SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012

IDENTIFYING BYPASSED OIL IN CAO LIMON WITH THE CARBON/OXYGEN LOG

Marta Elena Becerra, David W. Hampton, Diana Mancilla, Jules Diaz, Rafael Rolon, Helbert Mackualo, and Alejandro Salgado, Occidental de Colombia; Xavier Goddyn and Juan Angel, Schlumberger; Cesar Patio Ecopetrol Copyright 2012, held jointly by the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA) and the submitting authors. This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium held in Cartagena, Colombia, June 16-20, 2012.
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ABSTRACT
Cao Limon is one of the giant fields discovered in the 1980s in Colombia. As part of the Llanos basin, the field contains many prolific sands distributed between Eocene Mirador and Upper Cretaceous, containing 29 API low GOR, with a strong fresh meteoric water edge-drive aquifer. Maintaining the current production rate in a mature field is challenging, and requires dedication from the production and geoscientist teams to locate undeveloped sands. During 2010 and 2011 the Occidental Llanos Reservoir Management Team implemented an extensive workover campaign to locate bypassed oil sands, monitor the current level of saturation, and understand current drainage and imbibitions mechanisms for each area. This campaign included logging approximately 30 wells, with pulsed neutron tools in Carbon/Oxygen mode in order to differentiate between hydrocarbons and low salinity connate water or fresh water from the aquifer. Wells in the field typically have ESP pumps with Y-tools installed. The logging tool is capable of passing through the Y-tool to acquire both yield and windows carbon-oxygen data in order to ensure an accurately computed oil saturation (So). The logging campaign has been effective in locating bypassed oil and nearly undrained sands. Based on these interpretations, the reservoir team was able to propose new producer wells. The results demonstrate that these tools are helpful in sustaining field development. The methodology is applicable in many brown fields where similar conditions exist. One of the most important factors in managing reservoirs is an accurate determination of oil saturation. The accuracy of this value is critical in tracking reservoir depletion, designing enhanced oil recovery, identifying workover strategies and understanding water injection breakthrough, especially in Cao Limon, where small variations in oil saturation can signify a large volume of hydrocarbons. This problem is complicated by variable water salinities caused by the aquifer influx. Accurate evaluation of the remaining oil saturation can be conducted by combining open hole and Carbon/Oxygen Logs. The integration of these data, acquired during shut-in conditions, gives valuable information that can be used to identify bypassed oil, invaded water zones, undrained sands, and to confirm the viability of low-resistivity sands which were not previously considered as net pay.

INTRODUCTION
The Cao Limn field is located in the eastern plains of Colombia, South America (Fig. 1). The different reservoirs are formed by a series of sand shale sequences. The formations of interest are the Upper Fig. 1 Location of Cao Limn Field in Colombia Carbonera, the Lower Carbonera (LC-Mirador), and the

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012 Cretaceous K1, K2, and K3 (Fig. 2). The LC-Mirador is the most important formation in terms of oil-in-place, rock quality, and oil production. Average porosity for the field is about 25 percent, but it exceeds 30 percent in numerous places. Permeabilities can be extremely high, on the order of several Darcies. Good quality oil (29 API) with low gas-to-oil-ratios (GOR) and low bubble point pressures (Pb) is characteristic of all formations. Strong aquifer support is found in the La Yuca and Cao Limn areas. The aquifer is recharged via meteoric waters which are very fresh and quite different than the initial formation water salinities. The aquifer has also been very efficient in sweeping the oil; however there are pockets of oil trapped by structural and stratigraphic changes whose development is the focus of the reservoir development team. Cased-hole saturation measurements provide one tool for identifying these opportunities in existing wellbores. In reservoirs around the world, the conventional method for determining oil and water saturation in cased wells uses a measurement of the thermal neutron capture cross section (), which is strongly influenced by the presence of salt water. For this method to work well, the product of salinity and porosity must be sufficiently high to provide a good contrast of between the oil and water. Further, the true formation water salinity must be known to correctly interpret the water saturation. For the Cao Limon field, both of these conditions are problematic. An alternative tool whose measurements can be used to determine water saturation in low salinity and unknown salinity formations is the carbon/oxygen (C/O) tool. The primary focus of this paper is to demonstrate the application of the C/O tool to measure formation oil saturation in Cao Limon where the formation water salinity is very fresh or unknown, usually because of mixing different salinity waters, and where the borehole fluid is also unknown. Fig. 2 Stratigraphic column, Cao Limn

