Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Schlumberger Industries, Sa

Other

Services Petroliers Schlumberger

Schlumberger Holdings Limited

Prad Research and Development Limited

Benoit G Froelich

Christophe M Rayssiguier

Jahir A Pabon

Andrew J Hayman

Jean-Luc Le Calvez

Kenneth K Liang

Chung Lung Chang

Henri-Pierre Valero

Smaine Zeroug

Emmanuel Legendre

Richard Timothy Coates

Stephane Vannuffelen

Patrice Ligneul

Hitoshi Sugiyama

Songming Huang

Hiroshi Hori

Philippe Hocquet

Hitoshi Tashiro

Bronislaw Seeman

Robert Van Kuijk

Christopher V Kimball

Alain Brie

Franck Monmont

Lionel Beneteau

David Hoyle

Didier Dominguez

Frank Morris

Eric Lavruit

An acoustic transceiver assembly including a housing, an oscillator, and at least one membrane. The housing has at least one inner wall defining a cavity. The housing also has a first end and a second end defining an axis of the acoustic transceiver assembly. The oscillator is provided in the cavity. The oscillator is provided with a transducer element, and a backing mass acoustically coupled to the transducer element. The at least one membrane extends outward from the backing mass to support at least the backing mass within the cavity. The at least one membrane is flexible in an axial direction parallel to the axis of the acoustic transceiver assembly to permit the backing mass to oscillate in the axial direction, and rigid in a transverse direction to restrict lateral movement of the backing mass relative to the housing.

Acoustic transceiver with adjacent mass guided by membranes

Systems and methods for cement evaluation by determining a shear velocity of a shear wave () propagating within a medium () located between a formation () and a casing () in a borehole () are presented. The method can include positioning an ultrasonic transducer array () in the borehole inside the casing. The method can also include in a pushing mode, generating a shear wave in the medium with the ultrasonic transducer array inside the casing. The method can also include in an interrogation mode, measuring a shear velocity of the shear wave in the medium with the ultrasonic transducer array. The shear velocity may be used to determine whether the medium is solid or liquid.

Systems and methods for downhole cement evaluation

An acoustic logging tool emits a wideband acoustic pulse toward an inside surface of a borehole casing and an acoustic response is received. The acoustic response is analyzed at one or more higher order harmonics of the thickness mode resonance of the casing to determine the acoustic impedance of the material behind the casing.

Using higher order harmonics to determine acoustic impedance of material behind borehole casings

A subsea installation kit is described. The kit is provided with a subsea tree, a plurality of tubing sections, a plurality of acoustic repeaters and a mechanical filter. The subsea tree is configured to be coupled to a subsea well having a wellbore. The tubing sections are configured to be connected together to form a tubing string extending from above the tree into the wellbore. The acoustic repeaters are configured to be attached to the tubing string in a spaced apart manner. One of the acoustic repeaters is a last acoustic repeater configured to be attached to the tubing string within or above the tree. The mechanical filter is configured to be connected into the tubing string and form a part of the tubing string above the last acoustic repeater, the mechanical filter configured to cause an attenuation to acoustic signals propagating in the tubing string above the tree.

Mechanical filter for acoustic telemetry repeater

Methods and apparatus to identify layer boundaries in subterranean formations are described. An example method of identifying a layer boundary of a subterranean formation includes transmitting an acoustic signal from a transmitter into a borehole of the subterranean formation and receiving the acoustic signal at a receiver coupled to the downhole tool and spaced from the transmitter. Additionally, the example method includes logging an energy value associated with the acoustic signal received by the receiver as the downhole tool is moved in the borehole and identifying a change in the logged energy value associated with an impedance change in the subterranean formation to identify the layer boundary.

Methods and apparatus to identify layer boundaries in subterranean formations

An influx of gas into a borehole can be detected by deploying a string of acoustic sensors along a drill string or other conduit to monitor an acoustic characteristic, such as velocity or attenuation, of the drilling fluid present in the borehole. In response to detection of acoustic pulses propagating in the drilling fluid, the acoustic sensors generate signals that are representative of acoustic characteristics if the drilling fluid. Based on the generated signals, a data acquisition system can determine whether a change in the monitored acoustic characteristic is indicative of a gas influx.

