Beyond Carbon Steel: Detecting Wellbore Shape and Cavities, and Cement Imperfections in Cased Wells
Type
ArticleAuthors
Eltsov, Timofey
Patzek, Tadeusz

KAUST Department
Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center (ANPERC)Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2019-11-05Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/659974
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The non-corrosive, electrically resistive fiberglass casing materials may improve the economics of oil and gas field projects. At moderate temperatures (<120 °C), fiberglass casing is superior to carbon steel casing in applications that involve wet CO2 injection and/or production, such as carbon capture and storage, and CO2-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. Without a perfect protective cement shell, carbon steel casing in contact with a concentrated formation brine corrodes and the fiberglass casing is superior again. Fiberglass casing enables electromagnetic logging for exploration and reservoir monitoring, but it requires the development of new logging methods. Here we present a technique for the detection of integrity of magnetic cement behind resistive fiberglass casing. We demonstrate that an optimized induction logging tool can detect small changes in the magnetic permeability of cement through a non-conductive casing in a vertical (or horizontal) well. We determine both the integrity and solidification state of the cement-filled annulus behind the casing. Changes in magnetic permeability influence mostly the real part of the vertical component of the magnetic field. The signal amplitude is more sensitive to a change in the magnetic properties of the cement, rather than the signal phase. Our simulations showed that optimum separation between the transmitter and receiver coils ranged from 0.25 to 0.6 m, and the most suitable magnetic field frequencies varied from 0.1 to 10 kHz. A high-frequency induction probe operating at 200 MHz can measure the degree of solidification of cement. The proposed method can detect borehole cracks filled with cement, incomplete lift of cement, casing eccentricity, and other borehole inhomogeneities.Citation
Eltsov, T., & Patzek, T. W. (2019). Beyond Carbon Steel: Detecting Wellbore Shape and Cavities, and Cement Imperfections in Cased Wells. Energies, 12(21), 4211. doi:10.3390/en12214211Sponsors
Funding: Timofey Eltsov was supported by the KAUST Magnetic Sensor project.Acknowledgments: We are grateful to COMSOL Multiphysics for providing the academic software license.
Publisher
MDPI AGJournal
EnergiesAdditional Links
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/21/4211ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3390/en12214211