US 11,834,931 B2
Wellbore planner
Valerian Guillot, Montpellier (FR); Ho Bun Lau, Cambridge (GB); John Morrison Whyte, Cambridge (GB); and Florian Karpfinger, Dhahran (SA)
Assigned to Schlumberger Technology Corporation, Sugar Land, TX (US)
Filed by Schlumberger Technology Corporation, Sugar Land, TX (US)
Filed on Aug. 21, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/821,172.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/260,448, filed on Aug. 20, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0053857 A1, Feb. 23, 2023
Int. Cl. E21B 21/00 (2006.01); E21B 41/00 (2006.01); E21B 49/00 (2006.01)
CPC E21B 41/00 (2013.01) [E21B 21/003 (2013.01); E21B 49/00 (2013.01); E21B 2200/20 (2020.05); E21B 2200/22 (2020.05)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for drilling a wellbore in a formation, comprising:
i) receiving geological information about the formation;
ii} identifying fracture characteristics in the formation using the geological information of i);
iii) building a fracture model of the formation using the fracture characteristics of ii), wherein the fracture model includes a) at least one fracture property associated with fractures in the formation and b) fracture network properties associated with a fracture network in the formation for particular geographical coordinates, wherein the fracture network properties of b) relate to fracture size, fracture density, fracture connectivity, and drilling fluid transmissibility, wherein the drilling fluid transmissibility is determined from the fracture density and the fracture connectivity; and
iv) after the building the fracture model of iii), drilling the wellbore, and, when the drilling passes through a risk zone in the formation which is at risk for lost circulation as characterized by the fracture network properties of the fracture model of iii), using lost circulation material in the drilling to mitigate a lost circulation event, wherein the lost circulation material is selected by comparing at least one fracture network property of the fracture model that is related to fracture size to physical properties of different lost circulation materials.