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CEMENTING BASICS
Cement bond logs were run as early as 1958 with early sonic logs and
the temperature log was used to find cement top beginning in 1933.
Cement integrity logs are run to determine the quality of the cement
bond to the production casing, and to evaluate cement fill-up
between the casing and the reservoir rock. A poor cement bond may
allow unwanted fluids to enter the well. Poor fill-up of cement leaves
large channels behind the pipe that, likewise, allow the flow of
unwanted fluids, such as gas or water into an oil well. By-products of
cement integrity logs are the compressive strength of the cement, the
bond index, and in some cases, the quality of the casing string itself.
Both poor bond and poor fill-up problems can also allow fluids to flow to other reservoirs behind casing.
This can cause serious loss of potential oil and gas reserves, or in the worst case, can cause blowouts at the
wellhead. Unfortunately, in the early days of well drilling, cement was not required by law above certain
designated depths. Many of the shallow reservoirs around the world have been altered by pressure or fluid
crossflow from adjacent reservoirs due to the lack of a cement seal.
Getting a good cement job is far from trivial. The drilling mud must be flushed out ahead of the cement
placement, the mud cake must be scraped off the borehole wall with scratchers on the casing, fluid flow
from the reservoir has to be prevented during the placement process, and the casing has to be centralized
in the borehole. Further, fluid and solids loss from the cement into the reservoir has to be minimized.
Gas percolation through the cement while it is setting is a serious concern, as the worm holes thus created
allow high pressure gas to escape up the annulus to the wellhead - a very dangerous situation.
Poor bond or poor fill-up can often be repaired by a cement squeeze, but it is sometimes impossible to
achieve perfect isolation between reservoir zones. Gas worm holes are especially difficult to seal after they
have been created.
Poor bond can be created after an initial successful cement job by stressing the casing during high pressure
operations such as high rate production or hydraulic fracture stimulations. Thus bond logs are often run in
the unstressed environment (no pressure at the wellhead) and under a stressed environment (pressure at the
wellhead).
Cement needs to set properly before a cement integrity log is run. This can take from 10 to 50 hours for
typical cement jobs. Full compressive strength is reached in 7 to 10 days. The setting time depends on the
type of cement, temperature, pressure, and the use of setting accelerants. Excess pressure on the casing
should be avoided during the curing period so that the cement bond to the pipe is not disturbed.
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ultrasonic cement mapping tools (CET), and ultrasonic imaging logs (USI, RBT). Examples and uses for each
are described in this Chapter.
Before the invention of sonic logs, temperature logs were used to locate cement top, but there was no
information about cement integrity. Some knowledge could be gained by comparing open hole neutron logs
to a cased hole version. Excess porosity on the cased hole log could indicate poor fill-up (channels) or mud
contamination. The neutron log could sometimes be used to find cement top.
The earliest sonic logs appeared around 1958 and their use for cement integrity was quantified in 1962. The
sonic signal amplitude was the key to evaluating cement bond and cement strength. Low signal amplitude
indicated good cement bond and high compressive strength of the cement.
In the 1970s, the segmented bond tool appeared. It uses 8 or more acoustic receivers around the
circumference of the logging tool to obtain the signal amplitude in directional segments. The average signal
amplitude still gives the bond index and compressive strength, but the individual amplitudes are shown as a
cement map to pinpoint the location of channels, contamination, and missing cement. This visual
presentation is easy to interpret and helps guide the design of remedial cement squeezes. An ultrasonic
version of the cement mapping tool also exists. The log presentation is similar to the segmented bond log,
but the measurement principle is a little different.
Another ultrasonic tool uses a rotating acoustic transducer to obtain images for cement mapping. It is an
offshoot of the open hole borehole televiewer. The signal is processed to obtain the acoustic impedance of
the cement sheath and mapped to show cement quality. The tool indicates the presence of channels with
more fidelity than the segmented bond tool and allows for analysis of foam and extended cements.
Individual acoustic reflections from the inner and outer pipe wall give a pipe thickness log, helpful in
locating corrosion, perforations, and casing leaks.
