles before the percolation. In combination, these two effects wave propagation in rocks are the basis for quantitative reservoir
imply that the critical gas saturation observed in such experiments analysis. Laboratory ultrasonic measurements conducted on rock
is dependent on permeability and flow rate, and that the critical gas cores are often used to test the applicability of the various models
saturation relevant for the (equilibrium) reservoir conditions has and adapt them as required. Current saturation-wave velocity
to be estimated by an extrapolation. Modern digital-rock-related models usually require some description of fluid saturation and/or
experimentation and modeling provides a more elegant way to distribution, pore aspect ratio, wettability and fluid viscosity. These
determine the critical gas saturation. We report pressure depletion are often measured indirectly at different experimental conditions
experiments in minicores imaged by X-ray computed micro- to the reservoir or simply assumed. Hydrogen (1H) nuclear magnetic
tomography (micro-CT) that allowed the direct determination of the resonance (NMR) is a technique that can be used to quantitatively
connectivity of the gas phase. As such, these experiments enabled describe some of these important parameters. Here we report the
the detection of the critical gas saturation via the percolation design and performance of a novel NMR-compatible core-holder
threshold of the gas bubbles. Furthermore, the associated gas system allowing for the measurement of both ultrasonic P-wave
and oil relative permeabilities can be obtained from single-phase velocities and NMR relaxation parameters in rock cores at reservoir
flow simulations of the connected pathway fraction of gas and oil, pressure and at variable fluid saturation conditions. Successful
respectively. validation against a conventional benchtop ultrasonic measurement
system was performed using a dry Berea sandstone core, while
sequential NMR and ultrasonic measurements were performed on a
SCA2019-022. Inverted Bucket Centrifugation With Fluorinated Oils Bentheimer sandstone core at reservoir pressures and as a function
and its Applications to T2 Cutoffs of variable brine saturation (coreflooding conditions).
To the authors’ knowledge, this new apparatus represents the
Ben Anger1,*, Stefan Hertel2, Keith Love3, Michael Ehiwario3, and first documented example of coupled high-temperature NMR and
Matthias Appel1 ultrasonic measurements conducted at the same experimental
1
Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Shell Technology Centre conditions on the same rock specimen, and allows for a new
Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands approach to study pore-scale saturation effects on elastic-wave
2
Shell International Exploration and Production Inc., Shell Technology propagation in rocks.
Center Houston, Houston, TX, USA
3
Shell Exploration & Production Company, Shell Woodcreek,
Houston, TX, USA SCA2019-024. Defining a Sample Heterogeneity Cutoff Value to
Obtain Representative Special Core Analysis (SCAL) Measurements
Hydrocarbon reservoirs with a large column height as well as
tight gas rocks require a large range of capillary pressures to describe Jos G. Maas1,*, Niels Springer2, and Albert Hebing1
the saturation of fluids present in these formations. While mercury 1
PanTerra Geoconsultants BV, Weversbaan 1-3, 2352 BZ Leiderdorp,
injection capillary pressure (MICP) can achieve high equivalent The Netherlands
capillary pressures, the tests are destructive to the core plugs. 2
GEUS, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350 København, Denmark
Centrifuge techniques have gained in popularity since they are
faster than the porous-plate technique, but they are limited in the We recently published a method to quantitatively assess a
achievable pressure range. Here, we propose the use of fluorinated heterogeneity number V that indicates the variability of the absolute
oils to extend the achievable capillary pressure of the air-brine permeability in a core plug. At that time, however, we could not
centrifuge technique by a factor of two. We use Fluorinert FC-70 provide a suitable cutoff for V. Therefore, the risk remained that
in an inverted bucket configuration, which doubles the radius of SCAL measurements could be conducted on samples with a local
rotation and keeps the density contrast comparable to an air-brine distortion dominating flow and water cut behavior. Subsequent use
system. Furthermore, we show the application to NMR T2 cutoff of the extracted relative permeability data in a reservoir simulation
determination as a function of capillary pressure. Since Fluorinert model would cause the field behavior to be dominated in the same
does not contain any hydrogen, there is no signal overlapping with way, generating significantly wrong forecasts.
the brine in the core plugs. Furthermore, in the inverted bucket In the present study, more than 70 scenarios for synthetic
configuration, the outlet face of the plug is not in contact with a heterogeneous core plugs were simulated to study the impact of
drainage surface so that the Hassler-Brunner boundary condition heterogeneity on flow parameters measured in SCAL experiments.
of Pc = 0 is satisfied. Additionally, the method allows the storage Both unsteady-state and centrifuge experiments on these synthetic
under a liquid Fluorinert phase, which prevents evaporation and plugs were simulated in 3D. Subsequently, the simulated production
significantly extends the available time for NMR measurements at data were history matched with a newly developed AutoSCORES
low water saturations. software package to extract the relative permeability and capillary

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

pressure in an objective manner. A rigorous statistical analysis was fluids. The small sizes of the pores cause capillary condensation,
applied to determine a cutoff value for the heterogeneity number V which is a nanoconfinement-induced gas-to-liquid phase change,
for each listed scenario. The cutoff proved to be strongly dependent that can occur at pressures more than 50% below the corresponding
on the number of samples available in a SCAL study. First experimental bulk phase change of the fluid due to strong fluid-pore wall
results of measurements on actual rock samples are in line with interactions. We quantify this phenomenon by measuring propane
predictions. A table is presented to assist SCAL experimentalists in isotherms both in a synthetic nanoporous medium and a core from
deciding which SCAL samples reliably can be used for a SCAL study a shale-gas reservoir. Comparison of our results in the two porous
unaffected by the effects of heterogeneities, based on V of a sample. media indicates the occurrence of capillary condensation in shale
rock. At the same time, we observe capillary condensation hysteresis
for shale, in which the density of the fluid is significantly lighter
SCA2019-025. Digital Core Repository Coupled With Machine during desorption than adsorption. This indicates structural changes
Learning as a Tool to Classify and Assess Petrophysical Rock to the rock matrix caused by the phase behavior of the confined
Properties fluid. We use scanning electron microscopy to corroborate our
findings. These results have significant implications for determining
Vanessa Hébert1,*, Thierry Porcher1, Valentin Planes1, Marie Léger1, the PVT properties, porosity, and permeability of shale and ultratight
Anna Alperovich2, Bastian Goldluecke2, Olivier Rodriguez1, and formations for use in reservoir modeling and production estimations.
Souhail Youssef3
1
Voxaya, Cap Oméga, rond-point Benjamin Franklin, CS 39521, 34960
Montpellier, France SCA2019-027. Methane Isotherms and Magnetic Resonance
2
University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Imaging in Shales
Germany
3
IFP Energies Nouvelles, 1-4 Avenue du Bois Préau, 92852 Rueil- M.J. Dick1,*, D. Heagle2, D. Veselinovic1, and D. Green1
Malmaison, France 1
Green Imaging Technologies, Fredericton, NB, Canada
2
Natural Resources Canada, Canmet Energy – Ottawa, ON, Canada
To make efficient use of image-based rock physics workflow,
it is necessary to optimize different criteria, such as quantity, Adsorption isotherms of light hydrocarbons on reservoir rocks
representativeness, size and resolution. Advances in artificial are key data used to quantify the total gas content in reservoirs and
intelligence give insights of database potential. Deep-learning isotherms are now being used to improve our understanding of the
methods not only enable classification of rock imagees, but could processes affecting subsurface gas flow associated with gas injection
also help to estimate their petrophysical properties. from enhanced oil recovery techniques.
In this study, we prepare a set of thousands of high-resolution This project combined elements of the traditional pressure-
3D images captured in a set of four reservoir rock samples as a base volume gas-adsorption isotherm technique and an NMR-based
for learning and training. The Voxilon software computes numerical adsorption isotherm approach to determine the adsorption
petrophysical analysis. We identify different descriptors directly from isotherms of light hydrocarbons on to tight rocks from oil and gas
3D images used as inputs. We use convolutional neural-network reservoirs. The new approach allows isotherms to be derived from
modeling with supervised training using TensorFlow framework. NMR data. First, a T2 distribution of the gas is determined over a
Using approximately 15,000 2D images to drive the classification range of gas pressures. Next, the volume of pore gas is estimated
network, the test on thousands of unseen images shows any error using the pore volume of the rock and the Van der Waals gas
of rock-type misclassification. The porosity trend provides a good equation. The adsorbed gas content is then calculated by subtracting
fit between digital benchmark datasets and machine-learning pore gas content from the total gas content. This is repeated for a
tests. In a few minutes, database screening classifies carbonates range of gas pressures to determine the adsorption isotherm.
and sandstones images and associates the porosity values and This project used the NMR method described above and
distribution. This work aims at conveying the potential of deep- measured the gas pressure decay in the NMR cell. This combined
learning method in reservoir characterization to petroleum research, approach includes the advantages of the NMR method but it also
to illustrate how a smart image-based rock physics database at the produces a pressure-time curve that can be used to identify when
industrial scale can swiftly provide access to rock properties. equilibrium is attained in low permeability rocks and can be used to
compare adsorption kinetics of different gases.
The advantages of our approach are that (1) the samples remain
SCA2019-026. Using Capillary Condensation and Evaporation intact and the measurements provide information on the pore-size
Isotherms to Investigate Confined Fluid Phase Behavior in Shales distribution, (2) analyses can be carried out at reservoir pressures,
(3) isotherms can be measured for any gas containing hydrogen
Elizabeth Barsotti1,*, Evan Lowry1, Mohammad Piri1, and Jin-Hong atoms, and (4) the results can be used to examine the processes
Chen2 controlling gas flow through the rock. Future work to develop this
1
Center of Innovation for Flow through Porous Media, Petroleum technique will improve our quantification of the amount of pore gas
Engineering Department, University of Wyoming, Laramie, in the cell, which will improve our partitioning between adsorbed
Wyoming, USA gas and pore gas as well as allow for an improved analysis of the
2
Aramco Services Company, Aramco Research Center-Houston, pressure response of the sample after degassing.
Houston, Texas, USA

The abundance of nanopores (pores with diameters between 2 SCA2019-028. Dielectric Polarization in Partially Saturated Shales
and 100 nm) in shale and ultratight reservoirs precludes the use of
common pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) analyses on reservoir Paul R.J. Connolly1, Matthew Josh2, Keelan O’Neill1, Eric F. May1, and

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

Michael L. Johns1 Strategies for Mobility Control, Enhanced Oil Recovery, and CO2
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, M050, The University of Storage
Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia
2
CSIRO Energy, ARRC Laboratories Kensington, Perth 6151, WA, Zachary Paul Alcorn1,*, Sunniva B. Fredriksen1, Mohan Sharma2, Tore
Australia Føyen1,3, Connie Wergeland1, Martin A. Fernø1, Arne Graue1, and
Geir Ersland1
Dielectric measurements of reservoir rocks are used to estimate 1
Dept. of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway
important petrophysical properties, such as water-filled porosity 2
National IOR Centre of Norway, University of Stavanger, Norway
and pore-surface textures. However, complex dielectric polarization 3SINTEF Industry, Trondheim, Norway
processes that occur in rocks are strongly dependent on frequency,
making physically meaningful interpretation of broadband dielectric This paper presents experimental and numerical sensitivity
data difficult. studies to assist injection strategy design for an ongoing CO2-foam
Here, we demonstrate the application of Tikhonov regularization field pilot. The aim is to increase the success of in-situ CO2-foam
methods to compute dielectric relaxation-time distributions from generation and propagation into the reservoir for CO2 mobility control,
broadband (40 Hz to 110 MHz) dielectric data for a shale sample enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and CO2 storage. Unsteady state in-situ
at varying partial saturation. Furthermore, via the Kramers-Kronig CO2-foam behavior, representative of the near-wellbore region, and
relation the contribution from in phase conduction currents to the steady-state foam behavior was evaluated. Multicycle surfactant-
imaginary component of the dielectric response was quantified. alternating-gas (SAG) provided the highest apparent viscosity foam
The evolution of dielectric polarization processes with increasing of 120.2 cP, compared to coinjection (56.0 cP) and single-cycle SAG
moisture content was analyzed directly from changes in relaxation- (18.2 cP) in 100% brine saturated porous media. CO2-foam EOR
time distributions. It was found that the dominant polarization corefloods at first-contact miscible (FCM) conditions showed that
mechanism up to a critical partial saturation occurred exclusively in multicycle SAG generated the highest apparent foam viscosity in the
the electrical double layer (EDL). Above this critical partial saturation presence of refined oil (n-Decane). Multicycle SAG demonstrated
electrodiffusion mechanisms acting between the diffuse layer high viscous displacement forces critical in field implementation
and the bulk electrolyte controlled the low-frequency response. where gravity effects and reservoir heterogeneities dominate. At
This work provides valuable insight into dielectric polarization multiple-contact miscible (MCM) conditions, no foam was generated
mechanisms in shales, and demonstrates such measurements are with either injection strategy as a result of wettability alteration and
sensitive to EDL properties and electrodiffusion length scales that foam destabilization in presence of crude oil. In both FCM and MCM
are relevant to characterizing pore properties in shales. corefloods, incremental oil recoveries were on average 30.6% OOIP
regardless of injection strategy for CO2 foam and base cases (i.e., no
surfactant). CO2 diffusion and miscibility dominated oil recovery at
SCA2019-029. CT-Scan In-Situ Investigation of Waterflood Front the core-scale resulting in high microscopic CO2 displacement. CO2
Instabilities During Immiscible Displacements: Effect of Viscosity storage potential was 9.0% greater for multicycle SAGs compared to
Contrast and Flow Rate coinjections at MCM. A validated core-scale simulation model was
used for a sensitivity analysis of grid resolution and foam quality. The
Matthieu Mascle1,*, Elisabeth Rosenberg1, Berit Roboele2, Espen model was robust in representing the observed foam behavior and
Kowalewski2, and Souhail Youssef1 will be extended to use in field-scale simulations.
1
IFP Energies Nouvelles, Geofluids & Rock Department, 92852 Rueil-
Malmaison Cedex, France
2
Equinor ASA, 7005 Trondheim, Norway SCA2019-031. New Laboratory Coreflooding Experimental System
for EOR Surfactant Screening, Especially for Foam
In this work, unstable displacements were conducted using
special equipment designed to run in- situ CT-scanner experiments. Xuesong Li1,*, and Matthias Appel1
All the displacements were conducted on a strongly water-wet 1
Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Special Core Analysis Team,
Bentheimer sandstone full-size plug 10 cm in diameter and 40 cm 1031HW Amsterdam, The Netherlands
in length. It was found that the oil recovery at brine breakthrough
(%PV) shows a good correlation with the viscous fingering number as Coreflooding experiments are often used to assess the
defined by Doorwar. Early water breakthrough appears to be boosted performance of EOR techniques or to screen surfactants. An inherent
by high injection flow rate and less favorable fluids mobility ratio. success factor of chemical EOR processes is the choice of the optimal
The local saturation monitoring provides new insight to characterize surfactant, which is a trade-off between process performance and
the finger shapes and analyze the production mechanisms, for the economic considerations. Currently, this trade-off can often not fully
different flowing conditions. In water-wet conditions, the capillary be evaluated with laboratory experiments because the associated
forces contribute to stabilize the front against viscous instabilities. experiments are time consuming, which typically limits their number
If the viscous forces become too dominant, the capillary forces are and, in turn, impacts the reliability of the results. For this reason,
overcome and fingering may occur for displacement with unfavorable we aimed to develop an automated and parallel coreflooding unit to
fluids ratio. A diagram has been constructed to separately quantify conduct faster, cheaper and reliable tests for EOR technologies. The
the contribution of the viscous fingering and the capillary fingering. benefit of doing this is to dramatically increase the statistics of EOR-
Results have shown that capillary fingering was the main mechanism related experimentation while decreasing the manpower needed,
responsible for the water early breakthrough. leading to a much better value-to-cost ratio.
As a first step, we designed a setup which is applicable for
multiple EOR-related coreflooding experiments, such as alkaline-
SCA2019-030. Core-Scale Sensitivity Study of CO2 Foam Injection surfactant polymer (ASP), low salinity, polymer flooding or foam

