Horizontal well production logging in heavy oil

A case study presented by the SPE on advances in production logging.

Flow regimes in horizontal production wells typical of heavy oil SAGD operations can be quite different from those of vertical wells; further production logging in horizontal wells can be challenging due to variations in the wellbore and completions such as slotted liners and sand screens. 

SPE paper 105327 presents a production logging case study that used an advanced production logging tool integrated with an extra spinner and pulse neutron tool. The authors site good results at measuring fluid hold up and velocities. With the integration of the pulse neutron log, they were able to detect that the annulus space between the open hole and sand screen was filled with sand and were able to better detect fluid entries. One key finding of the study was that a single spinner in multiphase horizontal flow could not adequately determine velocities of each phase thus the need for a more advanced integrated tool approach to production logging.

As conventional production logging tools developed for vertical wells can have challenges in horizontal heavy oil production wells, this advanced logging approach looks very promising.

Kambiz.