Detection of gas influx into a wellbore

A bi-directional acoustic telemetry system is presented for communicating data and/or control signals between a first modem and a second modem along tubing. The system includes a communication channel defined by the tubing, a transducer of the first modem, and a transducer of the second modem. The transducer of each modem are configured to transmit and receive data and/or control signals, and are further configured to electrically communicate with a power amplifier characterized by an output impedance Zs and a signal conditioning amplifier characterized by an input impedance Zr. The system also includes a reciprocal response along the communication channel between the output impedance Zs and the input impedance Zr.

Bi-directional wireless acoustic telemetry methods and systems for communicating data along a pipe

A well casing is insonified with a first acoustic wave in a first mode that may be any mode of a set including: extensional mode, thickness mode, flexural mode. A first echo is received at a first acoustic transducer for receiving, a first signal is produced and a first measurement is extracted from the first signal. The casing is then insonified with a second acoustic wave in a second mode that may be any mode of the set of modes but is distinct from the first mode. A second echo is received at a selected second acoustic transducer for receiving and a second signal is produced. A second measurement is extracted from the second signal. The zone behind the casing of the well is evaluated from a combination of the first measurement and the second measurement.

Multimode acoustic imaging in cased wells

A surface mud pipeline system is described with a mechanical acoustic filter () tuned to a predetermined frequency band so as to attenuate pump noise () within this band. The filter can be combined with a Venturi constriction to provide enhanced attenuation and is used to improve signal transmission of a mud pulse telemetry system (-).

Noise attenuation apparatus for borehole telemetry

The invention provides a method for estimating an impedance of a material behind a casing wall, wherein the casing is disposed in a borehole drilled in a geological formation, and wherein a borehole fluid is filling said casing, the material being disposed in an annulus between said casing and said geological formation, said method using a logging tool positionable inside the casing and said method comprising: exciting a first acoustic wave in said casing by insonifying said casing with a first pulse, the first acoustic wave having a first mode that may be one of flexural mode or extensional mode; receiving one or more echoes from said first acoustic wave, and producing a first signal; extracting from said first signal a first equation with two acoustic properties unknowns for respectively said material and said borehole fluid; exciting a second acoustic wave in said casing by insonifying said casing with a second pulse, the second acoustic wave having a thickness mode; receiving one or more echoes from said second acoustic wave, and producing a second signal; extracting from said second signal a second equation with said two acoustic properties unknowns; extracting the acoustic properties of said material behind the casing wall from said first and said second equations.

Determination of the impedance of a material behind a casing combining two sets of ultrasonic measurements

The invention concerns a device ( ) for measuring calorific energy contained in a fuel gas transported in a pipe ( ) comprising a gas meter ( ) measuring a volume V in pressure conditions P and temperature conditions T of a gas circulating in said pipe and an apparatus ( ) to determine the gas calorific power H. The invention is characterized in that said apparatus for determining calorific power measures at least one physical variable proportional to the number of molecules of the gas different constituents in a given volume and is placed as near as possible to the gas meter so as to determine the calorific power H(P,T) in similar pressure P and temperature T conditions as those wherein the gas volume V(P,T) is measured, said device then determining the calorific energy H(P,T) V(P,T) contained in the gas.

Device and method for directly measuring calorific energy contained in a fuel gas

A logging tool having a tool body, which can be positioned in a fluid-filled borehole, including a receiver section and a dipole transmitter; wherein the dipole transmitter includes a transducer with a shell having a reaction mass and a motor located therein, the motor operatively connecting the shell and the reaction mass such that only an outer surface of the shell is in contact with the fluid in the borehole. This new type of dipole source for well logging involves shaking all or part (axially) of a dipole tool body to produce a pure, broadband acoustic dipole signal while at the same time coupling as little energy as possible into the tool body. Important variations on this idea include a linear phased array of shaker sources, and active cancellation of tool borne noise.

Dipole logging tool

A method for measuring a fluid flow rate between two points of a fluid flow according to which a measurement of the respective propagation times of two acoustic signals transmitted in opposite directions is combined with a measurement of acoustic phase shifts respectively induced in each signal. Each received signal is sampled and digitized and the corresponding acoustic phase shift is determined by synchronous detection. During successive iterations, a programmable phase shift dependent on the value of the acoustic phase shift obtained by synchronous detection in the previous iteration is determined for each iteration, so that the result of the synchronous detection step in the current iteration is as close as possible to zero, and the acoustic phase shift is therefore substantially the same as the last programmable phase shift.

Growing community of inventors

Palaiseau, France

Benoit G Froelich