Electrical voltages and resistances measured to inspect...

Details Electrical voltages and resistances measured to inspect... Electrical voltages and resistances measured to inspect...

1999-11-22

2001-06-19

Snow, Walter (Department: 2862)

Electricity: measuring and testing

Of geophysical surface or subsurface in situ

Using electrode arrays, circuits, structure, or supports

C324S716000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06249122

ABSTRACT:

This invention provides new apparatus and methods of measurement for inspecting casing within cased wells. The invention provides new apparatus and methods of measurement for locating collars within cased wells. The invention may be used in any cased well, but will find wide application in oil and gas wells in particular that typically possess steel cased boreholes.
The invention provides new apparatus and methods of measurement for inspecting pipelines. The invention may also be used to inspect the walls of oil and gas pipelines. The invention is also useful to locate joints were the oil and gas pipelines are joined.
None of the data herein had been made public before the date of Jul. 8, 1993 wherein one of the inventors herein, William Banning Vail III, gave a verbal presentation entitled “Through Casing Resistivity” to The 1993 Formation Evaluation Technical Advisory Group sponsored by the Gas Research Institute in Chicago, Ill. William Banning Vail III publicly described at that meeting data that was used to unambiguously locate collars for the first time in PML's Test Well located in Woodinville, Wash.
This invention was conceived as a result of work on another invention, namely inventions conceived to measure the resistivity of geological formations from within cased wells. 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 this 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. 5,043,688 (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); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,794 (Ser. No. 07/754,96). These seven U.S. Patents are collectively identified as “the Vail Patents” herein.
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. ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc. has its principal place of business located at 18730-142nd Avenue NE., Woodinville, Wash., 98072, USA, having the following telephone number: (206) 481-5474.
The Through Casing Resistivity Tool gives casing inspection information and collar location information as a natural byproduct of its operation. However, that information is useful in its own right and is of commercial value in its own right. Therefore, the invention herein includes any embodiment of the Through Casing Resistivity Tool or any portion thereof that is used for the purpose of inspecting casing and/or to determine the location of casing collars. The invention herein includes any embodiment of the Through Casing Resistivity Tool or any portion thereof that is used for the purpose of inspecting pipelines and/or to determine the location where such pipelines are jointed together.
An important paper concerning the Through Casing Resistivity Tool was published recently. Please refer to the article entitled “Formation Resistivity Measurements Through Metal Casing”, having authors of W. B. Vail, 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). Experimental results are presented therein which confirm that the apparatus and methods disclosed in Ser. No. 07/434,886 that is U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,626 actually work in practice to measure the resistivity of geological formations adjacent to cased wells. To the author's knowledge, the SPWLA paper presents the first accurate measurements of resistivity obtained from within cased wells using any previous experimental apparatus. Page 6 of that paper describes attempts to locate casing collars from the data presented. One collar was clearly located, and another one was missed. Therefore, the data presented in that paper did not present compelling evidence that the TCRT could routinely locate all the casing collars present nor did it provide a methodology to routinely do so in practice. Page 6 of that paper however shows that different weight casings could be identified with the TCRT.
A verbal presentation entitled “Introduction to the Through Casing Resistivity Tool” was made to the Permian Basin Well Logging Society on Mar. 18, 1993.
A theoretical paper of considerable importance was published recently concerning resistivity measurements from within cased wells. It is entitled “Through-Casing Resistivity (TCR): Physics, Resolution, and 3-D Effects” having the authors of L. A Tabarovsky, M. E. Cram, T. V. Tamarchenko, K. M. Strack and B. S. Zinger, of Atlas Wireline Services presented as Paper “TT”, Volume II, in the
Transactions of the SPWLA Thirty
-
Fifth Annual Logging Symposium,
Tulsa, Okla., Jun. 19-22, 1994 (hereinafter, Tabarovsky, et. al., 1994).
Other papers have been published relevant to measurements of formation resistivity from within cased wells including the following: (a) a paper entitled “The Electrical Field in a Borehole With a Casing” by A. A. Kaufman,
Geophysics,
Vol. 55, No. 1, January 1990, p. 29-38; and (b) a paper entitled “A Transmission-Line Model for Electrical Logging Through Casing”,
Geophysics,
Vol. 58, No. 12, December, 1993, p. 1739-1747; (c) a technical report entitled “Final Report to ParaMagnetic Logging, Inc. for Numerical Analysis of D.C. Logging Through Metal Casing”, having the authors of H. F. Morrison and C. J. Schenkel, Engineering Geoscience, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., Nov. 22, 1991; and (d) a dissertation entitled “The Electrical Resistivity Method in Cased Boreholes”, Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering: Materials Science and Mineral Engineering in the Graduate Division of the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, Calif., May 20, 1991.
Other recent articles appearing in various publications concerning the Through Casing Resistivity Tool and/or the Vail Patents include the following: (a) an article entitled “Electrical Logging: State-of-the-Art” by Robert Maute of the Mobil Research and Development Corporation, in
The Log Analyst,
Vol. 33, No. 3, May-June 1992 page 212-213; and (b) in an article entitled “Through Casing Resistivity Tool Set for Permian Use” in
Improved Recovery Week,
Volume 1, No. 32, Sep. 28, 1992.
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

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