Magnetic Variation Services, LLC

Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Stefan Maus

Jin Sun

Marc Willerth

Jarrod Shawn DeVerse

Alexander Michael Mitkus

Kenneth Robert McCarthy

Qianlong Liu

Timothy William Gee

Zackary Whitlow

Todd W Benson

Richard Kulavik

Benny Poedjono

Jason Truman Rice

Jeshurun Micaiah Chisholm

Ann Kamel Fitzgerald

Andrew Robert Paré

Brian Eugene Stokeld

Shawn Deverse

Systems and methods determine friction in a borehole during drilling operations. A drilling system applies oscillatory angular movement at the top of a drill string in a wellbore during drilling by the drilling system, and measures a torque applied to the drill string and an angular position of the drill string. Based on the measured torque and the measured angular position, the drilling system computes a friction between the borehole and the drill string. This can be repeated during drilling of the wellbore to determine multiple friction values, corresponding to various depths of the borehole. Based on the computed friction, the drilling system can perform one or more actions resulting in modified drilling operation. The systems and methods also include oscillating a casing in the borehole, measuring the torque and angular position of the casing, and determining a friction value, which can be repeated to develop a wellbore friction profile.

Wellbore friction depth sounding by oscillating a drill string or casing

A method of drilling a wellbore to a target includes measuring attitudes at two adjacent survey stations along a wellbore using a downhole surveying tool. An actual change in wellbore position over a survey leg linking the two survey stations is determined. Corrections are applied to the measured attitude at one or both of the survey stations such that a modeled well path joining the survey stations reflects the determined actual change in wellbore positon between the two survey stations.

Method of drilling a wellbore to a target

A system and method of drilling a wellbore to a target may include measuring attitudes at two adjacent survey stations along a wellbore using a downhole surveying tool. An actual change in wellbore position over a survey leg linking the two survey stations may be determined. Corrections may be applied to the measured attitude at one or both of the survey stations such that an estimated well path joining the survey stations indicates the determined actual change in wellbore position between the two survey stations.

System and method of drilling a wellbore to a target

A method and system for geosteering may generate a misfit function using a spline function. The misfit function may be used to accurately map errors or differences between TVD-based measurement data for one or more reference wells and MD-based measurement data collected during drilling of a subject well, in order to accurately determine a stratigraphic location of the subject well.

Geosteering methods and systems for improved drilling performance

An improved typelog alignment for automated or interactive geosteering may use multi-stage penalized optimization.

Typelog alignment for automated geosteering

A method of validating a directional survey includes measuring the gravity and magnetic field vectors using a surveying tool and computing an overall statistical distance of the measurement. The statistical distance may be calculated from reference values associated with the surveying tool using corresponding surveying tool codes with error values. In a further aspect, an error covariance matrix may be used to determine whether the new errors in a survey are consistent or not with errors from one or more previous surveys.

Adaptive quality control for monitoring wellbore drilling

Systems and methods for automated filtering and normalization of logging data for improved drilling performance may enable smoothing and amplitude scaling of log data for meaningful comparison and analysis without scaling artefacts. The logging data may be collected from downhole sensors or may be recorded by a control system used for drilling. A computer implemented method may enable industrial scale automated filtering and normalization of logging data, including calibration to a known standard. In particular, the filtering and normalization may be used for stratigraphic analysis to correlate true vertical depth to measured depth along a wellbore.

Automated filtering and normalization of logging data for improved drilling performance

Stratigraphic analysis includes determining misfit values between stratigraphic vertical depth of an offset wellbore, SVDand measured depth of a subject wellbore. A likelihood that the target measured depth is equal to or within a tolerance of stratigraphic vertical depth of the subject wellbore, SVD, for sequences of stratigraphic vertical depth is calculated. A probability weighted average and an uncertainty that the target measured depth for the subject wellbore, TMD, is equal to or within a tolerance of stratigraphic vertical depth of the subject wellbore, is calculated. A continuous probability function over a range of measured depth that the target measured depth for the subject wellbore, TMD, is equal to or within a tolerance of stratigraphic vertical depth of the subject wellbore, SVD, is calculated. The likelihood, the probability weighted average, the uncertainty, and the continuous probability function are used to make drilling decisions

Determining the likelihood and uncertainty of the wellbore being at a particular stratigraphic vertical depth

Systems and methods for using stratigraphic heat maps to steer a well being drilled. Data from one or more offset wells can be provided to a computer system and used with data from a well being drilled to generate one or more stratigraphic heat maps during the drilling of the subject well. The stratigraphic heat maps can be displayed and used to determine the location of the wellbore relative to one or more geological formations, including one or more target formations or within a target formation. Based on the use of the heat maps and the location of the wellbore relative to a target, the drill plan can be adjusted or updated and/or one or more drilling parameters or operations may be adjusted to drill the wellbore, such as to drill the wellbore to the target or to maximize the length of the wellbore within a target zone.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Stefan Maus