Significance of Advanced Cuttings Evaluation (ACE) Technologies for Chemostratigraphy Purposes While Drilling; Technology Overview & Applications
Authors: El Sherbeny Wael , Nuic Ivo , Madkour Ali 
Published: September 2015

Mud loggers are the first (and sadly in some cases the only) people to look at the cuttings. To actually see what the rocks look like, feel like, occasionally even taste. Most people looking at a well will actually look at “wriggly lines” or at best the cuttings descriptions from the loggers or geologist, two or three lines of abbreviations “claystone, light grey to grey, soft to firm, occasionally hard, slightly calcareous, trace fine sand”. We have all read them, many of us have written them. These descriptions are incredibly useful and valuable, they are often all we have to understand the actual rocks and geology, especially with older wells. But in a world where we now enter the description and draw the logs with a computer, this information still comes from the subjective view of the logging geologist peering through a microscope

In recent years, several tools have been developed to analyze drill cuttings from oil and gas wells. The most commonly used tools include X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), bulk density, and pyrolysis. Although each of these tools can be used to develop a limited determination of the in-situ rock character, the combination of three of these tools (XRF, SEM/EDX, and pyrolysis) can provide a more comprehensive picture of formation properties.

The combination of XRF analysis with the SEM/EDX analysis is the key to the cuttings workflow. The exact location within the borehole can be determined and a robust mineralogy developed that is independent of normative mineralogy (typical XRF) or operator-interpretive mineralogy (XRD). Additional outputs include relative brittleness index, bulk density, lithology, fractional and textural relationships, total organic carbon (TOC) proxy, and a new porosity index. Trace and major elemental ratios are also available for precise stratigraphic placement. The addition of cuttings pyrolysis enables hydrocarbon typing, producible hydrocarbons, TOC, and total inorganic carbon (TIC) within each sample to be established.

Chemical Lithostratigraphy uses whole rock inorganic geochemical (elemental) data, to give information on: Extrabasinal source area dominance and origin (volcanic, metamorphics, igneous, sedimentary), Extrabasinal component weathering or diagenesis (cementation) Intrabasinal components (Palaeo-environment and insitu origin of sediments) Chemical Lithostratigraphy analysis of cuttings can be done either in the laboratory or at the rig site using technology advanced Surface Logging Services (SLS) that includes both XRF and XRD equipment, in additions to SEM and Pyrolysis. Where an appropriate protocols uses for cuttings fraction that are most depth representative

With the growing interest in hydraulically fracturing reservoirs both in main land USA and now globally, there has been a growing need to better characterize the reservoir to maximize hydrocarbon recovery while also reducing the overall cost in the recovery of the hydrocarbon. With current fracc-ing regimes relying on a large number of stages to ensure maximum recovery, which in many cases leads to upwards of 30% of these stages being unproductive. This reduces the overall profitability of the well even with maximum hydrocarbon recovery. With the ongoing development of automated mineralogy tools, such as the RoqSCAN, there is now the ability to characterize a reservoir at the well-site in real-time and also rapidly in a laboratory.

In this paper we will review the current development of these mobile and ruggedized instruments using a real life project for Eagleridge Energy LLC, on their Burgess lateral well. The paper will show the application of automated mineralogical analysis of cuttings samples pre-drilling in defining stratigratic zones via mineralogy/elemental data. And then explore the application of the same data to assist, and in this case lead, the decision making process during directional drilling of the lateral well. The paper will also look at the use of the technology in defining tactical fracc-ing zone based on rock properties (e.g. ductility) determined from the mineralogical, elemental and textural data.

This paper will show that through the use of automated mineralogical instruments, companies can pro-actively steer wells by identifying mineral changes within lateral borehole, indicating a deviation from the target zone. Additionally, this type of technology can be used to reactively steer by its ability to rapidly identification subsurface changes, such as unknown (undetected) faults. Finally the paper will show that through the better characterization of this reservoir companies can reduce the risk associated with the drilling of expensive lateral wells.