Introduction to

petrophysics
Lesson 4

edited by P. Vass
for Petroleum Geoengineer MSc Students
 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
As the borehole geophysical measurements (borehole geophysical
logging or well logging) provide the most important data supporting the
work of petrophysicists, the effects of drilling and borehole
environment on the measurements must be studied and known.
The so-called rotary method is generally used for drilling boreholes in
the oil industry, which applies mud circulation between the surface and
the bottom of hole.
The most important consequence
of that method is the invasion of
mud into reservoir formations.

Scheme of the direct circulation mud

rotary drilling

Dr. Léczfalvi Sándor: Kútépítés, Műszaki Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1971

 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
The invasion process
During the drilling process, the hydrostatic pressure of the mud column
has to be kept greater than the pore pressure of the formations
(Pmud > Ppore). This pressure difference prevents the well from blowing
out. At the same time, it also causes the infiltration of liquid component
of the mud, the so-called mud filtrate (mf), into porous and permeable
formations when the drill bit penetrates them.
After the infiltration has been started, the solid particles of the mud
begins to form a deposit called mud cake (mc) on the porous and
permeable surface of the borehole wall. Its thickness is gradually
increasing, which results in decreasing rate of invasion.
Once a thick enough mud cake has developed, it usually has a very low
permeability (of the order of 10-2-10-4 md) so it considerably reduces or
stop the further mud filtrate invasion.
 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
The figure demonstrates the
degradation of the formation caused
by the drilling process.
The over-pressured mud is infiltrating
into the porous and permeable sand
formations while mud cake layers are
depositing along the borehole wall.
The mud filtrate invasion does not take
place at impermeable beds.
But the mud circulation often
produces borehole wash-out (or
cavern) in the shale zones having less
mechanical stability.

Darwin V. Ellis, Julian M. Singer: Well logging for Earth Scientists

 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
The depth of invasion, the rate of invasion and the mud cake thickness are
closely related characteristics of the invasion process, and depend on the
time elapsed since the penetration.
In the beginning the invasion dynamically progresses.
As the mud cake is getting thicker and thicker, the invasion is gradually
slowing down.

After some time the invasion

process practically stops, because
the mud cake has become
impermeable.
(depth of invasion: the radial
thickness of the interval disturbed
by the mud filtrate in the
formation.)

Malcolm Rider: The Geological Interpretation of Well Logs

 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
Very close to the borehole the movable part of the original fluid content
(formation water and/or hydrocarbon) is flushed away by the mud
filtrate.
This zone is referred to as the flushed zone.
If the formation was water-bearing, and the flushing process is
complete, the mud filtrate occupies the place of the movable formation
water in that zone. Only irreducible (or immovable) water bound to the
grains and the pore walls remains in the flushed zone.
If the formation was originally hydrocarbon bearing, only irreducible
hydrocarbon and possibly irreducible water remain in the flushed zone.
Irreducible oil saturation of oil reservoirs typically ranges from 15% to
40%.
 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
Going further from the borehole (behind the flushed zone), the mud
filtrate is not able to completely displace the original fluid, and its ratio
gradually decreases with the distance.
The zone in which both the mud filtrate and the movable original fluid
are present is called transition (or mixed) zone.
The flushed zone and the transition zone together forms the so-called
invaded zone.
Beyond the transition zone the original fluid(s) fill(s) the pore space. The
undisturbed part of the formation is called non-invaded or virgin zone. It
is also known as uncontaminated zone.
 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
The extent of the invasion is characterized by the diameter of invaded
zone and the depth of invasion.

The figure illustrates the

invasion of mud filtrate in a
borehole environment, as well as
the meaning of the parameters
characterizing the extent of
invasion (depth and diameter of
invasion).

Malcolm Rider: The Geological Interpretation of Well Logs

 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
A cross sectional (left) and an axial view of a borehole at a porous and
permeable bed with the zones and the parameters of the zones.

