Patent · US Expired

Directional resistivity measurements for azimuthal proximity detection of bed boundaries

US6181138A · kind A · utility

163Cited by
19References
35Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 22, 1999
Grant dateJan 30, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 22, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01V3/28
  • WIPO fieldCivil engineering
  • WIPO sectorOther fields

Abstract

An azimuthally tunable resistivity measurement tool is provided. In one embodiment, the tool comprises a set of three skewed receiver antennas and a transmitter antenna. The three skewed receiver antennas are oriented in equally-spaced azimuthal directions to give them preferential sensitivity in those directions. The transmitter antenna transmits a radio-frequency signal that propagates through the formation surrounding a borehole. The signals from the three receiver antennas can be measured and combined to synthesize the signal that would be received by a virtual antenna oriented in any desired direction. Accordingly, virtual receivers oriented perpendicular to the tool axis and with variable azimuthal orientations can be synthesized. The orientation of such a virtual receiver that has a maximized receive signal amplitude can be used to identify the direction of a nearby bed boundary, and the maximized amplitude can be used to estimate the distance to the boundary. In another embodiment, the tool comprises a set of three skewed transmitter antennas and a receiver antenna. The signal responses of the receiver antenna to each of the transmitter antennas can be measured and combined…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.