Use of Drill-Bit Energyas a DownholeSeismicSource

DEV 2.7

JamesK Rector,BruceP Marion, DownholeSeismicServices;

and Bernard Widrow,StanfordUniversity
SUMMARY

nature of the drill-bit source will have an impact on real.

time drillingdecisions.

%r

ew borehole seismic technique, the Tomex

survey , uses the seismicemanationsoroducedbv a drill
bit dljring drilling as a downhole enbrgy sou& _-No
downholeinstrumentationis required for collectionof the
seismicdata, and the data recordingdoes not interferewith
the drilling recess. The drill-bit-generatedsignals are
recorded witR sensorsattachedto the top of the drillstrin
and at various surface-geophonelocationsnear the wel.
7
The sensor output at the top of the drillstringis used as a
pilot signal for cross-correlationwith the signalsrecorded
at the &Mace-geophone positions. CrosBcorrelationis
used to determinearrivaltimes and to enhancethe sionalto-noiseratio of drill-bit- enerated events. Deconvoli;tion
and time shifts are pe18
armed to remove the effects of
recordingthe ilot signalat a locationwhich is distantfrom
the locatlon0Pthe source of energyat the drill bit. A direct
comparisonbetweendata collectedusin a drill-bitsource
and conventionalVSP data shows that t\ e drill-bitsource
fielded comparabledata quality.
In usingthe drill bit as a downholeseismicsourcefor
inverseVSP, man of the limitationsin conventionalVSP
we overcome. Beveral applicationsfor VSP that were
previously considered by some explorationiststo be
prohibitive1expensiveare now feasible. Furthermore,this
measure-w
/l ile-drill technique offers the potentialfor the
Bxplorationist
to make real-tlmedrillingdecisionson site.
INTRODUCTION
Since its introduction,VerticalSeismicProfiling(VSP)
has gained limited acceptance within the geophysical
community.This is largelydue to the long acquisitiontime
and associatedhigh costs, both in terms of rig time and
B uipment time required to obtain comprehensivelargeoIs et data over an extended depth interval. Costs are
typically lowered by reducing the number of levels
recorded, but this reductionresultsin lower-folddata and
reduced .resolution. Single-offsetsurveys are the most
common tvoe of VSP survey, because multiole-source
&et surveys capable of im$ng formationsaway from
the boreholeare very costly.

DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING

Data acquisitionis accomplishedwithoutthe use 61
downholeinstrumentation.The drill-bit-generated
signal is
monitoredby means of a referencesensorattachedto the
top of the drillstring. The signalrecordedat the top of ths
dnllstring is used as a pilot signal, as in Vibroseis, for
cross-correlationwith si nals from the surfacegeophones
(Figure2). The sweep 17ength is determinedby the drilling
rate and equals the time requiredfor the drill bti to move a
predetermineddistance.
The cross-correlation process accomplishes twa
obiectives. First, it establishes the relative travel-time
differencesbetweencoherentenerg in the pilotsignaland
the surface-geophone signals. his is achieved by
compressingthe continuousdrill-bit-generatedvibrations
into distincteventswith a time durationproportionalto the
signal bandwidth. Second, it enhancesthe coherent low.
level si nals sensed at both the top of the drill&in and ai
the sur!l ce Qeophones. Incoherentenergy sense8 by jusi
one of the sensorsbehavesas additivenoiseto the cross.
correlation. The improvementin signal-to-noiseratio is
proportionalto the product of the bandwidth and the
sweep lengthof the data (Aki and Richards,1984). Hence,
with sufficientsweep times, even a coherentsignal that iI
much lower than the incoherent noise level can bE
detectedaftercross-correlation.
From our experience, the dominant energy
representedin the cross-correlationis from the vibrations
enerated b the rotatingteeth of the drill bii impactingthe
Bormation. #h*fij is not a surprisingresultconsideringthd
the drill bii acts with lar e dynamic forces (Deily, et al.
1968). This bouncing 0?the bii generatesa sequence0
im ulses that are imparted into the formationand into the
driPIstring. However,the drill-bitgeneratedsignalssensec
at the surface-geophonelocationsand at the top of thf
drillstringare modified by travel throughthe earth and thf
drillstring, respectively. Hence,, the cross-correlatlor
spectrumexhibitsa spectral shapingdue to both of these
;Totspaths that can be expressed n Z transforms a:

The techni ue described here utilizes the natural

vibrationscreate1 by the impactingteeth of a drill bit as a
downhole seismic source, thus offering cost-effective
borehole seismic surveys. Since the sdsmic data are
acauired while the well is beina drilled, costs associated
with lost rig time are elimingted. ihis is especially
important in offshore drilling where daily rates are very
high. With the drill-bitsource, data are acquired at fine1
spaced intervalsin depth as small as 1 ft in some casesr
at reasonablecost and wit(1out the complicationsof openhole wireline operations. Finally, since the drill bit is a
source rather than a surface source,
downhole ene
multiple2-D anr!yeven 3-D surfacegeophonedeployments
can easilybe used.
These and other differences between the
conventional VSP and the drill-bit-source VSP are
summarizedin Figure 1, Ultimately,the measure-while-drill
161

XCOR (Z) = PILOT (l/Z) GE0 (Z)

where:
PILOT (l/Z)

= Z transform of the time-reversed

pilotsignal

GE0 (z)

= Z transform of the field geophone

signal

and
PILOT (Z) = BlT (Z) DS (Z)
GE0 (z)

= BIT (Z) EARTH(Z)

Drill-bitenergyas downholesource

where

With the assumptionsthat the drill-bit-generatedenergy is

white and the drillstring impulse response is minimum
= Z transformof the drill-bit-generated phase, an operatorthat is a one-sidedinverseof the pilot
signal
signal autocorrelation, will remove the multiples and
associated resonancesof travel withinthe drillstringfrom
= Z transformof the drillstringimpulse the cross-correlatedoutput.
response

BlT (z)
DS (z)
EARTH(Z)

In terms of Z transforms,

= Z transform of the desired earth

impulseresponse.

OP (Z) = i/DS (l/Z)

With conventional Vibroseis recording, the pilot signal

approximatesthe source signal, and hence there is no
travel-pathdistortionpresentn the pilotsignal.

and
[Of(Z)] XCOR(Z) = [i/DS(l/z)] DS(i/Z) BIT(l/Z) GEO(2)

The transfer function of the drillstring has been

analyzedpreviously(Dareing,1982). Resonantfre uencies
due to multiples within the bottom-holeassemb
9y, fe,,,
and the drillpipe,fdrillpipe,
are determinedby the followrng
relations:

fBHA

fdrillpipe =

nvsteeI (n =

4 LBHA

I, 3, 5, ..J

hteel

(n = 1, 2, 3, ...)
2 brillpipe

lengthof bottom-holeassembly

Ldrillpipe =

lengthof the drillpipe

Vsteel

velocityof soundin steel (-4875 m/s).

To remove the multiplesand the spectralshapin of

B a
the pilot signal present in the cross-correlatedsigna,
signature-deconvolution
operator must be applied to the
cross-correlatedenergyresponse. This operatoris derived
from the pilotsignal.

AUTOpilot(z)

The product, BIT (l/Z) BIT Z), the autocorrelationof the

drill-bit-generatedsignal, is tll e counterpartof the Klaudsr
waveletn correlatedVibroseisdata.

COMPARISON WITH VSP DATA

Since the drillpipe is muchlonger than the bottom-hole

assembly, the frequency separation between resonance
peaks introduced by the drillpipe travel path is much
smaller than the separationbetweenthe resonancepeaks
created by the presenceof the drill collars. The redicted
frequency separation between resonance peaRs for a
drillpipethat IS 900 m long is 2.5 Hz, which coincrdes
with the eak spacingsobservedin Figure3 for a
recorde8 at the top of such a drillstring. The
resonancepeaks appear in the time domain as short-pat
multiplesrelatedto the lengthof the bottom-holeassembly
and long-period multiples related to the length of the
drillpipe. As the well is being drilled, the bottom-hole
assembly is seldom than ed, while the drillpipelength is
proportionalto the well ! epth. Hence, the long-period
multiplesof the drillstringshow an increase in time delay
with depth. This is illustratedin Figure4, whichshowsone
side of several pilot-signal autocorrelation functions
recorded at a typical well. The first-, second-, and thirdorder drillpipemultiplesare distinctevents.

me 2 transformof the pilotsignalautocorrelationis:

= [BIT (l/Z) BIT (Z)] EARTH(2).

The propagation of the drill-bit-generatedsignal

through the drill&in not onl generates multiples and
alters the spectrumo9 the drill-L*6 signal, it also inducesa
time shift in the cross-correlatedoutput so that the crosscorrelated arrival times are advanced by the time it takes
for energy to travel from the drill
drillstring.This time shift is equalto the len
drillstring(includingthe bottom-hole
the velocityof sound in steel. By adding this dela to the
cross-correlateddata and removingthe effectsof tKe pilot
signal present in the cross-correlations,the crosscorrelated data are transformed into the equivalentof a
conventionalverticalseismicprofile.

where:
LBHA

= BIT (l/z) GE0 (2)

