System and method for drilling multilateral wells using magnetic ranging while drilling
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsBrian Clark, Jan Morley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for drilling a multilateral well using magnetic ranging while drilling are provided. In accordance with one embodiment, a method of drilling a multilateral well includes drilling and casing a mother wellbore, installing a multilateral junction, drilling and casing a first lateral well from the multilateral junction, and drilling a second lateral well from the multilateral junction using magnetic ranging while drilling such that the second lateral well has a controlled relationship relative to the first lateral well. The first and second lateral wells may form a SAGD well pair, in which case the first lateral well may be a producer well and the second lateral well may be an injector well.
Claims7
1-34. (canceled)
A method for drilling a multilateral well comprising:
- drilling and casing a mother wellbore in a subsurface formation;
- installing a multilateral junction in the mother wellbore;
- drilling and casing a first lateral well from the multilateral junction such that the first lateral well includes a liner;
- drilling a second lateral well from the multilateral junction, using a bottom hole assembly having a drill bit, an electric current driving tool, and a magnetometer;
- and
- wherein drilling the second lateral well includes (i) causing the electric current driving tool to provide an electrical current that travels through the subsurface formation to the first lateral well and along the liner such that the current traveling along the liner creates a magnetic field, (ii) causing the magnetometer to measure the magnetic field, and (iii) magnetically ranging while drilling the second lateral well in a controlled relationship to the first lateral well using the magnetometer measurement.
A method of drilling a multilateral well comprising:
- drilling and casing a mother wellbore in a subsurface formation;
- installing a multilateral junction in the mother wellbore;
- drilling and casing a first lateral well from the multilateral junction, wherein the first lateral well includes a liner and has a length of at least 500 meters;
- drilling a second lateral well from the multilateral junction using a bottom hole assembly having a drill bit, an electric current driving tool, and a magnetometer, wherein drilling the second lateral well comprises maintaining a separation distance from the first lateral well having a variance of no greater than two meters over a length of at least 500 meters;
- and
- wherein drilling the second lateral well includes (i) causing the electric current driving tool to provide an electrical current that travels through the subsurface formation to the first lateral well and along the liner such that the current traveling along the liner creates a magnetic field, (ii) causing the magnetometer to measure the magnetic field, and (iii) magnetically ranging while drilling the second lateral well so as to maintain the separation distance using the magnetometer measurement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.