Improved Density-Neutron acquisition in Air Filled Boreholes CWLS 1002

$10.00

Dave Curwen, Jim Hayward Suncor Inc., Resources
Group
Steve Crary, Doug Hardman Schlumberger

Abstract

Air hole drilling has been popular in North America for a long time. The first oil wells drilled were with air, and it is estimated that in 1994 air drilling represented 20% of the total number of wells drilled in North America. Many of these wells are drilled in the North East Appalachian area and Sonora area in West Texas which have historically been popular areas for air drilling. However, there are indications that air hole drilling may become a more popular future technique. In the past, the main advantage of air hole drilling was cost savings, but in the future a primary application may be to reduce formation damage in sensitive gas reservoirs. The examples in this paper are from Western Canada where Air Hole drilling has not been widely used in the past.