Drilling system with integrated bottom hole assembly

• US 6,206,108 B1
• Filed: 10/22/1997
• Issued: 03/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Baker Hughes Incorporated (Baker Hughes Company)
• Original Assignee: Baker Hughes Incorporated (Baker Hughes Company)
• Inventors: MacDonald, Robert P., Fincher, Roger W., Krueger, Volker, Harrell, John W., Nasr, Hatem N.
• Primary Examiner(s): DANG, HOANG C
• Application Number:
  US08/955,930
• Time in Patent Office: 1,252 Days
• Field of Search: 175/24, 175/26, 175/27, 175/40, 175/45, 175/48, 175/50, 175/61
• US Class Current: 175/24
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 44/00 Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 44/005 Below-ground automatic control systems
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 47/00 Survey of boreholes or wells monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid E21B21/08
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 49/005 Testing the nature of borehole walls or the formation by using drilling mud or cutting data

Abstract

The present invention provides a drilling system that utilizes an integrated bottom hole assembly. The bottom hole assembly contains sensors for determining the health of the bottom hole assembly, borehole condition, formation evaluation characteristics, drilling fluid physical and chemical properties, bed boundary conditions around and in front of the drill bit, seismic maps and the desired drilling parameters that include the weight on bit, drill bit speed and the fluid flow rate. A downhole processor controls the operation of the various devices in the bottom hole assembly to effect changes to the drilling parameters and the drilling direction to optimize the drilling effectiveness.

Claims

1. A bottom hole assembly (“

BHA”

) for drilling an oilfield wellbore, comprising;

(a) a plurality of sensors carried by the BHA, including at least one BHA condition sensor for determining a physical condition of the BHA, at least one position sensor for determining position of BHA, and at least one drilling parameter sensor for determining a selected drilling parameter, each said sensor making measurements during the drilling of the wellbore;

(b) a plurality of interactive models in the BHA including at least one model each for manipulating downhole data relating to each sensor in said plurality of sensors; and

(c) a processor carried by the BHA, said processor utilizing the plurality of interactive models for processing downhole the measurements from the plurality of sensors to determine a plurality of parameters of interest said processor causing a change of at least one drilling parameter in response to the parameters of interest to improve effectiveness of the drilling of the wellbore.

2. The bottom hole assembly of claim 1, wherein the sensors in said plurality of sensors are selected from a group consisting of (a) drill bit sensors, (b) sensors which provide parameters for a mud motor, (c) BHA condition sensors, (d) BHA position and direction sensors, (e) borehole condition sensors, (f) an rpm sensor, (g) a weight on bit sensor, (h) formation evaluation sensors, (i) seismic sensors, (j) sensors for determining boundary conditions, (k) sensors which determine the physical properties of a fluid in the wellbore, and (l) sensors that measure chemical properties of the wellbore fluid.

3. The bottom hole assembly of claim 1, wherein the parameters of interest are selected from a group consisting of (a) health of selected BHA components, (b) mud motor parameters, including mud motor stator temperature, differential pressure across a mud motor, and fluid flow rate through a mud motor, (c) BHA condition parameters including vibration, whirl, radial displacement, stick-slip, torque, shock, vibration, bending moment, bit bounce, axial thrust, and radial thrust, (d) BHA position parameters, including BHA azimuth, BHA coordinates, BHA inclination and BHA direction, (e) a boundary location relative to the BHA, (f) formation parameters, including resistivity, dielectric constant, water saturation, porosity, density and permeability (f) borehole parameters, including borehole size, and borehole roughness, (g) geophysical parameters, including acoustic velocity and acoustic travel time, (h) borehole fluid parameters, including viscosity, density, clarity, rheology, pH level, and gas, oil and water contents, (i) a boundary condition, (j) physical properties of the borehole fluid, (k) chemical properties of the borehole fluid, (l) drilling parameters, including weight on bit, rate of penetration, drill bit r.p.m. and fluid flow rate, and (m) estimate of the remaining operating life of a BHA component.

4. The bottom hole assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor further performs an in-situ test of at least one sensor in the BHA to measure any error in the measurements of such sensor and in response to such measured error makes corrections by one of (a) calibrating the sensor prior to utilizing any measurement from such sensor, (b) correcting the measurement of the sensor before processing the measurements from such sensor, and (c) correcting any parameter of interest determined from the measurement of such sensor.

5. The bottom hole assembly of claim 1 further comprising a downhole controlled steering device.

6. The bottom hole assembly of claim 5, wherein said plurality of parameters of interest includes a desired drilling direction and the processor adjusts the steering device to cause the BHA to drill the wellbore in the desired direction.