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

injection. The device can be used for co- or sequential injection of Effective gas permeability in partly water-saturated tight rocks
gas, water and oil. For the high-compressibility gas phase, it is often is controlled by both, slippage and capillary effects. We present
desirable to regulate its in-core volumetric flow rate. We control the effective gas permeability coefficients measured on partially
gas flow using inline sensors and flow meters corresponding to the presaturated tight rock samples and during drainage starting
real-time in-situ core pressure. With a feedback loop, the offset of from fully water-saturated samples. Measurements were made
gas flow can be automatically updated within 0.1% deviation from on Carboniferous (Westphalian D) and Permian (Rotliegend) tight
the target setting. By miniaturizing the core sample and simplifying sandstones with porosities <15% and permeability coefficients
the experimental procedures, the automated flooding process <10−16 m² (0.1 mDarcy). Plugs of 30 to 38 mm in diameter and up
achieved 90% efficiency gain while reducing sample consumption. to 40 mm in length were used in this study in “triaxial” flow cells.
This proof of concept can easily be further evolved into a parallelized Confining pressures ranged from 15 to 40 MPa and differential gas
system. Experience with this new coreflooding system demonstrated pressures up to 11 MPa were applied. Drainage of initially water-
the dramatic increase in screening capacity and added value to the saturated samples was monitored by nuclear magnetic resonance
EOR development workflows. (NMR) in a flow-through cell. Additionally, gas flow experiments
were run on samples with defined initial water saturations of up
to 60%, established either by equilibration with water vapor or by
SCA2019-032. A New CEC Measurement Proxy Using High- centrifuging. Effective gas permeability coefficients increased by
Frequency Dielectric Analysis of Crushed Rock up to three orders of magnitude with decreasing water content.
The experiments revealed that above a critical water saturation,
M. Rebecca Stokes1, Z. Elton Yang1, Prince Ezebuiro1, and Timothy the effective permeability coefficients depend on drainage- and
Fischer1 imbibition-controlled re-distribution of the water phase. Below this
1
Chevron Energy Technology Company, Houston, Texas, USA critical water saturation, the apparent permeability coefficients of
the gas are dominated by slippage effects.
Measuring the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of clay-bearing
rocks is a useful tool to estimate smectite content, or the amount
of swelling clay in the rock, and is referenced across many aspects SCA2019-034. Modeling Permeability in Carbonate Rocks
of oil and gas exploration. Measuring the CEC of a rock, however, is
laborious and, depending on the method used, requires saturation Moustafa Dernaika1,*, Shehadeh Masalmeh1, Bashar Mansour2,
and extraction steps, the use of multiple chemicals, titration, and Osama Al-Jallad2, and Safouh Koronfol2
spectroscopic analysis. 1
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, EOR Department, 898 Abu Dhabi,
This study, which builds on the established petrophysical link UAE
between clays and relative permittivity (ɛ’r), outlines a workflow 2
Halliburton, Ingrain, 114568 Abu Dhabi, UAE
and set of equations that allow for bulk rock CEC to be calculated
from permittivity measurements of crushed rock using a handheld In carbonate reservoirs, permeability prediction is often difficult
dielectric probe. A series of quartz-smectite mineral mixtures due to the influence of various geological variables that control fluid
was prepared and high-frequency (80 MHz to 1.4 GHz) dielectric flow. Many attempts have been made to calculate permeability from
measurements collected at six relative humidity (RH) conditions porosity by using theoretical and empirical equations. The suggested
ranging from 8 to 75%. For each RH dataset, a strong linear permeability models have been questionable in carbonates due to
relationship (R2 ≥ 0.98) exists between permittivity at 120 MHz inherent heterogeneity and complex pore systems. The main objective
and the labooratory-measured CEC of the mineral mixtures. The of this paper is to resolve the porosity-permeability relationships
equations from these calibration curves were used to derive three and evaluate existing models for predicting permeability in different
RH-dependent equations. carbonate rock types.
The method was validated on a variety of crushed sedimentary Over 1,000 core plugs were studied from seen different
rocks and differences between the calculated values from this study carbonate reservoirs across the Middle East region. The plugs were
and the lab-measured CECs range between ±6 meq/100 g. These carefully selected to represent main property variations in the
results demonstrate that dielectric permittivity measurements cored intervals. The dataset available included laboratory-measured
can be used as a CEC-proxy and is a fast and flexible alternative to helium porosity, gas permeability, thin-section photomicrographs
laboratory-based CEC analysis. and high-pressure mercury injection. Plug-scale X-ray CT imaging
was acquired to ensure the samples were free of induced fractures
and other anomalies that can affect the permeability measurement.
SCA2019-033. Gas Slippage in Partially Saturated Tight Rocks and Rock textures were analyzed in the thin-section photomicrographs
During Drainage and were classified based on their content as grainy, muddy and
mixed. Special attention was given to the diagenesis effects, mainly
Alexandra Amann-Hildenbrand1,*, Mohammadebrahim Shabani1, compaction, cementation and dissolution. The texture information
Thomas Hiller2, Norbert Klitzsch3, Norbert Schleifer4, and Bernhard was plotted in the porosity- permeability domain, and was found
M. Krooss1 to produce three distinct porosity-permeability relationships. Each
1
Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of Petroleum and Coal, texture gave a unique poroperm trend, where the extent of the trend
Energy and Mineral Resources Group, RWTH-Aachen, Germany was controlled by diagenesis. Rock types were defined on each trend
2
Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, Hannover, Germany by detailed texture analysis and capillary pressure. Three different
3
Applied Geophysics and Geothermal Energy, E.ON Energy Research permeability equations (Kozney, Winland, Lucia) were evaluated
Center, RWTH-Aachen, Germany to study their effectiveness in complex carbonate reservoirs. The
4
Wintershall Holding GmbH, Barnstorf, Germany texture-diagenesis based rock types provided more insight into the
effects of geology on fluid flow and saturation. Available models may

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

not fully describe permeability in heterogeneous rocks but they can and relative (or effective) apparent permeability is directly
improve our understanding of flow characteristics in various rock determined.
types.

SCA2019-037. Transport Properties of the Cobourg Limestone: A

SCA2019-035. Direct Magnetic Resonance Measurement of Benchmark Investigation
Average Pore Size
C.A. Davy1,*, Zhazha Hu2, A.P.S. Selvadurai3, Jop Klaver4, M.-C.
Florin Marica1, Armin Afrough2, Derrick Green3, Laura Romero- Willemetz1, F. Agostini1, F. Skoczylas1, Jan Dewanckele5, Alexandra
Zeron4, and Bruce Balcom1,* Amann-Hildenbrand2, and Roland Lenormand6
1
Department of Physics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, 1
Centrale Lille, CS 20048, 59651 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France
New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada 2
Energy and Mineral Resources Group, RWTH Aachen University,
2
Centre for Oil and Gas - DTU, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. 52064 Aachen, Germany
Lyngby 2800, Denmark 3
Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill
3
Green Imaging Technologies, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3A 8V2, University, Canada
Canada 4
Microstructure and Pores GmbH, 52064 Aachen, Germany
4
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, 5
TESCAN XRE, 9052 Ghent, Belgium
Fredericton, E3B 5A3, Canada 6
CYDAREX 31 Av. Gabriel Péri, 92500 Rueil-Malmaison, France

Magnetic resonance relaxation-time distribution measurements, The Cobourg limestone formation is proposed as a possible
notably T2 measurement, are commonly employed as a proxy repository site for nuclear waste in Canada. This limestone displays
measurement of pore size. They are not direct measurements of significant heterogeneity, characterized by light-gray calcite nodular
pore size and may only be converted to pore size through a separate regions, interspersed with dark-gray calcite-dolomite-quartz
determination of a relaxivity. partings containing a clay component. Mineral composition is
In this work, we employ the Brownstein-Tarr interpretation dominated by calcite, with some minor amounts of ankerite, illite/
of magnetic resonance relaxation to identify nonground modes muscovite/I-S and quartz. Analysis of the pore structure shows that
of signal decay. These modes, most readily identified through a Cobourg limestone is extremely tight with porosities between 0.33
T1-T2 measurement, permit determination of an average pore size and 2.51%.
and surface relaxivities ρ1 and ρ2. Bulk pore-size measurements This paper aims at both a comprehensive description of the
are reported for three different sandstones with average pore size transport properties of the Cobourg limestone on the nm- to cm-
confirmed by electron microscopy. The pore-size measurement may range, and the comparison of different experimental techniques:
be spatially resolved with a spatially resolved T1-T2 measurement, gas measurement using decay, quasistatic, or steady-state methods.
implemented with an inversion recovery preparation for an SE-SPI T2 In total, four labs measured permeability, porosity and analyzed
mapping measurement. Spatially resolved pore-size measurements the pore system by various methods (micro-CT, BIB/SEM). In all
agree with bulk measurements. flow experiments, slip flow was accounted for by means of the
Klinkenberg correction.
The effects of pore pressure, confining pressure, sample size
SCA2019-036. Two-Phase Fluid Flow Experiments Monitored by and coring orientation are studied. For all laboratories, results range
NMR from 100 microdarcies to 1 nanodarcy. Even for a given laboratory,
results are comprised in a broad range, with several orders of
Thomas Hiller1, Gabriel Hoder2, Alexandra Amann-Hildenbrand3, magnitude differences depending on coring direction, confining
Norbert Klitzsch3,*, and Norbert Schleifer4 pressure and sample size. Flow occurs through slit-shaped pores/
1
Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, Hannover, Germany fractures, which are orientated along heterogeneities. Upon loading,
2
SCK.CEN, Mol, Belgium these natural and/or artificial pores successively close, resulting in a
3
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany reduced permeability and stress sensitivity.
4
Wintershall Holding GmbH, Barnstorf, Germany Results are dominated by heterogeneity and anisotropy of the
Cobourg limestone, so that it is delicate to select one method over
We present a newly developed high-pressure nuclear magnetic another. Rather, each brings useful information to better understand
resonance (NMR) flow cell, which allows for the simultaneous this low-permeability and low-porosity natural material.
determination of water saturation, effective gas permeability
and NMR relaxation-time distribution in two-phase fluid flow
experiments. We introduce both the experimental setup and the SCA2019-038. Pore-Scale Experimental Investigation of In-Situ
experimental procedure on a tight Rotliegend sandstone sample. Wettability and Displacement Mechanisms Governing WAG in Oil-
The initially fully water saturated sample is systematically drained by Wet Carbonates
a stepwise increase of gas (nitrogen) inlet pressure and the drainage
process is continuously monitored by low-field NMR relaxation Ziqiang Qin1,*, Maziar Arshadi1, and Mohammad Piri1
measurements. After correction of the data for temperature 1
Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming,
fluctuations, the monitored changes in water saturation proved Laramie, Wyoming 82071, United States
very accurate. The experimental procedure provides quantitative
information about the total water saturation as well as about its In oil-wet carbonates, due to low oil production through
distribution within the pore space at defined differential pressure conventional waterflooding, water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection
conditions. Furthermore, the relationship between water saturation is deployed to enhance oil recovery. However, to-date, there is a lack

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

of fundamental understanding of the underlying physics governing flow in porous media.

the flow at the pore scale during WAG. The advent of advanced X-ray
microtomography (micro-CT) technology provides opportunities to
study this complex displacement process at the pore level. SCA2019-040. Pore-Scale Experimental Study of Carbonated
In this study, a series of miniature coreflooding experiments Water Injection in an Oil-Wet Carbonate: An Improved Insight Into
were performed at elevated temperature and pressure conditions, Wettability Alteration and Displacement Mechanisms
using a highly-accurate coreflooding system integrated with a
high-resolution micro-CT scanner. Miniature core samples were Ziqiang Qin1,*, Maziar Arshadi1, and Mohammad Piri1
subjected to a dynamic wettability alteration process (aging) with 1
Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming,
crude oil followed by three cycles of WAG injection. The samples Laramie, Wyoming 82071, United States
were X-ray imaged to generate three-dimensional fluid occupancy
maps during different two- and three-phase flow stages of the WAG Carbonated water injection (CWI) has been proposed to
cycles. Pore-scale displacement mechanisms governing WAG EOR mitigate the poor sweep efficiency of conventional CO2 flooding.
under oil-wet conditions were examined by analyzing the pore-fluid Furthermore, CWI requires much less CO2 that makes it more
occupancy maps. The results showed that the WAG flooding scheme attractive for EOR projects that have access to limited quantities
significantly enhanced oil recovery. The sweep efficiency of both of CO2. Even though previous experimental studies have presented
gas and brine phases were increased due to the shielding effect of data supporting the effectiveness of CWI for enhanced oil recovery,
the trapped gas ganglia. Oil production diminished rapidly after two the direct evidence obtained from naturally occurring rock samples
waterflooding and gas injection cycles. on pore-scale displacement mechanisms responsible for the
observed recovery enhancements are scarce. In the past decade,
X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) technology has become more
SCA2019-039. High-Resolution In-Line Density Measurements: readily available and this has created numerous opportunities for
Insight on Multiphase Flow and Transport Phenomena in Porous pore-level investigations of complex multiphase flow processes in
Media natural porous media.
In this study, we probed the displacement mechanisms taking
Jelayne Falat1, Adam Fehr1, Ali Telmadarreie1,*, and Steven Bryant1,2 place during CWI and subsequent depressurization processes
1
Univeristy of Calgary, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering through miniature coreflooding experiments at elevated pressure
Department, VP Research, 2500 University Dr. NW T2N 1N4 and temperature conditions (1,400 psi and 50°C), using a HPHT
2
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Materials Engineering for coreflooding system integrated with a high-resolution micro-CT
Unconventional Oil Reservoirs scanner. The miniature core sample was dynamically aged with
crude oil at initial water saturation and subsequently subjected to
An in-line densitometer is used in coreflooding applications to waterflooding, CWI, and a depressurization step. The sample was
quantify fluid production from core samples and obtain quantitative repeatedly imaged using the micro-CT scanner in the course of the
and qualitative information, such as connate water production, experiments. The images were then processed to generate three-
breakthrough times, emulsion/foam generation, and steam dimensional fluid-occupancy maps from which the fluid saturations,
condensation. in-situ contact angles, and local displacement patterns were
A series of corefloods was performed with a densitometer determined. The results showed a significant incremental oil recovery
placed at the outlet of a sandpack. All fluids passed through the due to CWI and subsequent depressurization steps compared to the
measurement cell at experiential temperatures and pressures. unadulterated waterflooding. In-situ contact-angle measurements
The second series of tests was performed at high temperature and yielded direct evidences of wettability alteration from oil-wet to
pressure, with a densitometer placed at the inlet and outlet of a neutral-wet conditions during CWI. Our observations indicated that
sandpack, for steam applications. In both series of experiments, data the wettability alteration was a gradual process, which facilitates
acquisition was collected at 1 Hertz and the analyzed density data oil displacement from the medium. The swelling of oil during
was compared to results from the conventional effluent analysis, CWI and the displacements taking place during the subsequent
including Dean-Stark, toluene separations, magnetic susceptibility depressurization process also contributed to oil production.
measurement, and flash calculations where applicable.
The high-resolution monitoring of effluent from a flow
experiment through porous media in a system with two phases of SCA2019-041. The Digital Rock Analysis of Biogenically Induced
known densities enables two-phase production to be accurately Reservoir Heterogeneities in Cretaceous Reservoirs of Saudi Arabia
quantified in the case of both light and heavy oil. The frequency of Ivan Deshenenkov1,*, and Camilo Polo2
measurements results in a high-resolution history of breakthrough 1
Geological Operations Department, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi
times and fluid behavior. In the case of monitoring steam injection Arabia
processes, reliable laboratory tests show that in-line density 2
Northern Area Reservoir Characterization Department, Saudi
measurements enable the determination of steam quality at the Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
inlet and outlet of a sandpack and qualitative determination of
steam condensation monitoring. The characterization of the fluid-flow properties in biogenically
The use of in-line densitometry in coreflooding applications altered formations is a key for successful exploration campaigns.
provides insight on monitoring of complex fluid flow in porous This study assessed reservoir quality and evaluated permeability
media, which typical bulk effluent analysis is not able to do. The of the biogenically-modified Cretaceous upper Ratawi section in
ability to measure produced fluids at high resolution and extreme Saudi Arabia. When dealing with these bioturbated carbonates,
temperatures reduces mass balance error associated with the characterization of sedimentary heterogeneities is often overprinted
effluent collection and broadens our understanding of complex fluid by the complex spatial geometries of burrows. The high-resolution