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The CBL uses conventional sonic log principals of refraction to make its
measurements. The sound travels from the transmitter, through the mud,
and refracts along the casing-mud interface and refracts back to the
receivers, as shown in the illustration on the left. In fast formations (faster
than the casing), the signal travels up the cement-formation interface, and
arrives at the receiver before the casing refraction.
The amplitude is recorded on the log in millivolts, or as attenuation in
decibels/foot (db/ft), or as bond index, or any two or three of these. A travel
time curve is also presented. It is used as a quality control curve. A straight
line indicates no cycle skips or formation arrivals, so the amplitude value is
reliable. Skips may indicate poor tool centralization or poor choice for the
trigger threshold.
The actual value measured is the signal amplitude in millivolts. Attenuation
is calculated by the service company based on its tool design, casing
diameter, and transmitter to receiver spacing. Compressive strength of the
cement is derived from the attenuation with a correction for casing
thickness. Finally, bond index is calculated by the equation:
1: BondIndex = Atten / ATTMAX
Where:
Atten = Attenuation at any point on the log (db/ft or db/meter)
ATTMAX = Maximum attenuation (db/ft or db/meter)
The maximum attenuation can be picked from the log at the depth where the lowest amplitude occurs. On
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older logs attenuation and bond index were computed manually. On modern logs, these are provided as
normal output curves. Bond Index is a qualitative indicator of channels. A Bond Index of 0.30 suggests that
only about 30% of the annulus is filled with good cement.
Chart for calculating cement bond attenuation and cement compressive strength
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EXAMPLE 5: CBL-VDL in free pipe (no cement). Notice straight line and high amplitude pattern on VDL pipe
arrivals (railroad track pattern). Travel Time curve is constant and amplitude curve reads high. Note casing
collar anomalies on travel time and amplitude curves, and more weakly on VDL display.
EXAMPLE 6: Casing is still unbonded (high amplitude railroad tracks on early arrivals on VDL), amplitude
curve reads high, BUT late arrivals on VDL have shape and track porosity log shape. This indicates free pipe
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laying on side of borehole and touching formation. The VDL arrivals with shape are the formation arrivals.
Better casing centralization should be used on the next well. A cement squeeze will improve the scene but will
probably not provide isolation on the low side of the pipe.
EXAMPLE 7: Well bonded pipe (low amplitude on early arrivals on VDL, good bond to formation (high
amplitude late arrivals with shape). Mud arrivals would have high amplitude but no shape.
EXAMPLE 8: At Zone A, amplitude shows good bond, but VDL shows low amplitude formation signal. This
indicates poor bond to formation. Travel time curve reads very high compared to baseline, indicating cycle
skipping on casing arrivals but casing bond is still good. Travel time less than base line value would indicate
fast formation. If you can detect fast formations, bond is still good, regardless of high early arrival amplitude.
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EXAMPLE 9: VDL on left shows poor bond but formation signal is fairly strong. When casing is put under
pressure, bond improves (not a whole lot) as seen on lower amplitude early arrivals on right hand log. This is
called a micro-annulus. Under normal oil production, the micro-annulus is not too big a problem unless
bottom hole pressure is very low. Micro-annulus is caused by dirty or coated pipe, pressuring casing before
cement is fully cured, or ridiculous pressures applied during stimulation.
EXAMPLE 10: When there is no CBL-VDL made under pressure, the un-pressured version can be used to
interpret micro-annulus. High amplitude early arrivals (normally indicating poor bond) actually indicate good
bond (with micro-annulus) IF formation signals are also strong.
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EXAMPLE 11: The travel time curve is lower than baseline (shaded areas, Track 1) indicating fast formation
arrivals. If you see fast formation, you have a good bond to pipe and to formation. However, you cannot use the
amplitude curve (labeled Casing Bond on this example) to calculate attenuation, compressive strength, or
bond index, because the amplitude is measured on the formation arrivals, not the pipe arrivals.
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EXAMPLE 12: CBL-VDL shows the transition from normal to foam cement just above 4650 feet. The foam
cement has lower compressive strength so the amplitude curve shifts to the right. Notice the use of the
expanded amplitude scale (0 to 20 mv) to accentuate the change. The compressive strength is computed from a
different algorithm than normal cement, shown in the nomograph in below.
Nomograph for calculating compressive strength in normal and foam cement. Note
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