Low Resistivity Contrast Gas Bearing Formation Identification from Conventional Logs in Tight Gas Sandstones

Abstract

It’s a great challenge in identifying gas bearing formation from conventional logs in tight gas sandstones due to the low resistivity contrast caused by high irreducible water saturation. Based on the difference of the principles of three kinds of porosity logs (density, neutron and acoustic logs), three porosities difference method, three porosities ratio method, correlation of neutron and density logs and the overlap method of water-filled porosity and total porosity are introduced to identify tight gas bearing reservoirs. In gas bearing formations, the difference of three porosities is higher than 0.0, the ratio of three porosities is higher than 1.0, the correlation between density and neutron logs is negative, and the water filled porosities are lower than total porosities. On the contrary, in water saturated formations, the difference of three porosities is lower than 0.0, the ratio of three porosities is lower than 1.0, the correlation between density and neutron logs is positive, and the water filled porosities are overlapped with total porosities. Considering the complexity of in-suit formation, when the proposed identification criterion are mainly meet, the pore fluid should be determined, field examples show that the proposed techniques are applicable in tight gas formation identification.

Key words: Low resistivity contrast gas bearing formation; Tight gas sandstones;  Identification; Difference of three porosities; Ratio of three porosities; Correlation of neutron and density logs