 What is the value of having a detailed picture of the sedimentary fabric of the reservoir? Or seeing where the fractures are? INTEQ's StarTrak® service provides the industry's highest resolution LWD electrical images ? and in real time. Designed for drilling, INTEQ's StarTrak service logs at high rates of penetration and is highly tolerant of RPM variation, making data acquisition virtually invisible to the drilling process. The StarTrak service is currently available for conductive drilling fluid applications in 8.5 in. and 9.5 in. boreholes, but having best-in-class technology is only one part of the service. INTEQ's AutoTrak® RCLS allows the precise steering needed to geosteer successfully. Expert advice and geoscience interpretation is on hand in the field and over the internet via the secure RigLinkSM service.
Service Application Applications include: Geological evaluation - building a detailed understanding of the sedimentary environment and adding sub-seismic detail to the reservoir model is key to planning not only the current well, but future wells too. (See Example 1)
Structural classification - while the orientation of faults and fractures can be important to safe drilling this information is vital to making the right completion decisions, and the sooner this information is available, the easier this becomes. (See Example 2)
Sedimentary steering - in some reservoirs, in addition to tracking a distant roof using azimuthal resistivity, fine tuning the wellpath to stay in the sedimentary ?sweet-spot? may be carried out using expert local knowledge and detailed images in real time.(See Example 3)
Wellbore integrity management - as part of the real-time geomechanical toolkit, images show directly how the rock is reacting to the drilling process, with drilling-induced fractures, breakouts and other features readily identifiable. (See Example 4)
Information risk mitigation - complex well trajectories and the risk of deterioration of the wellbore over time make LWD acquisition attractive for data quality (pristine wellbore) and stuck pipe recovery reasons.
Example 1: Sedimentary detail 
A high resolution electrical image showing a fossilised soil with several distinct components: 1410.0 – 1412.3 ft; laminated mudrocks with no sedimentary disturbance. 1412.3 – 1414.5 ft; sub-vertical, branching resistive streaks. These are calcretised (fossilised) root traces from vegetation growing at the surface 1414.5 – 1416.4 ft; mostly structureless mudrock or marl with a minor calcrete development. The lower laminated interval is preserved background lamination. 1416.4 – 1419.1 ft; mudrock or marl containing nodular (enterolithic) calcrete concretions. The vertical orientation to some of these features is caused by the vertical migration of water in the when lost by evaporation.
The maturity of palaeosols is a useful guide to the proximity to fluvial sandbodies. Recognition of such features within mudrocks can provide useful information for advanced geosteering.
Example 2: Fracture characterization 
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Example 3: Real-time images for steering 
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Example 4: Geomechanics
In this example from a vertical well, under difficult logging conditions, drilling-induced fractures can be seen as black vertical lines in the LWD image on the left. The wireline image on the right does not show these as clearly as the borehole has changed in the intervening time. 
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More detail on these and other applications can be found in the following papers:
RITTER, R. N., CHEMALI, R., LOFTS, J., GOREK, M., FULDA, C, MORRIS, S & KRUEGER, V., 2004, High resolution visualization of near wellbore geology using while-drilling electrical images. SPWLA 45th Annual Logging Symposium.
RITTER, R.N., KRUEGER, V., GOREK, M., FULDA, C., MORRIS, S.A., LOFTS, J.C., BAULE, A., & CHEMALI, R. IN PRESS High Quality Electrical Images While-Drilling Opens a Wider Window on Near Wellbore Geology SPE ATCE 2004, SPE Paper No 90148.
LOFTS, J., MORRIS, S., RITTER, R. N., CHEMALI, R., FULDA, C., 2005, High quality electrical borehole images while-drilling provides faster geological-petrophysical interpretation, with increased confidence. SPWLA 46th Annual Logging Symposium.
MORRIS, S., LOFTS, J., LINDSAY, G., FULDA, C. & DAHL, J. 2006. High quality electrical borehole images while-drilling: increased confidence in well positioning and drilling hazard mitigation from real-time data. IADC/SPE Drilling Conference. SPE Paper No 99275-PP.
MORRIS, S., LOFTS, J., LINDSAY, G., & FULDA, C., 2006. Sedimentological and Structural Well Correlations Using LWD Resistivity Images. Offshore West Africa Conference & Exhibition. Abuja, Nigeria 21–23 March 2006.
LINDSAY, G., MORRIS, S.A. & LOFTS, J.C. 2006. Using real-time high-resolution images for sedimentary steering. 47th Annual SPWLA Symposium, Veracruz, Mexico.
LINDSAY, G., ONG, S., MORRIS, S. & LOFTS, J. 2007. Wellbore stress indicators while drilling: a comparison of induced features from wireline and LWD high resolution electrical images. SPE/IADC Conference, Amsterdam.
STAMM, C., HOMANN, H., CREDEN, S., FREITAG, H-C,. FULDA, C., LINDSAY, G., 2007. Barnett Shale - New LWD sensor technology provides crucial formation evaluation information at reduced cost and risk for land operations. SPWLA Annual Conference, Austin.
For further information, including technical specifications, please contact your local INTEQ representative. (Back to Top)
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