SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010
A NEW THREE-DETECTOR 1-11/16-INCH PULSED NEUTRON TOOL
FOR UNCONVENTIONAL RESERVOIRS
Weijun Guo, Larry Jacobson, Jerome Truax, Daniel Dorffer and Shan Kwong,
Halliburton
Copyright 2010, held jointly by the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log
Analysts (SPWLA) and the submitting authors.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPWLA 51st Annual Logging
Symposium held Perth, Australia, June 19-23, 2010.
ABSTRACT
A new pulsed-neutron capture (PNC) logging tool has
been constructed that replaces Halliburtons TMD-L
tool and includes a third detector located ten inches
beyond the traditional far detector spacing. The distant
detector of the TMD-3D tool provides a deeper-
reading set of count rates with larger formation gas
response and an additional sigma measurement, each
with reduced environmental effects. This allows
greatly improved determinations of gas saturation.
Dense crystals and fast detector and electronics
technologies provide higher count rates that improve
statistical quality of the measurements, while reducing
the magnitude of dead-time corrections. The spacing of
near and far detectors from the source is the same as in
the older PNC tool, which assures a set of sigma and
other log responses essentially unchanged. Thus,
ongoing reservoir monitoring programs can shift to the
new technology and continue to obtain results
consistent with the old tools. A complete redesign of
the electronics has significantly improved tool
reliability and tool-to-tool repeatability.
This paper describes the new pulsed-neutron tool and
its performance as a replacement for older technology,
ensuring smooth transition. New measurements
available from the distant detector in addition to the
traditional PNC measurements are assessed for their
ability to address petrophysical concerns of
conventional and unconventional reservoirs, including
evaluation, monitoring, and remediation. A new
method is evaluated for determining gas saturation with
the tool, which is substantiated using lab measurements,
nuclear modeling, and log data. A nuclear modeling
database, accurately benchmarked to lab data, provides
an extensive basis for the new gas saturation algorithm
and for environmental corrections.
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INTRODUCTION
Pulsed-neutron logging has been available to the oil
industry for about forty years, but the list of
measurements and applications provided is still
growing. Recent development of more difficult
reservoirs has inspired further expansion of the list. The
complete list of petrophysical and well-diagnostic
applications is so lengthy that it would occupy many
pages, but the list of measurements available from
cased-hole pulsed-neutron services is manageable.
Each measurement listed below has an accompanying
main application or two, but there are many more.
Formation and borehole thermal neutron capture cross
sections (formation and borehole sigmas) are used for
saturation analysis, monitoring of reservoir fluid J
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contacts, well diagnosis, log-flush-log, and dozens
more applications.
Carbon-oxygen ratio (C/O) is used for saturation
analysis and monitoring of reservoir fluid contacts
where sigma logging is not good enough.
Neutron-capture-based porosity is roughly similar to
open-hole neutron and used in much the same way, for
lithology assessment and gas detection.
Inelastic-neutron-scattering-based porosity is roughly
similar to open-hole density, though it has more
profound gas and lithology dependences.
Combinations of burst-gate count rates and decay-
gate count rates have been used over the years as
porosity measurements or indicators.
Oxygen activation is used to detect and quantify
water-flow and is thus very useful in production
logging and for detection of completion problems.
Radioactive tracer detection is used to assess flood
propagation.
Non-radioactive tracer detection is used for proppant
propagation analysis and production logging.
Elemental spectroscopy from capture and inelastic
scattering is used for elemental and mineralogical
analyses and for assessment of fracture susceptibility
(though it is typically a poor substitute for tools built
specifically for that purpose).
Natural gamma-ray logging provides a formation K-
U-Th log for clay analysis, fracture detection, and also
to detect radioactive scale.
Silicon activation is used to assess the state of gravel
packing.
SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010
Certain selected gates from all detectors are used to
detect and quantify gas.
Amplitude ratios are used as a pseudo caliper for the
borehole and to detect gas in the borehole or annulus.
Individual count rates are used to infer many borehole
and formation properties.
Combinations of several measurements are used to
simulate open-hole logs, via neural-net, proximity-
weighted lookup tables, or other processing.
