T E C H N O L O G Y

T O D A Y

S E R I E S

OILWELL/GASWELL
CEMENT-SHEATH EVALUATION
K.J. Goodwin, SPE, Mobil Technology Co.

All of us can readily recognize construction cement for what it is

because we see it every day and it looks how it is supposed to look.
Even a poor grade of construction cement is recognizable as
cement to the naked eye. In our industry, cement is placed in the
casing/openhole annulus for two primary purposes: to isolate producible formation horizons and to support the casing. However, we
do not have the luxury of looking at the cement with the naked eye
to determine its quantity and/or quality after placement. We are
forced to rely on the results of measurements from a variety of electronic downhole tools to define the quality and quantity of cement
placed around the casing during the primary cement placement.
The major problem associated with interpretation of the results of
these measurements lies within ones definition of good or bad
cement. All the cement-evaluation tools available today, as well as
the service companies that design and run them, are caught in the
vicious cycle of trying to define good or bad cement in the oilwell/gaswell annular space. This dilemma arises because we, the
operators, are asking them to tell us the compressive strength of the
cement and whether the cement occupies 100% of the annular
space. We cannot accept that the cement does not exhibit as high a
compressive strength in the downhole measurements as it does
under laboratory conditions. If the cement does not measure up, it
must be bad cement and we must squeeze to repair it.
In truth, when we evaluate a cement in an oilwell/gaswell annulus, all we really need to know is whether cement exists in the annulus (regardless of its strength) and whether the cement occupies
100% of the annulus. We must understand that all we can do is
place cement into a section of the annulus that contains neither
cement nor particulate matter when we squeeze an annulus to
repair a primary cement. If 10-psi cement exists in 100% of the
annulus, no portion of it can be removed for replacement by a
1,000-psi cement. If the annulus is packed with settled barite (from
the drilling mud) or formation particles, no portion of the particulate matter can be removed and replaced by cement. Only liquids
can be removed from the annulus for replacement by squeeze
cementing. Acceptance of this basic premise can both simplify evaluation of a cement sheath in a casing/openhole annulus significantly and complicate measurement methods significantly. This leaves
us with trying to identify solids or liquids behind the casing, not the
difference between 250- and 5,000-psi cement.

Misinterpretation can be caused by American Petroleum Inst. (API)

testing procedures, from stress cracking of the cement sheath, or
from cement contamination.
API Laboratory Testing Procedures.
1. Compressive-strength testing under laboratory conditions,
according to API recommended procedures, calls for heating the
cement to bottomhole static temperature (BHST) in 4 hours. The
cement system is then maintained at BHST (and pressure) for the
requested testing time (generally 24 hours). The measured compressive-strength development is reported. This leads to misinterpretation because percent bonding (or the bond index) is based on
the relationship of the amplitude (or attenuation rate) of the sonic
signal at the lowest value of amplitude (the highest value of attenuation rate) and the remaining cement in the annular cement column. No adjustments are made for pressure, temperature, or density changes (from the tail slurry to the lead slurry) as the logging
tool moves up the hole. Cement-column heights can vary significantly, creating varying temperature and pressure effects on the setting of the cement. The cement at the top of the lead slurry may not
even be set by the time the cement sheath is logged because of these
varying environmental conditions. Field measurements of the time
required for a well to stabilize to 100% of geothermal static temperature have been measured, and the times range from 4 to 40
hours, depending on drilling times; circulation times and rates;
inlet-fluid temperatures; casing/hole geometry; fluid type, density,
and rheology; depth; and physical location.
2. API thickening-time tests are run at a constant bottomhole circulating temperature with predetermined slurry heat-up rates. In
practice, the real-time heat-up rate is much slower than API-recommended heat-up rates. At faster heat-up rates, the cement-slurry-retarder loadings must be increased to yield sufficient thickening times for placement. These extra retarder loadings severely
delay the cement-setting process uphole because the temperature
decreases instead of remaining constant.

