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Abstract This article not only confirms Myers and van Siclen's
anomalies in shale compaction by bulk density measure-
Continuous bulk density tests on shale cuttings while
drilling have shown reverse anomalies in normal increase ments, but also presents a field application for indicating the
in shale compaction. These reversals from normal density o presence of low-density, over-pressured shales while drilling
f shale indicate the entrance into abnormally high pore and predicting the approach to these dangerous zones. By
pressure shale. Deviation numbers from the normal den- reducing the analysis time from approximatlly 15 hours to less
sity can be used to calculate both accurate mud weights as than 10 minutes, a continuous plot of den-sity trends may be
drilling proceeds and a more advantageous casing point in kept as close to the bit as the lag time of the mud column.
deeper drilling.
The main objective of this type of logging is safety, but
three functions emerge as being particularly important to a
Introduction cost-conscious industry.
Myers and van Siclen were the first to publish work' to 1 . By setting casing into the over-pressured shale so that,
demonstrate from actual shale density tests on drilling cut- as mud weight requirements increase with depth, no open
tings the anomalies in shale compaction with depth in the Trull hole having normal pressure will be exposed to the pos-
sibility of breaking down the formation. Proper use of shale-
field, Matagorda County, Tex. They said that shale compaction
density plots with other tools may often save a t least one
does not increase regularly with depth as pre-viously thought string of pipe.
by Athy2 and Hedberg.3 Also, sands associ-ated with reversals
2. As long as a normal trend of compaction is being plot-
in density possessed pressures consider-ably higher than ted, drilling should proceed with as light a mud as other
normal hydrostatic pressure. Dickinson' recognized this and drilling indications deem prudent - the lighter the mud, the
also stated that elevated interstitial fluid pressures were faster the hole can be made.
principally caused by compaction where low shale 3. When a low-density shale is penetrated, mud weight
permeability prevented water from completely escaping. requirements can be calculated from density plots. These mud
Several paperss1' have recently been written on identi-fying weights are based on interstitial fluid pressures and must be
high-pressure shale zones from electrical surveys by using increased according to hole size and swabbing effect of pipe
resistivity, conductivity, sonic and density log data. Points trips.
chosen from these logs for calculations must be from clean Although the presence of shale with abnormally low
shales without the masking influence of a cal-careous, silty or densities has been noted throughout the Texas-Louisiana Gulf
sandy shale. Close proximity to sand bo-dies from which these Coast, wells selected for study were logged from Ca-meron to
values are taken also affects the cal-culated points. These
LaFourche Parishes, La., and particularly off-shore.
lithological characteristics also affect the general trend line of
physical bulk-density analyses, although the fluctuations are
offset by the larger number of analyses consistently taken as Shale Density Analysis Procedure
drilling progresses. Several approaches of analysis and instrumentation used at
According to Rogers,' Shell Oil Co. uses a drilling rate the start of this work were subsequently discarded due to
system of anticipating high-pressure shale zones by noting weaknesses in methods or in poor field operations. Such
trends toward increased penetration rates. This is confirmed systems as liquid displacements, liquids graduated in spe-cific
by resistivity and sonic logging. gravity and even a scale based on Archimedes' prin-ciple gave
varying data depending on interfacial tension, gas trapped in
Original manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers shale particles, temperature and irregular sample surfaces.
office Also, the field use of many of these techniques was
Narch 31, 1967. Manuscript approved f o r publication J u n e 8, 1967. P a - undependable. The bulk volume measure-ment was finally
rser was presented a t Spring Meeting of t h e Southern District, Division
of Production, American Petroleum Institute, held in New Orleans, L a accepted and proved reproducible to within less than 1 percent
Feb. 27-March 1, 1967. 0 Copyright 1967 American Institute of ini in$: accuracy.
Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc .
'References given a t end of paper.
N O V E M B E R , 1967
30-lb pressure gauge is attached. Although mercury is used as
a displacement fluid to compress the air around the shale
cuttings, it never touches the sample.