Most items in the list above (not all), can be measured
simultaneously by a single tool and are nearly
independent of the others, which makes for a very
powerful array of measurements that can be brought to
bear on a petrophysical analysis or well diagnosis
problem. For example, the neutron-capture-based
porosity, sigma, and function of certain important gates
are three independent measurements that respond to
gas. If all three provide the same answer, confidence
grows.
Recently, the demands for neural-net processing to
simulate open hole logs have become more prevalent
and more stringent. Additionally, exploitation of shale-
gas and tight-gas reservoirs has required development
of low-cost means to assess gas content and mechanical
properties, via cased-hole logging, and to use the logs
to help design completion and stimulation programs.
Thus, a new pulsed-neutron tool and service have been
designed that provide improved traditional pulsed-
neutron measurements and add new sensors and
processing to address today's difficult reservoirs.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TMD FAMILY
The introduction in 1982 of the TMD service (Schultz
et al, 1983; Smith et al, 1983) provided the first major
improvement in pulsed neutron capture logging (PNC)
in 10 years with the introduction of the dual-
exponential model for deconvolving the decay curve.
This model separated the formation decay response
from that of the borehole by fitting a two-exponential
curve to the measured data, leading to increased
accuracy in determination of the formation capture
cross section (fm).
A dozen years later, the TMD-L service was introduced
(Jacobson et al,1994). It built on the solid physics and
design of the earlier service but took advantage of
available technological improvements such as larger
detectors, a better pulsing scheme, recording of induced
gamma ray spectra, more data transmitted over the
wireline, and more sophisticated data analysis. This
contributed to significant improvements in precision
and accuracy over the earlier generation tool, added a
2
lithology measurement, and permitted use of the new
modular tool for water-flow measurements.
Now, in 2010, comes the 3rd-generation service, TMD-
3D, utilizing 3 detectors. Over the past fifteen years,
many technological advances have become available so
that the requirements discussed earlier for better cased-
hole formation evaluation can be fulfilled. Denser and
faster detector materials, more efficient phototubes,
faster and more versatile electronics, and improved
processing power are available for use downhole. The
solid physics and design of the TMD family are built in,
and the new tool has been primarily built to preserve
and advance the state of the art of sigma logging. But,
in addition, a third detector has been added at longer
spacing to do a better job at more recent demands
placed on pulsed neutron tools, such as gas detection
and quantification in tight-gas and shale-gas reservoirs,
replacement of open-hole density, neutron, and
resistivity logs in densely-drilled fields, oxygen
activation for water flow detection, silicon activation
for gravel-pack evaluation, and sigma measurements
with reduced environmental effects.
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The new tool maintains the optimum source-to-detector
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spacing determined long ago for placement of the near
and far neutron-decay detectors and adds a third or
"long" detector at a spacing optimized for gas
quantification and pseudo-density logging. In this way,
the intrinsic formation sigma measured by the first- and
second-generation tools and associated processing is
replicated in the third-generation tool, but with
improved accuracy and precision from pass-to-pass,
tool-to-tool, and year-to-year.
The downhole improvements are accompanied by a
powerful ability to simulate tool responses with a monte
carlo forward model. Because the transport of
neutrons, photon production, transport of gamma rays,
and their detection is a notoriously complicated
problem, dependent on borehole conditions and
reservoir lithology as well as fluid content, it will be
important to use the forward model to develop gas
quantification algorithms that are basin-specific or even
reservoir-specific.
FINDING GAS WITH PULSED NEUTRONS
In open hole logging, the most widely used gas
indicator for the last forty years is the density-neutron
porosity overlay. In cased-hole pulsed neutron logging,
the sigma log is the granddaddy of gas detection.
Additionally, near-to-far detector ratios of inelastic and
capture count rates have been used nearly as long to
obtain curves that often closely resemble the open hole
density and neutron logs, respectively. This can be
 SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010
achieved by a simple data transform to obtain the best
match with the open-hole logs or, more recently, by
means of neural networks that optimally use a handful
