Generation of Synthetic Photoelectric Log using Machine Learning Approach

Photoelectric factor (PEF) is one of functional parameters of a hydrocarbon reservoir that could provide invaluable data for reservoir characterization. Well logs are critical to formation evaluation processes; however, they are not always readily available due to unfeasible logging conditions. In addition, with call for efficiency in hydrocarbon E&P business, it has become imperative to optimize logging programs to acquire maximum data with minimal cost impact. As a result, the present study proposes an improved strategy for generating synthetic log by making a quantitative formulation between conventional well log data, rock mineralogical content and PEF. 230 data points were utilized to implement the machine learning (ML) methodology which is initiated by implementing a statistical analysis scheme. The input logs that are used for architecture establishment include the density and sonic logs. Moreover, rock mineralogical content (carbonate, quartz, clay) has been incorporated for model development which is strongly correlated to the PEF. At the next stage of this study, architecture of artificial neural networks (ANN) was developed and optimized to predict the PEF from conventional well log data. A sub-set of data points was used for ML model construction and another unseen set was employed to assess the model performance. Furthermore, a comprehensive error metrics analysis is used to evaluate performance of the proposed model. The synthetic PEF log generated using the developed ANN correlation is compared with the actual well log data available and demonstrate an average absolute percentage error less than 0.38. In addition, a comprehensive error metric analysis is presented which depicts coefficient of determination more than 0.99 and root mean squared error of only 0.003. The numerical analysis of the error metric point towards the robustness of the ANN model and capability to link mineralogical content with the PEF.