Electromagnetic downlink while drilling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12110789-B2
Application number	US-202017247445-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2020
Priority date	Dec 13, 2019
Publication date	Oct 8, 2024
Grant date	Oct 8, 2024

Abstract

Communication between the surface and a downhole location, such as a bottomhole assembly and/or an RSS is performed by electromagnetic downlink. Electromagnetic signals are transmitted from the surface through the formation at a frequency of 8 Hz or greater. Electromagnetic signals are transmitted and received while drilling or during drilling activities. In this manner, information and instructions may be transmitted to the BHA while drilling.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for downhole communication, comprising:
Providing an oil-based fluid to a bottomhole assembly;
selecting a frequency of at least 8 Hz for an electromagnetic signal based, in part, on the oil-based fluid;
transmitting the electromagnetic signal from a surface location without interrupting downhole drilling activities, wherein the downhole drilling activities comprise removing material from a wellbore;
receiving the electromagnetic signal downhole at a bottomhole assembly while performing the downhole drilling activities; and
demodulating the electromagnetic signal at the bottomhole assembly while performing the downhole drilling activities.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the electromagnetic signal includes transmitting instructions for the bottomhole assembly or transmitting information to the bottomhole assembly.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising changing at least one drilling parameter of the bottomhole assembly based on the transmitted instructions.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the electromagnetic signal includes receiving the electromagnetic signal at a rotary steerable system of the bottomhole assembly.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the downhole drilling activities comprise drilling formation of the wellbore, reaming formation of the wellbore, or cutting casing of the wellbore.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the electromagnetic signal includes transmitting the electromagnetic signal while maintaining a volumetric flow rate of a drilling fluid.

7. A method for downhole communication, comprising:
providing an oil-based fluid to a bottomhole assembly;
selecting a frequency of at least 8 Hz for an electromagnetic signal based in part on the oil-based fluid;
transmitting the electromagnetic signal from a surface location; and
receiving the electromagnetic signal downhole at an uphole location of a length of drill pipe of the bottomhole assembly;
insulating the length of drill pipe of the bottomhole assembly from the formation with the oil-based fluid; and
transmitting the electromagnetic signal to a gap sub of the bottomhole assembly.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein transmitting the electromagnetic signal includes transmitting at a bit rate of greater than 1 bit per second.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein transmitting the electromagnetic signal includes transmitting at a bit rate of greater than 8 bits per second.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein transmitting the electromagnetic signal includes transmitting instructions for the bottomhole assembly.

11. The method of claim 10 , comprising receiving the instructions and changing at least one drilling parameter of the bottomhole assembly.

12. The method of claim 7 , comprising demodulating the electromagnetic signal.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein demodulating the electromagnetic signal includes filtering noise from the electromagnetic signal.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein transmitting the electromagnetic signal includes transmitting a plurality of electromagnetic signals at a plurality of frequencies.

15. A method for downhole communication, comprising:
performing drilling activities comprising drilling, reaming, or milling using an oil-based fluid;
selecting a frequency of at least 8 Hz for an electromagnetic signal based, in part, on the oil-based fluid
while performing the drilling activities, transmitting the electromagnetic signal from a surface location to a bottomhole assembly;
while performing the drilling activities, receiving the electromagnetic signal downhole at the bottomhole assembly; and
demodulating the electromagnetic signal at the bottomhole assembly.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein transmitting the electromagnetic signal includes transmitting at a frequency of greater than 8 Hz.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein performing the drilling activities includes tripping drill pipe into a wellbore or tripping drill pipe out of the wellbore.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein demodulating the electromagnetic signal includes demodulating the electromagnetic signal with a signal-to-noise ratio of greater than 1:1.

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Annenkov Pavel
• Ramirez Tovar Melisa Lourdes
• Tennent Robert
• Soundar Sam
• Chen Jiuping
• Sun Liang
• Hunter Richard
• Zhou Wei

Classifications

• G01V3/30

  operating with electromagnetic waves · CPC title

• E21B7/18

  Drilling by liquid or gas jets, with or without entrained pellets (E21B7/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E21B47/13 Primary

  by electromagnetic energy, e.g. radio frequency · CPC title