Collocated multitone acoustic beam and electromagnetic flux leakage evaluation downhole

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10465509-B2
Application number	US-201615291797-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2016
Priority date	Oct 12, 2016
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

Methods, systems, devices, and products for well logging using a logging tool in a borehole in an earth formation. Methods include conveying the logging tool in the borehole on a carrier; taking acoustic well logging measurements with the logging tool including generating a multitone acoustic beam from at least one transmitter on the tool, the beam comprising a high frequency signal modulated by a low frequency envelope, the high frequency signal including a first subsignal at a first frequency and a second subsignal at a second frequency, and generating measurement information at at least one acoustic receiver on the logging tool in response to a plurality of acoustic reflections of the acoustic beam from at least one volume of interest in the formation; and estimating a property of the volume of interest using the measurement information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of well logging using a logging tool in a borehole in an earth formation, the method comprising:
conveying the logging tool in the borehole on a carrier;
taking acoustic well logging measurements with the logging tool including:
generating a multitone acoustic beam from at least one transmitter on the tool, the beam comprising a high frequency signal modulated by a low frequency envelope, the high frequency signal including a first subsignal at a first frequency and a second subsignal at a second frequency;
generating measurement information at at least one acoustic receiver on the logging tool in response to a plurality of acoustic reflections of the acoustic beam from at least one volume of interest in the formation; and

estimating a property of the volume of interest using the measurement information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the volume of interest comprises a plurality of nested conductive tubulars in the borehole, and estimating the property comprises estimating a property corresponding to at least one tubular of the plurality of nested conductive tubulars.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein estimating the property comprises estimating a property corresponding to each conductive tubular of the plurality of nested conductive tubulars.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the property corresponding to each conductive tubular comprises at least one property selected from the group consisting of: i) location of the tubular; ii) thickness of the tubular; iii) at least one property of a defect of the tubular; iv) a presence of a completion component outside at least one tubular; or v) a property of a completion component outside at least one tubular.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:
generating an electromagnetic (EM) field using an EM transmitter of the logging tool to produce interactions between the electromagnetic field and the plurality of nested conductive tubulars;
obtaining EM measurements indicative of the interactions; and
performing an inversion of the EM measurements using a forward model generated with the property corresponding to each conductive tubular.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the interactions comprise interactions selected from the group consisting of: i) magnetic flux leakage; or ii) induced eddy currents.

7. The method of claim 5
wherein the EM transmitter comprises a first radially oriented EM transmitter, and wherein generating the electromagnetic (EM) field comprises exciting an EM field using the first radially oriented EM transmitter at a first polarity and a second radially oriented EM transmitter at a second polarity opposite of the first polarity.

8. The method of claim 5 comprising:
performing a joint inversion using the EM measurements and the measurement information at the at least one acoustic receiver to resolve a structural feature relating to at least one tubular of the plurality of nested conductive tubular, the structural feature comprising at least one structural feature selected from the group consisting of: i) tubular ovality of the at least one tubular; ii) deformation of the at least one tubular; iii) corrosion of the at least one tubular, iv) perforation of the at least one tubular, v) a presence of a completion component outside of the at least one tubular, vi) eccentricity of the at least one tubular with respect to another component, vii) a material property of the at least one tubular; or viii) a material property of a material surrounding the at least one tubular.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one of the first frequency and the second frequency correspond to a resonant frequency of the at least one tubular.

10. The method of claim 1 comprising generating the multitone acoustic beam using a rotating stacked transducer.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the beam is generated by supplying a multitone modulated signal to a transducer, the multitone modulated signal derived by applying an envelope modulating frequency signal to a center frequency signal.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the beam is generated by generating low-frequency acoustic beat signals from interference of at least two high-frequency acoustic beams.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the carrier comprises a carrier selected from the group consisting of i) a drill string; or ii) a wireline.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the carrier comprises a drill string, the logging tool comprises a bottom hole assembly (BHA), and the at least one transmitter comprises a transmitter disposed on the drill bit, the method further comprising performing drilling operations by rotating a drill bit disposed at a distal end of the drill string and taking acoustic well logging measurements during drilling operations.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the further operations comprise at least one operation selected from the group consisting of: i) geosteering; ii) drilling additional boreholes in the formation; iii) performing additional measurements on the formation; iv) estimating additional parameters of the formation; v) installing equipment in the borehole; vi) evaluating the formation; vii) optimizing present or future development in the formation or in a similar formation; viii) optimizing present or future exploration in the formation or in a similar formation; ix) drilling the borehole; or x) producing one or more hydrocarbons from the formation.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the volume of interest comprises a volume of a rock matrix of the formation, and estimating the property comprises estimating at least one property selected from the group consisting of: i) a bulk modulus of the rock matrix; ii) a shear modulus of the rock matrix; iii) a Young's modulus of the rock matrix; iv) a Poisson ratio of the rock matrix; v) a porosity of the rock matrix; vi) a compressional velocity of the formation; or vii) a shear velocity of the formation.

17. The method of claim 1 comprising conducting further operations in the formation in dependence upon the property.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the multitone acoustic beam has a lateral beam field of dimensions substantially the same as that of the high-frequency signal.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein generating measurement information comprises producing a plurality of borehole caliper measurements including measurements from each of a plurality of azimuthally distributed orientations about the carrier; and wherein estimating a property of the volume of interest using the measurement information comprises estimating a property of the borehole.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the property comprises at least one property selected from the group consisting of i) a geometry of the borehole; or ii) an image of the borehole wall.

21. A method of well logging using a logging tool in a borehole in an earth formation, the method comprising:
conveying the logging tool in the borehole on a carrier;
taking electromagnetic (EM) well logging measurements with the logging tool including:
generating an electromagnetic (EM) field using an EM transmitter of the logging tool to produce interactions between the electromagnetic field and a plurality of nested conductive tubulars in the borehole;
obtaining EM measurements indicative of the interactions; and

estimating a property corresponding to a volume of interest comprising at least one tubular of the plurality of nested conductive tubulars by performing an inversion of the EM measurements;
wherein generating the electr

Assignees

• Baker Hughes Inc
• Baker Hughes A Ge Co Llc

Inventors

• YAO Xiaochu
• Fanini Otto N
• Han Wei
• Daoud Mohamed

Classifications

• E21B47/085

  using radiant means, e.g. acoustic, radioactive or electromagnetic · CPC title

• G01V1/50 Primary

  Analysing data · CPC title

• E21B47/09

  Locating or determining the position of objects in boreholes or wells {, e.g. the position of an extending arm}; Identifying the free or blocked portions of pipes · CPC title

• E21B49/003 Primary

  by analysing drilling variables or conditions (E21B49/005 takes precedence; systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions E21B44/00) · CPC title