Core Photography Studio

The answer to the above is not necessarily a single reason but an accumulation of improvements whose sum is largely beneficial to the operator.

In a first place, the Core Studio Photography service provides a permanent and continuous core record image before transport and before any alteration to the core. Such data can be crucial given that it is likely that the core might be extensively sampled to provide plugs for CCA, preserved samples for SCA, geochemistry and biostratigraphy, and then slabbed prior to sedimentology. During these processes core is not lost but it is no longer possible to visualize the core as a continuous section.

The Core Studio Photography service was developed by Kirk Petrophysics. The essence is that core photos can be taken at the well site as soon as the core is recovered. The service can impact on the immediate well operations and reservoir development from a number of standpoints, depending upon specific circumstances.

The importance of the immediate photos is particularly relevant to the UV images. The ultra violet light highlights hydrocarbon zones by causing most oils to fluoresce in shades ranging from orange brown for heavy oils to bright yellow for light gravity oils; condensates can appear as a very white to blue colour. The intensity of the fluorescence diminishes with time; this means that UV photographs taken after a core has been transported and slabbed could have a different fluorescence pattern compared to the original photos. This can lead to a misinterpretation as to the amount and distribution of hydrocarbons in the core. The UV fluorescence can provide a guide for the horizons to be used for fluid sampling and even as a guide for perforation program.

Furthermore, when a core reaches the surface it is often the subject of intense examination. Those at the well site are often required to communicate their impressions to colleagues, in the office, and project partners.

The views conveyed can influence operational decisions such as whether to continue coring or to make an alteration to the logging suite. The images can also be used to confirm or refute the anticipated geological prognosis for the well. In many cases, being able to confer with colleagues, whilst both parties can see the object under discussion, is more likely to lead to a successful conclusion. This point is particularly important when the well is being drilled in a remote location where any future work on the core may be weeks or months away. The ability to transfer the image to the ‘well team’ has resulted in instances when oil shows, at the base of a core, meant that rather than drilling ahead, coring was continued past the point where it was originally planned.

In a similar instance, images sent from the well site have been responsible for a decision to suspend running an imaging log when the core revealed an absence of fractures that had been anticipated by the geological model.

Last but not least, the Core Studio Photography images will offer the opportunity to conduct a very efficient and rational core plugging and SCAL sampling, either at the rig site or later in the lab. The images will speed up the process by helping to identify zones of interest. The Core Studio Photography output is a flexible format, continuous log offering the opportunity to integrate various comments and data such as E-logs, lithological descriptions, Image Logs, etc