Paper: Exploration For New Oil In Old Wells By Nuclear Logging

Important advances in oil-finding logs for cased hole use have been made in recent years. The Neutron Lifetime Log, now ten years old has been successfully demonstrated in California and Texas. It is now feasible to explore for new oil and gas in old wells using these logs, and it is confidently expected that further logging improvements would be made possible by additional research and development, to the point that nearly all types of oil bearing rocks could be identified and their oil content assayed. Since such oil finding methods have long been sought, it is peculiar that the commercial introduction of the Carbon/Oxygen ratio log has met with general apathy and lack of interest on the part of the oil industry. The implications of this lack of interest are discussed. It is suggested that more enthusiastic participation by the oil companies is needed in order to demonstrate to the service companies that the service is in fact beneficial and that further development would be desirable. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it might be concluded that there is in fact very little interest in exploration for new oil in old wells. At least it is presently obvious that there is no significant program of exploration using cased hole logs, although it may be taken for granted that much new oil and gas could be found by this means. It is suggested that the risks associated with cased hole exploration would be less than conventional exploration operations. In the interest of alleviating the oil shortage, and for conserving overlooked and bypassed oil, a plan for stimulating cased hole exploration with oil finding logs would be beneficial to the public and profitable to the industry.