With the scale marker on the pump backed off to the starting
reference point, an empty plastic sample cup is placed in the
chamber, which is then closed. The pump is screwed forward
until an exact reading of 24 Ib is reached on the pressure
gauge. A compression reading in cubic centimeters is taken
from the linear and vernier scales and captioned P,. Air
pressure is released and the pump is backed off to the starting
reference point. The cup is filled with prepared shale cuttings
and weighted in grams. Again the cup is placed in the top
chamber, which is then closed. The pump is screwed forward
Fig. 1-Mercury pump used in determining bulk volume of s l d e again, compressing air in the chamber until 24 lb is reached on
cuttings. the pressure gauge. A second compression reading in cubic
centimeters is taken from the vernier and linear scales and
Regardless of analysis consideration, it was found that captioned P,. The difference between P, and P, in cubic
preparing cuttings samples taken from the shale shaker proved centimeters gives the volumc of shale cuttings. A known weight
to be extremely important. For the analysis proce-dure, in grams divided by the volume in cubic centimeters gives
density. The usual shale sample weight is approximately 25 gm,
approximately 1 qt of cuttings is taken from a spe-cified
or about 2,000 individual shale chips. Total analysis time is 10
interval every 10 to 30 ft, depending on drilling rate. Mud is minutes.
washed from the cuttings with a series of screens which
remove longer pieces and slivers of shale. The larger cuttings
may be sloughing or caving; compara-tive density data Description
showed the finer sizes to be much more consistent. Samples For the problem of defining high-pressure shales from
caught on a No. 20 screen are dried on paper towels and then density measurements, it must be understood that data obtained
blown with warm air until the sur-face water sheen reduces to from shale cuttings are believed to be altered from the original
a dark, dull appearance. A sample weighing 25 gm is placed in state. Consistent relative data are poss~ble only if alterations
a small cup for a bulk volume measurement. The bulk of the caused by mud effects arc kept to a mini-mum. Intervals where
cuttings is measured in a high-pressure mercury pump (Fig. 1) cuttings are retained in the mud sys-tem longer than a normal
by the Kobe system on a Boyle's law principle. The pump is lag-time period usually show some swelling, and become less
machine calibrated to 0.01-cc increment displacement. A dense. These samples us-
i f 11
J O U R NAL O F PE T R O LE U M TECIINOLOGY
ually drop below the normal trend line and, if not noted, may these points would not give a true conductivity of the shale at
indicate that a high-pressure shale has been penetrat-ed. that depth.
These differences in density measurements in a normally
Shales that tend to swell and disintegrate are normally compacting shale section make it diffcult to establish a normal
logged as gumbo and are unreliable indicators because they line through the points if too thin a section has been measured.
have very low density. These shales will virtually wash away Usually, by averaging densities a t 100-ft intervals, a
in preparation, and the sample will have abnormally low compaction trend becomes obvious and is trans-ferred to the
density. detail plot. Due to the normal density varia-tions found in a
The extreme fluctuation in most data through a normal trend section having multiple sand and shaly sand bodies, a
line, particularly higher density, is caused by lime or sand in minimum of 1,000 ft is usually required for a thorough study.
the shale or by the shale's proximity to sand bo-dies. These Enough density points were plotted through this interval
dense, limy shales are reflected to some extent in electric log
length to establish definitely a re-liable compaction trend that
resistivity curves. Sandy samples give some-what less dense
data than limy. Great care was taken to wash and screen all allowed an obvious identi-fication of low-density reversals.
sand grains from the shale cuttings; even then, shales Even when density rever-sals from the trend are not abrupt,
associated with sands abruptly increased in density. I t is the the lack of data fluc-tuation indicates a transition zone as
author's opinion that shales are more dense when close to sand evidenced by the cleaner or purer shales usually found in these
bodies because more water has been squeezed out into the sections. Sometimes due to poor timing, a much shorter zone
sand bodies. Wallace," in his work on selecting electric log must be logged to set casing properly down through the top of
points for calculating for-mation pressure, stated that silty or a high-pressure shale zone. From experience in South Lou-
limy shales or shales within 10 ft of a sand body should be isiana and its offshore areas, a brief logging interval that
avoided. Obviously produced a bulk density of 2.35 at 14,000 ft immediately
-- I 0 8 €LOG CSG
N I T S --
-
- 1
-
18 4 - I
g 1 -----
-*---4
--
I
---- 17,000'
I-to
*
-
- c--- - ---
-L
+- - --
1
1 .
,
18,000'
3 4 5 6 78910
0 - 1 0 0 AVERAGESA-LOW DENSITY IN INTERVAL
Fig. 3-Mud weight calculations vs mud used and trip gas-shortnormal trcnd below low-density zone.
