Orienting downhole tools

Details Orienting downhole tools Orienting downhole tools

1999-04-15

2001-01-16

Suchfield, George (Department: 3672)

Wells

Processes

With indicating, testing, measuring or locating

C166S055100, C166S066000, C166S241100, C166S297000, C175S004510

Reexamination Certificate

active

06173773

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
The invention relates to orienting downhole tools.
To complete a well, one or more formation zones adjacent a wellbore may be perforated to allow fluid from the formation zones to flow into the well for production to the surface. A perforating gun string may be lowered into the well and guns fired to create openings in casing and to extend perforations into the surrounding formation.
When performing downhole perforating operations in a wellbore, there may be a need to orient the perforating gun string. This need may arise, for example, if perforations are desired to be shot in alignment with a preferred fracture plane in the surrounding formation (e.g., generally normal to the minimum stress plane of the formation) to help in fracture stimulation of the well to improve well performance. By aligning perforations properly with respect to the preferred fracture plane, improved fluid flow occurs through the formations.
Other situations also exist in which oriented perforating or other downhole operations may be desirable. Thus, a need exists for improved mechanisms and techniques to orient perforating equipment or other downhole equipment in a wellbore.
SUMMARY
In general, in one embodiment, a method of orienting a tool in a wellbore includes identifying a desired orientation of an oriented device in the tool at a given wellbore interval. The oriented device is angularly positioned with respect to a positioning device, and a tool is lowered downhole with the positioning device guiding the tool so that the oriented device is at substantially the desired orientation when the tool reaches the given wellbore interval.
In general, in another embodiment, an apparatus for orienting a tool in a wellbore includes a motor coupled to the tool, an anchor to fix the apparatus in the wellbore, and a measurement device adapted to measure a relative bearing of the tool. The motor is activable to rotate the tool with respect to the anchor based on the relative bearing data received from the measurement device.
Other embodiments and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.


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