of auxiliary logs to supplement the construction of
porosity logs that are still based primarily on the ratios
(Quirein et al, 1983).
A problem with the cased-hole pseudo-density
measurement is the small dynamic range of the
response to formation density at the two-foot source-
detector spacing used for formation sigma or the shorter
spacing that is used for C/O logging. When comparing
pseudo-density logs derived from the inelastic ratio of
previous generations of pulsed-neutron tools with open-
hole density logs from gamma-gamma tools, there are a
handful of differences. Among others, the gas effect is
more profound and the measurement suffers from poor
dynamic range and large sensitivity to borehole effects.
Taking a ratio with the near detector essentially
destroys the dynamic range of the measurement more
than it provides borehole compensation.
Previous work has shown (Jacobson, 2006) that a
density-like measurement based on pulsed neutron has
considerably greater dynamic range when the detector
is placed farther from the source than the usual two-foot
distance used for thermal neutron capture
measurements. The long-spaced detector in the new
tool has been placed at thirty-three inches and responds
much more like a density tool and much less like a
neutron porosity tool than the two-foot spaced detector
of the previous generation tool. This placement was
optimized for the cased-hole situation, based on a
combination of dynamic range and counting statistics
that were determined with laboratory experiments and
monte carlo modeling. So the density-like response of
the inelastic measurement in the very long detector will
be improved over that of previous generations.
When examining neutron and density logs, the average
porosity from the pair of logs (using a variety of
averaging techniques) is often assumed to represent
total porosity. Neutron-density crossover is
indicative of gas, while shaliness diminishes or
eliminates the crossover. If the shaliness effects can be
removed via auxiliary measurements, then a single
curve may be established that attempts to quantify the
amount of neutron-density crossover. The new tool
uses a function of certain important gates (FCIG) in the
long-spaced detector to do this.
There are a few complications with all the methods
described above, new and old alike. First, a drop in
reservoir pressure due to depletion causes a more
profound gas response in all the logs. Second, shaliness
must be considered. A new method has been
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investigated and developed to compensate for these
effects. The new tool uses a function of certain
important long-spaced detector gates to accomplish
this.
Thus the new tool provides two classic gas indicators
from sigma and the pair of inelastic-capture porosity
curves. In addition the new gas indicator from the
function of certain important gates is designed to
provide gas quantification with a reduced sensitivity to
shaliness and borehole effects. This will be discussed
in a subsequent technical paper.
NEW HARDWARE FEATURES AND UPGRADES
Halliburtons previous generation PNC tool, the
TMDL, has been in service for over fifteen years and is
well accepted by the industry. The new tool described
here had the objective of building on that well-accepted
design and improving performance wherever possible.
The increasing application of PNC tools to cased-hole
gas evaluation and monitoring argued for a three-
detector design, which allows improved sensitivity to
formation gas effects. The third, or "long" detector is
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spaced from the source by roughly 33. In order for the
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new tool to have the same response as the older tool for
capture cross section (sigma) and porosity
measurements, the near and far detectors remain at the
same spacing as in the older tool. A third sigma
measurement is now available with the three-detector
design, in addition to inelastic and capture count rates,
and induced gamma-ray pulse height spectra. Ratios of
count rates may be used to calculate porosity, such as
near-to-long inelastic and capture ratios.
One facet of the older design was the large dead-time
loss (and the correction thereof) in the near detector
during the neutron burst. This did not have much
impact on the customary sigma measurements, which
are made well after the end of the neutron burst. But,
the excessive dead time was problematic when using
the tool for cased-hole density estimation, which
utilizes the inelastic count rate during the neutron burst.
Furthermore, the far detector allowable count rate was
constrained by this near detector limitation. Higher
count-rates could have been handled by the far detector
by raising the neutron generator output but not without
the penalty of excessive losses in the near detector.
Three things were done in the new design to relieve this
limitation. Firstly, the near detector length was reduced
