Petrophysical Interpretation

Core calibrated petrophysical models are the cornerstone of a reliable reservoir model. Did you know that these models can also be calibrated using data generated from drill cuttings samples? The particle by particle nature of Automated Mineralogical analysis addresses the inherent limitations of heterogeneous mediums such as drill cuttings.  

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Accurate, quantitative automated mineralogy data from drill-cuttings and core pseudo-cuttings reduces uncertainty by allowing for formation- and facies-specific shale, clay, and mineralogy modeling parameters resulting in high-confidence reservoir models.

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The automated mineralogy provides mineral abundance, lithofacies, and porosity information that is used for multiple applications including:

• Estimating the effective porosity from the images of the mineral and clay pores.

• Identifying similar lithofacies within a well, and between wells, based only on cuttings data. This information helps with reservoir modeling as well as with drilling and completion operations and planning.

• Determining the fraction of clean matrix, dispersed shaly matrix, silty matrix, and mudstone lithofacies within the sampling interval. This is used to build more accurate shale volume, porosity and saturation models.

• Calculation of a mechanical anisotropy index based on the contrast in the brittle vs ductile, and grain-supported vs matrix-supported properties of the lithofacies measured from the cuttings.