Holistic Image-Based Approach to Overcome Data Limitations in Building Robust Petrophysical Models of Low Contrast Pays

Summary The exploration and production of low-resistivity/low-contrast pays, such as thin-layered reservoirs, is still playing an important role in the oil industry, due to the present market situation and the consequent increasing interest in the re-evaluation of previously underestimated assets. Standard lithological measurements don’t always permit a robust petrophysical characterization of the sand fraction in these environments, and volumetric methods don’t describe very well low-contrast/low-anisotropy intervals; a strong and useful contribution may come from high-resolution measurements, that can separate thin sand and shale layers down to cm scale. The use of last generation OBM imagers, together with fit-for-purpose processing, may grant to the final image both resolution and quality to perform a quantitative detailed petrophysical characterization of a thin layered, low-resistivity/low-contrast turbiditic reservoir. The integrated and modular methodology applied to key wells can be easily adapted to provide reliable results also in wells where poor borehole quality prevented the usability of image logs.