significantly to reduce the count-rate in it to a value
more commensurate with the far spaced detector both
detectors now have roughly the same count-rate value
in a water tank. The active center of the near detector,
however, remains at the same spacing from the source
SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010
as in the older tool. Secondly, a new scintillation
material was used for the detectors which has a much
faster scintillation decay constant than the sodium
iodide (NaI) material used in the older tool. The near
detector is a 1.15-inch diameter by 1-inch long yttrium
orthosilicate (YSO) crystal. The far and long spaced
detectors are both 1.15-inch diameter by 6-inch long
gadolinium/yttrium orthosilicate (GYSO) crystals. See
Table 1 for properties of the crystals. Both types have a
scintillation decay time much faster than NaI. Thirdly,
the detector electronics used for the gross counting
channel (used for measuring the decay curve) were
improved to take advantage of this fast scintillation
constant and reduce the dead-time effect substantially.
Now, the dead-time losses in near and far detectors
during the neutron burst are less than 10% at the
recommended neutron generator settings.
There are ancillary benefits that derive from this choice
for the detectors in this new tool: GYSO is much more
dense (see Table 1) than NaI as well as being faster.
The spectral response of the far and long detectors is
much improved over the capability of the earlier NaI-
based tool (a small radiation length is highly desirable).
However, the small diameter of these crystals precludes
this tool from matching the spectroscopic performance
of Halliburtons 2-1/8-inch RMT-Elite C/O tool.
Nevertheless, Si/Ca estimation will be improved over
the previous generation and can provide a rough
estimate of lithology in cased hole. Moreover,
improved response can be expected for oxygen
activation for water flow and silicon activation for
gravel-pack evaluation. These topics will be addressed
in a subsequent paper.
LAB RESPONSE - CAPTURE POROSITY
A considerable amount of tool response data was
obtained in Halliburtons test-pit facility (Gadeken et
al). The lab is known as the TRAC lab, which is
shorthand for Tool Response and Characterization Lab.
This is an ongoing evaluation effort but some results
will be discussed here with regard to the porosity
response of the near-far (RNF) and near-long (RNL)
capture count rate ratios. For the borehole environment
of a 5.5-inch casing filled with 150-kppm saltwater
cemented in a 8-inch hole, the porosity response for
RNF is shown in Figure 1 and for RNL in Figure 2 for
freshwater saturated formations. The dynamic range for
RNF (0pu to 40pu) is 2.2 and for RNL it is 3.7. This
greater dynamic range for RNL comes at the price of
higher statistical uncertainty on RNL. The porosity
sensitivity, a combination of dynamic range and
counting statistics, is about the same for both ratios.
The sandstone points suggest about the same lithology
effect on both ratios.
4
LOG EXAMPLE - COMPARISON OF CAPTURE
RATIO AND RAW SIGMAS WITH PREVIOUS
GENERATION
With the introduction of an upgraded service, we need
to know that the new tool can be used in time-lapse
monitoring programs that have logs from an earlier
version. One hopes that the new tool provides improved
precision but essentially the same response
characteristic as the earlier version. Choosing to keep
the same detector spacing for near and far goes a long
way toward assuring this outcome.
Figure 4 compares the response of the new tool with
that of the older tool over an interval in Halliburtons Ft
Worth test well #2. The raw far-detector formation
sigma from the new tool is in very close agreement to
that of the old tool. Figure 3 shows a cross-plot of the
old end new sigma logs for the interval 2150-2350.
These data cluster tightly about the diagonal as
expected. Some of the observed spread is due to depth
misalignment but, even so, the RMS difference is only
about 1 cu.
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The raw near detector formation sigma from the new
tool compares very closely to the old tool at low values
but appears slightly lower than the old tool at high
sigma values. This might be the consequence of the
shorter near detector. The center of the detector is at
the same axial position in each tool, but most of the
counts occur toward the near end, so that the near
detector has an effectively shorter spacing than the new
tool. The near-far ratios have very similar response
characteristics for the two tools, but since the near
detector size was reduced, the scaling is different.
With the inclusion of a third detector at a greater
spacing, additional measurements are obtained. Sigma
values and ratios are now available for a longer spacing.
A fixed first-order diffusion correction (one such,
Diffusion Corrected Sigma Far - DCSF, was available
with the previous tool) can be applied to the several
