Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Evaluation of new method for estimation of fracture parameters using T

conventional petrophysical logs and ANFIS in the carbonate heterogeneous
reservoirs
Ghasem Aghlia,∗, Reza Moussavi-Haramib, Saiedollah Mortazavic, Roohangiz Mohammadiana
a
National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC), Ahvaz, Iran
b
Department of Geology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
c
Department of Electrical Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Fractures and their parameters are considered as being the most important features in evaluation of the fractured
ANFIS reservoirs. This may be of more importance in the heterogeneous reservoirs, when primary porosity cannot
Fractures explain the high production capacity. Cores and image logs are two direct methods for fractures evaluation.
Image and core data However, these methods have high cost drawback. So, petrophysical logs are useful tools for fractures detection
Petrophysical logs
due to their low cost and accessibility in all wells. This paper proposes a reliable and inexpensive method for the
Statistical methods
evaluation of fracture parameters in the carbonate heterogeneous reservoir using the preprocessed petrophysical
logs and ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System). This study indicates that there are two vital limita-
tions when using petrophysical logs for fractures evaluation; firstly, fracture distribution is a complicated process
to be predicted by classical methods and none of intelligent systems can be considered as a magic for fracture
parameters estimation from raw conventional logs. Secondly, fractures determination is not valuable alone,
unless they are used for evaluation of porosity and permeability systems. To solve these problems, a log pre-
processing method and a new statistical equation are implemented on the raw conventional logs. Also, ANFIS is
used as a powerful method for fracture parameters estimation using preprocessed logs. It is shown that sonic and
porosity logs are the best tools for fracture studies. Also, resistivity and gamma ray family logs may have a good
evaluation of fractures in the fractured zones. Results confirm that conventional logs could be more useful tools
for fractures evaluation if they preprocessed by some statistical methods and correlated by image logs or core
data. Proposed method may also be usable for estimation of fractures aperture in some image tools which they
are not traditionally able to measure fractures aperture (e.g., sonic image tools). Undoubtedly, fracture aperture
is the most important parameter for determination of fractures effect on the porosity and permeability systems.
Due to high correlation between petrophysical logs and images/cores results (R2 ≈ 0.8), the results are de-
pendable and extensible for other carbonate and naturally fracture reservoirs.

1. Introduction knowledge for analysis of image logs is restricted to several interna-

Meticulous information about presence of fractures in the reservoir
is necessary for well optimization and completions planning (Aguilera,
1980; Lonergan, 2007). Movement of fluids in the heterogonous car-
bonates is often impossible unless the rocks contain fractures (natural
or induced) (van Golf-Racht, 1982). In recent years, some modern logs,
such as image logs, are used for fracture studying in the carbonate re-
servoirs (Khoshbakht et al., 2009). But many wells do not have this data
especially the older wells (Tokhmchi et al., 2010), because these tools
have developed recently. Moreover, technique and interpretation
tional companies, yet. Therefore, images are indeed available for less
than ten percent of all wells. It is notable that, image logs are only
logging tools which can directly measure the fracture parameters such
as aperture and porosity (Khoshbakht et al., 2012). Nevertheless, some
special electrical image logs are able to measure the fracture aperture
and others merely can determine the fractures density. Some fracture
studies in the last decades showed that fractures might contribute as
much as a few to several percent to porosity (Ouenes et al., 1995). But
recent studies, using fracture aperture, which is calculated from re-
sistivity image logs, indicated much lower numbers than previous study

