AN AI-BASED APPROACH TO ENHANCED FRACTURE RESOLUTION IN IMAGE LOGS

Borehole image logs are used to identify the presence and orientation of fractures, both natural and induced, found in reservoir intervals. The contrast in electrical or acoustic properties of the rock matrix and fluid-filled fractures is sufficiently large enough that sub-resolution features can be detected by these image logging tools. The resolution of these image logs is based on the design and operation of the tools, and generally is in the millimeter per pixel range. Hence the quantitative measurement of actual width remains problematic. An artificial intelligence (AI) -based workflow combines the statistical information obtained from a Machine-Learning (ML) segmentation process with a multiple-layer neural network that defines a Deep Learning process that enhances fractures in a borehole image. These new images allow for a more robust analysis of fracture widths, especially those that are sub-resolution. The images from a BHTV log were first segmented into rock and fluid-filled fractures using a ML-segmentation tool that applied multiple image processing filters that captured information to describe patterns in fracture-rock distribution based on nearest-neighbor behavior. The robust ML analysis was trained by users to identify these two components over a short interval in the well, and then the regression model-based coefficients applied to the remaining log. Based on the training, each pixel was assigned a probability value between 1.0 (being a fracture) and 0.0 (pure rock), with most of the pixels assigned one of these two values. Intermediate probabilities represented pixels on the edge of rock-fracture interface or the presence of one or more sub-resolution fractures within the rock. The probability matrix produced a map or image of the distribution of probabilities that determined whether a given pixel in the image was a fracture or partially filled with a fracture. The Deep Learning neural network was based on a Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) approach where the probability map was first encoded and combined with a noise vector that acted as a seed for diverse feature generation. This combination was used to generate new images that represented the BHTV response. The second layer of the neural network, the adversarial or discriminator portion, determined whether the generated images were representative of the actual BHTV by comparing the generated images with actual images from the log and producing an output probability of whether it was real or fake. This probability was then used to train the generator and discriminator models that were then applied to the entire log. Several scenarios were run with different probability maps. The enhanced BHTV images brought out fractures observed in the core photos that were less obvious in the original BTHV log through enhanced continuity and improved resolution on fracture widths.