Reservoir imaging can provide significant input to completions decisions by identifying whether and quantifying the extent to which fractures are natural or induced, open or healed, or strata-bound or throughgoing; ascertaining if hard streaks might act as containment to fracture propagation; and helping to reduce the chance of a wasted fracture job and to prevent damage to offset wells.

Precise imaging strategies to mitigate sanding

In geomechanically complex areas where it may be difficult to determine the stress field orientation, a fracture may be induced into the formation with a dual-packer flow test using the MDT modular formation dynamics tester. After creating the fracture, a borehole imager can be run to detect the induced fracture and determine the stress field orientation. In unconsolidated formations when the stress field is known, perforations can be oriented to help reduce the possibility of sanding.