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: G-aghli@phdstu.scu.ac.ir (G. Aghli).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2018.09.017
Received 27 October 2016; Received in revised form 8 May 2018; Accepted 4 September 2018
Available online 05 September 2018
0920-4105/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
G. Aghli et al.
(Al-ghamdi and Chen, 2011; Movahed et al., 2015).
Fracture porosity is measurable using some special electrical image
logs as well as aperture, because this parameter is too small to be de-
tected by all petrophysical logs (Luthi and Souhaite, 1990; Hornby
et al., 1992). Moreover, results show that NPHI (neutron porosity) and
PHIE (effective porosity) are the best logs for estimation of fracture
aperture because they have the most cross correlation coefficient (Aghli
et al., 2016). Between fracture parameters, fracture aperture shows the
maximum effect on the conventional porosity logs. The role of fracture
aperture is very essential in the reservoirs due to its high contribution to
permeability index (Aguilera, 2010). On the other hand, to understand
the behavior of fractured reservoirs, estimations must be made for both
matrix (primary) and fracture porosity systems (Lonergan, 2007).
Therefore, at the first step, fractures should be precisely identified in
the fractured zones. In wells without image logs and core data, con-
ventional logs can be used to determine the fractured zones (Shanks
et al., 1976). Clearly, only one type of petrophysical log may not be able
to detect the fracture zones (Ge et al., 2014; Saboorian-Jooybari et al.,
2015); but a combination of conventional logs can be used for fracture
identification (Martinez et al., 2002). Intelligence system tools, such as
fuzzy logic and neural networks (or both combinations), are the most
common system which used in the petroleum industries. In recent
years, several studies have been conducted in the field of petroleum
geology for estimation of porosity and permeability (Shokir, 2006;
Abdulraheem et al., 2007; Kadkhodaie-Ilkhchi et al., 2010; Olatunji
et al., 2014) and fracture density (Ouenes, 2000; Ja'fari et al., 2011;
Zazoun, 2013). But none of these studies tried to understand the role of
fractures on the reservoir parameters. Moreover, they didn't introduce a
simple way for calculation of relation between petrophysical logs and
fractures. This study attempts to evaluate the fracture parameters using
some physical reasons and determine the role of fractures on reservoir
parameters that are correlated with image logs and core data. In ad-
dition, this paper proposes a new simple preprocessing method for
calculation of relation between petrophysical logs and fracture para-
meters which increase the performance of intelligent systems.
2. ANFIS (adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system)
ANFIS is a multi-layer adaptive network based fuzzy inference
system. In fact, ANFIS is a composite system of Sugeno FIS type via
artificial neural network (ANN). Identification of rules for Sugeno
system is the key in the ANFIS. ANFIS is an acceptable method due to
flexibility and using human knowledge. Despite of this abilities, there
are two limitations: (1) there are not any standard methods for trans-
forming human experiences to the rules, (2) It is required a further tune
of MF (membership functions) to minimize the output errors and
maximize the performance (Jipkate and Gohokar, 2012). Rules in fuzzy
systems, may be extracted using two methods; 1. Human experts, 2.
Extracting from data. In case, where human experts are not accessible
in formula, rules may be extracted from available data. Extracting rules
from data may be done using ANNs. Hence, combination of fuzzy and
ANN systems is a powerful method in such studies. There are some
methods that can be used to determine the best MF numbers such as
subtractive clustering, grid partitioning and Fuzzy C-Means clustering
(FCM). In this study, FCM clustering was used for MFs identification
and improvement. FCM is a clustering method which authorizes a data
to depend on two or more clusters. This method (developed by Dunn in
1973) is generally used in pattern recognition. It is based on mini-
mization of the following function (Eq. (1)):
2
J N C 1 ≤ m < ∞j
m= ∑ ∑ Um
ij Xi − Cj
i= 1 j= 1 (1)
where m is any number more than 1, Uij is the degree of MF of x i in the
cluster j, x i is the i th of d-dimensional measured data, cj is the each
cluster center, and * is norm expressing the similarity between
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102
measured data and the center of each cluster.
In recent decades, many studies evaluated the fuzzy logic system for
fractured reservoir characterization. Ouenes (2000) and Martinez et al.
(2002) used fuzzy logic and neural networks for fractures determina-
tion based on relation between geologic properties and parameters of
fractures. El Ouahed et al. (2005) expanded a 2D and fracture network
map using FIS and ANN systems in the Hassi Messaoud oil field. Ja'fari
et al. (2011) used neuro-fuzzy system for estimation of fracture density
and found out a relation between some conventional logs and fracture
density. All of these studies indicated that a fuzzy logic system is suc-
cessfully able to estimate the fracture density using conventional well
logs. Nevertheless, neither of previous studies explains the physical
reasons for the role of fractures and fracture parameters on the reservoir
properties and conventional logs.
In this study, an ANFIS system is designed, using FCM clustering,
which can determine the rules and membership functions auto-
matically. FCM clustering represented the best results among all clus-
tering methods in this case. At the next step and for better responses,
designed system was edited using human knowledge, previous studies
and human experiences.
3. Methods and material
In this study, image logs (Formation Micro Imager ((FMI)) and
Electrical Micro Imager ((EMI)), Oil Base Mud Imager (OBMI),
Ultrasonic Borehole Imager (UBI)), conventional well logs along with
core data are available in 4 studied wells. The Asmari Formation was
selected for this study in all studied wells in the Dezful Embayment, SW
Iran. This formation may considered as one of the most important
carbonate and fractured reservoirs in the world (Alavi, 2007). For more
accuracy, shale and anhydrite zones were eliminated due to their
flexibility and plasticity. The image logs were processed and interpreted
by Geoframe 4.5 software and all open fractures have been determined
carefully. Fractures parameters calculated for all studied wells using
image logs analysis. Then, this study tried to determine a relationship
between fracture parameters and conventional logs using some statis-
tical methods. Finally, these relations were used for determination of
correct rules for ANFIS system. Then, created ANFIS system successfully
used to estimate the fractures parameters especially fractures aperture
(FVAH) for tools which they cannot measure this parameter.
3.1. Best conventional logs for fractures study
In recent years, many studies have been conducted to understand
the effects of fractures on the petrophysical logs. Generally, due to low
resolution of conventional logs, most petrophysicists believe that the
effect of fractures is not detectable by these logs (Raymer et al., 1980;
Brie et al., 1985; Rezaee and Chehrazi, 2005). Undoubtedly, fractures
and their parameters will be detectable on the conventional logs if
fracture parameters affected on the log properties. But most of recent
studies (Mohebbi et al., 2007; Tokhmechi et al., 2009; Tokhmchi et al.,
2010; Ge et al., 2014; Saboorian-Jooybari et al., 2015; Aghli et al.,
2016) show that fractured zones have a significant effect on conven-
tional logs because new logging tools have high resolution. Based on
these studies, sonic and porosity logs are the best tools for fractures
determination. However, resistivity and gamma ray family logs can give
a good evaluation of fractures in the fractured intervals.
3.1.1. Sonic log and sonic wave forms
Sonic log (DT) indicates a formation's interval transit time. Most
relationships between sonic travel time and porosity have been sug-
gested and Wyllie time-average is the most accepted equation (Wyllie
et al., 1956). Obviously, fractures reduce transmission speed because
they reduce the formation density as well, importantly; when fractures
are open (Fig. 1). Based on this explanation, transit time will be ex-
pected to increases in fracture zones (Aguilera, 1976). It is notable that,
G. Aghli et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102

