Application of four-component dipole shear reflection imaging to interpret the geological structure around a deviated well

Abstract

Acoustic reflection imaging in deep water wells is a new application scope for offshore hydrocarbon exploration. Two-dimensional (2D) geological structure images can be obtained away from a one-dimensional (1D) borehole using single-well acoustic reflection imaging. Based on the directivity of dipole source and four-component dipole data, one can achieve the azimuth detection and the three-dimensional (3D) structural information around the wellbore can be obtained. We first perform matrix rotation on the field four-component data. Then, a series of processing steps are applied to the rotated dipole data to obtain the reflector image. According to the above dipole shear-wave imaging principle, we used four-component cross-dipole logging data from a deviated well in the South China Sea to image geological structures within 50 m of a deviated well, which can delineate the structural configuration and determine its orientation. The configuration of near-borehole bedding boundaries and fault structures from shear-wave imaging results agrees with those from the Inline and Xline seismic profiles of the study area. In addition, the configuration and orientation of the fault structure images are consistent with regional stress maps and the results of the borehole stress anisotropy analysis. Furthermore, the dip azimuth of the bedding boundary images was determined using borehole wall resistivity data. Results of this study indicate that integrating borehole acoustic reflection with seismic imaging not only fi lls the gap between the two measurement scales but also accurately delineates geological structures in the borehole vicinity.