USE OF LOGGING INSTRUMENTS BY PULSED NEUTRON CAPTURE METHOD TO DETECT PROPPANT NEAR WELLBORE Russian patent published in 2018 - IPC E21B43/267 G01V5/10 

FIELD: oil and gas industry.

SUBSTANCE: methods for identifying the location and height of artificially created fractures of a subterranean formation as well as the presence of any material associated with the packing according to the "frac pack" or gravel packing technique, near the wellbore with the use of logging instruments by the method of pulsed neutron capture are described. The proppant/sand used in hydraulic fracturing and packing processes is marked thermal neutron absorbing material. With the presence of proppant, the increased values of component capture cross-section of formation and/or wellbore in combination with reductions of measured values of metering rate detected by means of logging by the pulsed neutron capture method are used to determine the location of formation fractures as well as the presence and percent filling of packing material in the wellbore region. The changes in measured values of formation capture cross-section relative to changes in other logging parameters of the pulsed neutron capture method provide relative indication of proppant in fractures as compared to proppant in the wellbore region.

EFFECT: improved efficiency for determining the location and height of particle packing according to frac pack technology.

53 cl, 13 dwg, 6 tbl