detector sigma values based on the following
expressions:
Diffusion-corrected sigma, Near detector: DCSN =
SGFN-3.0
Diffusion-corrected sigma, Far Detector: DCSF =
SGFF -1.0
Diffusion-corrected sigma, Long Detector: DCSL
= SGFF - filtered(SGFF SGFL), averaged with a
6.75-ft triangle filter.
The DCSF value for the TMD-3D tool is very close to
the DCSF value reported by the TMDL. The form of
the processing for the new tool is identical to that used
 SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010
for the old tool. The middle track of Figure 5 shows
how these 1st order diffusion corrected values compare
to one another validating the choice of diffusion
correction. The poorer statistical performance of the
long-spaced measurement is evident but still
surprisingly good. This bodes well for several purposes
but particularly for enhanced oil recovery assessment
via log-flush-log techniques. Also shown in the right-
hand track is a comparison of the porosity derived from
near-far capture ratio (black), and the near-long capture
ratio (red). A porosity transform based on the data
shown in Figures 1 & 2 was used along with a
calibration factor for each detector. These predicted
values are compared to a cased-hole neutron-neutron
porosity (blue). Both capture porosity curves correlate
well with the neutron-neutron log but the near-long
porosity is clearly more noisy in the high-apparent-
porosity shales. Near-far porosity actually appears less
noisy than the neutron-neutron log.
FUNCTION OF SPECIAL GATES AS GAS
INDICATOR MONTE CARLO SIMULATION
The function of certain important gates (FCIG) to be
used as a gas indicator was devised using a lengthy
series of Monte Carlo calculations based on the
program MCNP (Briesmeister, 2000). A series of
measurements in the TRAC test-pit lab across a wide
range of conditions served as benchmarks for capture
cross section, count rate, and ratio modeling. Raw
model results were calibrated to the lab results. After
this process was completed successfully, model results
and TRAC-measured results could be used
interchangeably, and a lengthy modeling study was
begun to characterize the response of the tool in
situations that cannot be mocked up in the lab. A few
early model results pertaining to the FCIG are discussed
here.
The FCIG has been simulated via MCNP for the case of
sandstone with oil-filled porosity, depicted in Figure 6.
In this case, the same oil was modeled that is used in
the TRAC lab for most oil-filled formations, which has
a density of 0.85 g/cc and a hydrogen index of 1.09.
This plot illustrates the smooth curvilinear shape of the
data, which has been easily fit with a parabola with no
constraints required.
Similar parabolas have been constructed and assembled
in Figure 7 to illustrate the FCIG response across the
porosity range when other fluids occupy the pore space.
Here curves have been included for fresh water, heavy
and light oil, and methane at a density of 0.15 g/cc.
If any two fluids are chosen, the lines for those fluids
constitute a fan chart with apex at zero porosity, from
5
which a saturation algorithm can be written. This has
been done and presented in Figure 8 for the case of
sandstone with a mixture of fresh water and methane at
0.15 g/cc.
As with any method of saturation determination, there
are a number of obstacles to overcome. The narrowness
of the fan at low porosity is likely to be unforgiving to
the systematic uncertainties and precision of the
measurement, in addition to the uncertainty associated
with appropriateness of the petrophysical model. The
effects of pressure depletion could lead to ambiguous
interpretation since the fan would become wider in this
instance. Similarly, mineralogy has an effect.
In the coming months, progress along these lines will
be reported as field experience grows.
An additional benefit with the longer spacing is deeper
depth of investigation (see Table 2). Monte Carlo
modeling of invasion has been done to establish the
depth of investigation (distance from the cement-
formation interface) for the inelastic and capture
measurements.
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SUMMARY
A new 1-11/16-inch pulsed-neutron tool has been
constructed and is undergoing field testing. The tool
incorporates fast GYSO and YSO scintillators to
accommodate high count rates with very little pulse
pileup and spectral distortion, leading to fewer
systematic uncertainties and more accurate logs.
The tool preserves the two-foot source-to-detector
spacing of the far detector in order to retain excellent
response to formation capture cross section. The
capture ratio response is also nearly duplicated from the
earlier tool so that continuity in reservoir monitoring
programs may be achieved when switching from the old
tool to the new one.
A new third detector has been added at about thirty-
three inches from the pulsed-neutron generator, which
is the optimal spacing for sensitivity to gas and to
formation density. This detector will also be useful as a
