Well log characterization of natural gas-hydrates

Abstract

In the last 25 years there have been significant advancements in the use of well-logging tools to acquire detailed information on the occurrence of gas hydrates in nature: whereas wireline electrical resistivity and acoustic logs were formerly used to identify gas-hydrate occurrences in wells drilled in Arctic permafrost environments, more advanced wireline and logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools are now routinely used to examine the petrophysical nature of gas-hydrate reservoirs and the distribution and concentration of gas hydrates within various complex reservoir systems. Resistivity- and acoustic-logging tools are the most widely used for estimating the gas-hydrate content (i.e., reservoir saturations) in various sediment types and geologic settings. Recent integrated sediment coring and well-log studies have confirmed that electrical-resistivity and acoustic-velocity data can yield accurate gas-hydrate saturations in sediment grain-supported (isotropic) systems such as sand reservoirs, but more advanced log-analysis models are required to characterize gas hydrate in fractured (anisotropic) reservoir systems. New well-logging tools designed to make directionally oriented acoustic and propagation-resistivity log measurements provide the data needed to analyze the acoustic and electrical anisotropic properties of both highly interbedded and fracture-dominated gas-hydrate reservoirs. Advancements in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging and wireline formation testing (WFT) also allow for the characterization of gas hydrate at the pore scale. Integrated NMR and formation testing studies from northern Canada and Alaska have yielded valuable insight into how gas hydrates are physically distributed in sediments and the occurrence and nature of pore fluids(i.e., free water along with clay- and capillary-bound water) in gas-hydrate-bearing reservoirs. Information on the distribution of gas hydrate at the pore scale has provided invaluable insight on the mechanisms controlling the formation and occurrence of gas hydrate in nature along with data on gas-hydrate reservoir properties (i.e., porosities and permeabilities) needed to accurately predict gas production rates for various gas-hydrate production schemes.