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

3D X-ray microscopy imaging and analysis of these bioturbated Mohammed Al-Otaibi1

sections lead to a better understanding of the interconnectivity 1
Saudi Aramco, EXPEC Advanced Research Center, Dhahran, Saudi
between permeable burrows and tight matrix. The analysis deploys Arabia
multiscale imaging from whole core to submicron scale. The coarse
imaging at 20- to 50-μm resolution helped to identify bioturbated Understanding the effect of injection-water chemistry is
sections to select samples for higher resolution tomography. The 3D becoming crucial, as it has been recently shown to have a major
sample tomograms were segmented to define burrows and matrix impact on oil recovery processes in carbonate formations. Various
distributions, where samples were extracted for thin sections, studies have concluded that surface charge alteration is the primary
scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and mercury injection mechanism behind the observed change of wettability towards
capillary pressure (MICP) analyses to refine the pore sizes and rock water-wet due to smartwater injection in carbonates. Therefore,
types. The analysis showed an intricate, highly connected, mixed understanding the surface charges at brine/calcite and brine/
horizontal and inclined burrow system dominated by Thalassinoides. crude oil interfaces becomes essential to optimize the injection-
Intergranular porosity, associated with the fill of Thalassinoides, water compositions for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in carbonate
constitutes a mechanism for permeability enhancement in a tight formations.
matrix. Increased permeability is associated with higher dolomite In this work, the physicochemical interactions of different brine
content that might be used as a sweet spot identifier from wireline recipes with and without alkali in carbonates are evaluated using a
logs. surface complexation model (SCM). First, the zeta-potential of brine/
calcite and brine/crude oil interfaces are determined for smartwater,
NaCl, and Na2SO4 brines at fixed salinity. The high-salinity seawater is
SCA2019-042. Novel Technique to Measure Mutual Bulk Fluid also included to provide the baseline for comparison. Then, two types
Diffusion Using NMR 1D Gradient of alkali (NaOH and Na2CO3) are added at 0.1 wt% concentration to
the different brine recipes to verify their effects on the computed
Son Dang1,*, Carl Sondergeld1, and Chandra Rai1 zeta-potential values in the SCM framework. The SCM results are
1
Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, compared with experimental data of zeta-potentials obtained with
University of Oklahoma, USA calcite in brine and crude oil in brine suspensions using the same
brines and the two alkali concentrations. The SCM results follow the
Many modeling and theoretical studies have shown that same trends observed in experimental data to reasonably match the
diffusion can be a significant transport mechanism in low- zeta-potential values at the calcite/brine interface. Generally, the
permeability porous media. Understanding the process allows addition of alkaline drives the zeta-potentials towards more negative
engineers to better predict reservoir performance during both values. This trend towards negative zeta-potential is confirmed for
primary production and enhanced recovery in unconventional the smartwater recipe with the impact being more pronounced for
reservoirs. Direct measurement of effective diffusion in tight rocks Na2CO3 due to the presence of divalent anion carbonate (CO3)−2.
is difficult, due to small pore volumes and the lack of techniques to Some discrepancy in the zeta-potential magnitude between the SCM
actually monitor the process. Conventional diffusion measurements results and experiments is observed at the brine/crude oil interface
generally require fluid sampling, which induces a pressure transient with the addition of alkali. This discrepancy can be attributed to
that changes the mass transfer mechanism. Previously, we introduced neglecting the reaction of carboxylic acid groups in the crude oil with
a novel technique to measure tortuosity in nanoporous media by strong alkalis, such as NaOH and Na2CO3.
simultaneously monitoring methane versus nitrogen concentrations The novelty of this work is that it clearly validates the SCM
at high pressure using transmission infrared spectroscopy (IR). To results with experimental zeta-potential data to determine the
complete the estimation of effective diffusion, bulk-fluid diffusion physicochemical interaction of alkaline chemicals with smartwater
coefficient also needs to be measured. in carbonates. These modeling results provide new insights on
In this study, we demonstrate the usage of nuclear magnetic defining optimal smartwater compositions to synergize with alkaline
resonance (NMR) 1D imaging to examine the dynamic change of chemicals to further improve oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs.
hydrogen index (HI) across the interface between two bulk fluids.
The experiment was conducted between a crude-oil sample and
methane; fluid samples were pressurized within an NMR transparent SCA2019-044. Effects of Gas Pressurization on the Interpretation of
ZrO2 pressure cell, which operates at pressures up to 10,000 psi. NMR Hydrocarbon Measurements in Organic-Rich Shales
The HI profile was continuously measured and recorded for 7 days.
The results provided oil the swelling factor and the concentration Son Dang1,*, Carl Sondergeld1, and Chandra Rai1
profile as a function of both time and distance. These data then were 1
Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering,
fitted with Maxwell-Stefan equation to precisely back-calculate the University of Oklahoma, USA
diffusion coefficient between oil and gas samples at high pressure.
Accurate estimation of tortuosity and fluid diffusion is critical for the The estimation of total hydrocarbons (HCs) in place is one
gas-injection strategy in a shale formation. Greater tortuosity and of the most important economic challenges in unconventional
smaller fluid diffusion rates lead to longer injection and production resource plays. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has proven to be
times for desirable economic recovery. a valuable tool in directly quantifying both hydrocarbons and brines
in the laboratory and the field. Some major applications of NMR
interpretation include pore-body size distributions, wettability, fluid
SCA2019-043. A Surface Complexation Model of Alkaline-Smart types, and fluid properties. However, for tight formations, the effects
Water Electrokinetic Interactions in Carbonates of the factors on NMR relaxation data are intertwined. One purpose
of this study is to review the interpretation of NMR response of HCs
Moataz Abu-Al-Saud1,*, Amani Al-Ghamdi1, Subhash Ayirala1, and in a tight rock matrix through illustrated examples.

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 Abstracts - Society of Core Analysts 33rd International Symposium

When comparing NMR data between downhole wireline

and laboratory measurement, three important elements need to
be considered (1) temperature differences, (2) system response
differences, and (3) pressure (mainly due to the lost gasses.) The
effect of temperature on HCs would be presented with experimental
results for bulk fluids. Whereas, the effect of pressure is investigated
by injecting gas back into rock matrix saturated with original fluids.
The experiments were performed within an NMR-transparent
Daedalus ZrO2 pressure cell which operates at pressures up to
10,000 psi.
The results show that at ambient temperature and pressure,
NMR responds to a fraction of HCs which is volatile enough to be
observed as an NMR relaxation sequence. The invisible fraction of
HCs to NMR sequence at ambient condition can be up to 20% of
the total extractable HCs. Molecular relaxation is impacted by fluid
viscosity, pore size, and surface affinity. In other words, the fluid with
higher viscosity (either due to temperature or gas loss), presenting in
smaller pores, or highly affected by the pore surface, will relax faster,
and would be partially invisible to NMR, especially in the field. This is
critical to the interpretation of NMR response for liquid-rich source
rocks, in which all of the above molecular relaxing restrictions can
be found. Thus, engineers can underestimate movable HCs by using
routine core analysis data.

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 Japan Formation Evaluation Society (JFES)
25th Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan
Chiba, Japan, September 25–26, 2019
Abstracts

Invited Talk 1. Research Progress and Challenges Towards (SVM) to identify the distribution of the minerals. The results will
Commercial Gas Production From Methane Hydrate provide information about surface temperature and heat losses
based on anomalous manifestations, estimation of power electricity
Yoshihiro Masuda1 resource, lineament, and a conceptual model of Mount Tangkuban
1
University of Tokyo Perahu geothermal system.

Invited Talk 2. Tomakomai CCS Demonstration Project: Project

Overview and Results to Date Paper B. A Numerical Simulation Study on the Feasibility of a Use of
Shoichi Fueki1 Mini-Frac Test and AE Monitoring for the Delineation of Preexisting
1
Japan CCS Co. Ltd. Permeable Faults/Fractures

Mitsuyuki Ozawa1, Yusuke Kumano1, Tetsuya Tamagawa1, Takuji

Paper A. Estimating Geothermal Reservoir Characteristics by Using Mouri2
Landsat 8 Satellite Imagery Data: A Case Study in Mount Tangkuban 1
JAPEX
Perahu Area, West Java, Indonesia 2
JOGMEC

Muhammad Rizky Ashari1, Zefanya Mesakh Dwi Cahya Wirya Putra1, The objective of this study is to discuss the feasibility of a new
and Kiveileen Nofa Malindo1 use of the combination of mini-frac test and acoustic emission (AE)
1
Universitas Pertamina monitoring for the identification and delineation of preexisting
faults/fractures with exceptionally high permeability in the vicinity
The needs of the world for electricity, especially in Indonesia, of the well. In particular, geothermal field exploration often targets
is increasing along with population growth, consumerism, and such natural fault/fracture zones, because of the high permeability
technological advances. Furthermore, to fulfill the needs of expected based on the assumption of open fracture aperture, which
electrical energy in Indonesia, which still relies heavily on fossil is favorable for large amounts of steam production. However, the
energy use, might cause many losses, especially to the environment. drilling success rate is only around 30%, which could result from
Geothermal energy is one of the renewable forms of energy and the the limited spatial resolution of the conventional geophysical
right choice in today’s global sustainable development due to low exploration methods used in geothermal development, such as the
carbon emissions. Indonesia has 40% of all geothermal potential gravity, resistivity and magnetic methods. More accurate exploration
in the world with potential resources of 11,073 megawatts (MW), methods for permeable fault/fracture delineation are required.
reserves of 17,506 MW, and the total energy of 28.579 gigawatts Mini-frac tests have been widely conducted in oil, gas and/or
(GW). geothermal field, which are mainly aimed to measure some kinds of
Geothermal energy potential in Indonesia is widespread in initial state in the target formation, such as in-situ stress and pore
areas that are traversed by the “ring of fire” or areas with active pressure, usually before the massive hydraulic fracturing operation.
volcanic activity, one of them is Mount Tangkuban Perahu in West Furthermore, if AE was monitored during the mini-frac test, the
Java. The surface geothermal potential has been known from surface spatio-temporal hypocenter distribution could potentially help to
manifestations, which appear in the form of fumaroles, hot springs, estimate the dynamic behaviors of fracture extension or pressure
mud pools, steaming ground, sinter, kaipohan, and hydrothermal diffusion. However, a relationship between the spatio-temporal
alteration. If there are surface temperature anomalies, they could be hypocenter distribution and the existence of high permeable fault
identified as manifestations. It is possible to identify areas that have zones is not clearly understood. For an instance, aseismic zones
the potential of geothermal energy based on their surface relief show high permeable fault zones or not. This is because complex
through remote sensing. Identification of anomalies obtains through factors, such as pumping rate, pumping volume, fluid-flow capacity
the processing of Landsat 8 satellite imagery using thermal bands 10 of the path from well to the permeable fault zones and fluid-flow
and 11 with thermal infrared (TIR) sensors. Remote sensing is very capacity of the permeable faults themselves are mutually affected.
effective in identifying manifestations and potential of geothermal In this study, parameter sensitivity tests on some sets of
energy because it can cover data on a wide area, time, and cost pumping parameters and geological parameters are conducted using
efficiency. In addition to fluid manifestations, remote sensing can a numerical fracturing simulator “SHIFT”. The simulation model was
also identify the distribution of minerals in an area to estimate the constructed based on actual field data acquired at the Hijiori Hot
reservoir characteristics of a geothermal system. Dry Rock (HDR) site, Japan, and also some uncertain parameters are
This study aims to estimate the geothermal reservoir carefully tuned by matching the simulated fracturing pressure to the
characteristics in Mount Tangkuban Perahu area that used as an initial actual pressure response observed while the hydraulic fracturing
consideration in geothermal exploration and further geothermal operation conducted at the site. Consequently, the numerical
research in other areas. The methods use in this research are split- simulation test suggested that the pressure diffusion arrival at the
window algorithm (SWA) to find the distribution of manifestations, target fault with a certain range of permeability could be detected
calculations of radiative heat flux (RHF) to obtain an estimation of by drastic pressure drop and the occurrence of a series of AE
geothermal resource potential, and supervised classification method events along the fault. These observations could make it possible to

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 Abstracts - 25th Symposium JFES

identify the preexisting exceptionally permeable faulted/fractured Watanabe2

structures. 1
AIST
2
Renergies

Paper C. Development of Geothermal Reservoir Simulator for In order to develop, test, and improve technologies and
Predicting Water-Steam Flow Behavior Considering Nonequilibrium techniques for the creation of sustainable EGS (enhanced
State and MINC/EDFM Model geothermal systems), the FORGE (Frontier Observatory for Research
in Geothermal Energy) project has been led by U.S. Department of
Sumire Fujii1, Masanori Kurihara1, and Yuki Ishigami2 Energy. Since the abundant datasets for both geology and geophysics
1
Waseda University) are available, we can prepare the conceptual 3D geologic model by
2
INPEX integrating them. In this study, we report the preliminary results of
numerical simulation on the hydraulic stimulation response at this
Although the reservoir simulation is widely used to predict candidate site. We first design the discrete fracture network for the
geothermal reservoir performances, the results of the simulation region of 1,200×800×800 m volume, which includes approximately
are sometimes different from those actually observed in field 2,000 fractures. Then we explore the responses during hydraulic
operations due to nonequilibrium conditions and poor modeling of stimulation via the “SHIFT”-based simulator. A series of stimulations
fracture system. For example, the recharge water sometimes reaches are performed in six stages/zones along the horizontal well and both
producing wells much earlier than predicted by reservoir simulation. low (5 kg/s) and high (80 kg/s) injection rates are specified in order. In
Therefore, in this research, we attempted to develop a numerical our simulations, the ratio of stimulated (slipped / sheared) fractures
simulator that can deal with the nonequilibrium vaporization of volume to total volume of preexisting fractures is evaluated to be
water and condensation of steam for predicting geothermal reservoir 1 to ~2%. On the other hand, this parameter has been evaluated
performances more accurately. We also attempted to construct a to be 10 tp ~20% by the U.S. group, who adopt a DEM (distinct
model that can rigorously express the main flow paths, such as faults element method)-based simulator. Such a large discrepancy may be
and/or large-scale fractures. attributed to whether the propagation of newly created fractures is
First, we developed a three-dimensional simulator that can adequately taken into consideration or not.
predict the flow behavior of geothermal fluids in the nonequilibrium
state. Conventional geothermal simulators solve only the material
balance equation for all the water molecules regardless of the Paper E. Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Fracturing of Granite From
phase condition. On the other hand, in the simulator developed in Conventional to Superhot Geothermal Conditions
this research, water molecules in the liquid phase are distinguished
from those in vapor phase, and two material balance equations are Eko Pramudyo1, Noriaki Watanabe1, Sho Takeyama1, Ryota Goto1,
derived separately for water and steam. These equations have the Takahiro Miura1, Kohki Hattori1, Kiyotoshi Sakaguchi1, and Takeshi
terms to express the molecular transportation from steam to water Komai1
and vice versa. Nonequilibrium vaporization and condensation 1
Tohoku University
of water molecules are expressed by adjusting the kinetic rate of
transportation of water molecules across phases. Our previous studies on fracturing in granite at 200 to 450°C
Next, we expanded the functions of the above simulator, under triaxial stress condition revealed that infiltration of low-
incorporating two types of double porosity models, Kazemi and viscosity supercritical water stimulates preexisting fractures and
MINC, and EDFM (embedded discrete fracture model), to reproduce creates dense fracture networks which is favorable for enhanced
the fluid flow preferentially through fractures and faults. EDFM is extraction of geothermal energy. Presently, fracturing experiments
the discrete type of fracture model assuming non-neighboring have been carried out at similar conditions to examine feasibility of
connections with regular grid, and is useful to calculate the flow supercritical CO2 adoption having low viscosities, for application at
through narrow paths even if their apertures are small and/or various geothermal conditions.
their directions are not parallel to the grid surface. After verifying Fracturing experiments were conducted on cylindrical Inada
the simulator functions, we investigated how the nonequilibrium Granite samples at 200 and 450°C, with a range of differential stress,
condition and fracture properties affected the geothermal reservoir where supercritical CO2 was injected at 1 mL/min. At 200°C, 90 MPa
performances, especially those with recharging water. Case studies axial stress and 40 MPa confining stress were applied. Meanwhile at
revealed that the nonequilibrium condition hastened the movement 450°C, 90 Mpa axial stress with 40 or 25 MPa confining stress was
of the water injected as recharge water through fractures, which applied. As a result, 50 MPa breakdown pressure was observed at
resulted in the water breakthrough earlier than predicted by 200°C. At 450°C, 47 and 16 MPa of breakdown pressure were observed
conventional (equilibrium type) simulators. Case studies also for the experiment with 40 and 25MPa confining stress, respectively.
suggested that it was crucial to appropriately estimate fracture As the theory predicted that in the case of nonpenetrating fluid,
properties through the history matching by using ILHS method breakdown pressure will be approximately twice the magnitude
because fractures are a main path for fluid flow. Finally, we concluded of confining stress, these low breakdown pressures indicated fluid
that this simulator could successfully handle the fluid flow through penetration. Furthermore, borehole pressure profiles suggested
faults/fractures which improved the reliability of prediction. that pore pressures were close to borehole pressure. In addition,
X-ray CT on the samples revealed that complex fracture patterns
were developed.
Paper D. Preliminary Investigation of the Hydraulic Stimulation for It has been discovered that in this study, stress state at
a Field-Scale FORGE Candidate Geothermal Reservoir breakdown events are close to Griffith’s fracture criterion. The low
viscosity of supercritical CO2 has allowed stimulation of preexisting
Takuya Ishibashi1, Norihiro Watanabe1, Hiroshi Asanuma1, Kimio fracture so that the rock failed in accordance with Griffith’s theory,

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 Abstracts - 25th Symposium JFES

in which fractures are generated in various directions involving matrix or pore fluids, such as oil and water.
extensional, extensional-shear, and shear modes. Hence, favorable In this paper we first review the approaches often used for gas
complex fracture patterns were generated. These experimental evaluation and briefly introduce the FNXS. With a forward formation
results demonstrate the possibility of supercritical CO2 use to model simulating shaly tight sand, we analyze the effectiveness and
replace water in fracturing application at wide range of geothermal sensitivity of FNXS to gas, as well as the effect on saturation resulting
conditions, due its capability to return low breakdown pressure, from possible error in porosity or shale volume. Field case studies
induce a dense fracture network, as well as to sequester CO2, at least are presented in the paper, showing three ways to interpret gas in
to some extent, at the same time. the formation with the help of FNXS: quick look of FNXS overlaid
with other logs, crossplotted in chart, and quantitative gas volume
calculation with linear volume models. The feasibility of FNXS
Paper F. Well-Log Analysis for Surveying Optimum CCS Reservoir monitoring CO2 in EOR or CCS projects is also discussed
Location: A Case Study