Copyright 1997 Society of Petroleum Engineers

Stress Cracking of the Cement Sheath. After the cement sheath

has reached a fully developed crystalline state, stress changes caused
by casing expansion can create cracks (tensile failure) in the cement
sheath. Casing expansion can be caused by excessive casing test
pressures, excessive temperature changes, or expendable perforating guns. The cement sheath, once it has been stress cracked,
appears as no cement on bond logs or as ultraweak cement to no
cement on the ultrasonic evaluation logs. Severe stress cracking can
generally be negated by cementing with low-density, low-compressive-strength cements with greater ductility. Generally, the greater
the compressive strength of the cement, the more susceptible it is to
stress cracking. Ideally, to prevent the stress-cracking problem
entirely, the cement ductility should approach that of rubber.

This paper is SPE 39290. Technology Today Series articles provide useful summary information
on both classic and emerging concepts in petroleum engineering. Purpose: To provide the general reader with a basic understanding of a significant concept, technique, or development within a specific area of technology.

Cement Contamination. Cement mixed with drilling mud, spacer,

or formation fluids (water or gas) in the annulus during and after

CEMENT-SHEATH COMPLIC ATIONS

Following placement of a particular cement slurry in a

casing/openhole annulus, numerous events can, and do, alter its
physical properties from those seen in laboratory test results.
Expecting the annular cement sheath to look like the cement in the
laboratory tests leads to severely erroneous log interpretations.

DECEMBER 1997

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TABLE 1GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Cement-evaluation tools are not recommended if the primary cement job was conducted according to recommended primary cementing
practices and no problems were experienced with mixing or placement of the primary cement. These practices include the following.
Casing is 100% centralized.
Hole is circulated until a minimum of 85% of the annular volume is circulating.
Drilling mud is thinned as much as possible before cementing.
Casing is reciprocated or rotated during circulation and cementing.
A minimum of 500 linear ft of water (or spacer if required for pressure control) in the annulus is pumped ahead of the cement.
Cement slurry is mixed within 0.2 lbm/gal of planned density.
Cement is circulated to the surface.
Flow or loss circulation problems are solved before cementing.
Bond logs are not recommended in 95/8-in. or larger casing.
If bond-log tools or Western Atlas SBT (segmented bond tool) are used for cement evaluation, a pressure pass and a nonpressure pass
must be made. The casing pressure used should be equal to any changes in hydrostatic or test pressure after the cement has
set plus 500 psi.
A bit and scraper should be run to clean the casing wall before running any cement-evaluation log.
Cement should have a minimum compressive strength of 250 psi at the top of the cement column before a cement-evaluation log is run.
If a cement-evaluation log is deemed necessary, bond logs are not recommended. Any of the evaluation logs that can segment the
annulus and present readable raw data is recommended. These include Schlumbergers CET (cement evaluation tool) or USIT
(ultrasonic imaging tool), Halliburtons PET (pulse echo tool) or CAST-V tool, and Western Atlas SBT.

placement yields a sheath of drastically reduced density and compressive strength. This contamination, especially severe gas influx
from the formation, yields a cement sheath that is not recognizable
as cement on a bond log but is readily recognizable as a cement
when raw acoustic-impedance data from ultrasonic tools or raw
attenuation-rate data from segmented-type bonding tools are used.
CEMENT-BOND LOGS