In accordance with the reci rocky principle, the

arrivalsobserved in a VSP sectionsi ould be the same as
those observed in an inverse VSP using a downhole
sourcesuch as the drill bit. This equivalenceassumesthat
the source and receiver antenna patterns and impulse
For near-offset
responses are interchangeable.
source/receiverlocationsin a horizontalmedium,the direct
and reflectedwavefieldsarrive at nearlyverticalincidence,
which suggeststhat the effectsof the antennapatternin a
comparison of a conventionalVSP and an inverse VSP
shouldbe negligible. A wavelet-matching
operationcan be
used to ameliorate any differences due to source and
receiverresponses.
Data acquiredat the same surfacelocationwere used
to compare the direct-arrivalenergy from a conventional
VSP survey and the drill-bit-sourceinverse VSP survey.
The VSP was acquired wkh an airgun source. The
downhole receiver was positionedover a depth interval
where drill-bit-generated energ had been previousI:
recorded during the Initial drlY.
llng of the well.
source/receiver offset from the wellhead was 750 m.
Figure 5 shows the full wavefield display for each
technique. me drill-bit-sourcedata containtraces s aced
P VSP
at 3 m depth intervals whereas the conventiona
spacingwas 20 m, hence for purposesof comparrson,the
drill-bit-sourcedata were decimated. The general SIgnalto-noisecharacterof the data is similar.

= PILOT (l/Z) PILOT(Z)

= DS (l/Z) BIT (l/Z) BIT (Z) DS (Z)
162

Drill-bitenegy as downholesource
CONCLUSIONS
The Tomex Surveytechniqueinvolvesthe acquisition
and processing of drill-bit-generatedsignals produced
duringthe drillingof a well to ield data in a form similarto
that of a conventionalVSP. -x, is resultis achievedwithout
the drilling operation, and withoutthe use of
instrumentation.A one-to-onecomparison
offsetVSP yielded comparablesignalto-noiseratios. The use of the drill bit as a seismicsource
is expected to open up many new applicationsfor vertical
seismicprofiling.
ACKNOWEDGMENT
Western Atlas thanks Exxon Company, U.S.A. for

providingboth the Tomex Surveyand the VSP data used in

this paper.
REFERENCES
Aki, K. and Richards,P.G., 1980, Quantitatiie seismology,
theoryand methods; Vol. 2: W.H.Freeman& Co.
Deily, F-H., Darein D.W., Pat, G.H., Ortloff,J.E., and Lynn,
RD., 1988, Downitale measurementsof drill stringforces,
Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Engineering for
Industry,217-225.
Dareing, D.W., 1982, Drill collar lengthis a major factor in
vibrationcontrol, 57th AnnualFall TechnicalConferenceof
Societyof PetroleumEngineersof AIME, SPE 11228.

vsp

TOMEX SURVEY

MeasureWhile Drill
I
-

--

; ac;gs (23 m)
E
bit
capabilities
No lost rig time
Necessary to incorporate
surveyintodrillingplan

---

.-

Can acquire many surface

locationsinexpensively
Fewer problems with access/

--

&%ngsurface

Coarse spacings( > IO m)

No predict ahead ability
unlessdrillingis interrupted
Lostrig time (8-48 hours)
Can acauire data after a well
drilled
or
has
been
temporarilysuspended

DownholeWirelineReceiver
__ Expensivetool
__ Boreholeand tool risk
__ Tool locking,casing,and hole
conditionsaffectsignal
__ Signal unaffected by drilling
conditions
__ Cannot run in holes with high
temoeratures
-- Data acquired dee in a
borehole In a relativePy noisefree environment

No downholeinstrumentation
No boreholerisk
No clampingor casingeffects
Signal influenced by drilling
conditions
No temperature or pressure
limitations

SurfaceGeophoneReceivers
--

AcquiredAfterEnd of Drilling
---

F$&pth

DownholeDrill-BitSource
-----

SurfaceSource
---

noise can

--

--

Expensiveto acquire multiple

surfacelocations
Diicult or impossible to
access and permit many
locations
Couplin problems with the
near su4ace

FIG. 1. Comparativecharacteristicsof drill-bit-sourcetechniquevs. conventionalVSI?

103

Drill-bit energy as downhole source

FIG. 2. Diagram showing how seismic energy propagates

from drill bit to pilot sensor and to geophones.

FIG. 5. Comparison between drill-bit source inverse VSP

and conventional VSP full wave field data.

FIG. 3. Pilot-signal spectrum from a drilling depth of 900

m. Resonance peaks spaced at 2.5 Hz are due to drillpipe
multiples.

3.6

FIG. 4. Pilot-signalautocorrelationsfor drillingdepths from

1300 to 1600 m. Depth spacing is 6 m.

164