Drilling system with an acoustic measurement-while-driving system for determining parameters of interest and controlling the drilling direction
US6088294A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 24, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jul 11, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 24, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01V1/523
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The present invention provides a system for drilling boreholes having a downhole subassembly which contains an acoustic measurement-while-drilling system. The acoustic system contains an acoustic transmitter and receiver for determining the acoustic velocity through the formations surrounding the borehole ad an acoustic transmitter and a set of receivers for determining the bed boundaries surrounding the borehole formation utilizing the acoustic velocities measured by the system. The downhole subassembly also contains a computing system which performs computations downhole and transmits certain answers uphole during the drilling operations. The bed boundary information is utilized to drill the wellbore along a desired wellbore path. The downhole computing system correlates the acoustic sensor measurements with other measurement-while-drilling measurements and transmits selected correlated information uphole. The downhole computing system contains predetermined well profile which is updated based on the bed boundary information. The system may be adapted to correct or update seismic data and offset well data based on acoustic sensor system measurements.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.