Diversified Well Logging In response to a couple of posts about the ‘death’ of mud logging in hard times and the scant attention paid to cuttings and gas information by oil companies, I think we need to consider a few things.
1) In the dim and distant past mud logging was the only method of getting realtime geological data so by necessity it was a valued service which expanded into drill monitoring and pressure monitoring.
2) MWD and LWD then came along, grew, and became extremely profitable. They basically cornered the realtime Formation Evaluation market – especially offshore where cost was no problem.
3) Mud logging remained as an ‘afterthought’ offshore. Onshore, it dug in and continued to bag samples and find cheaper and cheaper ways to operate and make a living. The service gradually regressed back to its 1930’s roots – a gas trap and a logger trying to differentiate color changes in shales.
4) In the present day with the rise of unconventional drilling, mud logging is again the most cost-effective way of getting realtime geological data – so, an opportunity exists.
5) MWD and LWD are of course still around but are too expensive to be run onshore in every lateral.
6) Unfortunately, mud logging has not risen to the new opportunities open to it. It has remained hunkered down close to its roots providing the same service – a gas trap and a logger trying to differentiate color changes in shales. To an oil company trying to stay financially afloat in a flooded market where, honestly, is the value to them of a bag of cuttings and a gas curve?
If mud logging is slowly dying it is no one’s fault but the mud logging companies.
Diversified Well Logging recognizes that to provide value to its clients it has to deliver something that will be cost effective, reduce inefficiencies, reduce geologic uncertainty, and overall show that the return on an investment in DWL services far, far, exceeds the outlay. With our Surface Measurement While Drilling™ services and our A.I. platform we take drilled cuttings, we do all of the aforementioned, and we give you completion strategies and production forecasts. That is VALUE.
When planning a new project and the checklist gets to ‘Mud Logging Company’, try to visualize the benefits of using a Surface Measurement While Drilling company instead … along with the bag of cuttings and a gas curve you will get everything you need to drill, correlate, geo-position, map hydrocarbons, plan completions and more.
Diversified Well Logging has evolved. Contact us to discover how our evolution can help you.