Borehole image electrofacies with a comparative carbonate petrography analysis: An outcrop well study associated with reservoir application in the Ordovician Tarim Basin

Abstract

Electrical borehole image logs have the potential for direct interpretation of lithofacies characteristics. The challenge is to establish a set of reliable diagnostic criteria with which electrical images can be correlated to lithofacies features such as lithology, sedimentary structures, and bedding sequences. We used the “behind-outcrop” logging procedure that can link borehole images to actual rocks and also reduce errors that are associated with core-shift process. To better reveal the correlation between borehole images and carbonate lithofacies for subsurface reservoir applications, and also make a comparative petrographic analysis with the aim of establishing diagnostic criteria for borehole images, a 200 m well was drilled in the Tarim Ordovician outcrop. A full set of borehole image data and cores with approximately 100% coring recovery rate was acquired at the same depth interval, and more than 100 stained thin sections were prepared. Electrical borehole images in wells adjacent to the outcrop were further interpreted to validate the proposed criteria. Borehole image electrofacies were established according to the image elements, such as stacked mode, bed thickness, conglomerate diameter, rim characteristics, and internal structure of bed/conglomerate, to interpret depositional/diagenetic textures and platform-slope associations. Nine image electrofacies types, corresponding to mud/wacke/pack/grain/bindstone texture, were identified and interpreted in detail. Our method reveals a set of diagnostic criteria for borehole image interpretation in carbonate platform slope, and it finally provides a powerful tool for direct interpretation of electrical images in similar reservoir environment.