Method and apparatus for delineating bed boundaries in subsurface formations and for producing indications of the angle of dip thereof
First Claim
1. A method of delineating boundaries of beds in an earth formation traversed by a borehole, comprising the steps of:
- (a) producing from original image data containing information about a physical parameter of the earth formation a data field of flow-lines corresponding to directions of least change of the parameter in the image wherein the original image data is representative of variations of the physical parameter of the formation along the longitudinal direction of the boreholes and along a circumferential segment of the borehole wall, which respectively correspond to the longitudinal and the lateral dimensions of said image; and
(b) selecting from the flow-line data field thus produced data corresponding to a subset of said flow-lines which delineate bed boundaries wherein said subset of flow-lines contains data corresponding to dip of the beds.
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Abstract
Data representing a two-dimensional image of the resistivity of a sector of a borehole wall is processed to produce selected flow-line data delineating the boundaries of beds of subsurface earth formations along sectors of the borehole. The latter bed-delineating image data for several circumferentially-spaced sectors is further processed to derive and present data defining the orientations of dip planes, by matching the bed-delineating flow-lines for the several sectors. This is done by focusing the latter flow-lines on a root flow-line, correlating those flow-lines to the root flow-line, and linking the flow-lines to the root flow-line according to a path of minimum cumulative cost.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of delineating boundaries of beds in an earth formation traversed by a borehole, comprising the steps of:
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(a) producing from original image data containing information about a physical parameter of the earth formation a data field of flow-lines corresponding to directions of least change of the parameter in the image wherein the original image data is representative of variations of the physical parameter of the formation along the longitudinal direction of the boreholes and along a circumferential segment of the borehole wall, which respectively correspond to the longitudinal and the lateral dimensions of said image; and (b) selecting from the flow-line data field thus produced data corresponding to a subset of said flow-lines which delineate bed boundaries wherein said subset of flow-lines contains data corresponding to dip of the beds. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of delineating bed boundaries of earth formations traversed by a borehole, comprising the steps of:
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(a) producing data representative of a field of flow-lines in an image corresponding to minimal anisotropy directions of the flow-lines in the image, said data being derived from first image data which are representative of variations of a physical parameter of the earth formations along the longitudinal direction of the borehole and along a first circumferential segment of the borehole wall, which respectively correspond to the longitudinal and the lateral dimensions of the image, (b) selecting from the data field thus produced a first subset of flow-line data corresponding to bed boundaries wherein said subset of flow-line data contains information concerning dip of the beds, (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) with at least one further set of image data corresponding to a further circumferential segment of the borehole wall angularly spaced apart from the first segment, whereby data from a further subset of flow-lines corresponding to bed boundaries is selected, and (d) combining the subsets of flow-lines obtained as a result of steps (b) and (c) so as to match the flow-lines of respective subsets which correspond to the same bed boundaries, thereby generating set of connected flow-lines with each set defining a bed boundary. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification