Anticline in the Lower Permian Ingleside and Owl Canyon (red) formations at Red Mountain Open Space, Larimer County, CO. The alternating aeolian dune sands and tidewater carbonates are well-resolved by image logs.
Cambrian Sawatch sandstone overlying the Pre-Cambrian Pike's Peak Granite, Manitou Springs, CO. The profound unconformity (nonconformity) would easily be resolved by a borehole image log.
Fluvial channel and overbank sediments, Upper Devonian Catskill Formation, Parksville, N.Y. Borehole image logs are able to resolve the alternating channel sand and floodplain mud architecture of alluvial sediments.
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Hackle fractures in the Upper Devonian Rhinestreet Shale, Lake Erie shoreline near Sturgeon Point Marina, Hamburg, N.Y. Borehole image logs permit measuring the spatial geometry of fractures.
Upper shoreface sandstones from the Lower Cretaceous Dakota sandstone, Broomfield, CO. The dip direction and dip angle are readily measured from borehole images, permitting reconstruction of sediment transport direction.
Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale overlain by Fox Hills Sandstone, near Green Mountain Reservoir, Summit County, Colorado. Sequence stratigraphic changes are easily resolved by borehole image logs.
Thin layer of Permian Lyons sandstone, Red Mountain Open Space, Larimer County, CO. The sediment transport direction preserved in aeolian crossbeds is easily mapped by borehole images.
Coal with interlaminated bentonites (tonsteins) of the Rock Springs Formation overlain by Erickson fluvial channel sandstones, E. of Superior, Wyoming. Bentonites have a unique character that makes them easy to identify on borehole images.
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Intersecting fractures in the Honaker Trail Formation, San Juan River near Mexican Hat, Utah. High-angle fractures are readily mapped with borehole image logs.
Thrust fault cutting the Seneca Member of the Onondaga Limestone into the Marcellus Shale, Seneca Stone Quarry, Seneca Falls, NY
Carbonate concretion in the Upper Devonian Rhinestreet Shale, Lake Erie shoreline near Sturgeon Point Marina, Hamburg, N.Y. Conctretionary horizons are easily identified by borehole image logs.

This is a borehole image with a rich mix of sedimentary features.

Borehole Image Specialists is a small company of geologists with deep experience in subsurface investigations. We are subject matter experts in sedimentary basin architecture, open-hole logging operations, borehole image log acquisition, mineral diagenesis, subsurface fluid flow, fault and fracture system dynamics and present-day stress geomechanics. We offer comprehensive open hole and borehole image log processing, analysis and interpretation.

Borehole images provide unparalleled visual resolution (0.2") of reservoir features that cannot be seen by open-hole logs or seismic sections. These features include sedimentary structures, bedding contacts, folds, fractures and faults. Software is able to map the spatial geometry of these features with depth, providing information almost equivalent to cored rock. Borehole imaging has evolved from rudimentary 3-armed dipmeter tools to highly sophisticated instruments that record a large, high-resolution dataset. Recent developments include improvements in acquiring images in horizontal wells, through oil-based circulation fluid and even while drilling. Borehole image acquisition provides a means of mapping planar features and these data can render information about sediment transport direction, paleoslope orientation, and post-depositional deformation. Clues from image color and texture permit determination of fracture types (open aperture, mineralized, partially-mineralized or closed); spatial variation in fracture types, abundances and geometries are often controlled by structural or lithologic changes. Rock matrix and pore texture (from borehole images) combined with composition (from open-hole logs) can be used to map image facies – proxies for the sedimentary facies that can only be known from core. Image facies calibrated to core can be used to map the degree of bioturbation vs. laminated material across a field, to characterize debris flows or to visualize secondary porosity or brecciation in a horizon targeted for salt water disposal. An important feature of borehole images is identification of present-day stress indicators (borehole breakouts and drilling-induced tensile fractures), crucial characteristics for stimulation design. Enhanced applications of borehole image data include calibrating quantitative stress calculations for reservoir geomechanics and borehole stability, predicting the geometry of critically-stressed fractures to mitigate induced seismicity, indicating degree of anisotropy to fine-tune stimulation design, and mapping hydraulic stimulation fractures from nearby wells. Seeing is believing!

Structural Analysis

Establishing the magnitude of structural deformation of the stratigraphic pile due to folding, faulting and salt diapirism. Characterizing lithologies, stratigraphic transitions, sequence boundaries, depositional environments and sediment dispersal patterns.

Present Day Stress

Determining the trajectories of the maximum and minimum horizontal compressive stresses acting on the borehole is crucial for designing efficient hydraulic stimulations. Borehole images are the best way to establish the spatial orientation of the minimum and maximum horizontal compressive stresses.

Lamination Frequency

Laminations create a profound anisotropy in layered sediments that governs many rock properties, including permeability and hydraulic stimulation response. Borehole images map laminations at a fine scale, something that is beyond the ability of other borehole logging methods. It is possible to map every lamination and these data can be used to build density curves, quantifying bedding thickness changes with depth.

Image Facies Analysis

Textural characteristics combined with lithologic information are used to assign image facies. Image facies act as a proxy for depositional facies.

Image Core Comparison

Features measured on borehole image logs are “ground-truthed” against core from the same wellbore.

Water Disposal and Injection

Produced water injection, when conducted at volume rates that are too high, can result in induced seismicity. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the porosity and permeability characteristics of the rock mass receiving the wastewater injection. This is where borehole images come in.

Integration of logging, geomechanical and core data

We have extensive regional experience in sedimentary basins around the world.

About Our Company

We Provide Detailed Analysis and Interpretation of Borehole Image Logs.

We specialize in analyzing and interpreting borehole image logs for the oil and gas industry. Borehole imaging provides the best means of characterizing the spatial geometry of faults, fractures, bedding contacts, folds, changes in rock type, deformation textures, present-day stress indicators and many other rock properties. We utilize data acquired from service companies from both water-based mud and oil-based mud systems in vertical and horizontal wells.