Fig. 1. Comparison of sonic and wave form logs with FVDC and FVAH for well A. In the fracture zones, all sonic logs and wave forms show cycle skipping
(highlighted zones with blue rectangles). First track indicates that SGR obviously increases in some of fracture zones while CGR indicates low value. Anhydrite is the
cause of skipping in the lower parts of studied formation which these parts will be eliminated before of fractures evaluation. (For interpretation of the references to
colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

sonic logs are the best fracture indicator in old wells because other
modern methods were not available at the time (Serra and Serra, 2004).
Modern sonic tools, usually called dipole shear sonic logs, often trans-
port monopole and dipole sources, and measure compressional, shear,
and stoneley waves that depend on the formation properties. In general,
fractures affected on the normal compressional wave less than the
matrix path between transmitter and receivers. This role seems to be
right for vertical and horizontal fractures. But in fact, large vertical and
horizontal fractures make a cycle skipping on the compressional curves
which strongly depend on the first energy arrival detection. Due to
cycle skipping patterns, there might be a reduction in amplitude of the
sound with reflection at the fracture plane. Also, refraction by near
vertical fractures, again and again can reduce amplitude. Compres-
sional waves can be seen separately on sonic waveforms because they,
theoretically, travel faster than shear waves. Waveforms are a record of
sonic energy level versus time of arrival. The amplitude of both waves is
affected by some parameters, such as reservoir properties, borehole
rugosity, tool centralization, fracture size and orientation (Aguilera,
2010). The sonic amplitude is a log that records the first arrival energy
and measure in milli-volts. Energy affected by many factors, however
low amplitude often shows fractures. All parameters that have been
described above can be considered as a cause for cycle skipping, so it
seems, fractures are only one possibility (Fig. 1).
3.1.2. Porosity logs
There are various indicators for porosity among conventional well
logs such as sonic, neutron and density (Serra and Serra, 2004). In the
heterogeneous reservoirs, porosity is a very complex system. To eval-
uate the behavior of fractured reservoirs, both of primary and sec-
ondary porosity systems should be estimated. Fracture porosity is
usually very small and its value varies between 0.0001 and 0.001 of
rock volume (0.01–0.1 percent) (Ge et al., 2014). To confirm this, a