Kunio Akihisa1, Shingo Tokuyasu2, Kohei Takayama2, and Kohei Paper H. Well-Log Analysis for Methane Hydrate Saturation
Yamaguchi3 Evaluation—High-Resolution and Rock Physics
1
Oil Research
2
NC Geophysical Survey Yuki Maehara1, Daichi Sato2, Akira Fujimoto2, and Koji Yamamoto2
3
Mitsubishi Materials Corporation 1
Schlumberger
2
JOGMEC
In CCS (carbon dioxide capture and storage) reservoir surveys
to select optimum location, the capability and capacity of CO2 gas Petrophysical formation property evaluation is the essential for
storage of subsurface aquifer formations are major properties any type reservoir characterization workflow including a methane
of concern. Target intervals extend from permeable reservoir hydrate (MH) reservoir. The conventional workflow is sometimes
rocks to top seal formations. As the reservoir generally covers diffult to apply tos MH formations because the unique characteristic
the extended aquifer area, accurate formation evaluation using of MH deposition. Archie’s law with resistivity measurement has
well data in existing nearby wells for judging to select candidate been widely used and a NMR-based method is another well-
field is indispensable. Well-log interpretation conducted for the known approach for evaluation of MH saturation. There is always
representative wells drilled offshore Japan will be introduced as uncertainty coming from the limited vertical resolution and the
a case study. The wells were drilled in the 1990s for surveying the quality of measurement due to hole conditions. Thus, we have
potential of deeper hydrocarbon accumulation, and a sufficient suite attempted to evaluate MH saturation in the study area using
of conventional logs and geological information are available. The other approaches: (1) Formation resistivity derived from borehole
CCS target reservoir zones consist of sandstone, volcanic tuff and silty image logs to understand MH saturation in high resolution, and (2)
mudstone deposited as turbidites at different stage and sedimentary formation sonic log based on the rock physics model. A part of the MH
environment in the regional post-uplift stage. The following are the formation consists of fine-grained, thinly bedded, silty sandstones,
contents of preliminary well survey: (1) facies and depositional and siltstone that were deposited in a turbidite setting in the study
environment, (2) shale and grain matrix properties, (3) shaly sand area. The conventional resistivity log is affected by the thickness of
or thin-bed sand analysis and porosity, (4) permeability, (5) net layers, which is less than the vertical resolution of measurements.
reservoir, and (6) well ties with seismic reflection data. Proposals for To overcome this challenge, we derived a high-resolution formation
new data acquisition are to be included for future test wells. resistivity log from the processed borehole image log and succeeded
to reasonably evaluate thee MH saturation of each layer. The result
showed higher MH saturation in thinly bedded formations and is
Paper G. A New Measurement of Evaluating Gas or CO2 in consistent with results in the relatively thick formation compared
Formations—Fast-Neutron Cross Section with results from conventional resistivity logs. The acoustic property
of MH is faster than the formation fluid, because MH is deposited in
Hui-Geng Li1, Xiao-Gang Zhang2, Hong-Zhi Guo1, and Tong Zhou1 the state of ice-like hydrocarbon under in-situ conditions. Thus, the
1
Schlumberger sonic well log shows relatively fast where MH is deposited. Prevously,
2
Petrochina several rock physics models had been proposed for MH formations.
In this study, we used the simplified three-phase Biot-type
Many logging services and methodologies have been applied to equation and succeeded to evaluate MH saturation using the sonic
evaluate gas (or CO2) in formation in past decades. Measurements log. The constructed rock physics model will be a key input for further
of resistivity, acoustic, thermal- or epithermal-neutron porosity, seismic-scale rock physics study. This study was conducted as a part
neutron capture, bulk density and NMR are mostly used. Of these of the activity of the Research Consortium for Methane Hydrate
some are used in open hole only while some can be run in cased hole Resources in Japan [MH21 Research Consortium] as planned by the
but with limitations due to downhole environments or formation Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Japan.
properties.
In recent years a new formation property, the fast-neutron cross
section (FNXS), was introduced in the industry. It is an independent Paper I. Development of Numerical Simulator for Predicting
measure of the formation’s ability to interact with fast neutrons, Oil Recovery by Low-Salinity Waterflooding, Taking Various
which physically is proportional to the total atom numbers in unit Mechanisms Into Consideration
volume of formation. It can be measured in cased or open hole, it is
sensitive to gas and effective for differentiating gas or CO2 from rock Haruka Takahashi1, Masanori Kurihara1, Sosuke Saito1, Ryoichi

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Morishita2 how to conceptually evaluate the feasibility of low-salinity EOR at

1
Waseda University the full-field scale based on the laboratory and simulation studies.
2
JOGMEC) Therefore, this paper presents the case study of the field application
of low-salinity EOR for the clastic reservoir integrating laboratory
Today, low-salinity waterflooding (LSWF), which injects water of tests, field-scale reservoir simulation and facility design. In the
low salinity, ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 ppm (LSW), into a reservoir, laboratory tests part, three coreflood experiments by tertiary low-
is attracting attention as one of the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) salinity water (LSW) injection were conducted with the stock-tank
technologies. Since this method is environmentally friendly and its oil, reservoir cores and the synthetic waters. Consequently, 2 to
capital and operational costs are lower than those of other EOR ~17% of additional recovery factor (RF) were achieved with the
methods, a variety of research has been attempted to elucidate differential pressure (DP) compared to the secondary high-salinity
LSWF. Decisive theory, however, has not been established yet due water (HSW) injection. In terms of chemical reactions, the divalent
to the complexity of LSWF. So, we tried to develop a numerical cation concentration in effluent was lower than that of injected
simulator that enables us to reproduce the LSWF process, aiming water while monovalent cation concentration increased in all cases.
at the rigorous investigation of the mechanisms of LSWF through In addition, pH increased by one unit compared to that of injected
numerical simulation. water with the appearance of emulsions. These experiments and the
Prior to developing the simulator, we focused on some pore-size distribution from NMR suggest that the emulsification is
mechanisms proposed on LSFW, especially on the cation exchange the key to clarify the EOR effect in this reservoir.
as one of the main contributors. In sandstone reservoirs, as LSW is At the first step of the simulation study, the LS relative
injected into a reservoir, the concentration of cations in water phase permeability curves acquired from coreflood experiments were
decreases, and then the cations, especially Ca2+ combining with polar- assigned to the black-oil reservoir model, on which the EOR effect,
oil, originally adsorbed on the clay minerals begins to be replaced such as RF and DP, during the tests were reflected guided by the
with H+. Along with the detachment of Ca2+, polar-oil is also detached permeability distribution. Besides, the water treatment capacity of
from the clay surface and the rock wettability changes from oil-wet the desalination plant proposed previously, which is composed by
to water-wet. Furthermore, the increase in differential pressure was reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofilter (NF) membrane in parallel, were
observed during LSWF in past coreflooding experiments, which may considered as the simulation constraint. As a result, 3.5% of RF was
have been caused by wettability alteration and fine/microemulsion achieved comparing to the HS case in the secondary recovery, but
migration. In contrast, in carbonate reservoirs, crude oil is directly only 0.4% of RF over the HS case was increased with the constraint
attached on the rock surface because it is positively charged. Along of water-treatment capacity. This result suggests that installationl of
with LSWF, the adsorption of the SO42- ion is promoted and hence the desalinating system to the existing platform, the extension of
ionic bonds between crude oil and rock surface are cut off, which platform and facilities, such as water intake system, is significantly
results in the recovery of additional oil. important. This paper will provide not only the EOR mechanism by
We developed a pseudo-multicompositional simulator, LSW from the unique point of view but also the conceptual feasibility
which can deal with 1D, three-phase (oil, water and solid) and study of this EOR technique for the offshore fields.
19-component (nonpolar oil, polar oil, sand, H2O, NaCl, CaCl2, MgCl2,
H2CO3, CaCO3, MgSO4, H+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, OH-, SO42-, Cl-, HCO3-, CO32-)
problems, for accurately predicting the oil recovery by LSWF in both Paper K. First Field Test of the Dual Core-Bit Tool for Drilling Stress-
sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. The functions to calculate Record Cores at Kamioka Mine, Japan
chemical reactions (ionization), adsorption/desorption of ions,
diffusion of cations and fine migration were also incorporated. After Kazuhiko Tezuka1, Toshiya Yamamoto1, Takatoshi Ito2, Tatsuya
developing this simulator, we verified the functions of this simulator Yokoyama3, and Akio Funato4
comparing the simulation results with analytical solutions and/or 1
GSC
those by commercial simulator. Then the results of past coreflooding 2
Tohoku University
experiments were successfully reproduced using this simulator. This 3
OYO
study revealed that the cation exchange, wettability alteration and 4
Fukada Geological Institute
mineral dissolution were the key mechanisms in LSWF.
We have developed a tool to drill core samples that records in-
situ stress information around a bottom of a borehole. When the
Paper J. Applicability of Low-Salinity EOR to an Offshore Clastic core is cut from the bedrock, it is released from the in-situ stress
Reservoir in Vietnam Through Experiments and Simulation and expands slightly in the radial direction. Using this principle, the
in-situ stress can be determined from the elliptical shape of the
Ryoichi Morishita1, Ryusuke Matsuyama1, Masazumi Takayanagi1, core cross section. However, the difference between major and
Satoru Takahashi1, Din Duc Huy2, Pham Truong Giang2, Nguyen Manh minor axes of the ellipse only provides the difference between the
Hung2, Nguyen Minh Quy2 maximum and the minimum in-situ stresses, and the magnitude of
1
JOGMEC each cannot be determined. This is because the core diameter d0
2
VPI before expansion is unknown. To solve this problem, we proposed
a coring procedure using the “dual-core-bit tool” so that the shape
Low-salinity EOR has emerged as a cost-effective and an before expansion is retained in part of the core. That is, after digging
environmentally friendly EOR technique. However, there is no a groove (outer groove) in the borehole bottom by the outer core-
consensus about the definitive mechanism of the EOR effects even bit, a smaller diameter core is cut by the inner core-bit in the same
though a lot of researchers have been trying to clarify it because way as normal coring. As a result, the shape before expansion
the dominant mechanisms might strongly depend on the properties remains in the upper part of the core, and the shape should expand
of oil, water and rocks. Also, there are only a few papers referring due to stress relief in the lower part deeper than the outer groove.

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According to this concept, we made a prototype of the dual-core-bit which is effective permeability. When to evaluate productivity
tool and conducted the first field test at Kamioka mine in Gifu, Japan. during exploration stage, the general practice is often focused on
This paper describes the mechanism of the tool and the results of the intrinsic permeability estimation from LWD or wireline logs, or
the field test. core analysis, but effective permeability and its interrelationship
to intrinsic permeability has been overlooked; the result therefore
can lead to the large error for production prediction in the early
Paper L. Continuous Depth Profile of Rock Strength Along a stage of life cycle, especially in complex reservoir systems, such as
Borehole Based on Drilling Performance Parameters heterogeneity and low-permeability formations etc., consequently
impact the decision-making process of completion schemes, and
Yohei Hamada1, Takehiro Hirose1, Takahiro Suzuki2, Yoshinori development plans.
Sanada1, Takamitsu Sugihara1, Saneatsu Saito1, Kyaw Moe1, and Hydrocarbon exploration offshore South China Sea successfully
Yasuhiro Yamada1 explored Lufeng A and C structures in Lufeng Sag in the Pearl
1
JAMSTEC River Mouth Basin (PRMB). This exploration demonstrates the
2
Marine Works Japan breakthrough in the exploration of deep area of Paleogene
system; it further proves the huge exploration potential of the
In-situ rock strength with depth under the ground/seafloor is Paleogene system in the PRMB. Under the joint control of tectonic-
a critical parameter for various studies in resources exploration, depositional processes in the deep formations of Lufeng sag from
geology and seismology. The measurements on rock/core samples, a seismic interpretation example, many fault intersection patterns,
however, have been hardly done with success due to the lack of unconformity and deformations are the main characteristics of the
drilled cores and sufficient knowledge about the in-situ conditions, reservoir architecture, and the reservoir size varies from small to large
such as pressure and temperature. We proposed a new indicator across, and reservoir heterogeneity is predisposed to be strong. To
of the strength, equivalent strength (EST) developing a mechanical optimize the operating and capital expenditure, joint development
parameter (mechanical specific energy) from the oil industry, which with existing platforms is the main strategy for the new blocks,
is converted only from drilling performance parameters; drillstring therefore the productivity evaluation during the exploration phase
rotational torque, bit depth and drillstring rotational per minute. needs more accuracy, so that the well capacity could be mapped to
Data processing was applied to the data taken from the advanced the suitable platform for later development; this requirement brings
drillship Chikyu during her challenging scientific expeditions under permeability as one of key controlling factors of productivity to the
International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and exploratory fore.
drilling in the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program (NGHP). The This paper delivers a new workflow of permeability evaluation,
depth profiles of the EST in these expeditions indicate that the rock that is to integrate resistivity ratio clusters, logging facies and
strength does not simply increase with depth and that EST changes lithofacies classification based on openhole logs and core data
according to strata and structure. For example, EST significantly to identify rock types and build an intrinsic permeability model;
increases at the hydrate-bearing zones, suggesting EST can be an then use wireline formation tester (WFT) mobility, WFT flowing
indicator of cemented structure, such as the hydrate-bearing zone. mobility and WFT pressure-transient analysis (PTA) to quantify
In order to correlate EST with conventional strength unit, drilling effective permeability, and establish a relationship between intrinsic
experiments using a high-speed friction tester were performed in permeability and effective permeability; Lastly, it delivers improved
the laboratory. Stainless-steel drill bits fitted to the apparatus were reservoir quality index (RQI) and productivity index (PI) for the
manufactured, and a standard rock (Indian sandstone) was drilled formation evaluation in an exploration well. The result was used
at a rotational speed of 0.001 to 0.2 rpm under normal stress of not only to optimize the drillstem test, but also it showed the solid
0.2 to 1.0 kN (equivalent to 1.6 to 8.1 MPa). Drilling torque and match with DST, and provided the general practice in this field for
penetration speed at each condition were measured. The mean EST later well correlations.
calculated, based on the recorded drilling data, was 90.5 MPa, which
is comparable to the uniaxial rock strength of the standard rock,
106.8 MPa. No significant influence of rotation speed on EST was Paper N. The Investigation of Sonic Log Response in Gas Dissolved
found in the experiments. The drilling experiments were conducted in Water Reservoir—Case Study of Nakajo
on several types of sediments similar to the sandstone, and it was
confirmed that EST showed a good correlation with the strength of Takuya Mizukami1, Tetsuo Fukano1, Takeo Aoyama1, and Yuki
each specimen. Maehara2
1
JX Nippon
2
Schlumberger
Paper M. Improved Permeability Estimation: From Static to
Dynamic to Understand Productivity Better The onshore Nakajo oil and gas field in Niigata Prefecture is
composed of three different types of hydrocarbon accumulations:
Wang Xiannan1, Xiao Dong1, Guan Lijun1, Gao Bei2, Cai Huimin2, Shim nonassociated natural gas, natural gas dissolved in water (GDW),
Yen Han2, and Qu Changwei2 and black oil. The natural GDW is produced together with formation
1
CNOOC Shenzhen water as gas in solution (GIS) under in-situ condition. While the
2
Schlumberger formation water is lifting to surface, the natural gas is separated
from the water. With this reason, well-log response from GIS
Permeability is a measure of a rock’s ability to allow fluid flow. sandstone was believed to be almost the same as normal sandstone
Fluid flow is not only related to the pore-throat size and distribution, that does not contain any hydrocarbon. In the recent infill well
which is absolute or intrinsic permeability; but also, it manifests drilling campaign for GDW reservoir, the full suite of wireline logging
the flow ability of different fluids to move through the pore space, was carried out. With a success of good quality data acquisition, an

