EUROPA is a facility which provides a service to the Oil & Gas industry for calibrating nuclear logging tools.
The facility provides a wide range of well characterised rock formations in which a variety of logging tools, including those for MWD (measurement while drilling), can be calibrated.
Existing industry standard calibration facilities based on a small set of limestone formations, are far from ideal for application to sandstones accommodating LWD and MWD tools. The facility completed an intensive 3 year R & D programme to characterise the formations prior to being made available for service tool calibration. The calibrations can be extrapolated to field conditions involving, for example tool eccentricity, hole rugosity and mud cake thickness using 'departure curves' generated by a fast and accurate MONTE CARLO software package developed as part of the UK nuclear reactor research programme.
Nuclear techniques are routinely used for measurement of density and porosity and for mineral identification in open borehole as well as providing, almost exclusively, fluid saturations and depth control information through casing. These measurements are made in a hostile and complex environment during drilling and subsequently the quality of information from the measurements is very dependent on the interpretation procedure, owing to the complexity of the tool response to the hole conditions. The starting point to interpretation is a good calibration of tool response.
Oil companies will benefit from increased confidence in economic and field development decisions based on tool measurements and will require the quality assurance from service companies provided by use of EUROPA.
Particular attention is paid to ensuring confidentiality and privacy in the calibration process. Europa Centre Aberdeen Offshore Technology Park Exploration Drive Bridge of Don Aberdeen AB23 8GX Telephone: +44 (0)1224 823734 Facsimile: +44 (0)1224 821581
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