Cement-bond-log measurements represent a 360 averaging of

reflected and refracted sonic signals from the casing, the cement
sheath, and the formation. Depending on the log presentation, the
results can satisfactorily indicate a total-free-pipe condition; can
imply an annular liquid-filled channel (as long as the channel is in
contact with the casing) or a microannulus at the casing/cement
interface; and can satisfactorily indicate formation signals, as long as
the cement is not cut with gas (either from natural-gas influx or purposefully foamed) and as long as a pressure pass and a nonpressure pass are included on the log presentation. Cement-bond logs
cannot identify channels within the cement sheath or channels at
the cement/formation interface, very weak or gas-cut cement on
thick-wall casing, or particulate-matter fill in the annulus. What
does the bonding index or percent bonding tell us? Essentially nothing except that the total-free-pipe condition does not exist at the
measurement point. The 360 averaging of the returned signal cannot satisfactorily differentiate between an annulus that is half full of
good cement and half full of liquid and an annulus that is totally full
of severely gas-cut cement or an extremely weak cement. Neither
can 360 signal averaging geometrically locate a channel at the casing outer diameter (OD) nor identify the contents of that channel.
ANNUL AR SEGMENTATION FOR ANALYSIS

Currently available ultrasonic measuring tools, as well as the segmented-bond measurement tools, can successfully measure the quality of cement in contact with the casing OD at varying points around
the casing circumference. These tools, like the cement-bond logs, also
cannot identify liquid- and/or gas-filled channels within the cement
sheath or at the cement/formation interface. The major problem with
these types of tools is that logging service companies attempt to create multicolored patterns on their log presentations to beautify, simplify, make more saleable, and otherwise confound the end user.
These colorations could provide fully satisfactory definitions of the
annular-fill material if the cement never became contaminated, was
never stress cracked, reached full strength over the entire column at
the same instant (hopefully before logging), and was mixed in the
field as exactly as it was mixed in the laboratory. Unfortunately, these
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things never happen in reality. Most frequently, combinations of

these events cause the cement acoustic impedance to be less than
that of the drilling mud and sometimes equal to or less than the
acoustic impedance of water spacers. How do you differentially color
these types of cements vs. water or drilling mud? You cant. However,
if we are to identify the annular components for a squeeze/nosqueeze decision realistically, we must differentiate between these
types of materials. It is not necessary to define whether the cement
has 5,000- or 50-psi compressive strength or to determine whether
the cement is good or bad. It is only necessary to differentiate
between a crystalline material (cement or particulate annular fill)
and a noncrystalline material (drilling mud, water, or gas).
To surmount the interpretation difficulties created by the coloration problems, it has become necessary to ask for (or demand) the
raw-data presentations. For the ultrasonic logging tools, the raw-data
presentation consists of acoustic-impedance measurements (on a
scale of 0 to 5 MRayle) from each transducer. For the ultrasonic tools
with the rotating transducer, the raw-data presentation consists of
acoustic-impedance measurements every 5 or 10 up to 40 (on a
scale of 0 to 5 MRayle). For the segmented-type bond tools, the rawdata presentation consists of unfiltered attenuation-rate measurements from each tool segment (on a scale of 0 to 9 db/ft). Acoustic
impedance is the product of material density and the composite
velocity of sound through the material. Consequently, a liquid, such
as water, drilling mud, or a gas, must by definition exhibit a constant
acoustic impedance (or attenuation rate). Depending on the quality
of the tools transducers, a constant acoustic-impedance value
should, and does, yield a straight-line (or constant) value on the log
presentation. The following examples illustrate the technique.
These examples are intended to demonstrate the types of acousticimpedance (or attenuation-rate) signatures resulting from various
materials occupying the annular space, not tout one service company tool or format over another. Please note that, for each instance
(i.e., water, cement, and gas-cut cement), definitive and identifiable
signatures are exhibited that, in reality, represent the material and its
condition occupying the annular space immediately outside the casing. All the ultrasonic logging tools and the segmented bond tools are
capable of producing this type of information; information that is
required to assist in making an intelligent decision about the requirement for remedial repair of a primary cement sheath.
CEMENT-EVALUATION RECOMMENDATIONS

The cement-evaluation guidelines offered are intended to make the

job of the completions, production, or operations engineer easier.
The recommended cement-evaluation-log presentation format
DECEMBER 1997