N O V E M B E R , 1967
caused concern and necessitated a review of the casing and mud weight required in pounds per gallon. As the well deepens
mud program. Without a comparative line of data, this 2.35 at 13,800 ft, the difference in the low density and the normal
shale density figure must be free of gumbo char-acteristics and line intersections is 0.17 gm/cc, which is 16.0 lb/gal. Note that
ash. In logging short zones, the benefit of seeing what the calculated mud weights are from 0.3 to 1.3 lb below those
alteration the particular type of mud and lag time have on the being used. As casing becomes smaller with sands present in
shale is lost, even though at this depth a range of normal the open hole, the overbal-ance in mud weight is necessary.
density would be from 2.45 to 2.55 gm/cc in the area under
study. The trip gas shows some high readings although these were
dissipated quickly after the swabbing effect of making a trip
was finished. At 17,180 h, a deviation of 0.37 gm/cc indicated a
Interpretation of Results mud weight of 18.6 lb/gal. It is felt that some overbalance was
Typical Low-Density Reversal present here as the trip gas indicated less than 10 units. However,
In selecting wells logged for shale density, an attempt was lack of sand development may be the reason for so little gas
made to use as wide a variation of situations as possible evidence. The trend line is proceeding to a 2.80 den-sity, which is
without reiteration. The well in Fig. 2 is typical of the deeper not realist~c.In fact, the trend of shale com-paction at these depths
density reversals. The fluctuation of density points from should theoretically be a slight curve diminishing in density with
depth.
11,000 to 13,500 ft is the result of shale character above the
base of the main sand development as discussed. The three In Fig. 2 at 14,050 ft the deviation from the normal line was
high readings at 13,300 ft were from a limy shale; this reading 0.14 gm/cc, indicating a 15.4 lb/gal mud weight. Thls seemed
is found at the top of a majority of high-pressure zones. This closely balanced, at least from the back-ground gas and trip
vertical cap may be used as a marker when the entrance to the gas as well as the pressure calculated later from the electric
low-density zone is trou-blesome. log by the oil company engineer. However, as the differential
increased between the mud used and that calculated from the
An excellent correlation between bulk density and elec-tric
density chart, less back-ground gas and trip gas was in
log conductivity is noted on the well in Fig. 2. The drop in
evidence. The chart in Fig. 4 is an empirical calculation, based
density was noted at the wellsite within 3 hours after drilling. on experience in South Louisiana, which seems to indicate near-
As the zone was penetrated, density points became more balance mud weights. It is important to establish a good, normal
constant as they proceeded below the trend line; the greater the com-paction trend from which the deviations are taken. It is
departure from the normal trend line, the higher mud weight significant that the calculated mud weights are consistent from
requirements. Gas from the mud seemed well within normal within 0.3- to 1.2 lb/gal mud weight - the range is necessary to
limits, although an in-creased mud weight from 15.5 to 16.8 lb establish some equilibrium in the varying hole conditions shown.
was thought necessxy by the operator after monitoring 650
units of gas following the trip at 14,150 ft. With the casing set
into the shale section at 13,700 ft, no break down of the for- Short Logging Intervals
mation was noted as the mud weight was ultimately raised to From the varying normal compaction slopes, calculating
17.3 Ib/gal. mud weights is marginal in very short intervals where no
SHALE RESISTIVTY-
BULK DENSITY (am/cc) AMPLIFIED SHORT NORMAL
Fig. 5-Tdentifica~ion of high-pressure sl~alewith nu true trend line and varying mud weight qlculations.
10,500'
I TRIP GAS 10.500'
10 8
-.
I-
b4 B- -50--UNITS -- ---
-
1 SAND)' I 12.500'
1 0 UNITS
5 0 UNITS
1 I d""5 1 I L
References
1. Myers, H. L. and van Siclen, I). C.: "Dynamic Phenomena
of Scdiment Compaction in Matogorda County, Texas", Trans.,
Gulf Coast Assn. Geol. Soc. (1964) XIV, 241-252.
LAthy, L. F.: "Density, Porosity and Compaction of Sedimcn-tary
Rocks", Bull., AAPG (1930) 14, 1-24.
11. Timko, D. J.: "Practical Application of Log Calculated Pres-sures
as an Aid to Solving Drilling Problems", Log Analyst, SPWLA
(1965) VI, No. 3, 37-54.
12. Murray, A. S. and Cunningham, R. A.: "Effect of Mud
Column Pressure on Drilling Rates", Trans., AIME (1955) 204,
196-204.