Case Studies

For this case study, we worked with one of our partners, Pro Directional, to field test the benefits of using both Survey Compression and Pulse OverDrive (Patent Pending) to reduce survey transmission time and increase data density.

• Challenge: Every minute spent waiting for surveys before drilling ahead adds up to hours of NPT over the course of a well. Reducing survey transmission time and increasing data density of measurements is an ever-growing request. Operators want to streamline drilling operations reducing NPT and increasing MWD data density.
• Solution:Upgrading MWD systems with Erdos Miller’s MicroPulse MWD electronics enables the reduction of survey time. With the Pulse OverDrive and the Survey Compression technology, calculated surveys can be transmitted in 22 seconds versus 50 seconds.
• Results:
  • Decreased MWD survey transmission time by 56%.
  • Increased overall MWD telemetry speed by 30% without increased cost.
  • Twice as many Continuous Inclination samples and 30% more dense gamma logs.
    
  • 6,885 additional toolfaces.

For this case study, we worked with one of our partners, Pro Directional, to test and deploy 8-sector azimuthal gamma image compression on their fleet of MicroPulse 3 MWD tools. MicroPulse azimuthal gamma image compression provided a superior image over commonly used 3 and 4-sector images without utilizing any additional telemetry time while delivering a superior azimuthal gamma image.

• Challenge: In a typical MWD system, telemetering 3-bins of gamma image data (with the left and right sectors mirrored) requires 27 to 33-bits, depending on the desired resolution. Telemetering 8-bins of uncompressed gamma data requires 72 to 88-bits, which would heavily affect telemetry times, update rate and image resolution.
• Solution: The MicroPulse 3 now supports azimuthal gamma image compression which can compress 8-bins of azimuthal gamma data into 26-bits of telemetry, reducing the required telemetry time by 64-70% versus 8-bins of uncompressed azimuthal gamma image data.
• Results: The MicroPulse 3 compressed and telemetered 8-bins of azimuthal gamma data using only 26-bits of data (a 64% savings versus uncompressed) and performed exceptionally, allowing the geologists to geosteer the well successfully.

Continuous inclination and azimuth provide vital information to the driller in between surveys, allowing the wellbore to stay on target and in the zone. Without accurate and reliable continuous inclination and azimuth measurements wellbore position uncertainty is high since assumptions must be made about what the wellbore looks like between survey stations.

• Challenge: Evaluating the performance of continuous inclination and azimuth measurements is challenging, how do you know if what you are seeing is the actual wellbore shape, or noise, or algorithm artifacts? Can continuous inclination and azimuth measurements be relied upon for steering a well?
• Solution: One of our customers offered us the opportunity to run the latest MicroPulse 3 continuous inclination and azimuth algorithm on a well where a 1ft spacing wireline gyro would be run in the cased well. The MicroPulse 3’s continuous inclination and azimuth measurements could be validated against those of the wireline gyro tool to evaluate their accuracy.
• Results: The MicroPulse 3’s continuous inclination and azimuth measurements matched the wireline gyro very closely, validating that the MicroPulse 3 provides accurate and reliable continuous inclination and azimuth measurements that you can rely on.