The zone of infiltration of the drilling fluid filtrate into the reservoir rock creates significant difficulties for the study by logging methods and during further testing of the formation. Due to the penetration of filtrate, significant contamination of the near-wellbore zone occurs. The porosity and filtration characteristics of reservoir rocks are changing. There is a possibility of blockage by filtrate in the invaded zone of oil or gas flow from the formation to the well. As a result of the studies carried out using well logging data, it was found that the presence and distribution of a mud cake on the borehole wall opposite the reservoir is an important factor influencing the process of filtration of the drilling fluid into the layers. On the examples of the Yablunivske oil and gas and Kolomatske gas fields of the Dnieper-Donets basin, it is shown that the absence of a mud cake on the borehole walls leads to the formation of maximum, anomalous zones of filtrate invasion. The determining of the diameter of the invaded zone was carried out according to the data of electrical logging methods. In addition, the diameter of the invaded zone was calculated as a solution direct task equation for the case of direct filtration without blocking by the mud cake. Comparison of the results of determining the diameter of the invaded zone by two methods made it possible to draw certain conclusions. An important conclusion is that even partial absence of mud cake on the reservoir wall in the well leads to horizontal and vertical filtration of the drilling fluid from the well into the formation. As a result, the invaded zone may be so deep, that the gas flow rate is absent even at high values of porosity, permeability and gas saturation.