Baker Hughes Inc., Introduction to Wireline Log Analysis

 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
Meanings of the abbreviations used in the notations of different
quantities :

R: resistivity
S: saturation
s: shoulder (or adjacent) impermeable bed
xo: flushed zone, z: transition zone, i: invaded zone
o: non-invaded zone of a water-bearing formation (with a water
saturation of 100 %)
t: non-invaded zone of a hydrocarbon-bearing formation (the water
saturation < 100 %)
h: thickness, d: diameter
m: mud, mf: mud filtrate, mc: mud cake
w: formation (or connate) water
 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
The depth of invasion depends on several parameters among other
things
• the type and the properties of the drilling mud (e.g. the viscosity),
• diameter of the borehole,
• the formation porosity,
• the formation permeability,
• the pressure difference,
• and the time elapsed since the drill bit penetrated the formation.
In general, the invasion is shallow in very porous and permeable
formations, because the mud cake blocking the further filtration rapidly
builds up.
On the contrary, the invasion may be very deep (up to several metres)
in poorly permeable zones, where the formation of mud cake is a slow
process.
 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
The table shows how the depth of invasion changes with the formation
porosity and the borehole size.
Borehole 17 ½ 12 ¼ 8½
size (in) (44.45 cm) (31.115 cm) (21.59 cm) Ratio of the
invasion
diameter to
the
Porosity Depth of invasion (cm)
borehole
(%)
diameter

1–8 200 140 97 10

8 – 20 90 62 43 5
20 – 30 22.5 15.5 11 2
> 30 3 2  1.7 <2

Malcolm Rider: The Geological Interpretation of Well Logs

 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
From the point of view of well logging the deep invasion is
unfavourable, because the mud filtrate significantly influences the value
of the measured quantity.
So, not the effect of the original rock formation is measured but the
effect of the formation contaminated by the mud filtrate.
In order to eliminate the effect of mud filtrate from the measured
values, invasion correction must be applied.

In fractured formations the mud filtrate easily flows into the fractures,
but it may penetrate to a small extent into the non-fractured blocks of
the low-permeability rock.
Therefore, only a small portion of the original formation fluid is
removed by the mud filtrate from the blocks. In this case there is no
real flushed zone in the formation.
 Effect of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
In some hydrocarbon-bearing formations, where the mobility of the
hydrocarbons is significantly greater than that of the free (movable)
formation water, the hydrocarbon moves away faster than the formation
water during the invasion process.
In such a case, an annular zone with a high formation water saturation is
formed right behind the flushed zone. This zone is called annulus.
Since the development of annulus significantly modifies the original
distribution of fluid phases in the formation, it has serious influence on
certain measurements (mostly on measurements based on the principle
of electromagnetic induction).
The effect of an annulus basically depends on the salinity of the
formation water and the radius of the annulus.
Annulus is not a stable zone, because it disappears in time due to
dispersion processes. Its occurrence is very rare, but is a good indicator
of movable oil in the original formation.
 Effect of drilling mud on the borhole
environment

http://petrowiki.org/File%3AVol5_Page_0091_Image_0001.png
 Effect of drilling mud on the borhole
environment
For calculating approximate
corrections to the different
measurements, different models of
the invasion profile are used.
The simplest model is the step
profile.
It includes only the flushed and virgin
zones and has cylindrical symmetry.
The figure shows how a parameter
(here the resistivity) of the model
changes along the radial axis. The
axis of rotation is the borehole axis.
The change is sharp without any
transition.
In fact, this model is the most alien Baker Hughes Inc., Introduction to Wireline Log
from the reality, but its simplicity Analysis
makes it easily applicable.
 Effect of drilling mud on the borhole
environment
The so-called transition profile of
invasion is already composed of
three zones. It has radial symmetry
and has different variants according
to the selection of mathematical
function describing the change of
studied model parameter between
the flushed and virgin zones.
This model and its variants are
closer to the reality.
The most frequently used variant
assumes linear change in the
transition zone.
Baker Hughes Inc., Introduction to Wireline Log
Analysis
 Effect of drilling mud on the borhole
environment
Additional variants of the
transition profile of invasion
assume continuous but not
linear change in the transition
zone.
The transition can be described
by the help of either an
appropriate power function or an
exponential function.

