A Novel Work Flow of Density-Log Normalization for Coalbed-Methane Wells: An Example From the Surat Basin in Australia

Abstract

Summary In coalbed-methane (CBM) projects, conventional logs, such as density were used heavily for coal identification, coal-property derivation, and also potentially for coal ranking. This paper presents a novel work flow of density-log normalization for CBM wells. It addresses two major challenges to current normalization methods: absence of a pervasive reference layer and removal of geological effects after normalization. To overcome these disadvantages, the proposed work flow undertakes six steps, which are data quality control (QC), geological-area segmentation, subarea type-well selection, density-control points, variable linear transformation and normalized-log result QC with box plots, matrix crossplots, and several histograms. This work flow removes the systematic errors caused by acquiring logs at different times with different logging instruments provided by different vendors. Furthermore, it possesses the advantages of the automated QC work flow, type-well control, and reference-layer methods without incurring their respective disadvantages. It was applied successfully to approximately 600 wells covering a large area in the Surat basin of Australia. Proper log normalization will reduce the uncertainties involved in 3D geological modeling and will increase the accuracy of reservoir evaluation. This paper should therefore be of interest to petrophysicists and geologists involved in CBM-field characterization.