Formation Evaluation

Catalog description

This course covers the characterization of subsurface reservoir formations and methods for quantifying the fluid volume, such as hydrocarbon and water, in these formations. The course focuses on the petrophysical interpretation of wireline logs and covers the operation and underlying physical principles of those tools. The course covers the basic procedure of open-hole logging, calculation of a geothermal gradient, understanding raster and digital well log files, quick look interpretation, reservoir volumetrics, understanding the physics of and cultivating the ability to interpret data from the traditional logging suite (e.g., gamma ray, spontaneous potential, resistivity devices, density, neutron, and sonic logs), coring, wireline formation testing, nuclear magnetic resonance logging, and interpretation. Best practices and limitations of the various well-log tools are also discussed. As a "writing across the curriculum" course, students develop their technical writing skills through homework assignments that present their analyses in written reports.