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Fig. 2. Comparison of NPHI and fracture logs in the well B. NPHI depends on fracture aperture more than fracture density. So, porosity logs are the best tools for
aperture estimation.

Fig. 3. Cross correlation between NPHI and fracture parameters.Cross correlation is a mathematical operation which measures the two signals relation according to
the time (depth). Results indicate that NPIH showmoreline regression with FVAH than FVDC. Also periodic behavior for NPHI cross correlation emphasizes that other
parameters control the trend of this log.

fractures with 1 mm aperture and 1 m length, gives 0.001 porosity
volume (0.1 percent) (Akbar et al., 2003). This is a very large open
fracture and most of fractures show microns width. Some fracture types,
such as solution fractures or vuggy fractures in the carbonate reservoirs,
may have higher porosity values. But, in real, the fracture porosity is
still form a very small percentage of reservoir porosity. However,
fracture porosity is not measurable with conventional logs and can only
determine fractures density and fracture aperture. In the sense of
fracture parameters, fracture aperture has the most effect on the con-
ventional porosity logs (Fig. 2). Neutron porosity log (NPHI) measures
the hydrogen content of a formation. Hence, materials like hydro-
carbons and water which have higher amounts of hydrogen become
very important for reducing neutron speed. Because hydrogen is con-
centrated in the pore system, loss of neutron energy can be related to
the formation porosity (Laongsakul and Dürrast, 2011). Based on the
above explanation, in the fracture zones, where the amount of forma-
tion fluid increases, value of NPHI log increases too. Hence, NPHI and
PHIE are the best logs for prediction of fracture aperture, because they
show the most cross correlation coefficient (Fig. 3). Bulk-density log
(RHOB) has dual behavior in the fracture zones. But the results of most
previous studies as well as this study indicate that RHOB shows a sig-
nificant decrease around the fracture zone because the fluid volume
increases in the fractured zones and fluid density is less than rock
density (Fig. 4).
3.1.3. Resistivity and gamma ray logs
As a suitable method, in all new and old tools, the shallow and deep
resistivity logs are powerful methods for fracture detection. Due to in-
vasion in fractures, shallow resistivity logs read lower resistivity in a
fractured interval, especially when formation resistivity is more than

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Fig. 4. Composite plot of gamma ray logs and their separation, resistivity logs, density log and fracture logs for well B. RHOB and resistivity logs reduced in the
fracture zones, especially where the fracture aperture increased (please see the logs behavior in the highlighted intervals).

the mud resistivity such as many studied cases (Saboorian-Jooybari
et al., 2015). In salt mud systems, the shallow curve normally reads
higher resistivity than the deep. Induction log suggests the presence of
fractures and shows low resistivity spikes on all three resistivity curves.
If one or more of the deeper induction resistivity curves also spikes to
lower resistivity, certainly the existing fracture is relatively deep and
also significant (Fig. 4). Note that, it is not possible to determine
whether the fracture is natural or induced, but often the deeper frac-
tures are considered as the natural fractures.
Fractures are one of the main locations for uranium accumulation
which can be determined by the spectral gamma ray logs (SGR) (Figs. 1
and 4). The GR track records two gamma ray logs, the standard (SGR)