water-flow detector by means of oxygen activation.
The tool will provide substantially improved capture
porosity by means of the traditional near-far ratio but
also by means of the third detector. New pseudo-
density porosity will also be primarily based on the new
long-spaced third detector.
The quantification of gas in unconventional reservoirs
such as shales and tight sands was a large motivating
SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010
factor in the design and construction of this tool. A
function of certain important gates in the long-spaced
detector was devised that has a good sensitivity to gas.
This function will be simulated by monte carlo particle
transport modeling to establish viable algorithms for
determination of gas saturation, in addition to continued
use of the capture cross section log and cased-hole
porosity curves.
It will be a challenge to deploy an algorithm that
handles the situations of gas depletion and shaliness,
which, respectively, enhance and mask the gas effect.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A team of dedicated engineers and technicians started
with decades of combined experience and a clean slate.
Despite the gloom and doom of the economic
downturn, they constructed a masterpiece to carry us
forward.
REFERENCES
Briesmeister, J.F., 2000, MCNP - A General Monte
Carlo N-Particle Transport Code, Version 4C. LA-
13709-M, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Gadeken, L.L., Marschall, D., Moake, G., Plasek, T.,
Spallone, J., and Truax, J.A., 2000, New facilities for
characterizing and validating logging instrument
performance, paper UU, 41st Annual SPWLA logging
symposium transactions.
Jacobson, L.A., Ethridge, R.D. and Wyatt, D.F., 1994.
A New Thermal Multigate Decay - Lithology Tool,
Paper M, SPWLA 35th Annual Logging Symposium,
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Jacobson, L. A., 2006, "Pulsed-neutron formation
density" United States Patent 7117092.
Quirein, J.A., Chen, D., Grable, J., Wiener, J., Smith,
H. Jr., Perkins, T. and Truax, J.A., 2003, "An
assessment of neural networks applied to pulsed
neutron data for predicting open hole triple combo
data", paper R, SPWLA 44th Annual Logging
Symposium.
Schultz, W.E., Smith, H.D., Verbout, J.L., Bridges, J.R.
and Garcia, G.H., 1983. Experimental Basis for a New
Borehole Corrected Pulsed Neutron Capture Logging
Systems (TMD*), Paper CC, SPWLA 24th Annual
Logging Symposium, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
6
Smith, H.D., Arnold, D.M. and Peelman, H.E., 1983.
Applications of a New Borehole Corrected Pulsed
Neutron Capture Logging System (TMD*), Paper DD,
SPWLA 24th Annual Logging Symposium, Calgary,
Alberta, Canada.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Weijun Guo is a Scientific Advisor in the Sensor
Physics group at Halliburton Energy Services. Before
joining Halliburton, he worked at Pathfinder Energy
Services on LWD nuclear tools. He earned his PhD
degree in Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State
University. His present research focuses on LWD and
wireline nuclear logging tool design and
characterization, formation evaluation and Monte Carlo
modeling. He is a member of SPWLA, SPE, and
American Nuclear Society.
Larry Jacobson joined Halliburton Energy Services in
1984 and is a member of the Physics Team. He holds a
Ph.D. (1969) in nuclear physics from the University of
Wisconsin. Prior to joining Halliburton, he spent 15
years with Schlumberger, where he specialized in J
pulsed-neutron logging and held several managerial J
positions. Larry holds thirteen patents and is the author
of numerous technical papers covering pulsed-neutron
capture and spectrometry logging, cased-hole density
modeling, and log-filtering techniques. He is a member
of the American Physical Society, Society of
Professional Well Log Analysts, and Society of
Petroleum Engineers
Jerome Truax is the Halliburton Petrophysics
Technology Fellow and manager of the LWD & WL
Petrophysics Development and Nuclear teams. He has a
BS degree in geological engineering (1978, University
of Minnesota), an MA in oceanography and limnology
(1991, Western Connecticut State University), and a
PhD degree in petrophysics (1995, Delft Technical
University). Jerry has worked with logs for thirty years
and has been with Halliburton since 1998. His
experience includes field operations, engineering,
research, and log interpretation in both wireline and
logging while drilling, mostly specializing in pulsed
neutron logging technology and other nuclear
applications. He holds a number of patents, has
authored several technical papers, and is a member of
SPWLA and SPE.
Daniel Dorffer is the Integrated Cased Hole Business
Unit Manager for Halliburton Wireline and Perforating.
He holds a MSc degree (1978) in civil engineering from
CHEC and a MSc degree (1976) in mechanical
engineering from Ecole Centrale de Paris, France. He
 SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010