GEOLOGIC SETTING
The Cao Limon field was the initial discovery of a series of fields along the same fault trend. These field share similar productive intervals and depositional environments. The LC-Mirador sands, Eocene in age, are primarily deltaic distributary channels. The LC-Mirador contains varying amounts of dispersed kaolinite. Formation resistivity values (Rt) and spontaneous potential (SP) development are not appreciably reduced due to the presence of fresh waters (low contrast resistivity zones). For this reason, it is difficult at present to distinguish between shalier zones due to kaolinite and zones encroached by fresh aquifer water, as both conditions exhibit good porosities and high resistivities. The Upper Carbonera is formed by relatively discontinuous fluvial or distributary channels. Sands in the Upper Carbonera are shalier than in the Lower Carbonera-Mirador. Medium to coarse grained with fair to well sorted sands are encountered in the Upper Carbonera and LC-Mirador. The Cretaceous K1 formation is shalier and thinner, with generally poorer quality reservoir rocks. The rock is bioturbated in places and reservoir quality has been reduced significantly over these intervals. Some tight limestone stringers and minor glauconitic zones exist in this formation, consistent with its marine origin. Grain size and sorting

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012 deteriorate in the deeper section of the Cretaceous K1. The top of the K2 formation is characterized by fine grained intervals.

TOOL PHYSICS AND MEASUREMENT THEORY

The formation C/O ratio measurement is used to determine the formation s oil saturation in a cased well when the formation water salinity is very low or unknown. Carbon-oxygen logging provides a direct measure of formation carbon, and therefore oil saturation, independent of water salinity. The C/O measurement is based on Pulsed Neutron Spectroscopy (PNS). Fast neutrons (14 MeV) produced by the C/O pulsed neutron source collide inelastically with nuclei of the formation material, losing some of their energy to the nuclei. The nucleus can release the energy it has gained by emitting a gamma ray with an energy characteristic of the nucleus. This kind of interaction takes place during and very soon after the neutron burst, before the neutrons lose too much energy. The gamma rays emitted during this inelastic scattering process are analyzed during inelastic mode logging with the C/O tool. Figure 3 shows the technical specifications for the Reservoir Saturation Tool (RST) (courtesy Schlumberger). Two different diameter RSTs are available, one with 1-11/16 OD where the neutron generator and the detectors are centered aligned and the other with 2-1/2 OD with eccentered detectors to optimize acquisition in flowing wells and avoid spectrum d istortion. Figure 4, courtesy Schlumberger) shows the nuclear iterations that occur during the burst of neutrons.

Fig. 3 RST Hardware and Technical Specifications

Fig. 4 Measurement Nuclear Interactions

C/O MODE
In C/O logging a single neutron burst is followed within micro seconds by 3 distinct time intervals of measurement. A net spectrum is composed from these time dependent results and divided into 6 distinct and traceable contributions: Oxygen, Carbon, Silicon, Calcium, Iron and Tool background. The carbon and oxygen peeks are so distinct, windows are placed along these intervals (See Figure 5, courtesy Schlumberger). The windows ratio gives a repeatable and precise answer, however, it is only with the assistance of the Spectral processing can the ratio be made accurate. The process in combining these two is known as Alpha Processing. The first processing step decomposes the acquired net inelastic spectrum, using elemental standard spectra, into inelastic yields, including carbon and oxygen. The yields and the C/O yield ratios are computed for the near and far detectors individually. In parallel, the carbon and oxygen windows and the resulting C/O window ratios are computed for each detector. Windows are simple net inelastic count rates within an energy window that is dominated by the given element. The yields-based and windows-based C/O ratios are individually transformed into saturation using a database of measured tool responses in known environmental conditions.

Fig. 5 C/O Energy Spectrum

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012 The spectral processing has been made more robust by evaluating several parameters as simple functions of counting rate rather than as additional free parameters in the weighted-least-square spectral analysis. These parameters are the capture background subtraction factor, and the gain, offset and resolution of the background spectrum relative to the foreground spectrum. Analytically determining the background subtraction factor allows an accurate measurement of sulfur, previously difficult to obtain because of the prominent sulfur gamma ray at about the same energy as the 2.2-MeV hydrogen line that is always present in the capture background. Lithology is a key input in the transformation of the inelastic C/O ratio into So, because it drives the compensation for the carbon in the rock matrix. In addition, the clay content of the rock can be better determined from the capture yields than from other measurements such as gamma ray, sigma or neutron-density (Herron and Herron, 1996) As mentioned earlier, the yields-based and windows- based C/O ratios are individually transformed into volumes of oil using a database of measured tool responses in known environmental conditions. Each database measurement characterizes the tools response in terms of a specific combination of formation lithology, porosity, borehole size, casing size and casing weight. Actual well environments, particularly porosity and lithology, are rarely identical to the characterized environments. An interpolation/extrapolation method must be used to interpret tool response in a generalized logging environment. The processing is based on an algorithm developed for the RST sigma/porosity measurement (Plasek et al. 1995), called weighted multiple linear regression. The basic idea is to represent the variation of the tool response throughout the database as a linear combination of specially chosen, fundamental parameters defining the environment. The tool response is defined in terms of near- and far-detector carbon and oxygen yields at the end points of 100% oil and 0% oil (or 0% and 100% water) in the formation and in the borehole (Figure 6 Characterization Quadrilaterals). The environmental parameters are chosen or constructed in such a way that they fully describe the environmental sensitivity of the tool, while remaining maximally independent of each other.

