Fracture Network Characterization Beyond Wellbores: A New Approach to Identify Water Corridors through Advanced Resistivity Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Carbonate rocks are often characterized as containing complex porosity systems from primary to secondary, and even intertwined multi-porous systems. Consequently, this creates a challenge for petrophysicists and geologists with identifying the impact of such a complex system on wells’ productivity. This paper studies delineating fracture network proximity and architecture beyond the wellbore and successfully identifying water corridors for completion enhancement. This paper presents a novel methodology for integrating wellbore-centric micro-electrical borehole imaging with an ultra-high-resolution bed boundary mapper (UHR-BBM). The approach integrates the quantification and categorization of fractures around the wellbore acquired through resistivity image, and fluid network in a radius of up to 30 ft around the wellbore derived from UHR-BBM. The process encompasses a workflow starting from invasion profile determination to UHR-BBM geo-signals enhancement with fracture details prior to ultimately mapping their network extension and fluid characterization. Advanced borehole analysis provided new insight into textural variations and litho-facies when analyzing fractured zone, opening a gateway to incorporating geological features into the petrophysical analysis. Accordingly, it was observed that fractures could contribute an additional percentage of secondary porosity, improving the productivity index of such formation. However, through conducting the aforementioned analysis, some of the fractures were featured as water-driving factors when their proximity beyond the wellbore was uncovered. Moreover, resistivity analysis concluded that the water-driving factors could have implications when the true resistivity affects the modeling process. Ultimately, the completion design shall be altered to isolate such zones, enhancing hydrocarbon recovery with minimized water cuts, as will be shown in one of the examples. This methodology utilizes a new technique of incorporating shallow and deep measurements to quantify fracture systems, asses their proximity to the wellbore, and determine their potential impact on the well performance. This analysis facilitates a new approach to well completion design optimization, prolonging the life of the well and enhancing productivity.