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advanced sonic and borehole image analysis was conducted. As a consequently compared to the current understanding of the
result, gas-effect-like sonic log response, such as significant P-wave reservoir assessment. The points from these comparisons show why
slowness slowing down and unchanged S-wave, was newly observed one of the tools is more favorable than the others.
in GIS sandstone formation, while other logs such as neutron and
density did not show any hydrocarbon response. In addition, the
sonic velocity radial-profiling analysis result indicated slow P-wave Paper P. Porosity-Independent Methodology for Permeability
formation property radially continuing from the near wellbore into Prediction Based on Microresistivity Images and Laterolog
the formation. Based on these observations and following desktop Resistivities: Case History From Kuwait
study, we reached the conclusion that a gas-water two-phase fluid
model is a reasonable assumption rather than a single-phase fluid Anar Abdulkarim1, Ahmet Aki1, Chao Chen2, and Sabry Abd El-Aziz2
of GIS formation. These new findings on sonic log response in the 1
Halliburton
GDW reservoir will introduce us to the further rock physical study in 2
Kuwait Oil Company
Nakajo oil and gas field.
Existing methodologies for deriving permeability from
microresistivity images rely on porosity transforms. However, because
Paper O. New Generation of Pulsed-Neutron Multidetector the relationship between porosity and permeability in carbonates is
Comparison in a Challenging Multistack Clastic Reservoirs: A Case not well defined, it is necessary to identify alternative methodologies
Study in a Brownfield in Malaysia to help improve permeability estimates in carbonates.
This paper discusses a new workflow using downhole logging-
Dzulfadly Johare1, Mohd Farid Mohd Amin2, Adi, Prasodjo Sarah M. while-drilling (LWD) tools that can provide a porosity-independent
2
, Afandi2, and Rusli Din1 estimation methodology for permeability indicator based on
1
Petronas MPM microresistivity images. In a microresistivity image, voids of rock
2
Petronas Carigali encountered during drilling in a water-based mud (WBM) system are
filled with conductive fluid and displayed as darker-conductive pixels.
Running pulsed-neutron logs in Malaysia has previously The introduced method identifies and determines a number of all
been plagued by high uncertainties, especially in brown ields with conductive pixels from a histogram based on microresistivity values
complex multistacked clastic reservoirs. Together with a wide range of a high-resolution image. This method calculates a cutoff value
of porosities and permeabilities, the acquired logs quite often yield for the above histogram using an invasion indicator derived from
inconclusive results. In addition, the relatively fresh aquifer water omnidirectional laterolog resistivity measurements of mud filtrate.
(where salinity varies from 10,000 to 40,000 ppm) makes reservoir A conductive-pixels ratio is then calculated from a combination of
fluid typing and distinguishing between oil and water even more the cutoff value and the histogram. The method also normalizes the
challenging. Again, the inconsistencies and uncertainties of the continuous ratio to formation-tester measured fluid mobility values
results tends to leave more questions than answers. Confidence in and provides a qualitative permeability indicator.
using pulsed-neutron logging, especially to validate fluid contacts for This method compares other sources of log-derived
updating static and dynamic reservoir models decreased to very low permeability values, such as values from acoustic Stoneley waves
levels within the study teams. and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data of the same or offset
The Petrophysics team took the initiative to conduct a three- wells, to the permeability indicator to fine-tune the method. It
tool log-off in one of their wells with the objective of making a also includes partitioning of a horizontal section based on the
detailed comparison of three pulsed-neutron tools available in derived permeability profiles and petrophysical attributes because
Malaysia’s market today. The main criteria selected for comparisons the determination of lateral permeability variations is important
were (1) consistency of the data, and (2) repeatability and to optimize the stimulation and completion design. Additional
statistical variation. With recent advancement in pulsed-neutron investigations are desirable to better understand the applicability
(multidetector) tool technology, newer tools are being equipped of this method with the integration of existing field knowledge,
with more efficient scintillation crystals, improving the repeatability production data, and offset well data.
of the measurements as well as the number of gamma-ray (GR)
count rates associated with the neutron interactions. In addition,
the newer tools have now up to five detectors per tool, with the Paper Q. Artificial Neural Networks Application for the
farthest detector from the source supposedly being able to “see” Determination of Water Saturation and Porosity in Shaly Sand
deeper into the formation, albeit at a lower resolution. With these Reservoirs
new features in mind, the log-off was conducted in a single well with
a relatively simple completion string (single tubing, single casing), Ghareb Mostafa Hamada1, Abdelregeeb Elkhadi2, Ahmed Elsakka3,
logged during shut-in conditions only, and the logs were acquired and Chaw Yein3
directly one after the other (back to back) to avoid bias towards 1
American University Kurdistan
any particular tool. Both sigma and spectroscopy measurements 2
Hadhramout University
were acquired to compare the capabilities of each tool. Due to the 3
Universiti Teknologi Petronas
relatively fresh water salinity, the carbon-oxygen ratio from the
spectroscopy measurements was used to identify the remaining oil Evaluation of petrophysical parameters, such as porosity and
located in the reservoirs, while the sigma measurements determine water saturation, in shaly sand reservoirs is a challenging task in
the gas-oil or gas-water contact, if present. comparison to clean sand reservoirs. Logging-derived porosity
This paper illustrates the steps taken by PCSB to compare the in shaly sands requires shale correction. Archie’s formula cannot
raw data and interpreted results from the three pulsed-neutron be used in shaly sands for the determination of water saturation,
tools. A comparison from all the tools is discussed at length, and therefore many water saturation models were proposed to get

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 Abstracts - 25th Symposium JFES

accurate water saturation of shaly sand reservoirs. In this paper, electrofacies helps to anticipate the optimum spatial distribution
three water saturation models were used; two empirical models of reservoir parameters and thereby modeling process will be
(Simandoux and total shale) and one theoretical model (effective improved.
medium model). Shale-corrected density log was used in all models. The results of this research show that reservoir electrofacies
The use of a computer-generated algorithm, fuzzy-log neural can be predicted through the use of the supervised-learning
network, is of increasing interest in the petroleum industry. techniques when well-log records and core data are available. The
This paper presents artificial neural network (ANN) as an two adopted classification algorithms were analyzed and compared
effective tool for determining porosity and water saturation in shaly based on confusion table, transition probability matrix and total
sand reservoirs using well-logging data. The ANN technique uses percent correct (TCP) of the identified electrofacies, which reveal
the prevailing unknown nonlinear relationship in data between the accuracy of the classification. KSVM was observed to be the
input logging data and output petrophysical parameters. Results of optimum approach and therefore it can be used to improve reservoir
this work showed that ANN can supplement or replce the existing characterization by enhancing electrofacies classification. The
conventional techniques to determine porosity and water saturation application of machine-learning techniques enhanced the accuracy
using empirical or theoretical water saturation models. Two and reduced the time spent in electrofacies classification.
neural networks were presented to determine porosity and water
saturation using GR, resistivity and density logging data and adapted
cut off for porosity and water saturation. Water saturation and Paper S. Application of FPWD to the Reservoir Description and
porosity were determined using conventional techniques and neural Completion Optimization in Highly Deviated Wells in South China
network approach for two wells in a shaly sand reservoir. The neural Sea
network approach was trained for porosity and water saturation
using the available well logging data. The predicted porosity and Sheng Lin He1, Lei Zhang2, Shim Yen Han2, Sai Jun Ding2, and Xiao Jie
water saturation values have shown excellent matching with the Guo2
core data in the two wells in comparison to the porosity and water 1
CNOOC Zhanjiang
saturation derived from the conventional techniques. 2
Schlumberger
This work has clearly shown that the developed neural network
(ANN) can accurately determine porosity and water saturation when With the development of directional drilling technology, more
compared to the existing conventional techniques, especially when and more appraisal and development wells in the South China
experimental core values of shaly sand reservoirs are used. The Sea are drilled with a high inclination, which can reduce the rig
developed correlation works well in predicting the mode of shale mobilization cost, maximize the trajectory footprint in reservoir
effects on logging data used as inputs and during output analysis. and improve the project CAPEX. At the same time, the formation
pressure measurement plays an important role in the reservoir
description and completion design. Because the formation pressure
Paper R. Using Machine Learning for Efficient Electrofacies acquisition requires stationary time, the conventional cable-
Classification of Carbonate Reservoirs in a Giant Southern Iraqi Oil conveyed technology cannot fully meet the operational requirement.
Field Therefore formation pressure-while-drilling (FPWD) technology has
been developed to fit the needs in such high-inclination wells.
Watheq J. Al-Mudhafar1 and Erfan M. Al-Lawe1 FPWD technology essentially takes probe, setting piston,
Basrah Oil Company
1
precise pressure gauge built into a collar which can be compatible
with all other logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools. When taking the
Understanding electrofacies properties and identifying their pressure measurement, the setting piston can push the entire
major categories is a key step in reservoir characterization. Describing tool to contact the borehole wall and create a fully sealing volume
the accurate electrofacies is vital in constructing representative between tool and formation pore. Then the probe draws the fluid
reservoir models, which are need to define the optimum to create the pressure re-equilibrium, which will be recorded by
development plans and strategies. Electrofacies classification is the pressure gauge. Formation pressure is then derived from the
commonly conducted manually or with the use of some graphing pressure recording there. In order to minimize the stationary time
approaches; recently different machine-learning techniques and and reduce risk, the semiartificial-intelligence approach within tool
algorithms have been adopted to categorize electrofacies. is also developed to automatically choose acquisition parameters
In this paper, two machine-learning techniques were within preset time limit. With the enabling of formation pressure
implemented to identify electrofacies in a well from a giant carbonate measurement from FPWD technology, various applications have
reservoir in southern Iraq. The given data included well-log records been tried in high-inclination appraisal and development wells in
and special core analysis data. The machine-learning algorithms thee South China Sea. These include reservoir energy depletion
were implemented in R software, which is an efficient statistical and profile determination, fault-sealing determination and artesian gas
programing tool. The two adopted techniques are kernel support injection optimization, etc. FPWD provides the critical information
vector machine (KSVM), and probabilistic neural networks (PNN) for reservoir description and production enhancement in the South
which are considered to be supervised-learning algorithms. These China Sea.
supervised-learning techniques were implemented in this paper as
they are nonlinear classifiers which is imperative attribute due to
the non-linearity of the electrofacies properties and the geological Paper T. First Hexa-Combo While-Drilling Run Unlocks New Logging
reservoir control. KSVM and the PNN approaches distinguished the and Completion Design Era: Case Study From Gas Team of Kuwait
distinct electrofacies based on maximizing the margin around the
separating hyper plane and the decision function is fully quantified Anar Abdulkarim1, Ahmet Aki1, Shahrin Sainuddin1, Mejbel Saad Al-
by a subset of the associate vectors. The efficient classification of Azmi2, Fahad Barrak Al-Otaibi2, and Girija Kumar Joshi2

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 Abstracts - 25th Symposium JFES

Halliburton
1
(1) Selection of logging tools to address well-specific challenges.
Kuwait Oil Company
2
(2) Using real-time bed boundary detection technique to
optimize the standoff between horizontal section and top of
For directional wells in a Jurassic formation, the 6-in. production formation.
sections that are normally drilled in the Marrat reservoir require (3) Real-time evaluation to appraise formation heterogeneity.
several separate wireline logging (WL) runs and associated borehole (4) Evaluation of productivity index while drilling to optimize the
conditioning trips for complete petrophysical interpretation and horizontal section length.
completions design.
As planned well inclinations increase to maximize sweep, the Based on the well performance results obtained from this
need for deploying WL tools via drillpipe poses significant challenges redevelopment project, the implementation of the best practices
due to the high risk of losing the bottomhole assembly (BHA) in the in operations is the key enabler to effectively place the trajectory
hole due to differential sticking. Over time, logging-while-drilling in the best place to drain the remaining hydrocarbon that lead to
(LWD) tools became preferable for the gas team, where the tools maximizing the late-life value of a mature oilfield.
are either run with the actual drilling BHA or on a dedicated wiper
trip after the section has been drilled to total depth (TD). Using LWD
tools in this application also reduces well delivery times and costs. Paper V. Ultra-Deep High-Definition Reservoir Mapping-While-
A comprehensive logging solution was required to drill the 6-in. Drilling Measurement to Optimize Landing Operation: A Case
reservoir section of a study well. The complex LWD string consisting Study From Offshore China
of gamma ray, resistivity, neutron porosity, azimuthal density,
azimuthal sonic, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tools was Wei Li1, Jianbo Chen1, Baoqiang Jin1, Junshou Zhao1, Meng Deng1,
deployed on a motorized rotary steerable system (MRSS) BHA. In Fei Wang2, Shim Yan Han2, Chao Wang2, Shuzhong Li1, and Xin Zhou2
addition, a prototype high-resolution acoustic imaging and caliper 1
CNOOC Tianjin
tool, designed to be run in both water and oil-based mud (OBM), 2
Schlumberger
was also use in the same BHA. The acquired logging data were used
for enhanced formation evaluation. Fracture and borehole breakout Precise landing operations are critical for horizontal well
interpretation from image data played the key role in successful placement. Conventionally, operators rely on the real-time logging-
completion design. This ultimately led to Kuwait’s first successful while-drilling (LWD), which is used to confirm the markers above the
“Hexa Combo” LWD drilling run and the world’s first LWD imaging target formation according to correlation with offset wells, combined
tool run in OBM in this hole size with 13.3 lbm/gal OBM with a with surface seismic data to predict the depth of target zone, and to
maximum downhole temperature of 275°F. optimize the trajectory plan and ensure accurate landing. However,
little information from offset wells, no clear markers above target
formation, poor quality seismic data, uncertainty of lateral sand
Paper U. Arresting the Production Decline and Increasing the body distribution and unstable disturbance layers above target zone
Ultimate Recovery of a Mature Oilfield in Offshore South China Sea etc. further increase the risk of landing operation.
This paper features the successful landing using innovative
Gao Xiao Fei1, Shen Xu, Dai Ling1, Shim Yen Han2, Wang Chao2, Gao LWD technology. This innovative solution reduces uncertainties
Bei2, and Ding Sai Jun2 of structural depth and formation properties by forecasting the
1
CNOOC Shenzhen formation boundaries using ultradeep resistivity measurement and
2
Schlumberger upgraded inversion methods. The execution of the well placement
will be detailed through the description of the case encountered.
A brownfield adjustment project was initiated by theee China The operator has observed outstanding results from the application
National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in 2014 to improve of the innovative technology during the landing operation:
production and further increase reserves recovery from Huizhou • Reduction in the need for pilot wells.
25-8 oil field and Xijiang 24-3 oil field in the South China Sea, also • Improve drilling efficiency by proper landing, avoiding
known as the Xijiang 24-1 District joint development project. unnecessary adjustments and sidetracks.
New development wellswere drilled targeting at the remaining • Real-time detection of the target up to 20 m away during
thin (< 5 m) oil column or pursuing highly heterogeneous sand landing.
bodies. The redevelopment and exploitation of these targets present • Delineation of >10-m thick sand bodies up to 10 m above
operational challenges with increasing complexity. Not only the the sand.
horizontal well needs to be optimally placed within complex target
zone, the lateral also needs to be placed as close as possible to the The successful implementation of the ultradeep high-definition
reservoir top to keep it away from the unknown current fluid contact. reservoir mapping-while-drilling measurements leads to improve
Real-time evaluation of the horizontal section is needed to steer the drilling efficiency, reduced costs and mitigates drilling risk for landing
well following better sand quality when formation properties change operations. In addition, the ultradeep mapping capability of the
laterally. Considering all the challenges presented, the team must service can help delineate the reservoir profile with more accurate
ensure each well can achieve the target productivity index to attain models and help to understand the complex subsurface conditions.
technical and economic success.
Multiple cases are discussed in the paper based on 34 wells
drilled since the launch of this joint development project. Several
key outcomes that have been observed will be highlighted, including

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 SPWLA Young Professionals
Newsletter

Reminiscences of the Logging Profession—I Did It My Way

At my advanced age, I frequently listen to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”. The

lyrics were written by Paul Anka to help Frank celebrate his retirement. The
NOVEMBER song was such a big hit that Frank Sinatra cancelled his retirement and went
2019 on singing and touring for several years thereafter. My Own Way through
my career was to interact with as many smart people as I could find, and to
2019 Steering learn from them. Within SPWLA, I did find very smart people. Some were
Committee dysfunctional, some were nice, some were passive-aggressive, some were not
so good-looking; but they were all very smart. I could not possibly recount my
Editors interactions with all of them, but I will cover those that stuck in my memory. If
Elton Ferreira you do not find your name in my article, do not be upset, you were probably
Roland Chemali too wise to make it into my “unusual characters” roster.
Kanay Jerath
The first time I met Barbara Anderson, she was working closely with Stan
Mathilde Lucyx Gianzero. They were trying to model resistivity tools in a square borehole.
Javier Miranda I was too puzzled to even raise an eyebrow. A square borehole? What were they thinking of? Several
years later Nigel Prior explained to me: ”What you did not know was that, adjacent to Stan’s office, there
was a mechanical engineer wizard busy designing a square bit to drill square boreholes.” That was in
Senior Editor the 1970s in Ridgefield. The square-borehole model did lead to the successful design of the Spherically
Siddharth Misra Focused Log. A few months later, I witnessed another interesting event during a redeye flight to Paris.
I was sleeping blissfully. Next to me, Stan Gianzero suffered from insomnia. He used the idle time to
[email protected] invent microelectrical imaging. He would wake me up during the flight to explain to me the intricacies of
microfocused electrodes.
Our department manager, Jean Suau had a postal scale prominent on his desk. He explained to
me that he used the scale to assess the work of his employees. He weighed their monthly reports; the
In this edition: heavier they weighed the less work was probably achieved.
I was particularly impressed by Darwin Ellis, down the hall
Reminiscences of the from me, busy inventing the photoelectric log.
Logging Profession— The department manager who influenced me the
I Did It My Way most during my early career was Christian Clavier. He had
novel ideas on every topic and he pursued them with
enthusiasm and near-obsession. From dielectric to pulsed
Happy Hour
neutrons to petrophysical models, nothing escaped his
Announcement
perspicacity and his sagacity. His creative mind stopped
at nothing. He formed a
triumvirate with Coates and
Christian Clavier urging Jean-Claude Minne to Dumanoir and pioneered
Disco (1973). the Dual-Water model. Like
every eminent petrophysicist
of that era, he went to war with competing petrophysicists and their
competing models. There were jousts between Clavier and Waxman and
Smits, between Poupon and Simandoux, between Turk Timur and Paul
Worthington. Annual Symposia were much less restrained and polite in
those days. Courtesy and civility were left at the door. I found myself in
As a field Engineer in North
the odd position of brokering peace between the different factions. On Sumatra I adopted a miniature
the sidelines, other moderate petrophysicists were also trying to see clear monkey, a rascal named Toto.

