Effects of a Borehole Environment and Residual Hydrocarbon on Stoneley Wave Amplitude and Reflectivity

In recent years, borehole Stoneley wave amplitude and reflectivity have been used for estimating formation permeability based on the strong correlation between Stoneley wave attenuation, reflectivity and formation fluid conductivity. There are other factors, however, that may cause substantial Stoneley attenuation and reflection in a borehole environment. To make better use of Stoneley measurements for formation permeability estimation, it is desirable to identify and quantify those causes of Stoneley attenuation and reflection that do not directly result from formation permeability. In this study, a simplified Biot-Rosenbaum model developed by Tang et at. (1991) is adopted to systematically model Stoneley attenuation and reflection in various borehole environments and formation configurations. By changing pore fluid, formation porosity, lithology, bed boundaries and thickness in the modeling, the sensitivity of Stoneley wave propagation to these conditions are quantitatively assessed. It is found that the presence of a light hydrocarbon in the formation, especially a natural gas residual in the immediate vicinity of the borehole wall, even with only 5% contained in pore fluid, may also cause substantial Stoneley attenuation and reflection. This phenomenon, on the other hand, can be used to evaluate a nonfractured, low permeability gas reservoir when combined with shear wave velocity data. For the full gas-saturated zone, Stoneley wave reflection may be observed even when the permeability is as low as a few milliDarcies. Compared to the effects of pore fluid, the effects due to lithology contrasts at the boundaries and the changes of nonfracture porosity are insignificant in the cases studied here. For a residual gas-bearing zone of moderate permeability, Stoneley wave attenuation and reflection may be observed if the zone is thicker than 0.5 meter.