Electricity: measuring and testing – Of geophysical surface or subsurface in situ – Using electrode arrays – circuits – structure – or supports
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-12
2001-06-12
Snow, Walter E. (Department: 2862)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Of geophysical surface or subsurface in situ
Using electrode arrays, circuits, structure, or supports
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246240
ABSTRACT:
Portions of this application have been disclosed in U.S. Disclosure Document No. 228495, filed Jun. 5, 1989, an entire copy of which is included herein by reference. Other U.S. Disclosure Documents related to this application have been filed in the USPTO, and entire copies of all of those U.S. Disclosure Documents are included herein by reference (and those U.S. Disclosure Document numbers shall be provided by applicant in a later amendment to be filed by applicant).
This invention provides improved methods and apparatus for measurement of the electronic properties of formations such as the resistivities, polarization phenomena, and dielectric constants of geological formations and cement layers adjacent to cased boreholes and for measuring the skin effect of the casing present. The terms “electronic properties of formations” and “electrochemical properties of formations” are used interchangeably herein.
The oil industry has long sought to measure resistivity through casing. Such resistivity measurements, and measurements of other electrochemical phenomena, are useful for at least the following purposes: locating bypassed oil and gas; reservoir evaluation; monitoring water floods; measuring quantitative saturations; cement evaluation; permeability measurements; and measurements through a drill string attached to a drilling bit. Therefore, measurements of resistivity and other electrochemical phenomena through metallic pipes, and steel pipes in particular, are an important subject in the oil industry. Many U.S. patents have issued in the pertinent Subclass 368 of Class 324 of the United States Patent and Trademark Office which address this subject. The following presents a brief description of the particularly relevant prior art presented in the order of descending relative importance.
U.S. Patents which have already issued to the inventor in the is field are listed as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,989 (Ser. No. 06/927,115);
U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,542 (Ser. No. 07/089,697);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,668 (Ser. No. 07/435,273);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,669 (Ser. No. 07/438,268);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,626 (Ser. No. 07/434,886);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,440 (Ser. No. 07/749,136);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,794 (Ser. No. 07/754,965);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,024 (Ser. No. 08/083,615);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,590 (Ser. No. 08/214,648); and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,334 (Ser. No. 08/508,781).
As of the filing date of the application herein, the inventor's currently co-pending U.S. Patent Applications in this field are listed as follows:
Ser. No. 08/738,924 that is to issue shortly;
Ser. No. 08/685,796 that is to also issue shortly; and
Ser. No. 08/864,309 that is co-pending with the application herein.
The above 10 issued U.S. Patents, and any of the additional cases when they issue, are collectively identified as “the Vail Patents” for the purposes herein. For the record, entire copies of each and every one of the above 13 cases identified by serial number are included herein in their entirety by reference.
The apparatus and methods of operation herein disclosed are embodiments of the Through Casing Resistivity Tool® that is abbreviated TCRT®. The Through Casing Resistivity Tool® and TCRT® are Trademarks of ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc. in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An important publication concerning the Through Casing Resistivity Tool (TCRT) and the Vail Patents is the article entitled “Formation Resistivity Measurements Through Metal Casing”, having authors of W. B. Vail and S. T. Momii of ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc., R. Woodhouse of Petroleum and Earth Science Consulting, M. Alberty and R. C. A. Peveraro of BP Exploration, and J. D. Klein of Arco Exploration and Production Technology, which appeared as Paper “F”, Volume I, in the Transactions of the SPWLA Thirty-Fourth Annual Logging Symposium, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Jun. 13-16, 1993, sponsored by The Society of Professional Well Log Analysts, Inc. of Houston, Tex. and the Canadian Well Logging Society of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (13 pages of text and 8 additional figures); an entire copy of which is included herein by reference. Experimental results are presented therein which confirm that the apparatus and methods disclosed the Vail Patents actually work in practice to measure the resistivity of geological formations adjacent to cased wells. To the author's knowledge, this SPWLA paper presents the first accurate measurements of resistivity obtained from within cased wells using any previous experimental apparatus.
Another important publication related to the Vail Patents is the article entitled “Formation Resistivity Measurements Through Metal Casing at the MWX-2 Well in Rifle, Colo.”, having the authors of W. B. Vail and S. T. Momii of ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc., H. Haines of Gas Research Institute, J. F. Gould, Jr. of Mobil Exploration & Producing U.S., and W. D. Kennedy of the Mobil Research and Development Corporation, which appeared as Paper “OO” in the SPWLA 36th Annual Logging Symposium, Paris, France, Jun. 26-29, 1995, Sponsored by The Society of Professional Well Log Analysts, Inc., 12 pages including
FIGS. 1-5
, an entire copy of which is included herein by reference.
Yet another important publication related to the Vail Patents is the article entitled “Through Casing Resistivity Measurements and Their Interpretation for Hydrocarbon Saturations”, having the authors of W. B. Vail and S. T. Momii of ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc., and J. T. Dewan of Dewan & Timko, Inc., that is SPE Paper 30582, presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition, Dallas, Tex., Oct. 22-26, 1995, pages 533-548, including
FIGS. 1-18
, an entire copy of which is included herein by reference.
Yet another important publication related to the Vail Patents is the article entitled “Through Casing Resistivity Tool™ To Locate Bypassed Oil”, having the authors of W. Banning Vail, Steven T. Momii, and Richard Woodhouse, that appeared in The American Oil & Gas Reporter, October, 1995, pages 70-76, including
FIGS. 1-3
, an entire copy of which is included herein by reference.
And yet another extensive publication related to the Vail Patents is the document entitled “Proof of Feasibility of the Through Casing Resistivity Technology”, that is the Final Report to Gas Research Institute for research work performed from the dates of April 1988 to March 1994 under GRI Contract No. 5088-212-1664, having the authors of W. B. Vail and S. T. Momii of ParaMagnetic Logging, March, 1996, having a total of 328 pages and 169 figures, an entire copy of which is included herein by reference. This Final Report dated March, 1996 is a revised version of an earlier document entitled “First Draft of the Final Report to GRI” and dated Jul. 4, 1994, an entire copy of which is also incorporated herein by reference.
The Vail Patents describe the various embodiments of the Through Casing Resistivity Tool® (TCRT®). Many of these Vail Patents describe embodiments of apparatus having three or more spaced apart voltage measurement electrodes which engage the interior of the casing, and which also have calibration means to calibrate for thickness variations of the casing and for errors in the placements of the voltage measurement electrodes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,186 which issued on Jan. 3, 1989 to Alexander A. Kaufman entitled “Conductivity Determination in a Formation Having a Cased Well” also describes apparatus having three or more spaced apart voltage measurement electrodes which engage the interior of the casing and which also have calibration means to calibrate for thickness variations in the casing and for errors in the placements of the electrodes. This patent has been assigned to ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc. of Woodinville, Wash. In general, different methods of operation and analysis are described in the Kaufman Patent compared to the Vail Patents cited above.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,518 which issued on Jun. 6, 1989 to Michael F. Gard, John E. E. Kingman, and James D. Klein, assigned to the Atlantic Richfield Company, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Measuring the Electrical Resisti
Sheridan & Ross P.C.
Snow Walter E.
Western Atlas International Inc.
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