Using Wired Pipe LWD-FE Data in Real-Time: Experiences and Lessons Learned

Michael Manning¹*, John MacPherson¹, Terry Quinn¹, Mohammad Jahangir², Jeremy Lofts¹, and Maximo Hernandez^3
1Baker Hughes, USA
²Baker Hughes, Norway
³Intelliserv Inc., USA
*[email protected]

Real-time formation evaluation (FE) processing has been accomplished in the logging-while-drilling (LWD) environment via wired pipe communications with sensors and raw data processors in an LWD bottomhole assembly (BHA). This demonstrated that FE processing is practical while LWD acquisition is active and drilling ongoing. Advanced FE processing in the past has been done using data acquired from an LWD tool after the BHA has been retrieved to surface and the LWD tool’s memory has been dumped, thus limiting its real-time value. The present advancement is the first-time in which full-memory data for real-time processing was available, using wired pipe, for what was formerly only possible after the BHA was brought to surface. The wider bandwidth offered by the wired pipe communications network enabled the transfer to surface, with minimal time delay, of uncompressed downhole LWD FE and drilling data. This data is richer, both in quality and volume, than that delivered by either mud pulse or electromagnetic telemetry, which are the conventional LWD transmission methods. The data, on receipt at surface, are processed and stored in a database, which is periodically replicated from the wellsite to a secure data center. Advanced FE processing is applied to the LWD data after it is replicated, so that real-time processing is now a function of the database update and processing times. The ability to tightly couple traditional post-acquisition processing in real-time with wired pipe telemetry optimizes the full value from the logging tools in the drilling assembly. For example, by using wired communications to the steering unit, geosteering commands were not only sent securely and directly to the tool at the rigsite, but also remotely from shore-based locations, facilitating control and improving reservoir navigation. Targeted applications enhanced by wired pipe include reservoir navigation, drilling dynamics, pressure testing, advanced resistivity array processing, acoustics, nuclear magnetic resonance, image rendering and dip processing.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90077©2008 GEO 2008 Middle East Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Bahrain