Directional drilling framework

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12435570-B2
Application number	US-202318451288-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 17, 2023
Priority date	Aug 17, 2023
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

A system and method that may include receiving real-time downhole data from one or more sensors of a drillstring disposed in a borehole in a subsurface geologic region during a directional drilling operation. The system and method also include selecting a drillstring drilling mode from a plurality of drillstring drilling modes. The system and method may additionally include predicting, in real-time, characteristics of a hole bottom of the borehole using the drilling mode model and at least a portion of the real-time downhole data. The system and method may further include controlling the directional drilling operation using one or more of the characteristics.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving real-time downhole data, via mud-pulse telemetry, acquired by one or more sensors of one or more tools of a drillstring disposed in a borehole in a subsurface geologic region during a directional drilling operation, wherein a drill bit of the drillstring breaks rock of the subsurface geologic region to lengthen the borehole, wherein the one or more tools comprise a measurement while drilling (MWD) tool and a rotary steerable system (RSS) tool, and wherein the drillstring comprises a mud-pulse telemetry unit and MWD tool and RSS tool uplink circuitry;
identifying that an insufficient portion of the real-time downhole data is insufficient for use in a hole bottom estimation based at least in part on an operational issue of the MWD tool and the RSS tool uplink circuitry;
identifying an operational issue between the MWD tool and the RSS tool uplink circuitry, wherein the identification of the operational issue triggers an implementation of a blind mode, wherein the blind mode modifies the real-time downhole data to generate modified real-time downhole data, and wherein the modified real-time downhole data excludes measurements from the RSS tool;
inferring, using the modified real-time downhole data, an inferred state of the RSS tool;
based on the insufficient portion, implementing a blind mode for a drilling mode model used to estimate a hole bottom position of a hole bottom, wherein, in the blind mode, the drilling mode model excludes measurements from the RSS tool and includes the inferred state of the RSS tool;
estimating a hole bottom position of a hole bottom using a drilling mode model, the inferred state of the RSS tool, and the modified real-time downhole data generated from the blind mode;
predicting, in real-time, one or more characteristics of the hole bottom of the borehole using the drilling mode model in the blind mode and at least a portion of the modified real-time downhole data; and
controlling the directional drilling operation using the blind mode for the drilling mode model and the one or more of the characteristics of the hole bottom of the borehole, wherein controlling the directional drilling operation includes adjusting an orientation of the drill bit from a first orientation to a second orientation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristics of the hole bottom comprise depth and orientation, wherein the depth comprises measured depth and the orientation comprises inclination and azimuth.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drilling mode model for the directional drilling operation comprises a machine learning model.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controlling comprises adjusting an orientation of the drill bit of the drillstring to drill to a target position in the subsurface geologic region.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors of the drillstring comprise one or more micro-electromechanical system gyroscope sensors that generate gyroscope sensor data that increase accuracy of orientation predictions of hole bottoms of the borehole.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of drillstring drilling modes comprises a sliding mode and a rotating mode.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controlling controls geosteering.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the geosteering maintains the drill bit of the drillstring within a reservoir layer defined in part by an upper depth and a lower depth.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising estimating true vertical depth based at least in part on one or more of the characteristics of the hole bottom.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising estimating one or more of northing and easting based at least in part on one or more of the characteristics of the hole bottom.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more hold inclination modes comprise a hold inclination mode and a hold inclination and azimuth mode.

12. The method of claim 1 , comprising receiving real-time static survey data acquired during a time period wherein the directional drilling operation is halted.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predicting further comprises predicting at least one characteristic for a future hole bottom of the borehole.

14. The method of claim 13 , comprising, at an actual time of creation of the future hole bottom, receiving additional real-time downhole data and updating the predicting of the at least one characteristic based at least in part on the additional real-time downhole data.

15. The method of claim 1 , comprising pulling the drillstring out of the borehole after performing the directional drilling operation and acquiring data during the pulling of the drillstring out of the borehole, wherein one or more of the characteristics is adjusted to generate a set of the characteristics of the borehole, wherein the adjusting utilizes at least a portion of the acquired data.

16. The method of claim 15 , comprising running the drillstring into the borehole after pulling the drillstring out of the borehole, acquiring data during the running of the drillstring into the borehole, and adjusting one or more of the characteristics to generate a revised set of the characteristics for the borehole.

17. The method of claim 1 , comprising, wherein the selected drillstring drilling mode is the blind mode, inferring a state of the RSS tool using data acquired by a surface listener unit.

18. The method of claim 1 , comprising detecting the operational issue based at least in part on one or more of receipt of data by a surface listener unit and a failure to receive data by the surface listener unit.

19. A system comprising:
one or more processors;
memory accessible to at least one of the one or more processors;
processor-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable to instruct the system to:
receive real-time downhole data, via mud-pulse telemetry, acquired by one or more sensors of one or more tools of a drillstring disposed in a borehole in a subsurface geologic region during a directional drilling operation, wherein a drill bit of the drillstring breaks rock of the subsurface geologic region to lengthen the borehole, wherein the one or more tools comprise a measurement while drilling (MWD) tool and a rotary steerable system (RSS) tool, and wherein the drillstring comprises a mud-pulse telemetry unit and MWD tool and RSS tool uplink circuitry;
identify that an insufficient portion of the real-time downhole data is insufficient for use in a hole bottom estimation based at least in part on an operational issue of the MWD tool and RSS tool uplink circuitry;
identify an operational issue between the MWD tool and the RSS tool uplink circuitry, wherein the identification of the operational issue triggers an implementation of a blind mode, wherein the blind mode modifies the real-time downhole data to generate modified real-time downhole data, and wherein the modified real-time downhole data excludes measurements from the RSS tool;
infer, using the modified real-time downhole data, an inferred state of the RSS tool;
based on the insufficient portion, implement a blind mode for a drilling mode model used to estimate a hole bottom position of a hole bottom, wherein, in the blind mode, the drilling mode model excludes measurements from the RSS tool and includes the inferred state of the RSS tool;
estimate a hole bottom position of a hole bottom using a drilling mode model, the inferred state of the RSS tool, and the modified real-time downhole data generated from the blind mode
pr

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Sahli Hussein
• Ba Samba

Classifications

• E21B44/00

  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 title

• E21B47/005 Primary

  Monitoring or checking of cementation quality or level · CPC title

• E21B2200/20

  Computer models or simulations, e.g. for reservoirs under production, drill bits · CPC title

• E21B2200/22

  Fuzzy logic, artificial intelligence, neural networks or the like · CPC title

• E21B7/04 Primary

  Directional drilling · CPC title