Drilling system with downhole apparatus for determining parameters of interest and for adjusting drilling direction in response thereto
First Claim
1. A measurement-while-drilling downhole apparatus for use in drilling a borehole in a formation, comprising:
- (a) a plurality of sensors within the downhole assembly for providing a plurality of downhole measurements, said plurality of sensors including a device for providing measurements of the resistivity of the formation; and
(b) a computer within the downhole assembly for transforming the plurality of downhole measurements into one or more parameters of interest during drilling of the borehole in accordance with programmed instructions provided to the computer, one said parameter of interest being water saturation of the formation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a measurement-while-drilling (MWD) system having a downhole computer and multiple downhole sensors. Relatively large amounts of basic or "raw" data are measured by downhole sensors, and these data are processed within a downhole computer to be reduced to parameters of interest, which may be utilized to control the drilling operation by downhole devices, stored downhole, telemetered to the surface, or both. The measurements may be correlated downhole with stored reference data thereby providing additional information pertaining to the drilling operation. Downhole depth correlation between downhole measured parameters may be made by utilizing surface determined or downhole determined borehole depth.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A measurement-while-drilling downhole apparatus for use in drilling a borehole in a formation, comprising:
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(a) a plurality of sensors within the downhole assembly for providing a plurality of downhole measurements, said plurality of sensors including a device for providing measurements of the resistivity of the formation; and (b) a computer within the downhole assembly for transforming the plurality of downhole measurements into one or more parameters of interest during drilling of the borehole in accordance with programmed instructions provided to the computer, one said parameter of interest being water saturation of the formation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An apparatus for use in drilling boreholes, comprising:
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(a) a drill bit; (b) a downhole assembly coupled to the drill bit, said downhole assembly including; (i) a plurality of sensors of providing measurements for selected properties of the formation along the borehole, (ii) a computer having programmed instruction associated therewith, said computer transforming a certain number of measurements into one or more parameters of interest, and (iii) a deflection device for causing the drill bit to change drilling direction during drilling of the borehole based on one of the parameter of interest. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A downhole apparatus for use in drilling a borehole, comprising:
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(a) a plurality of sensors for providing measurements of selected properties of the formation along the borehole; (b) a computer having programmed instruction associated therewith, said computer transforming a certain number of measurements into one or more parameters of interest; and (c) a position measuring device for determining the location of the downhole assembly in the borehole during the drilling of the borehole, said position determining device selected from a group of devices consisting of an inertial guidance device and a three-axis accelerometer. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A measurement-while-drilling downhole apparatus for use in drilling a borehole into a subsurface formation, comprising:
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(a) a plurality of sensors within the downhole assembly for providing a plurality of downhole measurements, said plurality of sensors including a device for providing measurements of the resistivity of the formation; and (b) a computer within the downhole assembly for transforming the plurality of downhole measurements into one or more parameters of interest during drilling of the borehole in accordance with programmed instructions provided to the computer, wherein one said parameter of interest is a recovery factor index "RFI" of formations along the borehole. - View Dependent Claims (27, 30, 31)
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28. A measurement-while-drilling borehole apparatus for use in drilling a borehole into a subsurface formation, comprising:
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(a) a plurality of sensors within the downhole assembly for providing selected downhole measurements, said plurality of sensors including a device for providing measurements of the resistivity of the formation; and (b) a computer within the downhole assembly for transforming the plurality of downhole measurements into one or more parameters of interest during drilling of the borehole in accordance with programmed instructions provided to the computer, one said parameter of interest being an estimate of movable hydrocarbons from a selected formation along the borehole.
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29. A measurement-while-drilling downhole apparatus for use in drilling a borehole into a subsurface formation, comprising:
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(a) a plurality of sensors within the downhole assembly for providing a plurality of downhole measurements, said plurality of sensors including a device for providing measurements of the porosity of the formation and a density device for providing measurements relating to the density of the formation; and (b) a computer within the downhole assembly for transforming the plurality of downhole measurements into on or more parameters of interest during drilling of the borehole in accordance with programmed instructions provided to the computer, one said parameter of interest being the porosity (φ
t) of the formation.
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32. A method of drilling a wellbore in a subterranean formation, comprising:
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(a) providing a downhole apparatus having; (i) a plurality of sensors for providing a plurality of downhole measurements, said plurality of sensors including a device for providing measurements of the resistivity of the formation; and (ii) a computer within the downhole assembly for transforming the plurality of downhole measurements into one or more parameters of interest; (b) making measurements during drilling of the borehole by the plurality of sensors; and (c) determining downhole by the computer one or more parameters of interest from the plurality of measurements, said parameters of interest selected from a group consisting of water saturation, porosity, recovery factor index, and an estimate of movable hydrocarbons from a selected formations along the borehole.
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Specification