UNIVERSITY OF ZAKHO

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF PETROLEUM

Well logging essay

About: resistivity log

Prepared By: Amir sabah Khalid

Supervisor By: Mr.Rezdar Daneshvar

2021/10/12
Introduction:

Resistivity log is one of the important methods of logging wells,

and by using a resistivity log it is possible to know the type of
fluids ( water or oil ), and even in drilling operations to see if it is
dry well or production well. So THE RESISTIVITY LOG is used to
measure the resistivity of rocks, and it is unit is Ω.m.

And to know how the resistivity log works:

As it is shown in figure 1 which is a figure of resistivity log tools,

here, a sonde which is connected to the wireline is lowered in
the wellbore, this sonde has a source of electrical current and
short spacing detector and long spacing detector, so the way that
the processes work with, is that the source which is in the sonde
as it’s shown in the figure, sends electrical current to the
formation, when this current reach the formation, so the
resistivity log depends on sending an electrical current to the
formation and then measuring the velocity of the electrical
current through the formation, and then it measures the
resistivity of the formation to the passage of the current. As we
know the formation consists of four main elements which are
(rock, water, oil, gas) each one of them has its resistivity for
example if we brought a core plug to the surface and do an
experiment on it we will see that the resistivity value of the rock
alone is 50 for example and when we inject saltwater in it, our
resistivity will decrease to 10 because the saltwater is a
conductive element in the formation, and if inject oil in the
formation the resistivity will increase from 10 to 40 for example
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so if the porosity of the formation was high and saturated with oil
then the resistivity will increase and we can have this
information by using the resistivity log information also. So when
we send an electrical current to the formation it will reflect the
detectors and send the information to the surface, at the surface
there is a logging unit that analyses data and shows all the
properties of the formation if it’s a poor reservoir or production
reservoir.

Figure (1)

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How the data are shown in the logging unit after a resistivity
log is done?

As I mentioned before after the detectors get the data they

transmit them to the surface by the wireline to the logging unit
and to show them and show them in the computers and to know
the behavior if the formation at all the parts of the wellbore we
use three curves which are (LLs , LLd , MSFL ) as shown in
figure 2 these curves let us differentiate between the three
regions which are ( shallow , transition zone , deep zone ) the
MSFL zone show the shallow zone and LLs show the transition
zone and LLd shows the deep zone , so if we clarify this track
from the top of the wellbore to the depth of 12,450 we can see
three line the first on is the bold line which is MSFL and it shows
Rxo, and the second one is dashed line but the dashes are small
and close to each other this is LLs and the third dash line is LLd
( which show Rt )we can see that MSFL is the less one and that
show the shallow zone and the LLs is coming next and it is in the
middle and it shows the transition zone and we can see that in
some places LLs (transition zone) and LLd (deep zone ) are
merged in some places that means there is small transition zone
or no transition zone . And if the transition zone was big that
means the porosity is big because the mud entered the formation
and also it is not preferred if the transition zone is big because
that means a lot of the drilling mud entered the formation and
make it dirt with the mud, all if that can be clarified by this track.

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In conclusion, the resistivity log is very important because it
helps us to know the properties of the formation in each part of
the wellbore and that is very important to make the dissection if
we will start production or not because it tells us if the well is
Valid to extract or not.

Figure (2)

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Conclusion:

because reservoirs are deep in the subsurface it’s impossible to

get information’s about the rock properties, the data’s that we
get from well logging help us determine things like porosity,
permeability, lithology, quality and quantity of the hydrocarbons
present in the reservoir.

One type of these logs is Resistivity logs and they are helpful in
determining the porosity of a rock, Used in the search of
hydrocarbons.

Also Used for correlating the data of different wells on the basis
of resistivity curves. Resistivity logs can also be used as
Lithology Indicator and Find out the quantity of hydrocarbons is
present in the subsurface. Bed resolution can be noted by this
log.

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