Sourceless LWD Service Provides Unique Petrophysical Measurements for the First Time in Offshore Environment: A Case Study from Libya

摘要

The continuous increase in demand for hydrocarbon resources has pushed the oil industry to look for additional recoverable resources in increasingly challenging environments. With new prospects, oil companies have to face new technical challenges everyday due to these conditions as well as stricter environmental and safety rules. Offshore Libya is one of these challenging environments where drilling is high risk and where, for health safety and environmental (HSE) reasons, avoiding using radioactive materials in drilling and logging represents a great advantage by mitigating possible risks and costs. In order to overcome these new technical challenges and reduce cost, companies have to constantly evaluate new technology. An advanced logging-while-drilling (LWD) platform that does not use a radioactive source provided a fully integrated advanced petrophysical evaluation capability, as well as a complete set of measurements to optimize drilling in a well in offshore Libya. To overcome environmental and safety constraints, the sourceless configuration provided a unique answer for formation evaluation in high risk drilling operations in offshore environments. A fully integrated real-time petrophysical analysis of data acquired while drilling thereby significantly reduced the need for additional measurements. This technology allows fulfillment of operational objectives by significantly decreasing the exposure to drilling risks and stuck pipe. This reduced the time and cost required to properly characterize the reservoir and accommodate the strict regulations controlling radioactive material handling, without compromising the data completeness and quality. The conventional EcoScope* technology has been used all over the world in offshore environment (especially in the North Sea). However, it is the first time the EcoScope* service has been deployed in an offshore drilling environment in its sourceless configuration.