7. The bottom hole assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor turns on and turns off sensors in the BHA according to a predetermined selection criteria, thereby conserving power and increasing the operating life of such sensors.

8. The bottomhole assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor updates at least one of the interactive models during the drilling of the wellbore based on the downhole computed parameters of interest.

9. The bottom hole assembly of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of devices selected from a group consisting of (a) a mud motor, (b) a thruster, (c) a steering device, and (d) a jet intensifier.

10. The bottom hole assembly of claim 9, wherein the processor controls the operation of the devices in the BHA.

11. The bottom hole assembly of claim 1 further comprising a two way telemetry system, said telemetry providing communication of data and signals between the BHA and a surface computer.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the drilling parameter changed is one of (i) thrust on a drill bit attached to the BHA;

(ii) drilling fluid flow rate; and

(iii) rotational speed of the drill bit.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processor causes the drilling parameter to change prior to-further drilling of the wellbore to provide continued drilling at one of (i) enhanced rate of penetration;

and (ii) with extended life of the BHA.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processor further adjusts a device in the BHA during drilling of the BHA in response to the parameters of interest.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the device is for altering direction of drilling.

16. A drilling system for drilling an oilfield wellbore, comprising:

(a) a drill string having a bottom hole assembly (“

BHA”

), said bottom hole assembly comprising;

(i) a plurality of sensors carried by the BHA, including at least one BHA condition sensor for determining a physical condition of the BHA, at least one position sensor for determining position of BHA, and at least one drilling parameter sensor for determining a selected drilling parameter, each said sensor making measurements during the drilling of the wellbore;

(ii) a plurality of interactive models in the BHA including at least one model each for manipulating downhole data relating to each sensor in said plurality of sensors; and

(iii) a processor carried by the BHA, said processor utilizing the plurality of interactive models for processing downhole the measurements from the plurality of sensors to determine a plurality of parameters of interest for use in altering at least one drilling parameter to improve effectiveness of the drilling of the wellbore with the BHA;

(b) a transmitter associated with the BHA for transmitting data relating to the plurality of parameters of interest to the surface; and

(f) a computer at the surface, said computer receiving said data from the BHA and in response thereto adjusting at least one drilling parameter at the surface to improve the effectiveness of the drilling of the wellbore.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the parameters of interest include a desired measure of at least one drilling parameter that will provide drilling of the wellbore at enhanced rate of penetration.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the surface computer adjusts a device at the surface in response to the measure of the drilling parameter to achieve the drilling of the wellbore at the enhanced rate of penetration.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein said computer at the surface adjusts the at least one drilling parameter until said parameters of interest fall back within predetermined ranges defined for said parameters of interest.

20. The system of claim 16 further comprising at least one formation evaluation sensor.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein said at least one formation evaluation sensor includes at least one sensor selected from a group consisting of (i) a resistivity sensor, (ii) a sonic sensor, (iii) a nuclear sensor, and (iv) a nuclear magnetic resonance sensor.

22. The system of claim 16 further comprising at least one fluid sensor for determining downhole a property of drilling fluid supplied under pressure from the surface to the drill string and wherein said surface computer alter the at one drilling parameter in response to said determined property of the drilling fluid.

23. The system of claim 16 further comprising at lea one sensor for providing signals representative of a characteristic of formation ahead of said drill string and wherein said processing adjusts a drilling parameter or drilling direction in response to said characteristic of the formation.

24. The system of claim 16 further comprising at least one borehole condition sensor for determining a borehole condition, parameter and wherein said system adjusts the at least one drilling parameter in response to said determined borehole parameter.

25. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor calibrates downhole a selected number of sensors in said plurality of sensors prior to utilizing measurements from said plurality of sensors to determine said parameters of interest.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the interactive models is a dynamic model that is updated downhole at least in part based on measurements made by at least one sensor in said plurality of sensors.

27. At The system of claim 16, wherein said inteactive models include at least one model selected from a group consisting of models relating to (i) test and calibration routines for the sensors carried by the BHA, (ii) health of the BHA, (iii) wellbore path, (iv) reservoir modeling, (v) drilling parameters, (vi) borehole condition, (vii) properties of fluid in the wellbore, (viii) characteristics of the formation penetrated by said BHA during drilling of the wellbore, and (ix) physical properties of the mud motor carried by the BHA.

28. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one drilling parameter of interest is selected from a group consisting (i) weight on bit, (ii) rate of penetration of the BHA during drilling of the wellbore, (iii) fluid flow rate of drilling fluid supplied under pressure from the surface, (iv) torque on the drill string, and (v) rotational speed of the drill bit.