Abstract

Characterizing heterogeneous reservoirs has often been one of the key challenges in exploration of hydrocarbons. An important aspect of reservoir characterization has been the use of borehole images. Careful analysis of borehole images, could not only reveal the nature of a reservoir, but can also resolve finer details of the lithofacies in it.

Conventional interpretation techniques has been successfully used over the past decade or so to analyze textures, classify fractures, and determining structural and stratigraphic trends through spatial and geometric orientation of planar fabrics.

Recent advancements in interpretation techniques have not only enhanced the processes and the understandings of the above mentioned regimes but have also opened much broader dimensions. Along with qualitative analysis of reservoirs, modern techniques can now quantify textures (secondary porosity), characterize lithofacies, and analyze reservoir quality. Application of new methods has substantially enhanced characterization of fracture systems and their impact in reservoir quality. This could furthermore be used in constructing stochastic models to understand fracture networks between wells and across the reservoir. Stratigraphic and structural trends can now be analyzed using a combination of statistical techniques and three dimensional models. All these processes could be used to generate quantitative outputs that could further be incorporated in larger scale reservoir models.

The prime aspect of modern day reservoir characterization is to understand, the scale and patterns of heterogeneities in reservoir systems. Application of these novel techniques, promises to add finer resolutions from single well to reservoir scale.