Practical Well Log Standards Project Status Report

Highlights

• User community representation increased with regional SIG Meetings held in Stavanger (March), Aberdeen (May), and Houston (June)
• Progress is being made on the Phase II deliverables 
• A proposal is being developed for a parallel Phase III to define standard names at the tool, log, service level.
• A new web-services enabled query application will lead to a general user query application coupled with a data base of both service company and PWLS information

Topics

• Regional SIG Meetings
• Phase II
• Phase III
• Web Accessible Data Base
• Closing Thoughts

Regional SIG Meetings

In an effort to organize and strengthen the user community for the PWLS standards, regional PWLS SIG meetings were held in three locations in spring of this year, namely, Stavanger, Aberdeen, and Houston. Over fifty participants attended these meeting representing many oil, services, and software companies in the industry. A continuing series of meetings will be conducted at approximately six-month intervals in these locations. Additional locations for PWLS Regional SIG meetings are being considered. [To suggest a location or volunteer to help coordinate a regional meeting, please contact Alan Doniger at Doniger@POSC.org.]

Each meeting followed an agenda of the following form:

• Attendee introductions with statements of PWLS experience and expectations
• Phase I results and usage review
• Phase II status update including detailed discussion of the IId composite and interpreted curve proposal
• Phase III preliminary ideas leading to agreement to formulate a proposal 
• Demonstrations of Web applications and discussion of plans for Web accessibility to a complete PWLS data base and ongoing procedures to keep PWLS up-to-date
• Discussion of the role of the Regional SIGs and agreement to hold meetings about every six months
• Update on progress towards a proposal to resolve the pending Phase I curve nomenclature issue

Phase II

The four parts of Phase II were reviewed followed by a discussion of the status of each part.

• Phase IIa - the addition of old technology tools to the results from Phase I - is progressing through one-on-one work with service companies (Baker Hughes, Halliburton, and Schlumberger). This includes work with Halliburton to complete their Phase I data and Pathfinder to incorporate their tool and curve data for the first time. IIa is a priority part of Phase II and is planned to be completed this year. [To suggest additional service companies whose tool and curve data should be incorporated into PWLS, please contact Alan Doniger at Doniger@POSC.org.]
• Phase IIb and IIc - the addition of new and old technology tools (respectively) for a new series of types of tools - has not gone beyond the publishing of a candidate list of tools late last year. The IIb and IIc tools types are:
  • Cement Evaluation
  • Collar Location
  • Element Analysis
  • Flowmeter
  • Formation Pressure
  • Fluid Density
  • Directional
  • Magnetic
  • Neutron Decay
  • Pressure, Temperature
  • Spectral Gamma Ray
  IIb and IIc are not high priority within Phase II. SIG attendees were asked to send in nominations of high and/or low priority items from the IIb and IIc list (above) to guide this work. [To indicate high or low priority items for IIb and IIc, please contact Alan Doniger at Doniger@POSC.org.]
• Phase IId - a proposal for composited and interpreted well log curves for general usage - was drafted late last year and has iterated from SIG meeting to SIG meeting this spring based on discussion in the meetings and on material submitted between meetings. IId is close to a final draft form, pending input from a couple of additional sources recommended in the Houston meeting. 
  • 19 composited curves, including acoustic, bit size, caliper, density, gamma ray, neutron, resistivity (several), spontaneous potential, concentrations (several), and photoelectric factor.
  • 10 geophysical composited curves, including density, acoustic (several), time-depth, poisson ratio, and bulk modulus.
  • 17 interpreted curves, including net-to-gross ratio, permeability, porosity (gross and net), saturation (several), and rock volume (several).
  The final draft will be circulated and posted for review. After an external review period of a few months, this material will be designated an industry standard.

   

Phase III

There was substantial support for the development of a Phase III proposal to be carried out in parallel with Phase II and to address industry standards for well log nomenclature for general well log data users. The majority of users of well log curve data are not petrophysical experts and are involved in searching out relevant log data for their use. The objectives for Phase III are to address general nomenclature for cataloguing, selecting, procurement, etc. This will be done in a way that meshes with the similar processes for other types of E&P technical data. A second aspect of Phase III will be the creation of industry standards for parameters associated with well log curves.

The proposal will be formulated by the end of July and initial working material will be ready for review at the fall Regional SIG meetings. 

Web Accessible Database

There has been a PWLS prototype web application (found at http://spwla.posc.org/pwlsv1/) for some time. A more recent Web Services enabled application was demonstrated at the spring Regional SIG meetings. This is a pilot of an interface for general curve data users as contrasted with the original web application that was more for expert petrophysicist users. 

POSC is committed to evolving a general user Web interface using pre-defined queries as illustrated in the recent pilot. In addition, POSC will redefine the underlying database to clearly separate service company supplied information from information developed within the PWLS work, such as industry standard curve nomenclature. POSC will introduce a procedure to keep PWLS data current and complete. This procedure will be reviewed at the fall Regional SIG meetings. 

Closing Thoughts

The major accomplishment for 2002 thus far is the formation of a meaningful PWLS user community manifest in the three existing Regional SIGs in Norway, the UK, and the US. Additional Regional SIGs may be formed in regions that demonstrate an interest.

The major accomplishment for the remainder of 2002 is the completion of Phase IIa, IId, and III solidifying the results of Phase I and extending the usefulness of PWLS to a much wider audience with standards for composited curves, interpreted curves, as well as tools / logs themselves.

Appreciation is extended to all those who participate in PWLS. New participants are invited to join the PWLS SIG. The value of this work will be enhanced greatly by the continued expansion of the active user community as well as the continued strong participation of the service companies and software companies.