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Fig. 5. Display of liner regression for core data in two studied wells. Low regression between core porosity and permeability indicates that this reservoir is a
completely heterogeneous reservoir which secondary porosity controlsthe permeability.
and computed gamma ray (CGR). The SGR measures the total gamma
ray count from all sources, but the CGR is the summation of thorium
and potassium sources. This curve is a powerful log to determine the
shale zones and bad hole intervals, free of perturbations by uranium.
SGR is commonly used for estimation of clay mineral volumes, and
recognition of fractures that have uranium salts precipitated in them by
ground-water systems (Darling, 2005).
3.2. Core and image logs description
One of the main goals of this study is to determine the effect of
fractures on the reservoir properties. Image logs and core are the best
methods for fractures study and they can directly measure fracture
parameters. In fact, the aim of this study is to estimate fractured zones
using conventional petrophysical logs in the well without core or image
logs data. Cross plots for core parameters were known as a main evi-
dence for determination of reservoir heterogeneity. In this study, low
regression between the core porosity and permeability shows the high
heterogeneity index in this reservoir (Fig. 5). Also cross plot for core
data emphasizes that, permeability is probably controlled by the sec-
ondary porosity. Furthermore, image logs for 4 studied wells show that
this reservoir is a completely fractured reservoir and fractures con-
trolled the permeability trend. Since, open fractures are the main fea-
tures which used in this study. So, open fracture parameters (FVDC-
FVAH) calculated for studied wells using image logs. Based on image
logs interpretation, there are 655 open fractures in the well A, 1490
open fractures in the well B, 485 open fractures in the well C and 400
open fractures in the well D (Fig. 6). FVDC is a statistical log which
related to the number of open fractures at each depth. While, FVAH log
is known as a multidimensional log and is a function of mud resistivity,
invaded zone resistivity, image contrast and tool resolution. Moreover,
FMI image results, for both of wells A and B, indicated that most of open
fractures happened in the dolomitic zones and these zones show the
most fractures aperture as well (see the explanations for Fig. 11).
Fracture aperture is calculable via Eq. (2) (Luthi and Souhaite, 1990).
(2)
W = c. A. Rmb . Rxo1 − b
Where W is the size of fracture aperture (with unit mm), A is access flow
of each electrode, Rm is resistivity of drilling-mud (with unit Ω.m), Rxo
is resistivity of the invaded zone (with unit Ω.m), c and b are constants
based on the model properties.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102
4. Results and discussion
After analysis of data in wells A and B (FMI), well C (OBMI-UBI) and
well D (EMI), several features such as open and closed fractures were
identified. Since, open fractures are only important in this study, they
were determined using image logs. Then FVDC was calculated for all
wells and FVAH was only calculated for wells A, B and D using
Geoframe software. As mentioned above, aperture is not measurable
using OBMI-UBI and other sonic imaging tools which considered as
major weak point for these tools. In this research, we tried to unravel
this weak point with estimation of fracture parameters from conven-
tional well logs using ANFIS system. Image results for wells A and B are
presented in Figs. 1 and 11.
4.1. Logs preprocessing
Previous studies indicated that fracture distribution is an intricate
process to be estimated by classical regression. Therefore log pre-
processing is necessary for such studies. For this reason, some processes
such as averaging and normalization were performed on the raw pet-
rophysical logs which in turns increased regression between inputs and
target data. In the intelligent systems, normalization is vital for some
reasons. Without such normalization, logs with the largest data, such as
GR and DT, would dominate in the process steps. In this study, inputs
and outputs were normalized using Xmin and Xmax by Eq. (3). Also cross
correlation, which can measure how two signals related to each other
(Yilmaz, 2001), was used for comparison of conventional logs and
fracture parameters before and after of log processing (Fig. 2). Cross
correlation is a normalization of logs data per energy for each log which
is calculated using Eq. (4) and Eq. (5).
Xi−Xmin
XNorm =
Xmax _Xmin (3)
n
Elog = ∑ X 2i
i= 1 (4)
Xi
Nlog =
Elog (5)
Which Elog is total energy of each log and Nlog is normalized log per
energy. Averaging is the other process for increasing the relation be-
tween inputs and outputs. This process is a statistical process which
significantly increases the regression between fracture parameters and
conventional logs (Fig. 7). Averaging process considerably depends on
G. Aghli et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102