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Reminiscences of the Logging Profession—I Did It My Way
through the dust. Some were wise and calm like E.C. Thomas, and Jean Dumanoir; others were enjoying the fray, like Richard
Bateman. Simandoux escaped from Petrophysics wars to the French Petroleum Institute where he received a big promotion and
sat behind a very big desk. Several years later, I happened to walk in his big office. I congratulated him on his famous “Simandoux
equation”. He fell off his chair. He could not imagine that people actually used it. Little did he know.
The next big phase of my career was with a small logging company founded by a maverick from Kansas named Marvin
Gearhart. I saw up close what a true entrepreneur looked like. He was a wonderful man who cared for his people but with a strong
taste for risky enterprises. No venture could scare him. He
manufactured explosives and created digital logging. He built
a hi-tech neutron generator facility in Fort Worth, and funded
a research center in Austin for advanced logging technology.
Marvin was only intimidated when my supervisor Stan
Gianzero threw triple integral equations at him. That is when
he left the room and went to fly his Mitsubishi. It is during
one of his Mitsubishi trips that I saw the true entrepreneur
at work. We landed in Tulsa at the Amoco Research Center.
We had a burger lunch with Al Jaggler. On a paper napkin,
Marvin and Al drew a rotary coring tool. All sidewall coring
up to that point was done with explosives. The rotary
sidewall-coring tool would revolutionize the industry. Barely
a few months after our Tulsa trip, at the Annual Symposium, As an engineering student at the
Ecole Polytechnique of Paris, I
Marvin had his tool on display, functioning, and cutting nice donned a military uniform. My
On CBS “60 Minutes”. The CEO of
Saudi Aramco explains Geosteering to smooth core plugs from a sandstone block. Marvin’s “Elon girth has somewhat expanded
Leslie Stahl. Musk” gusto was great for innovative technology, but not since.
so great for finances. My colleague Edgar Ortiz was looking
after the business side of the company with some success; but then, in the late 1980s a double
whammy of falling oil prices and an attempted hostile takeover threw Gearhart Industries in disarray. Thankfully, a white knight
named Halliburton came to the rescue and saved Gearhart from bankruptcy.
With Halliburton, I reentered the world of the big corporation. My new supervisor, Harry Smith, was an expert in nuclear
physics who, curiously enough, was also great at managing people. This combination is unheard of. There must have been some
accident in the time-space continuum. Harry and his colleagues had invented a new form of neutron thermal decay log that
revolutionized casedhole logging. It is because of Harry’s continual pursuit of excellence that I was forced into petrophysics. While
normal petrophysicists get into petrophysics for love of the rock, I went into petrophysics in order to justify to my supervisor

I have always enjoyed training and mentoring. Here I am assisting my friend Billy Hendricks with a training class for Sonangol Petrophysicists.

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Reminiscences of the Logging Profession—I Did It My Way
why a logging tool responds as it does. Why do laterologs read stubbornly higher than induction? I had to study anisotropy
and laminated reservoirs. Why do LWD tools read lower than induction? It was because of resistivity dispersion in sedimentary
formations. Magnetic resonance was emerging as an exciting technology, thanks to Turk Timur and to Numar. Others followed.
I wanted to grasp all the possibilities and the limitations of magnetic resonance. I had to get more intimately involved with the
science of the rock and of the fluids. My friend George Coates had joined Numar. He single-handedly saved magnetic resonance
logging by weaning it from permeability and linking it to bound water. I did work closely with Harold Vinegar and Ridvan Akkurt,
the other giants of magnetic resonance. I told you I gravitated around smart petrophysicists, trying to suck their brains dry.
My life took an interesting twist at the turn of the millennium. Horizontal wells had become the rage simply because with
a single horizontal well you can extract 10 times more oil from the ground than with a vertical well. Two gentlemen, who
never met, changed then the course of my career. Volker Krueger, inventor of the rotary steerable, dedicated his fine German
engineering skills to the development of advanced drilling machines, well adapted to horizontal wells. Almost simultaneously,
Michael Bittar, a PhD from the University of Houston, invented an electromagnetic array with tilted coils that helped steer the
horizontal wells to the sweet spot of the reservoir. Well placement became the frenzy. I threw myself into it, forgetting about
petrophysics for a few years. I felt that I had betrayed my roots.
The SPE, who is not particularly partisan to pure petrophysics noticed my work. They offered me the much-coveted
Distinguished Lecturer spot. I traveled around the world spreading the doctrine of accurate well placement. In my slide
presentations, I interlaced with the science some funny videos to illustrate the challenge of steering within a narrow path. I recall
showing up in the beautiful city of Tomsk, in Eastern Siberia, in the cold of winter, to a standing-room only audience. Even the
local TV was there with simultaneous translators. Before I could even start my presentation someone from the audience asked
me: ”Are you going to show your funny videos?” How could they have known about my funny videos? They had conversed via
internet with their colleagues from Moscow and from Western Siberia, whom I had visited earlier that month. At least part of
my message had been shared between Western Siberia and Eastern Siberia.
Right after my worldwide tour as SPE Distinguished Lecturer, I was elected President of SPWLA. I was humbled and honored.
I had returned to my roots. Unconventionals were in vogue. Petrophysics had regained its status of noble science because if you
wanted to make any sense of source rocks, you had to be a genius. I found out much to my surprise that the Passey equation had
actually been invented by my friend Quinn Passey. I was thinking to myself: ”Surely the real Equation Man must be much older,
much more stern than the boyish looking Quinn?” I was wrong. The boyish look was just a decoy.
I recently joined a large independent operating company. I wanted to experience life from the other side. The side that
orders and pays for, and uses the data. I had regarded petrophysicists in the operating companies as semi-gods who knew
everything. I was going to be one of them. Finally, I will have access to The Truth. Here again I landed on a smart supervisor. I
should not reveal his name because people would think that I am sucking up to him. However, by the time this goes to print,
I would have moved on. He will no longer be my supervisor. I can reveal his name with impunity. My latest supervisor is Kent

I have also always enjoyed the hard-working sessions at UT Consortium Sometimes I had to seek wisdom from shrines from the Orient (India in
over Austin’s Townlake. this case).

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Reminiscences of the Logging Profession—I Did It My Way
Newsham. He reminds me in so many ways of Christian Clavier, minus the French accent. He is intense, creative knowledgeable
and obsessed with petrophysics. Like Christian Clavier before him, he comes in my office unannounced, aims for the board, and
starts scribbling new ideas and new concepts. My board looks like a Basquiat masterpiece. He recently formed a triumvirate
including Joe Comisky and myself. We authored a three-part tutorial on mudstones, published in Petrophysics under the auspices
of Carlos Torres-Verdin. Kent will challenge any petrophysical model that does not agree with his own. He is ready to go to battle
to prove it. Like Christian Clavier, he was born under the sign of Scorpio. Sometimes I think to myself: I have come full circle in 50
years, from my first mentor to my latest mentor who are so much alike. Will there be more adventures to come in the life of this
petrophysicist? Possibly a fifth career, consulting, mentoring and tutoring. I will do it My Way.

Other times I wore a suite to dispense wisdom to Petroleum Engineers (near Nanjing, China).

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 SPWLA Networking Happy Hour in October 2019

Several SPWLA members from the greater Houston Metro area gathered recently for the SPWLA October networking event.
A beach-style patio and bar conveniently located was the perfect spot to network in a relaxed atmosphere. SPWLA members
attending the October happy hour included colleagues from academia, operating, service and consulting companies. There
was a diverse crowd that ranged from new members still in undergraduate school to some recently retired professionals. The
exposure of new members to experienced or retired professionals offered great opportunity. Members attending also had the
opportunity to interact with several SPWLA current and past international and local officers, including SPWLA International
President 2019–2020 Jesus Salazar, and couple of SPWLA Houston Chapter Vice Presidents Jacob Anderson and Javier Miranda
(Westside and Downtown sections respectively).
Recent and upcoming technical and social activities organized by the Houston Chapter, including the Houston Chapter
software show in December and the last networking event for 2019 that will take place immediately after the software show
on December 4, were also discussed. As usual, a group of students from the SPWLA University of Houston Student chapter,
including their president Charles Adams, also joined us.
These bimonthly events, which are popular among SPWLA’s Houston area members and visitors, are rotated among different
locations across the Houston metro area. You are encouraged to share recommendations if you are interested in joining us in a
place near you, especially if you and your team and colleagues will attend. So far, we have rotated locations among the energy
corridor and uptown, midtown, and downtown. Sponsorship opportunities are currently available for these events!

SPWLA members and petrophysics enthusiasts gathered recently for the fourth SPWLA networking event in 2019. SPWLA International President 2019–
2020 Jesus Salazar, and couple of SPWLA Houston Chapter Vice Presidents, Jacob Anderson and Javier Miranda, Westside and Downtown sections,
respectively, were also in attendance.

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 SPWLA Networking Happy Hour in October 2019

Tikila’s, a beach-style bar conveniently located with a relaxed atmosphere SPWLA members and petrophysics enthusiasts during the most recent
was the perfect place to enjoy the most recent SPWLA’s networking event networking event enjoying a MLB postseason atmosphere and rooting for
in October 2019. the Houston Astros, the local team, October 2019.

The most recent happy hour was well attended by more than 30 SPWLA SPWLA members having a great evening full of laugh and conversation in
professional and student members coming from different companies and a very diverse environment with people representing academia, operating,
locations in the great Houston Metro area. service and consulting companies.

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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 SPWLA Networking Happy Hour in October 2019

Several people from industry and academia (University of Houston SPWLA International President 2019–2020, Jesus Salazar (first from left to
students) attended SPWLA’s Happy Hour in October 2019. right) with SPWLA members from the Houston Metro area.

Don’t Miss Our Next Event!

Join us for our next event in December 2019. Our fifth and last SPWLA Networking Happy Hour in 2019 will be held on
December 4, 5:00–8:00 p.m., at a location to be announced, as usual, it will be a location accessible for anyone in the greater
Houston area. It will be held right after the Houston Chapter software show. We are listening suggestions from our members
and will select a venue several people can attend. You are also welcome to recommend new locations close to you, especially if
you and your colleagues will attend!
The entire SPWLA community is invited, no need to RSVP, come at your own leisure, no payment required. Come and mingle
with fellow petrophysics enthusiasts. Recent events have been well attended by geoscientists, engineers and managers!

Everybody is welcome!
When: Wednesday, December 4, 2019, 5–8 p.m.

Where: TBD, Houston, Texas, USA

Send us your articles, stories,
fun moments, photos, etc. to be
published in The Bridge.
first SPWLA-YP Happy Hour!
mbers and anyone interested in Petrophysics are welcomed to this
Contact us: [email protected]
Thursday June 2nd, 2016
n Creek Bar & Grill, 6603We encourage
Westcott you
St, Houston, TX to contact us with any suggestions for improving
77007
VP, no charge, come at leisure.
our
great opportunity to meet the group
SPWLA-YP andand/or
SPWLA boardif members
interested in participating in our activities.
ith fellow petrophysics enthusiasts.

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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The SPWLA Petrophysical Data-Driven Analytics (PDDA), Special Interest Group is
excited to announce its first scholarship!

The scholarship is open to graduate students who conduct research in the field
of petrophysics and data science. The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to one
qualifying student. In order to be eligible for the scholarship, student applicants
must meet the following requirements:

Requirements:
• Have a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale
• Submit a copy of your transcript (official or unofficial) and a resume/CV
• Write a short essay (< 800 words) on why the applicant is interested in the
field of applied data science to petrophysics.
• Include at least one letter of recommendation from a professor, or a supervisor
of summer or co-op work experience, or a supervisor of research work.

Submission Deadline: December 1, 2019.

The winner of the scholarship will be announced by December 31, 2019.

Please submit all the required materials to [email protected]

Issue 06 SPWLA TODAY November 2019

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 SPWLA Call for 2020 BOD Election Expressions of Interest (EOI)
From the Past President and Chairman of the Nominating Committee

Fellow SPWLA Members,

This is an open call for Expression of Interest (EOI) in the SPWLA 2020 Board of Directors election. It is expected that anyone with
interest in serving on the Board will make their intentions known during this open call period. If you plan to send your EOI to serve on
the 2020–2021/2022 Board of Directors please, do so on or before Sunday November 10, 2019. If you know someone who would be
a great candidate, please encourage him/her to express his/her interest.

The positions that are open for election this year:

• President-Elect • Regional Director North America Position (2-year term)
• Vice President Technology • Regional Director Middle East/Africa (2-year term)
• Vice President Education (2-year term) • Regional Director Latin America (2-year term)
• Vice President Publications (2-year term)

The duties of each position are provided in the DIRECTORS MANUAL to 4. Nominees for VP IT (note: this position is not open this year) shall have
support your potential decision to volunteer on the International Board some experience on web standards and tools to regularly update and
of Directors. Please also note that SPWLA members have recently voted modernize the SPWLA website.
to make changes to the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation, which added 5. The VP Technology will not be permitted to publish papers as lead
qualification requirements for candidates and positions. Following are author or be the presenting coauthor at the SPWLA Annual Symposium
some highlights of the requirements. during his/her term to avoid conflicts of interest. However, the VP of
1. All qualified candidates on the slate must have been an SPWLA Technology may still be a coauthor on up to two papers presented at
member in good standing for at least three years and abide by the the symposium.
SPWLA Code of Ethics. 6. The VP Publications will not be permitted to publish papers in
2. Nominees for VP Technology shall have previous experience on Petrophysics during his/her term to avoid conflicts of interest.
a technical committee of SPWLA or sister organizations and have 7. A Director shall not serve on the Board for more than five consecutive
authored a minimum of two papers published in international years unless elected as President-Elect. Please refer to 2019 Bylaw
conferences. Nominees for VP Education shall be knowledgeable and changes, and the updated Bylaws to make sure you are qualified for
active on social media channels. the positions you are interested.
3. Nominees for VP Publication shall have previous experience as
technical editor for a peer-reviewed journal and have authored a
minimum of two papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

To express your interest please send an email to [email protected] with the following information:
1. Full name
2. Email
3. Phone
4. Current city and country of residence
5. Company affiliation
6. Positions you are most interested in filling in the order of your preference (these will be considered but may not be honored).
7. Optional: a brief position statement (<100 words)
8. Optional: Your LinkedIn profile.

Your interest will be evaluated by the Nominating Committee. Please note that submission of an EOI does not guarantee your
inclusion on the proposed ballot.

Last but not the least, I sincerely appreciate the men and women in the nominating committee for their wisdom, experience, and hard
work.

Regards,
Zach Liu
Past President SPWLA and Chairman of the Nominating Committee
[email protected]
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Chapter News
ABERDEEN CHAPTER
(Aberdeen Formation Evaluation Society, AFES)

General News
AFES held its Annual General Meeting on 09 October.
Among the review of the recent year’s activities, new
members were ratified into the Committee. In particular, new
subcommittee members Chris Blair (Total), Alex Kaye (LR), and
Ali Swan (Student Representative). Also of note is the recent
stepping down of Richard ‘Quiz Master’ Arnold, who has been
involved with AFES for almost 20 years. Richard is perhaps
most well-known for his much loved AFES Christmas quizzes,
in addition to his sustained input and support for AFES. We’ve
enjoyed working with you Richard, so thank you for your help
and support.

AFES Committee member update:

AFES July 2019 field trip. Stephen Morris (VP Seminars) guiding us
through the geology at Stonehaven beach, near Aberdeen.

11 September 2019 – Full-day seminar on the “Role of

Petrophysics in Mature Late-Life Fields.” The day was a
success, being hosted at a new venue, The Crowne Plaza
Hotel, near Aberdeen Airport. We hosted seven speakers
to an engaged, well attended audience. AFES hopes to
host another event in Spring 2020 at the same venue.

In general, please do communicate with AFES if you have

any suggestions or thoughts for evening presentations, or
indeed more involved multi speakers seminars – we’re always
open to ideas!

