Borehole imaging tool

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11377946-B2
Application number	US-201816335220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2018
Priority date	Mar 13, 2018
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments include systems and methods to image a borehole. In one embodiment, a borehole imaging system having a borehole imaging tool and a processor is provided. The borehole imaging tool includes a magnetic field source and an array of electrode buttons. The borehole imaging tool also includes a galvanic source operable to inject an electrical current through one or more electrode buttons of the array of electrode buttons into the formation. The processor is operable to determine a differential voltage between at least two electrode buttons of the array of the electrode buttons, and determine the current through the one or more electrode buttons. The processor is also operable to determine a magnetic susceptibility and a resistivity of the formation based on the differential voltage and the current, respectively, and construct a visual representation of the formation based on the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility of the formation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A borehole imaging system, comprising:
a borehole imaging tool, the tool comprising:
a magnetic field source formed from one or more coils wrapped around the borehole imaging tool, the magnetic field operable to induce an alternating magnetic field to flow into a formation, the alternating magnetic field in turn inducing an induced electric field;
an array of electrode buttons, each electrode button of the array of electrode buttons being operable to detect the induced electric field;
a galvanic source operable to inject an electrical current through one or more electrode buttons of the array of electrode buttons into the formation; and
a processor operable to:
determine a differential voltage between at least two electrode buttons of the array of the electrode buttons;
determine the current through the one or more electrode buttons;
determine a magnetic susceptibility and a resistivity of the formation based on the differential voltage and the current, respectively, and
construct a visual representation of the formation based on the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility of the formation.

2. The borehole imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the borehole imaging tool further comprises:
one or more magnetometers, each of the one or more magnetometers being collocated with a different button of the array of buttons,
wherein each of the one or more magnetometers is operable to estimate a magnetic permeability of the formation proximate a button of the array of buttons that is collocated with the respective magnetometer.

3. The borehole imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more coils comprise at least two coils, and wherein the at least two coils are axially symmetrically deployed on the borehole imaging tool, and wherein the one or more electrode buttons are placed along an axis of symmetry of the one or more coils.

4. The borehole imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the magnetic field source comprises one or more permanent magnets.

5. The borehole imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the magnetic field source comprises one or more solenoids.

6. The borehole imaging system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more solenoids are C-shaped.

7. The borehole imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the borehole imaging tool further comprises a pad that extends towards a wall of the borehole, wherein the array of electrode buttons is positioned on the pad.

8. The borehole imaging system of claim 1 , wherein:
the borehole imaging tool further comprises a magnetic field receiver, and
the processor is further operable to:
determine an induced voltage at the magnetic field receiver, the induced voltage being a differential voltage between the magnetic field source and the magnetic field receiver; and
determine the magnetic susceptibility of the formation based on the induced voltage at the magnetic field receiver.

9. The borehole imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further operable to determine the differential voltage based on the induced electric field and the alternating magnetic field detected at each of the two electrode buttons.

10. A method to generate a visual representation of a formation, comprising:
inducing an alternating magnetic field into a formation, the alternating magnetic field in turn inducing an induced electric field;
determining, at two electrode buttons of an array of electrode buttons, a differential voltage between the two electrode buttons, wherein determining the differential voltage between the two electrode buttons is based on a strength of the alternating magnetic field and a strength of the induced electric field proximate the two electrode buttons;
exciting the array of electrode buttons with a galvanic source;
determining a current through the array of electrode buttons;
estimating, based on the differential voltage between the electrode buttons and the current flowing through the array of electrode buttons, a resistivity and magnetic susceptibility of the formation proximate the array of buttons; and
constructing a visual representation of the formation based on the resistivity and magnetic susceptibility of the formation.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising obtaining an estimate of a lithology of the formation based on the visual representation of the formation.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising generating at least one of a logging, completion, and production-related decision based on the visual representation of the formation.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining, at the two electrode buttons, the strength of the alternating magnetic field and the strength of the induced electric field proximate the two electrode buttons.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising eliminating a resistivity effect in the magnetic susceptibility based on at least one of measurements indicative of the magnetic susceptibility at multiple frequencies and measurements indicative of the resistivity at multiple frequencies.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
determining the differential voltage comprises determining a plurality of voltage measurements of the differential voltage at a plurality of frequencies, and
estimating the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility of the formation comprises estimating the magnetic susceptibility of the formation based on the plurality of voltage measurements of the differential voltage at the plurality of frequencies.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining a real component of the plurality of the voltage measurements;
determining a first difference between the real component of the plurality of the voltage measurements at two different frequencies of the plurality of frequencies;
determining an imaginary component of the plurality of the voltage measurements; and
determining a second difference between the imaginary component of the plurality of voltage measurements at the two different frequencies,
wherein estimating the resistivity of the formation is based on the first difference and the second difference.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
determining the current through the array of the electrode buttons comprises determining a plurality of current measurements of the current at a plurality of frequencies, and
estimating the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility of the formation comprises estimating the resistivity of the formation based on the plurality of current measurements of the current measurements of the current at the plurality of frequencies.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein inducing the alternating magnetic field and exciting the array of the electrode buttons comprises simultaneously inducing the alternating magnetic field and exciting the array of the electrode buttons.

19. A borehole imaging tool, comprising:
a pad;
one or more coils axially symmetrically deployed on the pad and wrapped around the borehole imaging tool;
an array of electrode buttons deployed on the pad, wherein one or more electrode buttons of the array of electrode buttons are placed along an axis of symmetry of the one or more coils, and wherein each electrode button of the array of electrode buttons being operable to detect an induced electric field;
one or more magnetometers, each of the one or more magnetometers being collocated with a different button of the array of buttons;
a galvanic source operable to inject an electrical current through one or more electrode buttons of the array of electrode buttons into a formation; an

Assignees

• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Donderici Burkay
• Ewe Wei-Bin
• Fouda Ahmed E

Classifications

• E21B47/0025 Primary

  generating an image of the borehole wall using down-hole measurements, e.g. acoustic or electric · CPC title

• G01V3/26 Primary

  operating with magnetic or electric fields produced or modified either by the surrounding earth formation or by the detecting device (with electromagnetic waves G01V3/30) · CPC title

• G01V3/38

  Processing data, e.g. for analysis, for interpretation, for correction · CPC title

• E21B47/002

  by visual inspection · CPC title

• G01V3/28

  using induction coils · CPC title