Halliburton releases new LWD density service for oil & gas industry

Sperry Drilling, a Houston-based subsidiary of Halliburton, has released the 9-1/2-inch Azimuthal Lithodensity (ALD) service, providing real-time density measurements and images in boreholes up to 17-1/2 inches.

Halliburton said on Monday that ALD provides downhole density measurements, including high-quality borehole image logs, to help optimize wellbore placement through geosteering and reduces geological uncertainties. The company claims that it is the only service company to provide this larger wellbore measurement.

The measurements, delivered via logging while drilling (LWD), eliminate wireline conveyance runs and capture data immediately after drilling when the borehole is in the best condition.

The company said that the 9-1/2-inch ALD provides the same functionality as its smaller counterparts, including azimuthal density, and photoelectric and acoustic stand-off measurements. This information has a wide range of applications that can help determine a formation’s porosity, rock strength, pore pressure and borehole geometry.

Corey Walker, vice president of Sperry Drilling, said: “ALD addresses an important market need and is currently the only commercially available LWD density service designed for large-diameter boreholes.

“In areas like the Gulf of Mexico and other regions where large boreholes are common, we are well positioned to meet increasing demand.”

Halliburton said that ALD has already been used in the Gulf of Mexico on several occasions. In one case, an operator used the density measurement to identify shallow hydrocarbon deposits in a 17-1/2-inch borehole.

In another case, an operator used borehole density images in real-time to determine the formation dip and reservoir structure immediately below a massive salt interval in a 16-1/2-inch borehole, where surface seismic data was poor.