Accuracy of Porosity Measured in High-Angle or Horizontal Wells?

PRESENTER: Dr. Ahmed Badruzzaman
Senior Staff Research Scientist, Chevron

DATE: Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

TIME:12:00 AM
(Cocktails at 11:30)

PLACE: Palliser

Abstract:

Significant differences have been observed between porosity and density predicted in high-angle/horizontal (HA/HZ) wells and those predicted in vertical wells, especially in the presence of thin beds. These can result in erroneous reservoir models and large uncertainties in predicted reserves. This presentation discusses log data, theoretical studies and numerical modeling, by the author and others, to explore the causes. Standard enhancement and correction procedures, developed to resolve thin beds in vertical wells, may not be applicable in HA/HZ wells. Additional challenges may arise in logging-while-drilling (LWD); neutron and density response differences observed in such wells may add another level of complexity. The presentation discusses these challenges and explores approaches being considered to address them.

Biography:

Dr. Ahmed Badruzzaman is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Chevron Energy Technology Company, San Ramon, California where he leads Chevron’s R&D effort to utilize subsurface nuclear technology in its operations and potentially use nuclear-generated steam in unconventional fossil-fuel recovery. He is a part-time Lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley where he also guides doctoral research. He had previously led nuclear R&D at Babcock & Wilcox, Schlumberger-Doll Research and Sandia National Laboratories. His research background includes, pioneering work to develop and use of radiation transport simulation techniques to assess performance of nuclear logging tools in complex systems, design of advanced nuclear sondes leading to a US patent, derivation of the three-phase oil saturation equation used in steam flood monitoring, advanced nuclear reactor fuel design and nuclear fusion. He has published numerous papers on his research.

Ahmed is a Fellow of American Nuclear Society and the recipient of the 2008 SPE Western Regional Production and Operations Award. As an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2006-2007, he traveled to over 20 countries to speak about advanced saturation monitoring techniques. He was a 2002-2003 SPWLA Distinguished Speaker and the Chairman of the 1999 SPE North America Forum on Cased hole Technologies. He coordinates the SPWLA Nuclear Logging Special Interest Group and is the Deputy Editor of Petrophysics. He was a reviewer of the 2008 US National Academy of Sciences report on radiation sources and their replacement. An advocate of technology transfer, he helped set up the SPE Section in his native Bangladesh in 2000. In 2005, he was invited by the World Bank for consultation on Country Assistance Strategy for Bangladesh. He chairs Bangladesh Environmental Network’s Energy Panel. Educated as a physicist in Bangladesh, former Pakistan and the US, Ahmed earned a Ph.D in Nuclear Engineering and Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 1979. Ahmed and his wife Tahmina, a fellow nuke, live in San Ramon, California and have three grown children.