Predicting formation-top depths and drilling performance or drilling events at a subject location

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12460527-B2
Application number	US-202118000544-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 27, 2021
Priority date	Jun 4, 2020
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media for dynamically utilizing offset drill-well data generated within a threshold geographic area to determine formation-top trends and identify formation-top depths at a subject drill-well site. To do so, in some embodiments, the disclosed systems estimate a variogram for observed formation-top depths of a subset of offset drill-wells, and, in turn, map a predicted response from the estimated variogram. For example, using weighted combinations (e.g., with Kriging weights) of the formation-top depths of the subset of offset drill-wells, the disclosed systems can map a continuous surface of a formation and identify a top-depth thereof. Moreover, the disclosed system can do so for multiple formations at the subject drill-well site, and (in real-time in response to a user input) provide for display at a client device, the associated formation-top depths, various predicted drilling events and/or predicted drilling metrics.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
determining a location of a subject drill-well site; identifying drill-well data for a plurality of drill-wells positioned within a threshold geographic area relative to the location of the subject drill-well site; generating, utilizing the drill-well data for the plurality of drill-wells, formation-top trends for portions of the threshold geographic area located between respective positions of the plurality of drill-wells, wherein the generating the formation-top trends comprises:
identifying a first set of formation-top-depth covariances between the respective positions of the plurality of drill-wells;
identifying a second set of formation-top-depth covariances between the location of the subject drill-well site and the respective positions of the plurality of drill-wells; and
generating respective Kriging weights for applying to formation-top depths corresponding to the plurality of drill-wells based on the first set of formation-top-depth covariances and the second set of formation-top-depth covariances; and
determining, from the formation-top trends, the formation-top depths for formations corresponding to the location of the subject drill-well site.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising providing, for display at a user interface of a client device, the formation-top depths for the formations corresponding to the location of the subject drill-well site.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising providing, for display at a user interface of a client device, drilling parameters that in response to user selection generate at least one of a predicted drilling performance metric or a predicted drilling event for drilling through the formations corresponding to the formation-top depths at the location of the subject drill-well site.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein generating the formation-top trends for the portions of the threshold geographic area comprises mapping continuous subterranean surfaces of the formations between the respective positions of the plurality of drill-wells by utilizing the respective Kriging weights applied to the formation-top depths corresponding to the plurality of drill-wells.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein determining the formation-top depths for the formations corresponding to the location of the subject drill-well site from the formation-top trends comprises identifying depths of the continuous subterranean surfaces of the formations corresponding to the location of the subject drill-well site.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the subject drill-well site comprises receiving, in response to an indication of a user selection from a client device, location coordinates for the subject drill-well site corresponding to the user selection.

7 . A system comprising:
one or more memory devices comprising drill-well data for a set of drill-wells; and one or more server devices configured to cause the system to:
determine an indication of a user selection from a client device corresponding to location coordinates for a subject drill-well site;
identify, from the drill-well data for the set of drill-wells, the drill-well data for a subset of drill-wells positioned within a threshold geographic area relative to the location coordinates for the subject drill-well site;
generate, utilizing the drill-well data for the subset of drill-wells, formation-top trends for portions of the threshold geographic area located between respective positions of the subset of drill-wells by:
identifying a first set of formation-top-depth covariances between the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells;
identifying a second set of formation-top-depth covariances between the location coordinates for the subject drill-well site and the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells; and
generating respective Kriging weights for applying to formation-top depths corresponding to the subset of drill-wells based on the first set of formation-top-depth covariances and the second set of formation-top-depth covariances;

determine, from the formation-top trends, the formation-top depths for formations corresponding to the location coordinates for the subject drill-well site; and
provide, for display at a user interface of the client device, the formation-top depths for the formations corresponding to the location coordinates for the subject drill-well site.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to cause the system to provide, for display at the user interface of the client device, a graphical representation of the drill-well data for the subset of drill-wells comprising a drilling performance metric for a bottom-hole assembly.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to cause the system to provide, for display at the user interface of the client device, drilling parameters that in response to the user selection generate a predicted drilling performance metric for drilling with the bottom-hole assembly through one or more of the formations corresponding to the formation-top depths at the location coordinates for the subject drill-well site.

10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to cause the system to:
determine a spatial dependence for the formation-top depths between the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells by estimating a variogram; and identify weighted combinations of the formation-top depths at the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells by generating the respective Kriging weights for applying to the formation-top depths at the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to generate the formation-top trends for the portions of the threshold geographic area located between the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells by mapping continuous subterranean surfaces of the formations between the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells in accordance with the weighted combinations of the formation-top depths at the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to determine the formation-top depths for the formations corresponding for the subject drill-well site by identifying depths of the continuous subterranean surfaces of the formations at the location coordinates for the subject drill-well site.

13 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to cause the system to identify the drill-well data for the subset of drill-wells by:
retrieving, from a field database, the drill-well data for the set of drill-wells; and well data for the subset of drill-wells based on the respective positions of the subset of drill-wells being associated with the location coordinates within the threshold geographic area.

14 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more server devices are configured to cause the system to identify the drill-well data for the subset of drill-wells by determining the threshold geographic area in which a threshold number of drill-wells are positioned.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to:
determine, in response to an indication of a user selection from a clien

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Jeong Cheolkyun
• Yu Yingwei
• Vesselinov Velizar
• Meehan Richard John
• Mishra Priya

Classifications

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• G01V20/00

  Geomodelling in general · CPC title

• G01V2210/6652

  Kriging · CPC title

• G01V1/50 Primary

  Analysing data · CPC title

• E21B47/00

  Survey of boreholes or wells (monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid E21B21/08) · CPC title