3D modeling and inversion of the electrical resistivity tomography using steel cased boreholes as long electrodes

•We introduce forward modeling method of LEERT and prove its reasonability.•Diameter of the modeled long conductor can be a little bigger than the real one.•Three synthetic modeling examples of different water flooding scenarios•Water flooding is imaged and potential wells for enhancing oil recovery are found.

Electrical resistivity tomography using a steel cased borehole as a long electrode is an advanced technique for geoelectrical survey based on the conventional mise-à-la-masse measurement. In most previous works, the steel casing is simplified as a transmission line current source with an infinitely small radius and constant current density. However, in practical stratified formations with different resistivity values, the current density along the casing cannot be constant. In this study, the steel casing is modeled by a conductive physical volume that the casing occupies in the finite element mesh. The current supply point is set on the center of the top surface of the physical volume. Synthetic modeling, using both a homogenous and layered formation, demonstrates reasonability of the forward modeling method proposed herein. Based on this forward modeling method, the inversion procedure can be implemented by using a freeware R3t (Lancaster University, UK). Inversion results of synthetic modeling data match fairly well with the defined target location and validate that the method works on the inversion of the casing–surface electrical resistivity data. Finally, a field example of Changqing oil field in China is carried out using the inversion method to image water flooding results and to discover wells with great potential to enhance residual oil recovery.