Fig. 6 RST C/O Characterization Quadrilaterals

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012

CARBON/OXYGEN LOG EXAMPLES

C/O Example - Well 28 Cao Limon Upper Carbonera channels are closed systems and are characterized by uncertain pressure support, oil saturation, water resistivity and connectivity between channels. These uncertainties make it difficult to identify undrained, swept or wet zones with conventional tools. Well 28 was drilled and completed in the Lower Carbonera sands in 1989, with good oil production and high resistivity values around 1800 ohm-m through 2010. High water cut production motivated running a saturation log to confirm undrained intervals or new opportunities because the original petrophysical interpretation showed two C5 channels (Upper Carbonera) with good net sand and moderate original oil saturation compare to the main reservoir . On December 2010, an RST log was run and results showed potential in one of those two C5 channels The lowermost channel appear to be drained showed residual oil saturation, while the uppermost channel showed good oil saturations, which had not been identified as a good potential in the past. The upper channel was opened and started production with 2% water cut, and continues producing with 15% water cut. Without the RST log information, large amount of reserves would have been lost, due to the low prospectivity and high risk of opening a potential water sand. See Fig. 7.

Fig. 7 C/O Results Well 28 Upper Carbonera Channels

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012 C/O Example - Well 172 Well 172 was drilled and completed as an oil producer in the Cretaceous sands in 2007 with good results until 2010. Final production in the Cretaceous sands showed a 98% water cut and low oil rate. Due to an ESP pump failure, a decision needed to be made whether to restart the well in the same zone or open another zone based on open-hole log evaluation. Two possible opportunities were identified but the risk to open those sands and find wet zones was considered very high. Testing each of those sands implied an expensive workover, thus a saturation log was run to reevaluate the potential of the identified sands. The first sand was in the Upper Carbonera C2-C3 sands, which are located above the main reservoirs and could have implied a significant volume of reserves to develop. Unfortunately, the oil saturation was very low, despite the high deep resistivity reading (very fresh formation waters). The second zone, a Cretaceous sand (K1B2) located above the initially completed zone showed good oil saturations and potential for a new completion. This zone was opened and confirmed oil accumulations in that part of the field, but produced at higher initial water cuts than expected (94%). However the recompletion avoided abandoning the well, and allowed recovery of oil reserves that otherwise would have been lost. See Fig. 8a and 8b.

Fig. 8a C/O Results C2-C3 Sands Well 172

Fig. 8b C/O Results K1 Cretaceous Sands Well 172

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012

C/O Example - Well 12 Well 12 was drilled and completed in the Cretaceous K2 sands in 1991, with good oil production through 2011. High water cut production motivated running a saturation log to identify by-passed oil or new opportunities because the original petrophysical interpretation showed Cretaceous K1 sands, as having good quality sands but with high uncertainty regarding the oil saturation, due to low resistivity contrast between oil and water and high Gamma Ray responses, highly affected by a combination of fine grain, and presence of clays. On January 2010, an RST Log was run, and results showed potential in those Cretaceous K1 sands. One year later, Cretaceous K2 sands were isolated and Cretaceous K1 sands were opened. Initial production showed a 2% water cut, and continues producing a year later with only 5% water cut. Without the RST log information, considerable amount of reserves would have been lost, because of the low prospectivity and high risk of opening potential low productivity water sands. See Fig. 9.

Fig. 9 C/O Results Cretaceous Sands Well 12 C/O Example - Well 5 Well 5 was drilled in January 2008 and completed in the M1 sand with poor production results (water cut of 99%). Based on these results, the M1 sand was isolated with a bridge plug and the upper C5 sand tested. This too produced at a 99% water cut. A production logging tool (PLT) was run to evaluate whether there was fluid communication past the bridge plug isolating the M1 sand. The PLT did not show flow past the bridge plug and the well was cataloged as an abandonment candidate. In November 2010 an RST Log was run to evaluate lower C5 channels and the oil saturation of the upper C5 channel sand previously opened. The RST data confirmed that the upper C5 sand had unattractive oil saturations, but showed good oil saturations in the middle C5 sand. Based on the RST data, the upper C5 sand was squeezed and the middle C5 sand was perforated with good production results (water cut 1%). Running the RST log, at substantial cost savings of a WO identified and confirmed the presence of an additional zone to develop in the area. See Fig. 10.

