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    1. Drilling & Completion

    OE 2019: Schlumberger unveils high-definition dual-imaging-while drilling service

    Sept. 4, 2019
    (Courtesy Schlumberger)
    The TerraSphere service delivers full-borehole coverage for interpretation, which enhances geosteering in complex environments, as well as production potential and reserves estimates.
    The TerraSphere service delivers full-borehole coverage for interpretation, which enhances geosteering in complex environments, as well as production potential and reserves estimates.

    Offshore staff

    ABERDEEN, UK – Schlumberger has introduced the TerraSphere high-definition dual-imaging-while-drilling service at SPE Offshore Europe.

    The new service is said to provide the industry’s first application of a logging-while-drilling dual-physics imager for all oil-based mud systems.

    It incorporates electromagnetic and ultrasonic measurements that enable multiple high-resolution borehole images in nonconductive mud. This reveals enhanced details for geological, petrophysical, and geomechanical interpretation to uncover subtle variations in the subsurface caused by stratigraphic or structural properties that impact wellbore stability, the company said.

    The real-time transmission of images with these enhanced details enables drillers to make better-informed decisions during the near-wellbore stress interpretation process.

    “Drillers have been unable to visualize, in real time, subsurface features when drilling with oil-based mud,” said Tarek Rizk, president, Drilling & Measurements, Schlumberger. “The TerraSphere service delivers geological and geomechanical data that not only saves logging time and related rig costs, but also reduces the potential risk for lost circulation of drilling muds into formation fractures.”

    More than 30 field trials were conducted with the new service in the Gulf of Mexico, Middle East, North Africa, North Sea, and US land. The company said these trials included successful imaging for structural and stratigraphic analysis, revealing breakout fractures that enabled drillers to avoid mud loss. The new service acquired additional and higher definition data, reducing subsequent operational time and improving net-to-gross ratio in the payzone.

    A customer used the TerraSphere service in a complex reservoir in the Balder field in the North Sea. Dual-imaging-while-drilling delineated sand injectites in the reservoir and removed ambiguity from conventional logs. This provided more accurate characterization through increased reservoir coverage to maximize production potential.

    According to the company, the resolution captured by ultrasonic images is now refined to millimeters—previously possible only with wireline imagers.

    09/04/2019