Fig. 6. Strike and Statistical scattering of fractures in the studied wells. Blue points show the open fractures, yellow points show the possible open fractures and light
blue points represent the closed fractures. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

the log resolution. Based on Eq. (6), the range of averaging can change 4.2. Fracture parameters estimation and ANFIS performance
between 50 and 200 data point (In this case). For example, for a log
with 0.15 cm resolution, for instance DT, the range of averaging is 50, Fracture density, aperture and porosity are the most important
and for a log with 0.05 resolutions, such as resistivity logs, is 200. Also, parameters that should be understood and calculated when we are
constant c is a weight factor between 0 and 1 which strongly depends dealing with heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs such as Asmari
on the resolution of each log. In fact, an average log shows behavior of Formation. As mentioned above, fracture porosity is an undetectable
log for an interval instead of a point and averaging is a feature ex- parameter by conventional logs. However, fracture density and aper-
traction method likewise the wavelet. This equation has been written ture can be determined using conventional logs. Also, they may be
based on the physical reasons which explained in the part 3.1. considered as reliable witnesses for fracture porosity. For fracture
density estimation using ANFIS, Sonic transit time (DT) and sonic wave
Xi + (1 + c ) ai
Xave = 0<c≤1 form extensions, neutron and effective porosity (NPHI, PHIE) and Bulk
2+c (6)
density (RHOB) logs as the main data and gamma ray (GR), photo
i + 50
⎧ ∑k = i dt (k ) ⎫ electric absorption (PEF) and resistivity logs were applied as auxiliary
i < 51 inputs. Fracture density which has been obtained from image logs,
⎪ 50 ⎪
⎪ i + 50 ⎪ loaded as target data.
a (i) = ∑k = i − 50 dt (k ) 51 < i < 6261 ⎬ When log resolution is 0.15
⎨ 100 In this study, training wells are A and B (Fig. 8).Then trained ANFIS
⎪ ∑i ⎪
k = i − 50 dt (k ) was checked for wells C and D. In well D, predicted FVDC and FVAH
⎪ 6261 < i < 6311⎪
⎩ 50 ⎭ controlled with real data and in well C, FVDC controlled with real data
and c is 0.1 and FVAH checked with other witnesses (Figs. 9 and 10). Flexibility and
i + 200 using of human knowledge are the two important reasons which pre-
⎧ ∑k = i gr (k ) i < 201 ⎫ ferred fuzzy system to other intelligent systems.
⎪ 200 ⎪
⎪ i + 200 ⎪ As stated above, there are vital limitations in using of fuzzy systems.
a (i) = ∑k = i − 200 gr (k ) 201 < i < 6111 ⎬ When log resolution is 0.05
⎨ 400 For example, there are not any standard methods for transforming
⎪ ∑i ⎪ human experiences to the rules. Hence, to solve this problem, generated
k = i − 200 gr (k )
⎪ 6111 < i < 6311⎪
⎩ 200 ⎭ Sugeno system with FCM checked and edited with previous knowledge
and c is 0.2 and studies. Edited rules show more optimization and reducing the
system complexity.
When Xave is averaging result, Xi is log response for each point, ai is
In terms of morphology, fractures classified in three groups, in-
summation of n (related to the each log resolution) point data before
cluding continuous, discontinuous and closed fractures. Continuous
and after of Xi and 1 + c is a weight factor for logs with more re-
fractures are open and show visible traces in all pads of the image logs
solution.
and have larger aperture in comparison to the other fractures. The
In this case, 6311 shows the number of recorded data for explained
discontinuous fractures have discrete traces, which are not visible in all
log and undoubtedly changes for other cases. The number of recorded
pads. In some intervals, they are completely vuggy. The trace of closed
data is a function of tools resolution and reservoir thickness.

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Fig. 7. Composite plot of conventional logs after averaging in the well C. Averaging is capable to increases the relation between conventional logs and FVDC.

fractures is completely healed and a resistive halo is presented in many are the best tools for estimation of fracture aperture using all intelligent
cases (Schlumberger, 2003). A rule of thumb, continuous fractures systems. In addition to porosity logs (NPHI and PHIE), sonic logs are
show more effect on the conventional logs, especially on the porosity very helpful for fracture aperture estimation. An ANFIS with 5 inputs
logs such as NPHI and PHIE (Figs. 3 and 11). Therefore, porosity logs (NPHI, PHIE, DT, RHOB, and Amplitude) is used for fracture aperture

Fig. 8. The performance of ANFIS for wells A and B as training wells. This system created using the FCM clustering.

