System and method for controlling a drilling path based on drift estimates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016251900-A1
Application number	US-201615068222-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 11, 2016
Priority date	Dec 22, 2011
Publication date	Sep 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A surface steerable system coupled to a drilling rig receives BHA information from a bottom hole assembly (BHA) located in a borehole. The BHA information corresponds to a first location of the BHA with respect to a target drilling path and geological formation drift information. The surface steerable system calculates a toolface vector to create a convergence path from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling path that accounts for geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling in accordance with the toolface vector. The surface steerable system causes at least one control parameter to be modified in order to alter a drilling direction of the BHA based on the calculated toolface vector and transmits the at least one control parameter to the drilling rig to target the BHA in accordance with the calculated toolface vector.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for drilling, comprising:
receiving, by a surface steerable system coupled to a drilling rig, BHA information from a bottom hole assembly (BHA) located in a borehole, wherein the BHA information corresponds to a first location of the BHA with respect to a target drilling path and geological formation drift information; calculating, by the surface steerable system, a toolface vector to create a convergence path from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling path that accounts for geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling in accordance with the toolface vector; causing, by the surface steerable system, at least one control parameter to be modified in order to alter a drilling direction of the BHA based on the calculated toolface vector; and transmitting the at least one control parameter to the drilling rig to target the BHA in accordance with the calculated toolface vector.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the convergence path requires both slide operations and rotate operations to move from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling paths.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the convergence path requires only a rotate operation to move from the first location of the BHA to target drilling paths.

4 . The method of claim 1 further including the step of calculating, by the surface steerable system, an adjustment of the toolface vector to a second toolface vertor to account for the geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling in accordance with the second toolface vector when the geological formation drift used to determine the toolface vector is determined to be incorrect.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of calculating the toolface vector further comprises the step of calculating the toolface vector to create the convergence path toward any point in a three-dimensional relationship from the location of the BHA.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of calculating the toolface vector is further responsive to any forces forcing the BHA to miss convergence with the target drilling path.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of calculating the toolface vector further comprises calculating a plurality of toolface vectors, each defining a convergence path from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling path that accounts for geological formation drift, each of the plurality of toolface vectors having a different cost associated therewith, to account for the geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling along each of the plurality of toolface vectors.

8 . A surface steerable system for use with a drilling rig comprising:
a network interface; a processor coupled to the network interface; and a non-transitory memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing a plurality of instructions for execution by the processor, the plurality of instructions including:
instructions for receiving, by a surface steerable system coupled to a drilling rig, BHA information from a bottom hole assembly (BHA) located in a borehole, wherein the BHA information corresponds to a first location of the BHA with respect to a target drilling path and geological formation drift information;
instructions for calculating, by the surface steerable system, a toolface vector to create a convergence path from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling path that accounts for geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling in accordance with the toolface vector;
instructions for causing, by the surface steerable system, at least one control parameter to be modified in order to alter a drilling direction of the BHA based on the calculated toolface vector; and
instructions for transmitting the at least one control parameter to the drilling rig to target the BHA in accordance with the calculated toolface vector.

9 . The surface steerable system of claim 8 , wherein the convergence path requires both slide operations and rotate operations to move from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling paths.

10 . The surface steerable system of claim 8 , wherein the convergence path requires only a rotate operation to move from the first location of the BHA to target drilling paths.

11 . The surface steerable system of claim 8 further including instructions for calculating, by the surface steerable system, an adjustment of the toolface vector to a second toolface vector to account for the geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling in accordance with the second toolface vector when the geological formation drift used to determine the toolface vector is determined to be incorrect.

12 . The surface steerable system of claim 8 further comprising instructions for drilling the borehole using the BHA in response to the at least one drilling parameter.

13 . The surface steerable system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions for calculating the toolface vector further comprises the step of calculating the toolface vector to create the convergence path toward any point in a three-dimensional relationship from the location of the BHA.

14 . The surface steerable system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions for calculating the toolface vector is further responsive to any forces forcing the BHA to miss convergence with the target drilling path.

15 . The surface steerable system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions for calculating the toolface vector further comprises calculating a plurality of toolface vectors, each defining a convergence path from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling path that accounts for geological formation drift, each of the plurality of toolface vectors having a different cost associated therewith, to account for the geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling along each of the plurality of toolface vectors.

16 . A drilling system, comprising:
a bottom hole assembly for drilling a borehole through a geological formation responsive to steering control signals; a drilling rig for driving the bottom hole assembly through a drill string; a surface steerable system for generating the steering control signals to control the bottom hole assembly, wherein the surface steerable system receives BHA information from a bottom hole assembly (BHA) located in a borehole, wherein the BHA information corresponds to a first location of the BHA with respect to a target drilling path and geological formation drift information, calculates a toolface vector to create a convergence path from the first location of the BHA to the target drilling path that accounts for geological formation drift defined by the geological formation drift information such that the BHA will converge with the target drilling path by drilling in accordance with the toolface vector, the surface steerable system further causes at least one control parameter to be modified in order to alter a drilling direction of the BHA based on the calculated toolface vector and transmits the at lea

Assignees

• Motive Drilling Tech Inc
• Univ Texas

Inventors

• Benson Todd W
• Chen Teddy
• Bhaduri Sashmit

Classifications

• E21B7/06 Primary

  Deflecting the direction of boreholes · CPC title

• E21B45/00

  Measuring the drilling time or rate of penetration · CPC title

• 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

• E21B47/06

  Measuring temperature or pressure · CPC title

• G05B13/042

  in which a parameter or coefficient is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance · CPC title