New Domestic Inclinometers Ensure More Efficient Surveys of Oil and Gas Wells

Over the last few years, Elektromekhanika, a Saint Petersburg company, has been implementing a program aimed at development and manufacturing of up-to-date navigation instruments.

The instruments are designed to monitor courses of oil and gas wells, as well as ore holes, and to control borehole inclination. Work on the program has been carried out in cooperation with federal unitary enterprise Elektropribor, the leading Russian scientific center in the field of high-precision navigation.
Electromechanika strives to satisfy both current and future needs of various industries with regard to subsurface navigation, which include:

- measurement of oil and gas wells' courses and of ore holes' courses;
- measurement of borehole courses while drilling horizontal wells and sidetracking;
- ensuring high precision well measurements under alternating impact-dynamic load, high pressure (up to 80 MPa) and temperatures (up to 120 C) without limitations to borehole orientation azimuth.

The design solutions help building flexible multifunctional systems capable of meeting the most diverse clients' needs.

Among the products designed under this program, the company offers a cable multipurpose gyroscopic inclinometer (UGI) with 42 mm diameter. The device's modifications, such as UGI-42.01 and UGI-42.02, have been successfully used at ore fields in Karelia, the Far East, Magadan, Kursk, and in  other regions.

To date, Elektromekhanika's specialists have designed UGI-42.03 inclinometer, a new version for cable logging. It may be used for geophysical survey of any oil and gas wells and ore holes, including slanted, deviated-horizontal and horizontal wells. It also suits for applications in cased holes and holes drilled in rock with ferromagnetic inclusions. With regard to full scale production of this device, it is due in the beginning of the 3rd Qtr. of 2007.

Additionally, the company's specialists are completing the work on a self-reacting gyroscopic inclinometer that may be used for surveys of low-angle, horizontal and upward holes.

The UGI-42.03 inclinometer's operation modes include:

- continuous measurement while a logging tool moves at the speed of up to 1.5 m/s without limitations to borehole orientation;
- point measurement while a logging tool stops;
- mixed operation combining the highly efficient continuous measurement of a well course by a directional gyroscope and periodic high precision point measurement.

In addition to determination of orientation angles, this inclinometer allows using special algorithms that make it possible to calculate components of the borehole axis' orientation matrix. Besides, the device has sensors that provide for precise positioning towards a geological profile. In this case, the basic instrumental error is expressed by errors in calculation of the path's coordinates measured subject to a distance travelled.

Due to its small diameter and the use of special algorithms, this gyroscopic inclinometer makes an ideal device for operations involving installation of a whipstok in a drill tool.

Basic Specifications of the UGI-42.03
Gyroscopic Inclinometer
Bearing measurement range, deg.     0-360
Bearing measurement error:

 - point measurement mode at
w < 60° (w - site latitude), deg.    ± (1.2-1.8)
 - point measurement mode at
w > 60°, deg.    ± (0.6-0.9) secw
 - continuous measurement mode at w < 60°
(t - survey period, hr), deg.    ± ((1.0-1.5) + 0,3 t)
  - continuous measurement mode at
w > 60°, deg.    ± ((0.5-0.75) secw + 0.3 t)

Inclination angle measurement range, deg.     0-180
Inclination angle measurement error, deg.    ± 0.1
Whipstock installation angle measurement
range, deg.     0-360

Whipstock installation angle measurement
error, deg.    ±1.0

Inclinometer application conditions:

 - operation temperature, С    up to 105
 - information preservation temperature, С     up to 125
 - hydrostatic head pressure, MPa    up to 60

Compared to foreign and domestic analogs, the UGI-42.03 gyroscopic inclinometer has a unique feature that sets it apart from other similar tools. It allows measuring with high precision not only the inclination angle but also bearing and whipstock installation angle in a steel drill tool with a 50 mm to 55 mm flow section while cased hole sidetracking. Also, the device makes it possible to trace near vertical drilling courses from a zero inclination angle without precision loss.

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