Joseph Gregory Barolak

USE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCERS (EMATS) FOR CEMENT BOND LOGGING OF GAS STORAGE WELLS

According to the Department of Energy (DOE), there are approximately 110 operators maintaining more than 17,000 gas storage wells in over 415 underground storage facilities across the USA. In virtually every application, steel casing, cemented into place, serves to isolate the well from the underground formations. The process of cementing wellbore casing provides two major benefits: 1) cement prevents gas migration between the casing and formation; 2) cement transfers stress from the casing to the formation, increasing the effective strength and working pressure of the casing. Current cement evaluation techniques use an acoustic wave generated and received by a logging tool within the wellbore to detect cement placed outside the casing. These techniques rely on fluid in the casing to provide acoustic coupling between the logging tool and the casing and therefore are unable to operate in gas‐filled boreholes. This paper details efforts to confirm the validity and applicability of the use of EMATs for evaluating cement in gas‐filled boreholes. The methods and techniques proposed for the cement bond logging using EMATs are confirmed and validated based on the results obtained from the numerical modeling and experiments with physical cement models. Partial funding for this investigation was provided by the DOE and Gas Storage Technology Consortium.