TABLE 2RECOMMENDED LOG PRESENTATIONS AND SETTINGS

Recommended Presentations
CET or PET
Four acoustic impedance tracks, each containing raw-data measurements (acoustic impedance) for each two transducers.
A relative-bearing curve.
Acoustic-impedance tracks on a scale of 0 to 5 MRayle (Z).
A normalized W2-W3 crossplot (CET only).
USIT
Thirty-six acoustic impedance tracks, each on a scale of 0 to 5 MRayle.
A relative-bearing curve.
CAST-V
Use the altcast.cls presentation only.
A minimum and maximum value of acoustic impedance for each of nine annular sections (deleting average and maximum
acoustic-impedance curves is recommended for clarity).
Acoustic-impedance curves on a scale of 0 to 5 MRayle.
Presentation is oriented so that the low side of the hole is in Sec. E and the high side of the hole is in Secs. A and I.
SBT
Six attenuation rate tracks (one from each pad).
A relative-bearing curve.
Attenuation-rate curves on a scale of 0 to 9 db/ft.
Nonfiltered data.
A cement map scaled only above and below the free-pipe attenuation.
Running Rules
CET
Standard tool may be run in water-based-mud (WBM) weights up to 12.5 lbm/gal only.
Modified tool (EPS Mod-1) may be used in WBMs gal.
Not recommended in inverse-emulsion muds. Modified tool can be run in oil-based mud (OBM) weight up to 12 lbm/gal.
Maximum casing size is 95/8 in. A special tool is available for 133/8-in. casing only.
Run with and without pressure if the microannulus is less than 0.006 in.
Maximum temperature is 350F.
Recommended logging speed is 4,000 ft/hr.
Should be accompanied by a gamma ray log.
USIT
Can be run in WBM weights up to 16.0 lbm/gal.
Can be run in OBM weights up to 11.6 lbm/gal.
Can be run in inverse-emulsion muds.
Should be run with the General Purpose Inclinometer Tool package for log/hole orientation purposes.
Maximum temperature is 350F.
Run with and without pressure if the microannulus is larger than 0.006 in.
PET
Can be run in WBM and OBM weights to 14 lbm/gal.
Should not be run in inverse-emulsion muds.
Can be run in casing sizes up through 133/8 in. if extended transducer cans are used.
Recommended logging speed is 3,600 ft/hr.
Maximum temperature is 350F.
Run with and without pressure if the microannulus is larger than 0.006 in.
SBT
Can be run in any density drilling mud.
Can be run in WBMs, OBMs, and inverse-emulsion muds.
Can be run in any casing size up to and including 16 in. (maximum expanded tool diameter = 151/2 in.).
Should be run with and without pressure in all cases.
Maximum temperature is 350F.
Maximum recommended logging speed is 2,400 ft/hr.

should make determining the presence and the competency of the

cement sheath in place much easier. However, in cement-sheath
analysis, the one caveat that one must always be aware of is that a
good cement sheath at the cement/casing interface does not necessarily guarantee that a channel does not exist within the cement
sheath or at the cement/borehole wall. Most often, those types of
channels can be detected only when some fluid (oil or water) or gas
is flowing at a sufficient rate for the flow to be detected with either
a noise or temperature log. Large amounts of money are wasted
annually because of poor or meaningless bond logs or because of
misinterpreted cement-sheath quality. Recent developments in
cement-evaluation tools provide much more meaningful interpretations than common bond logs. The cost of these newer tools is
much greater; however, if an unnecessary squeeze is circumvented,
the overall cost is much less. If it is absolutely necessary to run a tool
to evaluate a cement job (as opposed to running one out of curios1342

ity or habit), then the newer tools are always recommended over the
common bond logs. Table 1 gives general recommendations, and
Table 2 lists recommended log presentations and settings. Figs. 1
through 4 show typical log signatures for various tools.
INTERPRETATION GUIDELINES

Cement is cement is cement. The terms good cement and bad

cement imply the same thing: that there is cement in the annulus.
Regardless of the cements compressive strength, it cannot be
removed from the annulus so that the bad cement can be replaced
by the good cement. In fact, if the annulus were filled with sand (or
barite or any other type of small insoluble particles), it also could
not be removed from the annulus for replacement by good cement.
Liquid is liquid is liquid. In log interpretation practices, a liquid
is any noncrystalline material (drill mud, water, gas, or other such
material) that can be removed from the annulus and replaced by
DECEMBER 1997

Fig. 1Known liquid signature from the CET.

