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Extending the Application of a Shale Volume Estimation Formula Derived from Factor Analysis of Wireline Logging Data

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Abstract

A multivariate statistical procedure is developed for the estimation of shale volume in clastic sedimentary formations. The method offers an alternative for extracting the shale content from borehole geophysical measurements. Factor analysis of various well-logging data types generates a new well log that correlates with the shale content of shaly-sandy rocks. The mathematical relationship between shale volume and factor scores is represented by a nonlinear equation, which seems to be applicable for data sets originating from different sedimentary basins. A comparative study is made between three different data sets originating from Hungary and the United States of America in order to check the validity of the proposed empirical formula. Shale volumes predicted from factor analysis are confirmed by estimates from independent deterministic and inverse modeling. Petrophysical information derived by factor analysis of logs recorded in deep wells can be used for a more accurate and reliable estimation of effective porosity and absolute permeability of reservoir rocks, for decreasing the estimation error of inversion estimates and for reducing the ambiguity in the solution of the well-logging inverse problem.

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Acknowledgements

The described work was carried out as part of the TÁMOP-4.2.1.B-10/2/KONV-2010-0001 project in the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan. The realization of this project is supported by the European Union, cofinanced by the European Social Fund. The first author thanks the support of the János Bolyai Research Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. As a member of the MTA-ME Applied Geoscience Research Group, the second author is grateful for the support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The authors express their thanks to Minnelusa.com for permitting the use of their data set.

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  1. Department of Geophysics, University of Miskolc, 3515, Miskolc-Egyetemváros, Hungary

    Norbert P. Szabó & Mihály Dobróka

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  1. Norbert P. Szabó
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  2. Mihály Dobróka
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Correspondence to Mihály Dobróka.

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Szabó, N.P., Dobróka, M. Extending the Application of a Shale Volume Estimation Formula Derived from Factor Analysis of Wireline Logging Data. Math Geosci 45, 837–850 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11004-013-9449-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11004-013-9449-2

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