Recent Events
02 July 2019 – AFES geology field trip / summer social to
Stonehaven (~15 miles south of Aberdeen) to the exposed
rocks below the high-water line. A beautiful Aberdonian
summer’s evening was enjoyed by all, followed afterwards
by fish and chips at the harbor.

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18 September 2019 – AFES resumed its Wednesday evening

talks with a presentation by Guy Wheater (Gaia Garth
Technologies) on identifying and mitigating wireline cable
sticking,

AFES September 2019 meeting. Stephanie Morrison (VP Technology)

hosting speaker Guy Wheater (Gaia Earth Technologies).

09 October 2019 – AFES AGM. This event updated the

membership on the year’s events, finances, SPWLA
relationship, committee member ratification and
finances. The evening was finished with a great off-topic
talk on submarine adventures in the Bahamas by Peter
Cranston (Aberdeen Toastmasters).
23 October 2019 – SPWLA Distinguished Speaker Nishank
AFES September 2019 full-day seminar. AFES President, Greg Blower, Saxena (Shell).
presents the “Donald Keir Prize for Petrophysics” to Wei Wei Yong,
Aberdeen University.

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 Chapter News

Upcoming Events AUSTRALIA CHAPTER

13 November 2019 – The regular Wednesday evening (Formation Evaluation Society of Australia, FESAus)
presentation will be given by Maneesh Pisharat
(Schlumberger) on “Characterization of Fluid Composition General News
While Drilling to Aid Well Placement.” FESAus, the Australian chapter of SPWLA combines
28 November 2019 – AFES will host its much loved Christmas the formation evaluation societies from around Australia
pub quiz . predominantly FESQ. Technical meetings are held in Perth
May 2020 – Devex 2020. The ‘call for abstracts’ flyer for this on the second Tuesday of each month, with webcasts of
two-day event is now live. the presentations available soon after for members from
other states to view. Please visit www.fesaus.org for meeting
information.
ABU DHABI CHAPTER
Recent Events
General News 27 August 2019 – An extraordinary monthly technical meeting
The Chapter encourages all Petrophysicists interested to was conducted by Stephen Adams (The Petrophysicist
join and become active members. Get in touch, if you wish Limited) and Colin McPhee (Mercat Energy Limited) on
to attend our local events, or present at any of our technical “The Impact of Upscaling on Porosity, Permeability and
events. If you want to be added to our email list, please email Water Saturation Modeling in Heterogeneous Reservoirs.”
us at [email protected] . We are also on LinkedIn- The talk was well received, with a great deal of discussion
SPWLA Abu Dhabi Local Chapter. We would love to hear from and sharing of ideas.
you!

Recent Events
The chapter went quite during the summer break and resumed
technical talks event in September.

September 2019 – The chapter hosted a Technical talk

at ADNOC HQ Rig theater. Deepak Voleti (ADNOC
Onshore) delivered a presentation titled, “How ADNOC
Onshore Innovated to Improve the Quality of Reservoir
Permeability Predictions Using Machine Learning.”

FESAus August 2019 meeting. Presenters Stephen Adams (The

Petrophysicist Limited) (left) and Colin McPhee (Mercat Energy Limited).

12 September 2019 – FESAus New Technology Forum. Software

Solutions for formation evaluation were represented by
Lloyd’s Register, Schlumberger and Emerson
• Recent Advances in the IP Geomechanics Suite – Lloyd’s
Register
• Simulation of Turbidites with Forward Stratigraphic
Modelling - Schlumberger
• Big Loop: From Reservoir Engineering to Geology -
Emerson
• Casedhole Solutions in the IP Reservoir and Wells Suite
– Lloyd’s Register
• DELFI Enables Petrotechnical Virtual Data Rooms for
the E&P Industry – Schlumberger
Abu Dhabi Chapter September 2019 meeting. Deepak Voleti (Senior
Petrophysicist, BAB) giving his presentation.

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 Chapter News

08 October 2019 – Vanessa Lim (Principal Petrophysicist, Web Coordinator Alex Beviss
Woodside Energy) gave a presentation titled, “Briggs Color Secretary Ronald Ford
Cubing – A Powerful Visualization Tool for Stratigraphic Sponsorship Ryan Lafferty
Correlation and Facies Typing.” Vanessa’s talk was well Student Liaison Kruawun Jankaew
received with a great deal of discussion and sharing of Member at Large Greg Heath
ideas.
Recent Events
26 September 2019 – Nick Last (Director, Well Test Knowledge
International) gave a presentation titled, “ Predicting and
Mitigating the Risk of Fish during Wireline Perforating
Operations.”
28 October 2019 – Jennifer Market (Principal Geophysicist,
MPC Kinetics) gave a presentation on “Understanding
Geomechanics Measurements.”

Upcoming Events
28 November 2019 – Graham Melvin (Lloyd’s Register) will
give a presentation titled, “Lifting the Fog of Confusion
Surrounding Deterministic Interpretation.”

BOSTON CHAPTER
FESAus October m2019 meeting. Vanessa Lim (Woodside Energy) (left)
congratulated by Adrian Manescu, President FESAus.
General News
SPWLA general and Boston-affiliate members are invited
Upcoming Events to browse our chapter website http://boston.spwla.org for
12 November 2019 – Master Class,TBA up-to-date information on our mission and events, including
10 December 2019 – End of Year Xmas Luncheon – Climate event details and registration.
Change
Recent Events
1–2 November 2019 – The Boston Chapter hosted a workshop
BANGKOK CHAPTER on the theme of “Porous Media: Structure, Flow, and
Dynamics,” at Schlumberger-Doll Research Center in
General News
Cambridge, Masachusetts, USA. The scientific agenda
The Bangkok Chapter of SPWLA holds technical Meetings
comprised 50 talks by speakers from Harvard University,
in Bangkok on the last Thursday of each month. Meetings
China University of Petroleum, MIT, Princeton University,
are fully sponsored for SPWLA Members. Nonmembers can
Brown University, Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Aramco
attend free of charge with email registration prior to the
Services Company, and Schlumberger, among others.
meeting. Students are always free of charge.
The program highlighted new developments in high-
Please visit https://www.spwla.org/SPWLA/Chapters_
resolution imaging, digital simulation, and analysis
SIGs/Chapters/Asia/Bangkok/Bangkok.aspx for meeting
techniques as applied to porous media, with presentations
information. Email: [email protected] bangkok.
from the perspectives of theory, experimental methods,
[email protected].
and field measurements. The Boston chapter organized
the workshop in coordination with the NYNE Section of
2019 Chapter Committee Members:
SPE, Schlumberger-Doll Research, Harvard, and China
President Andrew Cox
University of Petroleum-Beijing. More information can
Technical Coord Numan Phettongkam
be found at in the Events section of our chapter website
Treasurer Sirinya Maykho
linked below.

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BRAZIL CHAPTER

General News
Our monthly meeting occurs every third Tuesday of the
month, at 4 p.m. in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Anyone wishing
to participate or receive information about the chapter can
contact our secretary, Andre Bertolini ([email protected]).
We also post chapter updates at our Facebook page (fb.me/
SPWLABrazil) and our LinkedIn page – check us out!

Recent Events
13 August 2019 – Dr. Claudio Rabe (Senior Geomechanics
Specialist, Baker Hughes) presented a talk entitled,
“Petrophysical Analysis for Unconventional Reservoirs.”
17 September 2019 – Dr. Anish Kumar (Principal Geology
Domain Champion, Schlumberger) discussed the
topic “Identifying Geological Deformation Using High-
Resolution Borehole Images: Shale and Deformation
Band Characterization.”

Honors
Paul Craddock, Jeff Miles, and Drew Pomerantz (all of
Boston), and Rick Lewis (Denver) published their paper on
“Thermal Maturity-Adjusted Log Interpretation (TMALI) in
Organic Shales” in the October “Best of 2019 SPWLA Annual
Symposium” issue of Petrophysics journal.
Thai Le, Lin Liang (of Boston), Timon Zimmermann, Smaine
Zeroug (Boston), and Denise Heliot (Houston) published their
paper on “A Machine Learning Framework for Automating
Well-Log Depth Matching” in the October “Best of 2019
SPWLA Annual Symposium” issue of Petrophysics journal. Brazil Chapter September 2019 meeting. Dr. Anish Kumar (Schlumberger)
(left) and Lenita Fioriti (Petrobras, SPWLA Brazil President) (right).
Lin Liang was invited, as the representative of SPWLA, to
speak at the 11th UPC international symposium on New Well-
Logging Techniques, and gave a Distinguished Speaker talk to
the SPWLA East China Chapter.

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CHINA UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM (BEIJING) STUDENT of missing data within the NMR relaxation sequence
CHAPTER for fluids with higher viscosity that would result in an
underestimation of movable hydrocarbons using routine
General News core analysis. This is especially true for fluid-rich source
The chapter held a meeting in August to discuss the rocks. Monitoring real-time recovery of Huff-n-Puff EOR
affairs in the past year and in the future. In September, 22 in shales using an NMR experimental set-up was also
new members were admitted to the chapter, each branch has presented.
four to six new members.

Dallas Chapter September 2019 meeting. Son T. Dang, a PhD candidate

at University of Oklahoma, was the speaker.
CUPB Student Chapter. Some of the new members of our chapter in 2019.

Recent Events October 2019 – Chelsea Newgord, a Petroleum Engineering

15 August 2019 – Jiang Jia, the former leader of SPWLA Student graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin,
Branch of CUPB introduced his major accomplishments and a twice-selected SPWLA Distinguished Speaker,
over the past several years, such as holding workshops, presented her paper titled “A New Workflow for
holding SPWLA Student Paper Competition Contest and Joint Interpretation of Electrical Resistivity and NMR
so on. He assisted in the transition in leadership to help Measurements to Simultaneously Estimate Wettability
the new leaders begin as quickly as possible. and Water Saturation.” The primary focus of her talk was
15 September 2019 – A ceremony was held to welcome the development of a technique to estimate rock fluid
new members. In the ceremony, the student chapter’s wettability using resistivity and NMR measurements.
purposes and objectives were presented. Using these data obtained using core samples of Berea
sandstone and Texas Cream Limestone, the verification of
Upcoming Events the reliability of the proposed workflow was presented
We intend to invite SPWLA Distinguished Speakers to and discussed in detail. Comparisons to traditional
give presentations and to prepare for the the SPWLA Student wettability estimations were also presented. A lively
Paper Competition. discussion of oil-wet scenarios followed the presentation.

DALLAS CHAPTER

Recent Events
September 2019 – The Dallas chapter continued its tradition
of welcoming a graduate student as speaker for its
September meeting. Son T. Dang, a PhD candidate at
the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological
Engineering, University of Oklahoma, presented his project
titled “Effects of Temperature and Gas Pressurization on
the Interpretation of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
Hydrocarbon Measurements in Organic Rich Shales.” The
presentation stressed the importance for the awareness

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DENVER CHAPTER
(Denver Well Logging Society, DWLS)

General News
Join us for the monthly DWLS meetings, which are held
the third Tuesday each month, beginning in September and
running through May. Meetings take place in the Mercantile
Room at the Wynkoop Brewing Company in downtown
Denver, Colorado. The networking social begins around
11:20 a.m., lunch is served at 11:45 a.m., and the technical
presentation starts at noon. The cost for the DWLS luncheon is
$25 and guests are welcome to attend. Visit the DWLS website
at http://dwls.spwla.org to make your luncheon reservations,
renew your membership, or join the society.

Recent Events
DWLS October 2019 meeting. Speaker Don Herman (Cordax Evaluation
17 September 2019 – The September DWLS luncheon speaker Services).
was Natasa Mekic (Weatherford Wireline) who presented
a talk titled, “Interpretation of Casedhole Pulsed-Neutron
Logs in Complex and Unconventional Formations.” The 22 October 2019 – DWLS/RMAG Fall Symposium was held at
talk was well attended. The abstract and more information the Sheraton Denver West in Lakewood, Colorado. The
on Natasa Mekic can be found on the DWLS website in symposium theme was “Multiscale Imaging for Reservoir
the newsletters - http://dwls.spwla.org/Newsletters.htm Optimization.” The talks including imaging techniques,
analysis, and interpretation across a range of scales, from
the pore scale to beyond the wellbore. Hot topics included
Niobrara and Mowry reservoirs in the Powder River Basin,
and Permian Basin reservoirs. The list of presentations is
available at https://www.rmag.org/events/symposiums/.

EAST CHINA CHAPTER

Recent Events
24–27 September 2019 – The 11th UPC International
Symposium on Well Logging Technology, hosted by the
East China Chapter of SPWLA, was held in China University
of Petroleum (East China). The symposium was a great
success with total attendance exceeding 130. Attendees
included representatives from international universities
from the United States, Russia, Great Britain, and Australia;
DWLS September 2019 meeting. Speaker Natasa Mekic (Weatherford
and from domestic universities, including China University
Wireline). of Petroleum (East China), China University of Petroleum
(Beijing), China University of Geosciences (Beijing),
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China,
15 October 2019 – Don Herman (Cordax Evaluation Services) Jilin University, Yangtze University. Representatives
presented “Continuous Improvement of Well ROI. included two SPWLA Distinguished Speakers, Dr. Lin Liang
and Dr. Harry Xie, as well as representatives from various
research institutes and petroleum services companies.
Professor Marina Pervukhina from the Australian CSIRO
and Elena Simonenko, director of Pomor-GERS in Russia,

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gave the keynote reports on topics of current status and

challenges in “Petrophysics” and “ Logging Big Data”,
respectively. The UPC International Symposium on Well
Logging Technologies is one of the most influential
professional conferences in China. We are looking forward
to the 12th UPC International Symposium on Well Logging
Technology in 2020.

East China Chapter Logging Symposium. Professor Shumilov, serving at

Perm State University, Russian Federation, is giving a special report.

FORMATION TESTING SIG

East China Chapter Logging Symposium. Harry Xie, serving as a SPWLA

General News
Distinguished Speaker, gave a special report. We are welcoming Anup Hunnur (Baker Hughes) who has
joined the Formation Testing SIG steering committee.

Recent Events
Completed the first three Webinar with speakers Dr. Christine
Economides (University of Houston), Dr. Oliver Mullins
(Schlumberger), and Colin Schroeder (University of Texas).

Upcoming Events
11 November 2019 – Next and last Webinar for this year. The
speaker will be Camilo Gelvez (University of Texas).
07 May 2020 – The Annual Technical Conference will be held
in Houston. Please stay connected to SPWLA media for
the call for abstracts coming soon.
East China Chapter Logging Symposium. Lin Liang, serving as a SPWLA
Distinguished Speaker, gave a special report.

East China Chapter Logging Symposium. Group photo of conference attendees.

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FRANCE CHAPTER
In addition, opportunity was given to all software
providers to make a 10-minute general demonstration of
Recent Events
their software solution. The session, followed via weblink
08 October 2019 – The Fall technical session took place in
in parallel, was attended by consultants, universities,
Paris at Société Géologique de France on with five talks
research institutes and representatives of operators and
about “Petrophysical Interpretation Software Solutions.”
software companies. Discussions covered the use of
All major software providers were represented (CGG with
machine learning, logging and laboratory data integration
PowerLog, Emerson with Geolog, Lloyd’s Register with
in current workflows as well as development orientations
Interactive Petrophysics and Schlumberger with Techlog)
(integration, scripting facilities…).
along with Voxaya that introduced Voxilon, a software
to simulate rock properties from 3D microimages. The
presentations were split into three subtopics:
(1) Machine learning, clustering and modelling: “Machine
Learning for Better Wells,” by Daria Lazareva (CGG
GeoSoftware) and “Solving with DTA not Guessing: A
Unique, Non-Statistical, Machine Learning Method for
Curve Prediction,” prepared by Ravi Arkalgud (Helio-
Flare Ltd / Lloyd’s Register) and presented by Ross
Brackenridge (Lloyd’s Register).
(2) Stochastic methods and uncertainty propagation:
“Handling Uncertainty in Petrophysical Analysis with
Geolog” by Nicolas Poete (Emerson).
(3) Advanced petrophysical interpretation solutions:
“Challenging Laboratory Measurements – Contribution
of Numerical Petrophysics” by Vanessa Herbert
(Voxaya); and “Volumetric Inversion Methods With
Integration of Advanced Log Measurements (NMR,
Dielectric, Spectroscopy)” by Mounir Belouahchia
(Schlumberger). France Chapter October 2019 meeting. (Left) Vanessa Hebert (Voxaya)
presented the contribution of numerical petrophysics with Voxilon. (Right)
Mounir Belouahchia (Schlumberger) closed the session with the integrated
interpretation of advanced log measurements.

LONDON CHAPTER
(London Petrophysical Society, LPS)

General News
Our AGM is coming up in November and we are looking
for volunteers to join the committee. Please get in touch with
Mike Millar if you are interested – all are welcome!