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012

U C5

M1

Fig. 10 C/O Results Upper Carbonera Channel Well 5

CONCLUSIONS
The C/O log can be effectively used to identify bypassed oil or undrained sands to identify new possible locations or future opportunities in existing wells, thereby avoiding potentially expensive and uncertain initial completions or workovers in formations with low or unknown water salinities. Few C/O tools have sufficiently small ODs that they can pass through the Y-Tool bypass around the electrical submersible pump, thereby eliminating the need to remove the tubing and pump for logging. In comparison to workovers and zonal tests, the C/O log has provided a cost effective approach to identify bypassed reserves.

REFERENCES
Herron S.L., Herron, M.M., Quantitative Lithology: An Application for Open and Cased hole Spectroscopy, SPWLA 37th Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-19, 1996. Plasek, R.E., Adolph, R.A., Stoller, C., Willis, D.J., Bordon, E.E. and Portal, M., Impro ved Pulsed Neutron Capture Logging with Slim Carbon-Oxygen Tools: Methodology, SPE 30598, SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, October 22-25, 1995.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Marta Elena Becerra R is a Sr. Petrophysicist in the Llanos Norte Reservoir Management Team with Occidental de Colombia. She received her BS degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1999 from the Universidad de America. She gathered experience in open-hole and cased-hole log interpretation from different locations around the world (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru Venezuela and USA) when she was working for Schlumberger. In 2010 she joined Oxy in the Llanos and Cravo Norte area in Colombia as a Petrophysicist. David W. Hampton, P.E. is the Chief Reservoir Engineer for Occidental de Colombia. He received a MS degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston in 1987, and a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1983 from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation he was employed by a major service company and was involved in log analysis and development of a variety of interpretation methods including PNL tool ( and C/O) interpretations among others. In 2004 he joined Oxy US in the Permian Basin as a reservoir engineer managing CO2 WAG floods. Diana M. Mancilla is a Reservoir Engineer with Occidental de Colombia. She received a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering in 2006 from the Universidad de America in Bogota. Upon graduation she was employed by Occidental in operations as a well-planner, production with different artificial lift systems and reservoir engineering, involved mainly in reservoir surveillance, PLT interpretation, waterflooding projects and reserves estimation.

SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, June 16-20, 2012 Jules Daz received a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering in 2009 from the Universidad Industrial of Santander (UIS) at Bucaramanga, Colombia. Upon graduation he was employed by Occidental de Colombia as a Trainee Engineer working for areas such as Production and Operations Engineering. Nowadays he works as a reservoir engineer for Cao Limon area. J. Rafael Rolon H. is a Petroleum Engineer in the Llanos Norte Reservoir Management Team with Occidental de Colombia currently working in the New Field area. He received a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering in 2009 from Universidad Industrial de Santander. Upon graduation he was employed by Oxy Colombia and was involved in operation and production activities, after that was in charge of the of New Field area of the Llanos RMT as a reservoir engineer. Helbert Mackualo is a reservoir engineer with Occidental in Bogota, Colombia. During the past 26 years he has worked in several Los Llanos area fields and the Payoa and La Salina fields in the Middle Magdalena Valley. He has many years experience in pressure transient analysis, PLT interpretation, reservoir simulation and petrophysics and has also worked in waterflooding and gas injection projects. He holds a BS degree from the Universidad de America in Bogot. Alejandro Salgado is the Llanos Resource Management Team Lead for Occidental de Colombia. He received a BS degree in Civil Engineering from the Universidad de Los Andes in 1986, and a MS degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1989 from the University of Tulsa. Upon graduation he was employed by the Colombias National Oil CompanyECOPETROL and was involved in various reservoir engineering projects such as Fluids Characterization, Reservoir Characterization and Reservoir Simulation among others. In 2003 he joined Occidental de Colombia as a senior reservoir engineer working in the Cano Limon field. Juan Angel is a Senior Petrophysicist working for DCS Colombia Schlumberger. He received a MS degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A & M University College Station in 2000, and BS Degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1995 from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Expertise from five different locations around the world (Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Angola, USA) where he has been involved in open hole and cased hole logging analysis as well as borehole reservoir engineering for a major service company. Xavier Goddyn works for Schlumberger as a log analyst, with 16 years in the industry. He was a field engineer for Baker Hughes Inteq (West Africa), Geosteering and software engineer for Georex (North Africa, Venezuela). He joined Schlumberger 11 years ago as a log analyst in Libya. Currently is a Petrophysicist supporting wireline interpretation for Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. He has a MSc of Geological Engineering from IGAL (France, 1996). Cesar Patio is a Senior Petrophysicist working for Ecopetrol. He has 15 years working in Formation Evaluation. He has held positions as Schlumberger Field Service Manager (Latin America-Africa-Europe), Weatherford Operations manager (Latin America) in the Wireline segment, and worked with Oxy and Ecopetrol in their Reservoir department. He currently gives support to all Colombia basins, and international reservoir characterization projects. Cesar holds a BS Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Universidad Industrial de Santander in 1997.