Digital partnership supports well cuttings analysis

Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway – Geological laboratory/service specialist Rockwash Geodata has entered a collaboration agreement with analytics and machine learning company Earth Science Analytics (ESA).

They plan to jointly offer their services to transform large quantities of unused oil and gas data into digital assets.

According to Rockwash, many drill cutting samples remain accessible only through physical visits, and the samples are often unwashed and coated in drilling fluids.

The company collects repeatable data from each sample in every selected well, compiling thousands of data points throughout the entire stratigraphic section for analysis.

For the partners’ first project, Rockwash Geodata has taken a database of cuttings photographs and, using workflows from ESA, categorized the images in terms of bulk lithology to create a dataset of cuttings sample photographs.

By combining the new digital inputs with a set of traditional log suite curves prepared by ESA, they have generated rock property predictions which they claim can be used to build larger, reservoir-scale interpretations.

According to a spokesperson, “the activity will support a well cuttings scale interpretation workflow that is essential for good business decision making, not only in oil and gas exploration, but also for sub-surface CO₂ storage...”

11/09/2021