Recent Events
12 September 2019 - We held an excellent One-Day Seminar
on ‘Life After Casing’. A huge thanks to all of our speakers,
our attendees and to the committee for such a great day.
Distributed temperature analysis is clearly a ‘hot’ topic,
France Chapter October 2019 meeting. (Left) Daria Lazareva (CGG)
opened the session with her presentation about machine learning in
PowerLog; (center) Ross Brackenridge (Lloyd’s Register) presented DTA
within IP; (right) Nicolas Poete (Emerson) presented Geolog and covered
the uncertainty topic.

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plus there were some excellent talks and case studies MALAYSIA CHAPTER
on pulsed-neutron tools; downhole cameras; casing (Formation Evaluation Society of Malaysia, FESM)
inspection and more.
15 October 2019 – The evening lecture was presented General News
by Ebrahim Heydari (Independent) on “Rock Typing: FESM, a local chapter of Formation Evaluation Society of
Application in Reservoir Modelling and Development.” Malaysia is based in Kuala Lumpur. Technical meetings are held
29 October 2019 – At the invitation of the University of on the fourth week of each month. For meeting information,
Portsmouth School of Energy and Electronic Engineering, please visit our chapter website at www.fesmkl.com.
the LPS presented a workshop titled “An Introduction
to Practical and Commercial Aspects of Petrophysics” Recent Events
during their Autumn Consolidation week. The LPS 15 August 2019 – FESM hosted two well-attended
presented talks on petrophysical topics that are not presentations:
normally covered in the University curriculum, which “Waterflood Injectivity Loss—A Multidisciplinary Root
allowed the students to benefit from the experience of Cause Case History” by Dr. Rick Lemanczyk (Three60
working practitioners in the field of formation evaluation Energy). He described how a multidisciplinary approach,
and to gain insight into the skills used by petrophysicists combining elements of production technology, core
in their work. analysis, oilfield chemistry and geomechanics was
adopted to understand water injectivity impairment in
a sandstone reservoir onshore Indonesia. The second
Upcoming Events
presentation was titled “Understanding Uncertainty
12 November 2019 – AGM and off-topic talk by Lambert
in Sanding Potential for a Field with Limited Data” by
Energy; Janet Watson Lecture Theatre, Geological Society,
Graeme Rae (GGRE). He presented the method on using
Piccadilly.
limited sufficient data to reduce the levels of uncertainty.
05 December – One Day seminar on ‘Data Science’. Call for
abstracts now open! Janet Watson Lecture Theatre,
Geological Society, Piccadilly. President’s Evening from
5:30 p.m. following the seminar; Kings Heads, Stafford
Street

See our website www.lps.org.uk for details of all our events.

FESM August 2019 meeting. (Left) Dr. Rick Lemanczyk (Three60 Energy)
and Graeme Rae (GGRE) (right) receiving tokens of appreciation from
FESM President, Mr. Thanapala.

LPS September 2019 One-Day Seminar. Kamaljeet Singh (Schlumberger)

presenting.

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THE NETHERLANDS CHAPTER

(Dutch Petrophysical Society, DPS)

Recent Events
19 September 2019 – DPS held a seminar with the theme
“Petrophysics in the Digital World.” Dr. Matthias Appel
(Shell) presented on “Petrophysical Applications of Digital
Rock Technologies,” and Igor Kim (Shell) presented on
“Introduction to Python for Petrophysics” with a new
first for the DPS—a live demo of a Jupyter Notebook
petrophysical model. The presented material and the
executable notebook will become available on the DPS
website. The meeting was well attended, and the audience
engaged in livery discussion on both topics during and
after the talk. DPS would like to thank all attendees and
both speakers for an inspiring session.
DPS September 2019 meeting. Part of the engaged audience during the
presentation by Matthias Appel (Shell).

PERMIAN BASIN CHAPTER

General News
The Permian Basin Chapter of SPWLA generally holds
meeting on the last Tuesday of the month at Midland
College. Our attendance has steadily increased as our new
board members have started reaching out to their individual
networks. We are currently looking for someone who would
like to pick up the role as Interim President, but we are doing
well picking up the excess responsibility for now.

New Chapter Officers

President Currently looking for candidates
Vice President Amine Chenaf (Concho)
Secretary Alexis Iwasiw (Cordax)
Treasurer Ross Klabon (Weatherford)
WebMaster Zach Mueller (Apache)

Recent Events
27 August 2019 – To start out the year, we had a social happy
hour event at the Blue Door, sponsored by Premier Oilfield
Group. With their donation, we were able to provide
both drinks and appetizers to our society members at the
social at no charge. We had a great turnout as members
who left the Permian, returned and rejoined the society.
16 September 2019 – The Chapter had a luncheon at the
Midland College Carrasco Room on Monday to avoid
conflict with the WTGS Symposium. Our speaker was
Abhijit Mitra (Geomechanics Consultant at MetaRock
Iulian Hulea (DPS president, left in each photo) presenting the speakers
with a token of appreciation. Top, Matthias Appel; bottom Igor Kim)
Laboratories) who presented “Core-Based Measurement
for Improved Petrophysical Assessment and Hydraulic

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Fracture Design.” In his talk he reviewed the importance

of understanding the variable lithofacies of the Permian
using both field measurements, such as seismic and sonic
data, and key core-based measurements to obtain more
insight on the permeability and its variation with stress
with each lithofacies, as well learning more about the
mechanical and poroelastic behaviors of each lithofacies.
29 October 2019 – Dave Cannon (VP of Geosciences,
Diamondback) discussed a project the geologists at
Diamondback have been working on.

SAUDI ARABIA CHAPTER (SAC)

Recent Events
04 September 2019 – At the monthly technical luncheon
technical talks on “Objective Driven Coring for Retention
of Reservoirs Fluids” were given by Samir El-Beshbishy
(Reservoir Group) and David Wunch (CORSYDE).
Permian Basin Chapter September 2019 meeting. (Left) Amine Chenaf,
Technologies of liquid trapper and pressure coring were chapter Vice President thanking our Abhijit Mitra and presenting him with
discussed. Great discussions were focused on advantages our speaker’s award.
and disadvantages of these two methods.

SAC September 2019 meeting.

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SAC September 2019 meeting.

Upcoming Events
November 2019 – Additional interesting events are in the
planning stages, including a workshop on Petrophysical
Applications of Geochemistry. Please stay tuned to our
chapter website for details (spwla-saudi.org) and event
announcements will be sending out as usual.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY KINGSVILLE (TAMUK) STUDENT

CHAPTER
General News
The request for registration of the Society of
Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts TAMUK was approved
by the University authority. We have more graduate students,
and so we are working on getting undergraduates students to
sign up. We are in the formative stage, so more brainstorming
is being done on how to expand.

Recent Events
17 October 2019 – The TAMUK Student Chapter had a display
at the recently held Earth Science Day at the Physics and
Geoscience Department Texas A&M University Kingsville. TAMUK 2019 Earth Science Day. Visual core description by Ajibola Samo
Some of the physics and geoscience students passed at Geoscience Library.

through our exhibitions, which include digital display of

well logs and cores. We spent time explaining what we
do as petrophysicists, e.g., interpret the displayed logs
and cores. We also discussed well logging, wireline and
LWD tools.

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TAMUK 2019 Earth Science Day. Howard R. August Palacios explains well TAMUK 2019 Earth Science Day. TAMUK group picture: (Left to right)
logs to geoscience students at the Physics & Geoscience Library. Howard Palacios, Sterling Decal, Toluwalope Bamisile, Ajibola Samo,
Monica M. Estrada.

TULSA CHAPTER
Vice President of Technology Maureen McCollum
Treasurer/Secretary Patrick Ryan
General News
The bimonthly luncheon meetings are held on the second
Recent Events
Thursday of alternate months, beginning September 12, 2019,
12 September 2019 –The first meeting of the Tulsa Chapter
The University of Tulsa, Room 121 of Helmerich Hall, 800
new season was well-attended with a full house for James
South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 74104. Meeting times
Howard’s presentation on “Machine Learning Methods:
are at 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Analysis of Rock Images and Beyond.” We had several
people drive all the way from Norman, Oklahoma, and
The 2019–2020 Chapter officers are
from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to attend.
President Elizabeth Dickinson

Tulsa Chapter September 2019 meeting. James J. Howard (DigiM Solution) presenting.

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 Chapter News

Upcoming Events Camilo Gelvez (Social Media Manager), and Daria Olszowska
14 November 2019 – Paul Craddock (Schlumberger) will be (Special Event Coordinator). We have held one special event
presenting his work on “Thermal Maturity-Adjusted Log and several technical seminars are scheduled.
Interpretation (TMALI) in Organic Shales.”
12 December 2019 – The Chapter’s first social event will be Recent Events
held at Roosevelt’s on Cherry Street, in Tulsa at 6 p.m. 04 October 2019 – The chapter hosted a special event with
Please join us as we gather to sample the goodness two speakers from UT Austin. Last year’s student paper
offered by this fine establishment and appreciate the fine contest winner Sercan Gul presented his award-winning
company of our friends and colleagues. Bring a friend! work entitled “Automated Surface Measurements of
Drilling Fluid Properties: Field Application in the Permian
Reach out to us with any questions you may have Basin.” We also invited SPWLA 2019–2020 SPWLA
regarding membership in SPWLA, our luncheon meetings and Distinguished Speaker Colin Schroeder, to present his
distinguished speakers, or just drop us a message and let us recent work “Experimental Investigation of Mud-filtrate
know how you are and what you are doing. We would love to Invasion Using Rapid Micro-CT Imaging.” The talks were
hear from you! Our email address is [email protected] very well-attended, and we would like to thank Sercan
or you can send a letter to our post office box at SPWLA Tulsa and Colin for sharing their excellent research work with
Chapter, PO Box 14495, Tulsa OK 74104-9998 the graduate student community at UT Austin!

Upcoming Events
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN STUDENT CHAPTER 28 February 2020 – Melanie Durand (Shell) a 2019–2020
SPWLA Distinguished Speaker will give a technical
General News presentation entitled, “Crushed Rock Analysis Workflow
School is back in session at UT-Austin, and the Student Based on Advanced Fluid Characterization for Improved
Chapter of SPWLA has been working hard to recruit new Interpretation of Core Data.” We would like to thank
members and plan events for the 2019–2020 school year. This Melanie and Shell, and we are really looking forward to
year, we have three new officers: Pierre Aerens (Treasurer), the technical presentation!

UT Austin student chapter October 2019 meeting. Officers of the Student Chapter with the speakers. Left to right: Pierre Aerens (Treasurer), Wen Pan
(Webmaster), Colin Schroeder (Speaker, 2019–2020 SPWLA Distinguished Speaker), Sercan Gul (Speaker, 1st place in 2019–2020 SPWLA international
student paper contest), Tianqi Deng (President), Daria Olszowska (Special Events Coordinator), and Mohamed Bennis (Vice President).

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Recent Accolades
Two SPWLA members received awards at the recent SPE Permeability Model.” The award recognizes the best paper
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Calgary, Alberta, published by AIME in a given period where the lead author is a
Canada: member under 35 years of age.
In addition, Zoya was awarded the SPE Distinguished
Membership Award, which “acknowledges members who have
attained eminence in the petroleum industry or the academic
community, or who have made significant contributions to
SPE.”
Separately, Zoya is also the recipient of the 2019 EAGE Arie
van Weelden Award, which is “presented to a member of EAGE
who has made a highly significant contribution to one or more
of the disciplines in our Association and who qualifies as an
EAGE Young Professional (a geoscientist or engineer aged 35
or below) at the time of their nomination.”

Carlos Torres-Verdin, Professor in the Hildebrand

Department Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the
University of Texas at Austin, was awarded the SPE/AIME
Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal “for his extraordinary scientific
contributions to the industry in the realm of geophysical
measurements and reservoir characterization, and developing
groundbreaking methods for the petrophyslcal interpretation
of multiple well logs that have been successfully adopted by
service and operating companies.” This is SPE’s major technical
award. It recognizes those responsible for developing new
technology and concepts and demonstrating distinguished
achievement in improving the technique and practice of
finding and producing petroleum.

Zoya Heidari, Associate Professor in the Hildebrand

Department Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at
the University of Texas at Austin, together with former PhD
student, Lu Chi, is the recipient of the 2019 AIME Rossiter
W. Raymond Memorial Award for their paper “Directional-
Permeability Assessment in Formations With Complex Pore
Geometry With a New Nuclear-Magnetic-Resonance-Based

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In Memoriam
services company (and a leader in manufacturing equipment
Marvin Gearhart used by service providers around the world), evolving into
1927–2019 Gearhart Industries Inc. and would later be acquired by
Halliburton in 1988. He started two smaller companies Rock Bit
International and GeoLink before his retirement. The Society
of Professional Engineers (SPE) recognized his contributions
to drilling by awarding him the 2014 Anthony Lucas Award.
Marvin joined SPWLA in 1965 and received Honorary
Membership in 1985, the Distinguished Service Award in
1986, and the Pioneer Award in 2016 (only the third recipient
following Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger). Marvin was a
generous supporter of SPWLA, best known for hosting the
Golf Tournaments at Annual Symposiums with a large cash
prize payout for a hole in one.
Marvin supported starting an engineering program at TCU
in the 1990s. He is remembered in the industry as a humble
and selfless leader and for his timeless contributions.
Marvin, died at the age of 92, just weeks after his wife
of 72 years, Jo Anne Gearhart died. He is survived by four
children and their spouses; 13 grandchildren and 14 great-
grandchildren.
Marvin Gearhart was a pioneer in both drilling and well
logging. The overlap especially occurred with measurement-
while-drilling (MWD) technology that Marvin, along with
Teleco, championed and led in development. In addition
to MWD, Marvin’s company was the first to commercialize
a computer-based digital logging system, the DDL system
in 1975. Other achievements include ULTRA optimization
petrophysics evaluation software, the six-arm dipmeter
tool and SHIVA dipmeter analysis software, and the High-
Resolution Induction tool, arguably the first widely accepted
array induction service. Gearhart’s companies were also
leaders in manufacturing equipment used by service providers
around the world.
Marvin was the son of a farmer who worked on pump
jacks and gave his son his first lessons on checking and fixing
the machines twice daily at an early age of three or four. After
graduating high school Marvin joined the U.S. Army. He stood
out for his mechanical skills and the Army recommended that
he take part in a college program that took him to Michigan
State University and Colorado School of Mines. His learning
was taking place as World War II was ending. He received his
degree in mechanical engineering at Kansas State in 1949 and
began his career in the oil and gas industry at 22 years old,
landing his first job with Welex Jet Services in Fort Worth,
Texas. Marvin became a legend in the global industry through
his ingenuity mixed with a competitive spirit.
Marvin met Harrold Owen, a physics major from TCU,
and the two became friends and business partners. In 1955,
the two men established Gearhart-Owen Industries, Inc. A
company that grew to become the world’s third largest oilfield

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 Welcome New Members: August 15, 2019–October 14, 2019
Botchway, Kodjo, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United
States
Buendia Lombana, Hernando, Ecopetrol, Floridablanca,
Santander, Colombia
Carrillo, Luis, Universidad Industrial De Santander,
Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia
Davis, Byron, Basin Oil & Gas, Fort Worth, TX, United States
Duodu, Godfried, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United
States
Enright, Scott, Texas A&M, Lufkin, TX, United States
Espeli, Susanne, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
Fonseca, Paola, CGG, Richmond, TX, United States
Gland, Nicolas, IFPen, Rueil-Malmaison, France
Guo, Zhaoquan, China University of Petroleum Beijing, Beijing,
Changping, China
Haddad, ELia, Schlumberger, Houston, TX, United States
Hambissa, Hana Yonas, University of Portsmouth, Southsea,
Hampshire, United Kingdom
Lutfullin, Arthur, BHGE, Victoria Park, WA, Australia
Maksimova, Elizaveta, Gazpromneft Scientific Technical
Center, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
Meng, Yue, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
MA, United States
Oduah, Chinwe, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology,
Calgary, AB, Canada
Olszowska, Daria, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX,
United States
Ortego, Andrew, Halliburton, Lafayette, LA, United States
Pathak, Sunita, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United
States
Peevy, Christen, Kinder Morgan, Houston, TX, United States
Prado, Roxiris, Halliburton, Quito, Ecuador
Primkulov, Bauyrzhan, MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States
Reynaud, Carole, CVA International, Biot, Sans objet, France
Segun, Oladele, Federal University of Technology Akure, Agege,
Lagos, Nigeria
Siegert, Juan, Schlumberger, Midland, TX, United States
Sims, Mitchell, PRI Operating, Amarillo, TX, United States
Slayden, Jason, XTO Energy, Spring, TX, United States
Smith, Sebastian, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX,
United States
Stricker, Kai, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Schluchsee,
Baden-Württembe, Germany
Talipov, Rustem, IGiRGI, Moscow, Russia
Vielma, Ana, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States
Wheeler, Josephine, Shell, London, United Kingdom
Wu, Jiwei, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
Zargar, Zeinab, University of Houston, Houston, TX,
United States
Zhang, Panpan, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China

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