Geosteering for IOR is up and running.

Earlier this year we delivered the first noteworthy results which were featured in the SPE Journal of Petroleum Technology.

Geosteering for IOR: a competence-building for industry

Optimizing the recovery from petroleum reservoirs is crucial, and one significant factor is the directional steering of the drilling. Geosteering, the process of guiding drilling according to geological formations, relies on well-calibrated geological models and quantified uncertainties.

Current geosteering work processes have several shortcomings:

  • Calibrating geomodels to deep Electromagnetic Measurements (EM) and Logging While Drilling (LWD) for complex formations is challenging.
  • Current geomodels lack the flexibility for support of structural updates and fast local updates.
  • There is an absence of a transparent, systematic, and consistent workflow for quantifying and incorporating geological uncertainties into geosteering decisions.

Project Objective

The primary goal is to develop a methodology for geosteering that involves continuously updating the geomodel based on LWD, including deep EM measurements. We are targeting these secondary objectives:

  • Ensemble-based geosteering workflow: Creating an improved workflow that integrates with reservoir management.
  • Processing deep EM measurements: Utilizing EM forward modelling tools and efficient processing of EM measurements.
  • Flexible earth model representation: Developing a model that supports local updates and real-time uncertainty modelling.

Achievements

A prototype of an interactive Decision Support System (DSS) has been developed for synthetic cases, demonstrating optimal well placement in complex reservoir navigation scenarios. The findings were shared in the paper titled “An Interactive Decision Support System (DSS) for Geosteering Operations,” presented at the SPE Norway One Day Seminar on April 18th, 2018, and featured in the SPE Journal of Petroleum Technology in September 2018.

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