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Wireline Logs Constraint Borehole-to-Surface Resistivity Inversion Method and Water Injection Monitoring Analysis

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Abstract

Detection of the oil–water encroachment front is of great importance to water injection of oil reservoirs. In borehole-to-surface electrical imaging (BSEI), a high-power direct current is applied into a borehole through a well case and the electric potential on the surface, which is affected by the subsurface electrical change, is measured. However, further accurate interpretation of BSEI data is difficult due to the weak surface response, deep target layer, long inversion time, and uncertainty in unconstrained inversion. Therefore, a new method to enhance the surface response of the anomalous body and a new three-dimensional inversion approach based on the damped least-squares method are proposed. Simulation of the water injection and fracturing process was modeled in three dimensions using the finite difference method and the incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient method. The inversion approach was applied by using the log data to construct a layered resistivity model and constrain the inversion. The forward modeling results suggest that the electric potential gradient can enhance the response of electrical variations in the target layer and help estimate the water injection direction, depending on the distance of electrical anomalies and the current source. In actual water injection monitoring, the BSEI inversion results suggest that layered resistivity model constrained three-dimensional inversion can improve the precision and accuracy of the resistivity inversion results and outline the water injection channeled to the adjacent wells.

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Acknowledgements

This study of borehole-to-surface electrical imaging (BSEI) was conducted under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Maojin Tan. Fulai Zhang provided the partial data, and Dr. Ze Bai gave useful advice. We thank Andong Wang, Qian Wang, Junqing Rong, and Yi Yuan for their assistance with the log chart. This work is sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41774144) and National Major Projects “Development of Major Oil & Gas Fields and Coal Bed Methane” (2016ZX05014-001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geophysics and Information Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Qinrun Yang, Maojin Tan & Ze Bai

  2. Key Laboratory of Geo-detection (China University of Geosciences, Beijing), Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100083, China

    Maojin Tan

  3. Beijing Horizontal Hualong Technology Ltd., Beijing, 100049, China

    Fulai Zhang

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  1. Qinrun Yang
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  2. Maojin Tan
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  4. Ze Bai
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Correspondence to Maojin Tan.

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Yang, Q., Tan, M., Zhang, F. et al. Wireline Logs Constraint Borehole-to-Surface Resistivity Inversion Method and Water Injection Monitoring Analysis. Pure Appl. Geophys. 178, 939–957 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-021-02674-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-021-02674-6

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