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estimation in wells C and D. Predicted FVAH log for well D was com-
pared with real data which extracted from image log. But for well C,
due to the type of image logs (OBMI-UBI), FVAH is not measurable via
these tools, therefore predicted FVAH compared with NPHI log. Results
for ANFIS and preprocessing steps indicate that all conventional well
logs show more relation with FVAH rather than FVDC. Also, Predicted
FVAH shows better regression with real data. Generally, it seems that
fracture aperture estimation is more important than fracture density.
Because, fracture aperture is a good witness for both of fracture density
and fracture porosity (Fig. 11). Also results indicate that, introduced
technique is a reliable method for estimation of fractures aperture in the
image tools which are not traditionally able to measure this parameter.
5. Conclusions
Conventional petrophysical logs are useful tools for fracture detec-
tion due to their low cost and availability in all wells, especially when
common and expensive methods for fractures study, i.e. image logs and
core are not available. Theoretically, raw conventional logs are not
usable as inputs for fracture parameter estimation, unless some log
preprocessing methods increase the relation between conventional logs
and fracture parameters. A new preprocessing method is introduced to
extract the logs response in the fractured zones and increase the initial
regression between logs and fracture parameters.
In a valuable fractures study, the effect of fractures should be de-
termined on the reservoir parameters. For determination of fractures
effect on the studied reservoirs, fracture aperture (FVAH) was estimated
as well as fracture density (FVDC). Sonic transit time, wave form
Fig. 10. Fracture parameters estimation for well C. A: FVDC log and its comparison with the real FVDC and B: FVAH log and its comparison with NPHI. It is notable
that FVAH cannot be obtained with OBMI-UBI tools which this is a vital weak point for these tools.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102
Fig. 9. Fracture parameters estimation for well D and com-
parison with the image log results. A: FVDC log and B: FVAH
log. Although, there are good predictions for both FVDC and
FVAH, but the predicted FVAH shows more regression with
real data. Generally, conventional logs show more relation
with fracture aperture than the fracture density.
extensions, porosity logs, resistivity and gamma ray family logs were
used in this study as inputs for ANFIS system. These logs are the best
tools to identify the fractured zones that are usually available in all
older wells without image logs and core data. The application of ANFIS
system indicates that, it can be successfully used for prediction of FVDC
and FVAH using the processed conventional logs (not raw logs). In this
study, fuzzy c-means clustering has been used for fuzzy system pro-
duction which provided better results compared to that of other clus-
tering methods. To simplify the designed ANFIS, rules were purified
based on the human knowledge and previous studies. Also, results for
log preprocessing confirmed that, conventional logs usually show better
relation with FVAH than FVDC. Generally, it seems that the estimation
of fracture aperture is more important and reliable than fracture density
during fracture studies. However, FVAH is not measurable with all
imaging tools and this is the main weakness of these tools which may be
obviated using this technique. As a main result, this study indicates that
there are many dependable physical reasons for how well logs re-
sponded to the fracture aperture and density. However, none of in-
telligent systems and optimization algorithms can be used as a miracle
tool to estimate the fracture parameters using raw conventional logs.
Accordingly, preprocessing methods are vital in such studies to elicit
the fracture response.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank National Iranian South Oil Company
(NISOC) for sponsorship, data preparation and permission to publish
the data. This paper is part of the Ph.D. dissertation of first author at
G. Aghli et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102

Fig. 11. Display of fracture parameters (density, aperture and porosity) and conventional logs for well B. Fracture porosity is not detectable by conventional logs, but
fracture aperture may be a reliable witness for facture porosity (please see the marked areas). Also, among of fracture parameters, fracture aperture is the most
important factor which affected on the conventional logs (please see trends of logs in the highlighted intervals). Results indicate that, the most of fractures happened
in the dolomitic zones and they show the highest fractures aperture, e.g. zone5.

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G. Aghli et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 172 (2019) 1092–1102

Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran. We are grateful to Dr https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2012.03.007.

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