US 12,345,148 B1
Systems and methods for characterizing a subterranean formation having a formation boundary surface
Tingting Zeng, Houston, TX (US); Robert P. Darbe, Tomball, TX (US); Eirik Hansen, Stavanger (NO); and Siyang Song, Cypress, TX (US)
Assigned to Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
Filed by Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
Filed on Jan. 2, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/402,175.
Int. Cl. E21B 7/04 (2006.01); E21B 44/00 (2006.01)
CPC E21B 44/00 (2013.01) [E21B 7/04 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
8. A method of characterizing a subterranean formation, the method comprising:
drilling, with a drill bit, a deviated wellbore through the subterranean formation that changes direction with respect to the subterranean formation;
controlling, with a directional drilling system, a direction of the drill bit drilling the deviated wellbore;
detecting, with measurement equipment, a property of the subterranean formation in a well log along at least a portion of the deviated wellbore as the drill bit drills;
receiving, by a processor in electrical communication with the measurement equipment, the well log of the deviated wellbore changing direction with respect to the formation as the drill bit drills;
determining, using the processor, the property of the deviated wellbore along at least a portion of the deviated wellbore;
segmenting, using the processor, the well log of the deviated wellbore into segments based on the property;
correlating, using the processor, one of the segments with the well log previous to the segment to determine a matching score for the segment;
if the matching score is equal to or greater than a minimum threshold, indicating, using the processor, that the segment was taken in the subterranean formation and at the same stratigraphical true vertical depth (“STVD”) as the well log previous to the segment;
if the matching score is less than the minimum threshold, indicating, using the processor, that the segment was not taken in the subterranean formation and not at the same STVD and also estimating the STVD of the segment;
plotting, using the processor, a vertical pseudo log of the subterranean formation with respect to STVD based on the segment;
correlating, using the processor, other segments of the well log;
updating, using the processor, the vertical pseudo log based on the correlated segments;
determining, using the processor, a target wellbore path for a wellbore through the subterranean formation based on the vertical pseudo log; and
controlling, using the processor, the directional drilling system to direct a trajectory of the drill bit along the target wellbore path from the deviated wellbore.