US 12,435,622 B2
Identifying drill cuttings with tracer pills
Vera Solovyeva, Moscow (RU); Vladimir Khmelnitskiy, Moscow (RU); Vyacheslav Grokhovsky, Moscow (RU); and Nouf AlJabri, Dhahran (SA)
Assigned to Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran (SA)
Filed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran (SA)
Filed on Aug. 22, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/453,635.
Prior Publication US 2025/0067169 A1, Feb. 27, 2025
Int. Cl. E21B 43/34 (2006.01); E21B 47/11 (2012.01)
CPC E21B 47/11 (2020.05) 24 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of identifying drill cuttings, comprising:
drilling at least a portion of a wellbore from a terranean surface and into a subterranean formation by rotating a drill bit on a drill string;
during the drilling, circulating a drilling fluid through the drill string and the drill bit, the drilling fluid comprising a plurality of tracer pills, each tracer pill comprising a shell or coating formed of a thermoresponsive material and a tracer material enclosed within the shell, the thermoresponsive material comprising a thermoplastic polymer selected from the group consisting of polyolefin, fluoropolymer, polyvinyl chloride, neoprene, silicone elastomer, and Viton;
during the drilling, removing cuttings from the subterranean formation with the rotating drill bit such that the cuttings become entrained within the drilling fluid;
attaching the tracer material of at least some of the plurality of tracer pills to the cuttings entrained within the drilling fluid by releasing the tracer material from the shells by degrading or dissolving the thermoresponsive material of the shells of the at least some of the plurality of tracer pills based on a temperature within the wellbore at the subterranean formation; and
circulating the drilling fluid including the cuttings with the attached tracer material through the wellbore and uphole toward the terranean surface.