started as a field engineer with Schlumberger in 1979
before joining Gearhart in 1982, and has held technical,
operational, and managerial positions in Asia, Europe,
Africa, and the USA. He is a member of SPWLA and
SPE.
Schlumberger general field engineer in the Middle East
and Far East. He graduated with honors with a BS
degree in electronics engineering from Liverpool
University.

Shan Kwong is the pulsed neutron product champion

in the Halliburton Wireline and Perforating group.
Previously, he was a technical services manager in
China and has held a number of international jobs in
Halliburton, going back to his days as a field engineer.
Before working at Halliburton, Shan was a

Effective Median
Radiation Decay Time Refractive
Density Atomic Output
Length Constant Index
Number Wavelength
(g/cc) (cm) (ns) (nm)
NaI 3.67 50 2.60 230 1.85 415
YSO 4.45 35 2.75 35 1.80 420
GYSO 6.30 67 1.65 60 1.85 440
Table 1. Physical properties of scintillators illustrate the benefit of the new design over the NaI-based older tool. J
The lower radiation length, or ability to stop gamma rays, for GYSO is a consequence of the higher density and J
larger effective atomic number.

90% Depth of investigation (inches)

Near Far Long
Inelastic Gate 4 7 8
Capture Gate 9 12 14
FCIG 9 11 13

50% Depth of investigation (inches)

Near Far Long
Inelastic Gate <1 1 2
Capture Gate 5 6 7
FCIG 4 5 6
Table 2. The depth of investigation is the distance from the cement-formation interface. The long detector sees a
bit deeper than the other two detectors. The capture measurement is about twice as deep as the inelastic
measurement.

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SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010

Figure 1. The dynamic range of the near-to-far ratio from 0 to 40 pu is 2.2. The detector placement and processing
is designed to replicate that of the previous-generation tool, leading to continuity in reservoir monitoring
applications.

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Figure 2. The dynamic range of the near-to-long ratio from 0 to 40 pu is 3.7. This significant improvement over
near-to-far ratio is offset by the poorer statistics, leading to approximately equal sensitivity.

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 SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010

J
J

Figure 3. The fardetector formation capture cross section SGFF (new tool) and SGFFTMDL (old tool), derived
from dual-exponential fitting of the time-decay data, are plotted over the interval 2150-2350 feet in Halliburtons Ft
Worth test well #2. The RMS difference is 1 capture unit.

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SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010

TMDL Raw Near SIgma TMDL Raw Far SIgma TMDL Capture Ratio
50 0 50 0 8 3

Capture Unit Capture Unit

Gamma Ray TMD3D Raw Near SIgma TMD3D Raw Far SIgma TMD3D Capture Ratio
0 100 50 0 50 0 1.2 0.4

api Capture Unit Capture Unit

2200

J
J

2250

2300

2350
Figure 4. A comparison of the TMD-3D logs (red) with a TMD-L log (black) in Halliburtons Ft Worth test well
shows excellent continuity between tool generations. The raw far-detector sigmas agree quite closely. The raw near
sigma from the new tool appears to be slightly lower in high capture cross section (shale) zones but very close at low
values of sigma. The near-far ratio of the new tool has a different scaling than that of the old tool because of the
change in near detector size but has very similar response characteristics.

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 SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010

Diffusion Corr Sigma Far Capture Porosity Near/Far

50 0 30 0

Capture Unit

Diffusion Corr Sigma Near CH Neutron-Neutron Porosity

50 0 30 0

Capture Unit

Gamma Ray Diffusion Corr Sigma Long Capture Porosity Near/Long

0 100 50 0 30 0

api Capture Unit

2200

J
J

2250

2300

2350

Figure 5. Here the three first-order diffusion-corrected sigmas are compared in track 2. The close agreement of all
three sigma logs validates the correction value chosen. Track 3 shows porosity values computed from near-far
(black) and near-long (red) ratios compared to a cased-hole neutron-neutron log (blue). They correlate well although
porosity from near-long has somewhat larger statistical variations. Porosity from near-far appears to have less
statistical noise than the cased-hole neutron.

11
SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010

1.6
Oil-filled sandstone
Function of certain gates 1.4

1.2

0.8

0.6
Error bar for each point
0.4
0 5 10 15 20 25
Porosity (pu)

Figure 6. The porosity response of the function of certain important gates (FCIG) has been simulated via Monte
Carlo modeling. In this case, there is oil in the sandstone pores with a density of 0.85 g/cc and a hydrogen index of
1.09.

J
J
1.6 Heavy oil in formation,
0.85 g/cc (HI = 1.09) Fresh water
in Formation,
gates

1.4
certaingates

HI = 1.0
ofcertain

1.2
Light
Lightoiloilininformation,
formation,
0.66 g/cc (HI = 0.9)
Functionof

1
Function

0.8

0.6 Gas in formation,

0.15 g/cc (HI = 0.34)

0.4
0 5 10 15 20 25
Porosity(pu)
Porosity (pu)
Figure 7. The porosity response of FCIG can be easily simulated for any fluid in the pore space.

12
 SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23, 2010

1.6

1.4
Function of certain gates

d
u rate
at
1.2
ters
a
sh-w
1 Fre

0.8
s sa t ura ted
Ga
0.6

0.4
0 5 10 15 20 25
J
Porosity (pu) J

Figure 8. A fan chart and saturation algorithm may be constructed for any pair of fluids in the pore space. In this
case, the fan was constructed using the fresh-water and gas endpoint lines from the previous figure.

13