US 12,129,723 B2
Managing dielectric properties of pulsed power drilling fluids
Dale E. Jamison, Humble, TX (US); and William Walter Shumway, Spring, TX (US)
Assigned to Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
Appl. No. 16/771,087
Filed by Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
PCT Filed Jan. 10, 2018, PCT No. PCT/US2018/013175
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 9, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/139576, PCT Pub. Date Jul. 18, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0071489 A1, Mar. 11, 2021
Int. Cl. E21B 21/08 (2006.01); B01D 21/26 (2006.01); E21B 7/00 (2006.01); E21B 7/15 (2006.01)
CPC E21B 21/08 (2013.01) [B01D 21/262 (2013.01); B01D 21/267 (2013.01); E21B 7/15 (2013.01); E21B 7/00 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of controlling dielectric properties of a drilling fluid for a pulsed power drill bit installed in a wellbore, the method comprising:
installing a solids removal tool in a drilling pipe that extends into a portion of the wellbore, wherein the solids removal tool is installed uphole of the pulsed power drill bit;
introducing the drilling fluid into the drilling pipe, the drilling fluid including an insulating drilling liquid and a weighting agent, the weighting agent selected to manage wellbore pressure in the drilling fluid uphole of the solids removal tool, the insulating drilling liquid having a dielectric constant higher than a dielectric constant of the weighting agent and higher than a dielectric constant of the drilling fluid;
separating the drilling fluid introduced into the drilling pipe into a solids rich portion and a solids lean portion using the solids removal tool, the solids rich portion of the drilling fluid including a portion of the weighting agent, the solids lean portion of the drilling fluid having a dielectric constant higher than the dielectric constant of the drilling fluid and higher than the dielectric constant of the solids rich portion of the drilling fluid; and
insulating the pulsed power drill bit with the solids lean portion of the drilling fluid introduced into the drilling pipe.