Baker Hughes Inc., Introduction to Wireline

Log Analysis
 Effect of drilling mud on the borhole
environment
The annulus profile of invasion is used for
modelling the a phenomenon which
sometimes (rarely) occurs in oil-bearing
zones.
The movable formation water accumulates
behind the invaded zone in front of the oi-
bearing virgin zone.
Generally, the salinity of formation water in
such cases higher than the salinity of mud
filtrate, so a conductive annular ring comes
into being.
The model presented in the figure applies
stepwise change in the resistivity between
the different cylindrical regions.
The development of annulus always
indicates the presence of oil in the virgin
zone and the original (not disturbed by Baker Hughes Inc., Introduction to Wireline Log
former production in its environment) state Analysis
of the reservoir.
 Effects of drilling mud on the borehole
environment

Invasion profile of a water bearing formation for water-based mud

Sxo= Swirr + Smf =1 (or 100%) : water saturation of the flushed zone
Smf: mud filtrate saturation
Swirr : irreducible water saturation
SW= Swirr + Swmov : formation water saturation
Swmov: saturation of moveable formation water
 Effects of drilling mud on the borehole
environment

Invasion profile of a hydrocarbon bearing formation for water-based mud.

Sxo < 1 (or 100%)

Shc = Shcirr + Shcmov : hydrocarbon saturation
Shcmov : moveable hydrocarbon saturation
Shcirr : irreducible hydrocarbon saturation
 Effects of drilling mud on the borehole
environment
Saturation relationships in the case of a hydrocarbon-bearing formation:
Sxo = 1 – Shcirr water saturation of the flushed zone
Shc = 1 – Sw hydrocarbon saturation of the uninvaded zone
Shc = Shcirr + Shcmov total hydrocarbon saturation
Shcmov = Shc – Shcirr = 1 – SW – (1 – Sxo) = Sxo – Sw
POI = eff  Shcmov = eff  (Sxo – Sw)
Producible Oil Index (POI) (also called moveable oil index):
gives the ratio of the movable hydrocarbon volume to the total reservoir
rock volume. It is a useful index of probable recoverability.
The equations above indicate that the petrophysical parameters of both
zones (the flushed and uninvaded zones) have key roles in assessing the
available hydrocarbon resources of a reservoir.
 Exercise
Let us imagine that a mud cake has built up on the borehole wall of a
reservoir interval. The process has resulted in expelling some amount of
mud filtrate from the mud into the formation.
Both the mud and the mud cake are made up of water and solid clay
particles. Let us regard the mud filtrate as water without solid
components for the sake of simplification. So, the portion of the mud
which has lost mud filtrate forms the mud cake.
Calculate the diameter of invasion (di) by taking into account the following
data. Let us neglect the presence of transition zone now (step profile).
Thus, the invaded zone is reduced to the flushed zone (where the effective
pore space filled with mud filtrate).
 Exercise
Thickness of mud cake, hmc = 0.5 in. Diameter of borehole, dh = 6 in.
Volume fraction of water ("porosity") in the mud, φm = 80%
Volume fraction of water ("porosity") in the mud cake, φmc = 40%
Effective porosity of the formation φeff = 20%
After the invasion process has stopped, the following equation can be
written for the unit thickness of the formation :
(ri2 – rh2)eff = dV

where ri is the radius of invasion,

rh is the radius of borehole,
dV is the volume of water (mud
filtrate) expelled from the mud into
the unit thickness of the formation.

Solution:
di= 12.08 in.