Overcoming Complex Geosteering Challenges in the Cardium Reservoir of the Foothills of Canada to Increase Production Using an Instrumented Mud Motor with Near Bit Azimuthal Gamma Ray and Inclination
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract The Cardium Formation is a conventional sandstone reservoir in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The Cardium Formation is currently at a phase of exploitation requiring long horizontal penetrations and large-scale, multi-stage, fracture stimulation to ensure productivity. In the Canadian Foothills, the Cardium is complexly deformed and naturally fractured. Correctly placed horizontal wellbores take advantage of these natural fracture systems which create permeability pathways resulting in extremely prolific wells. To maximize production and effective reservoir drainage, horizontal wellbores need to be drilled to intersect multiple natural fracture networks within the deformed Cardium reservoir. Sub-seismic scale folds and faults result in rapid changes in reservoir bedding orientation and/or position which requires sensitive geosteering responsiveness in order to create an optimal reservoir penetration. The Cardium reservoir exhibits good gamma contrast and predictable character. Therefore, gamma ray has been shown to be an effective tool for geosteering. An innovative instrumented mud motor that provides azimuthal gamma ray and continuous inclination 2.7m from the bit was used for successfully geosteering several wells, and has proven to be a vital component in the horizontal drilling process. For example, a common geological scenario can result in a 5° change in apparent bedding orientation relative to the wellbore resulting in the wellbore exiting the reservoir. Reservoir re-entry can occur as quickly as 30.5m when using the instrumented mud motor compared to 56.4m when using a conventional gamma sensor positioned 15.2m behind the bit. The instrumented mud motor works by wirelessly transmitting the azimuthal gamma ray and continuous inclination measurements via short hop communication to the MWD (Measurement While Drilling) system from where it is transmitted to the surface realtime. This paper describes the complex Cardium reservoir in the Canadian Foothills and presents the unique challenges faced when attempting to geosteer and optimize wellbore positioning within the reservoir. We review the near bit instrumented mud motor and discuss the workflow of how data was used from the instrumented mud motor to help with geosteering the well. Finally, we compare the results from several wells drilled using the instrumented mud motor to those drilled using a standard MWD gamma located 15.2m behind the motor. The use of the instrumented mud motor with near bit azimuthal gamma ray and continuous inclination proved to be a successful geosteering tool in one of the most complex environments of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Additional footage in zone and increased production in this complex geological environment displays the tool's capibilities and the benefits it could provide to other areas of the basin.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".