Fig. 2CET acoustic-impedance gas-cut cement signature.

Fig. 3PET acoustic-impedance uncontaminated cement signature.

good cement. If solids cannot be removed from the annulus for

replacement by good cement and liquids can be removed, then
those facts limit the information we need from a cement-evaluation
log. All we really have to determine from a cement-evaluation log
is the presence and position of solids fill or liquid fill in the annular space. We do not need to know the compressive strength, density, or bonding percentage of the cement. In addition, we can do
nothing about it at this point.
All we have to do now is learn to recognize what a liquid looks
like on a cement-evaluation log. The percent-bonding curve (the
amplitude curve) cannot differentiate between partial liquid fill or
partial solids fill of the annulus because it averages the reflected signal from 360 of the casing. The presence of a liquid-filled channel
can be determined from a bond log (on the microseismogram) if
the log is run with and without pressure. Otherwise, a liquid-filled
channel cannot be differentiated from a microannulus.
Because the CET, SBT, CAST-V, USIT, and the PET (defined in Table
1) segment the annulus for analysis, the existence and position of a
liquid-filled channel is much easier to identify. Note that a liquid-filled
channel must be in contact with the casing before it can be identified.
No cement-evaluation tools currently available can identify a channel
within or outside of the cement sheath. It is possible to identify a perfect primary cement job on an evaluation log and still have interzonal communication outside of the cement sheath. These outside channels can be identified only with a noise or temperature log.
Recognizing a liquid-filled segment of an annulus or an entire
annulus filled with liquid is very easy. Remember that the velocity
of sound through the casing wall is primarily a function of the
shear strength and density of the material in intimate contact
(acoustically coupled) with the casing. Therefore, all the physical
measurements in cement-evaluation logging (i.e., amplitude, attenuation rate, and acoustic impedance) are functions of the shear
strength and density of the annular material. Variations in those
measurements indicate variations in the density and/or shear
strength of the annular material. Conversely, liquids do not exhibit shear strength and exhibit practically no change in density over
meaningful lengths of the annulus. Because the physical properties
of the liquids do not change, the physical measurements of ampli DECEMBER 1997

Fig. 4Segmented-bond-tool presentation.

tude, attenuation rate, or acoustic impedance would not normally

be expected to change either. In fact, they dont. Therefore, a liquid
in any segment of the annulus being evaluated should, and does,
exhibit an unchanging value of amplitude, attenuation rate, or
acoustic impedance (a straight line).
SI METRIC CONVERSION FACTORS

ft 3.048*
F (F32)/1.8
gal 3.785 412
in. 2.54*
lbm 4.535 924
psi 6.894 757

E01 =m
=C
E03 =m3
E+00 =cm
E01 =kg
E+00 =kPa

*Conversion factor is exact.

K.J. Goodwin is Associate Drilling Engineering

Adviser at the Mobil E&P Producing Technical
Center in Dallas. He teaches Mobils cementing courses and conducts remedial-cementing
and cement-sheath-evaluation seminars for
Mobil and for state and federal regulatory
groups. He also provides technical assistance
for company drilling and production operations worldwide in
these areas. During his career, he has worked extensively in
stimulation, cementing, and lost circulation. Before joining
Mobil in 1985, he worked for Dowell and the Western Co. of
North America. Goodwin holds a BS degree in chemistry from
Northwestern State U. in Oklahoma. Currently an SPE Short
Course instructor, he was a 199495 Speakers Bureau speaker and a 199091 member of the Forum Series in North
America Steering Committee.
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